A Celebration of Color

Size of Entries: Quilts must be a minimum of 48” × 48”. Maximum width and length is 86”. Each entry must have a 4” (10 cm) finished sleeve or casing sewn to the top back edge of the quilt (please include a .125”/.377 cm ease in the sleeve or casing). Sleeves should be secured with stitching at the top and bottom edge. A cloth label with the entrant’s name, address, telephone number, and email must be securely sewn to the back of the quilt, bottom left side. There is no “made after” date requirement. Please do not submit quilts made from kits. Please do not submit a quilt that was included in a previous edition of A Celebration of Color.

Who may enter: The entries may be the work of one person or more than one person as long as proper credit is given to all involved in the actual completion of the quilt. The person entering the quilt must have been directly involved in the quilt’s creation. You may submit a total of two (2) quilts for our consideration. Full-time employees of Quilts, Inc. are not eligible.

Photo/Image permission: Entry into the exhibition automatically grants permission for the image of the quilt and/or all or part of the Artist’s Statement about the quilt to be used in articles, ads, promotions, catalogs, books, magazines, websites (including any webcast coverage), blogs, CDs, news coverage, television,online and/or multimedia productions for and about this exhibit, the International Quilt Festival, International Quilt Market; or for and about the special exhibit “A Celebration of Color” or for and about quilting and developing creativity. The quilt artist retains copyright to the quilt and will be credited in any usage.

Completed submissions with visuals must be received online by midnight CDT, April 16, 2020. You will be notified no later than May 1, 2020, regarding the quilts to be included in this exhibit along with shipping instructions. If selected, the quilts will need to arrive in Houston no later than May 15, 2020.

Jury: A qualified jury will select the works. The jury’s decision is final. Upon seeing the final quilts, the organizers reserve the right to decide which quilts will be included in the exhibition. The organizers reserve the right to refuse any work that does not match the slides or digital photos submitted to the jury.

The selected quilts will be judged after arriving in Houston. Winners will be announced at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.

Length of exhibit: Quilts will be returned by the end of May 2021. The participating works must be available to travel for one year, from May 2020 through May 2021.

Shipping information: Complete shipping information will be sent when your entry is juried into the exhibition. DO NOT SEND QUILTS  PRIOR TO NOTIFICATION.

Length of exhibit: Quilts will be returned by the end of January 2021 if quilt does not travel to other venues, or arrangements may be made to have a quilt picked up at the conclusion of the show. If you agree to allow your quilt to travel, your quilt will be returned by the end of May 2021.

Selling Your Quilt: You may choose to offer your quilt for sale while on exhibition. If you do, 12.5% of the selling price will be donated to the International Quilt Association (IQA) and 12.5% of the selling price will be donated to the Texas Quilt Museum. Both the Association and the Museum are 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. Please check with your tax attorney for information on how to deduct the donation.

Visual Instructions: Please read carefully the information for your digital images. The complete instructions may be downloaded here.  Visual Instructions (PDF).

Timeline for quilt registration:
Announcement and preview: January 2020
Registration open: February 28-April 16, 2020
Notification by: May 1, 2020
Selected quilts arrive in Houston by May 15, 2020
The winning quilts will be announced during the 2020 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach.
Quilts returned to owner: May 2021

Shipping information: Complete shipping information will be sent when your entry is juried into the exhibition. DO NOT SEND QUILTS PRIOR TO NOTIFICATION.

Important Special Note to quilters shipping from foreign countries: While we encourage you to insure your work for its full value for insurance purposes, we must ask you to value it for customs declaration purposes only at no more than $30 (USD). A higher customs value may require an expensive bond that may not be refunded upon your quilt’s return to its home country. Also mark the customs document with “for exhibition and return, not for sale, no commercial value.” We hope you understand that this is for practical purposes only, and certainly does not reflect on Quilt Festival’s estimation of your work. If you wish to claim full value for customs purposes, we recommend that you arrange a carnet A.T.A. for your quilt at your expense. If we incur customs expenses due to a decision on your part to declare the customs value of your quilt as more than $30, you will need to reimburse us for any such expense. If you claim less than $30 for customs purposes, and we still incur customs charges, we will pay those charges in full and will not expect reimbursement.

Insurance: Each work will be insured door to door (from the time you ship it to us until it is returned to you) under the Fine Arts Policy maintained by Quilts, Inc.