Date: Fri 11-Jul-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

quilts-Harris-WORST

Full Text:

For The Last Time, The Best Of The Worst In Quilts

(with photos)

Quiltmaker Connie Harris Fraser has done it again. Only this time, her winning

quilt may not make it onto a Wall of Fame anytime soon.

Mrs Fraser, a resident of Newtown, has been making award-winning quilts for a

number of years. Her quilts have won favorable nods from judges across the

country. One of her patterns, "Beneath the Blackness There Was Color," an

impression of a 1904 water garden scene by Claude Monet, was even used in the

American Quilter's Society 1994 Wall Calendar.

Mrs Fraser's latest quilt is an atrocious mess, however. A crazy quilt called

"Sewing On The Lunatic Fringe," Mrs Fraser's colorful creation was awarded the

Deranged Patchwork Award last month at the third annual WORST Quilt In The

World Contest. Contestants from 32 states, Canada and Australia vied for

$8,874.90 in prizes in this, the last year for the annual competition.

A competition for the most poorly conceived and executed quilt in the world

(not to mention some shameless publicity to promote the humorous book How Not

To Make A Prize-Winning Quilt , by contest creator Ami Simms), the WORST Quilt

In The World Contest has contestants competing for Worst Of Show honors.

Judging is held in Flint, Mich., home of Mallery Press, Ms Simmis' publisher.

There are three size divisions (small, medium, large) and five technique

divisions (one-patch, pieced, appliqued, mixed-up and group), resulting in 15

total categories.

Quilts are juried by snapshots, since, according to the offical rules, judges

"don't want to see [the] quilt unless [they] absolutely have to." Contestants

submitted photographs that were, according to Ms Simms, apparently as bad as

some of the quilts that were entered.

"Many of the entrants are as bad with a camera as they are with a needle," she

said. "Talk about eye strain..." The worst quilts from each category were

selected from the snapshots, then shipped to Mallery Press for further

scrutiny. Judges apparently wanted to make sure the quilts were as bad as

their photographic representations.

Contestants earned points for bad design, awful color combinations and sloppy

workmanship. Top prize was the aforementioned Worst In Show Award, which came

with cash and prizes worth $3,221.40. Darlene Reil on Monterey, Tenn., won the

grand prize this year with her entry entitled "Winding Ways Got Lost."

Ms Simms called the quilt "...one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. It

just makes you shudder." Its colors, said judges, were awful, and its

workmanship was atrocious. Batting was hanging out of one corner, and

accidentally stitched into the quilt cover and back were a bath towel, a

hodgepodge of old T-shirts, knee-hi's, chopped up undershorts and a half-slip.

"There is not one single redeeming feature," Ms Simms said. "It's a mess from

start to finish. A real triumph."

Beyond the Worst In Show award, 14 quilts received Abominable Mention Awards,

worth $275 each, and another ten were selected for Special Recognition Awards,

worth $150. Special Recognitions - which is what Mrs Fraser won - are for

quilts that are not bad enough to win an entire category, but exhibit

memorable shortcomings nevertheless.

Mrs Fraser's entry was a crazy-patch monstrosity with wild fabric, upholstery

fringe, rubber stamped images and soda can pull tabs.

Additional Special Recognitions included the Fur Ball Award, the Batt-Ugly

Award, the Most Revolting Use of Recycled Materials Award, the Good Dog Award,

and the Meconium Stool Award.

This was not the first such award bestowed upon Mrs Fraser. Last year, contest

creator/judge Ami Simms called "Mrs Montezuma's Revenge," another hideous

creation by Mrs Fraser, "attractive, but quirky" and "very pleasing to look

at... from a distance."

Ms Simms and the judges' panel eventually presented Mrs Fraser with the 1996

Most Peculiar Quilt Award.