Appraiser & Judge
The OPQG Quilt Show
Carol Elmore
Carol Elmore has been an AQS Certified Quilt Appraiser since 1995, quilt teacher, trunk show presenter, workshop leader and quilt maker from Kansas. Carol learned quilting from her mother and has made quilts for many years. Elmore has a Master’s Degree in Library Science (MLS) and law degree (JD) from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. She has been a public school teacher, practiced law in Texas, and has served as a librarian in several settings. She teaches classes on appraising and dating quilts at national AQS shows, and locally and regionally and has also given presentations for many quilt guilds and gives workshops on hand quilting.
Appraisals are done for insurance replacement or fair market value, which includes donation value, during the show. An appraisal session takes approximately 30 minutes when Elmore inspects the quilt, takes notes and photographs the quilt. She types the appraisal and mails it back to the client within approximately two weeks following the show. Written appraisals are $55 each. Verbal appraisals are not offered. Her appraisals comply with the American Quilter’s Society requirements and the AQS form is used for the appraisal process.
If possible, please schedule quilt appraisals prior to the show. There are two ways to submit your pre-appraisal questionnaire and reserve a timeslot on the appraisal schedule.
Option 1. Mail your completed pre-appraisal questionnaire to Susan Moran, 5246 S. Kissick Ave., Springfield, MO 65804, and ensure it arrives on or before September 14, 2024.
Option 2. If you’re a guild member, you can give Susan the completed form at the morning or evening guild meetings on July 23rd or August 27, 2024.
Carol can also appraise quilts hanging in the show, and walk-ins are only accepted if the appraisal schedule is not fully booked.
Click the blue button below to download the pre-appraisal questionnaire. As soon as you’ve determined the quilt(s) you’d like to be appraised, send an email to smhmoran@gmail.com for more information on scheduling an appraisal and appointment time availability.
Sandy Gard
Sandy Gard, a NACQJ-certified judge from Oklahoma, is the 2024 OPQG Quilt Show judge.
Sandy Gard is a self-taught seamstress and quilter who started sewing at age 6. Her lifelong love affair with quilting began at her grandmother’s farm house in Texas, when all the neighbors gathered, lowered the quilting frame from the living room ceiling, and sat around the quilt, quilting and visiting.
Sandy has had a home-based sewing business for 21 years, and in 2007, Sandy became a long-arm quilter. In 2014, Sandy entered the NQA Judging program. She has spent four years working with certified judges and judging quilt shows. She holds positions on four local quilt guild boards and is the judging coordinator for two. She believes quilting is a time-honored tradition and loves the history and the future of quilting as she promotes the tradition to new quilters of any age.
Quilt judges understand that entrants are at different stages of their quilting journey. When evaluating a quilt, they look at many things, including color, design, piecing accuracy and construction, binding, quilting density, design choice and execution, tension, thread choice, starts and stops, appliqué skill and more.
Quilt show judges don’t have the luxury of studying your quilt for hours on end. In most cases, they only have a few minutes to evaluate each quilt. Their critiques cite areas of strength and areas for improvement that they can note in that short time span. Unfortunately, the judges can’t really tell you how to fix a problem that they see—they only identify them. The judges then compare your quilt’s noted strengths and weaknesses against those of other quilts in the same category to rank the quilts for ribbons and awards.