Today was the day — QuiltCon acceptance notices went out to email inboxes all over the world early this morning! I entered 4 quilts this year and was very excited to hear that one of them — Spring Training, top left in the photo below, and made for the Michael Miller fabric challenge — was accepted. The email was waiting in my inbox when I got up, which was a lovely thing to find on a Monday morning. It definitely helped my week get started on a happy note!
The other three were not juried into the show, but that doesn’t make me love them any less. And with a reported 1750+ entries and only ~400 acceptances, my 1-for-4 acceptance ratio seems perfectly average!
I’ve been browsing the #quiltcon2019 and #quiltconreject hashtags today, and both my acceptance and my three rejections are in good company. There are some truly stunning quilts that will be on display in Nashville in February, and some truly stunning quilts that didn’t make the cut. (And of course there will also be quilts on display that we haven’t seen yet, because they haven’t been posted on social media!) I certainly don’t envy the job of the judges — I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to make these decisions from so many beautiful pieces of work.
It’s also interesting and quite eye-opening to consider how each show has a different aesthetic, and a different set of judges from year to year. I saw several posts of quilts that were rejected last year, but accepted this year! And my Geometry of Circles, which I was so proud to have in Quilt Festival last month, will not be going to QuiltCon. The type of quilt that “fits” in one show may not work in another. It can be disappointing, but also encouraging.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!”
p.s. I’m doing a 31 day blog writing challenge!
I really do not envy the job of the jurors or the judges for a quilt show. It has to be such hard work! Congratulations on having Spring Training juried in. 🙂
Thanks Yvonne — and congrats on your selections as well! 🙂