All quilters seem to enjoy going to visit a quilt exhibition. This could be their local group show or a national exhibition or a solo exhibition. What attracts us to these?

• seeing a quilt that we then have to go and get the pattern of and make it
• seeing how someone quilted their quilt
• seeing what other people do
• seeing the exhibition as a whole.

There are no doubt other reasons as well but generally we leave saying we have enjoyed the exhibition or it was the same old thing. It is difficult for the selectors of an exhibition to select the right mix of quilts for display. The selectors will look at an exhibition quite differently from an individual. They will be looking for a mix of technique, size and colour and they will want the exhibition to flow cohesively throughout the space. Often when we come away from an exhibition thinking that it was fantastic it is usually because the selectors have got the mix right. I think this was true for the last two Aotearoa Quilters national exhibitions in Hamilton. The feedback we got was they were each the best yet and the whole exhibition was stunning.

 Take a look at Valda’s Turkish Plate. Here we have an example of a meticulously planned and executed traditional piece of work. It won Best Traditional at AQ and Best in Show at the Taupo Symposium. People were spellbound by it. I love it. Then we can look at Debra’s nine patch which was one of my favourites. This was full of colour in a scrappy nine patch way and was a quilt that you just wanted to wrap around yourself on a cold day. Traditional yet quite a contrast from Valda’s. There were two other nine patch quilts in the show and they were all from the same challenge yet different e.g. nine patches made into a wedding ring quilt. People were fascinated by the different uses of the same block.

From here we go to other quilts that are pictorial in nature. We relate to these very easily as we generally know the subject matter well. Some even make us chuckle. Take Sonya Prchal’s “Bruce” quilt. Everyone loved this and especially the name. Bruce has such character that it made people smile a lot. Then we go to Helen Pederson’s “A River Runs through us” which is much more contemporary. Here we are fascinated by the lines and the colours used. It is intriguing as to how Helen has made this piece. We love trying to work out how the quilter has put something together. Why did they choose those colours, that pattern, that quilting style? What pattern did they use? Was it their own inspiration and then how did they get from the inspiration to the piece that was made? All these questions are what we ask when we go to an exhibition. The big thing we get from an exhibition is that we learn something new. Whether we use it straight away or it comes to us when we work on another piece, it is something we have seen in someone else’s quilt.

You have to be careful if you have something in an exhibition and people are standing there talking about it. Best thing is to walk away in case they say something you don’t like. Many years ago I had a whole cloth quilt in an exhibition which was totally machine quilted. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the piece and was happy with the outcome. It even got selected in the NZ Quilter suitcase exhibition. However I heard someone talking about it with a friend and she said ” the quilter must have wanted to practice her machine quilting”. This fascinated me as if it had been a hand quilted quilt they would have looked at it quite differently! I did have a chuckle about it.

We also have to be aware that judges often select quilts that we ourselves would not have picked for a particular prize. This happens because they look at the quilts differently. For them it is not about whether the quilt is their favourite or not, but more about technique, design, colour and form – do these all work together. They have specific judging criteria and go by these. This is why there is often a judges choice as well. This prize reflects the one the judge would like to take home with them and can be quite different from the other prize winners. They key thing to remember is that often a different set of selectors will select a different set of quilts and a different set of prizes.

So enjoy the experience of going to a quilt exhibition and ensure you take the opportunity to have a good look at what is on offer and learn something from it. Have fun!

Let us know what you think about when you go to an exhibition?