I’ve entered my Portuguese Whitework tablecloth in the Sydney Royal Easter Show this year. I dropped it off at the showground a couple of Saturdays ago. We were late in the day on the last day of drop offs, so I could see what was there in the way of competition.
There didn’t seem to be much embroidery this year. The show seems to be getting smaller and smaller in terms of embroidery. Of course, though, it wasn’t actually all properly displayed yet, so there may have been much more that was wrapped up still.
I had to fill out a form with my entry and one of the questions it asked was “Why do you enter things in the show?” This was an interesting question. Why DO I enter things in the show?
I think my answer is along the lines of peer review. I have, in the past, won at the show, and my work has even been in The Cabinet of Excellence. I guess I enter things to give myself an idea of how my needlework skill compares to others’ skill. If I do well, it tells me that my work is still of a high standard.
However, being realistic here, I suspect that skill is not all that they are measuring. A tiny piece of work done with AMAZING skill may not win against a much larger work with slightly less skill. So I wonder if quantity of work also counts as well as quality.
It would be very interesting to have the perspective of a needlework judge actually.
Anyway, if you go to the show, you might like to head to class 62 in needlework section of the Arts and Craft Pavilion, and see if my tablecloth is on display. It will probably be in amongst a fairly disparate group of articles, as the class description is “Embroidery work. Exhibitor’s own design, with or without machine embroidery.” That was the best category I could find for it. (Actually, that’s one of the rather annoying things about the show – it IS hard to find the appropriate category for a lot of needlework, unless it is something standard like Hardanger or cross stitch.)
I’m not sure if I’ll get to the show this year – it is doubtful with the amount of other things I have on – so I’m not even sure when I’ll find out how it did! The Sydney Royal Easter Show starts this Thursday, 5th of April.
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
I used to enter things into the Royal Melbourne Show, but the prices went up and up, it was hard to get to to deliver and pick up my pieces and as the show was on in school holidays I could never get time off work to see it either!
The problem with not entering is that the organisers gradually remove sections and then the public don’t get to see lovely things.
Last year I entered the a country show as some of my lace friends said that if people didn’t enter the lace section would disappear.
The main reason I enter a show is to get a deadline to finish a harder piece. I’m one of those people who need a deadline. Its a sort of personal challenge.
I’m not a judge, but I think the skill level in a section must be maintained by the judges from year to year. So if there is an average sort of piece entered in a section and its the only piece in that section it doesn’t automatically win first prize. One year someone I know made a huge tablecloth in bobbin lace. The size was impressive but the actual pattern wasn’t very complicated, so while it would have taken a long time to make, it didn’t win because its technical difficulty wasn’t as much as the winning pieces. I did think an encouragement honorable mention sort of prize would have been nice for all the work.
PS: Wishing you the best of luck with your tablecloth, I’m sure it will do well, regarding results they are usually published in a newspaper or there should be a website of results.
cheers
Julie
I have had the impression that in the UK, at least (and I can’t see Australia differing here), the judges have very high standards of execution, and that that, rather than quantity is important. I have a doll dressed in Dutch National Costume that my Grandmother entered in a WI Competition, and although as far as I can see it’s exquisite, it didn’t get top marks…
Break a leg! (um, I think that’s appropriate? Maybe not, since you are about to go on a ship).
In with the machine embroidery? Peh! Nothing wrong with machine embroidery, of course – but hardly appropriate!
No, the ship’s next February. 🙂 Beating Around the Bush is on dry land in Adelaide. Perhaps too dry for what they would prefer?