Our Quilt Judges
Kathie Kerler
Kathie has been quilting for over twenty years and involved in needle arts since childhood. Since January 2007, she has been a contributing editor for American Quilter magazine, published by the American Quilter’s Society in Paducah, Kentucky, working with designers and quilters on articles featuring patterns, techniques, and quilting-related topics.
She is a National Quilting Association Certified Judge and has attended two different courses on judging quilts and wearable art. Since 2002, she has judged the Northwest Quilting Expo; the Columbia River Gorge Show; the Oregon State Fair and Washington State Puyallap Fair; guild shows in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho; and numerous county fairs in the Northwest.
As a fiber artist, she has completed rigorous courses in design and embroidery at the London City and Guilds College in London, England and at the Lesage School of Needlework in Paris, France. She exhibits her work at various shows and galleries. In 2009 she completed the Clackamas County Oregon Sesquicentennial Quilt, which hung in the capitol building in Salem during the state’s 150th year anniversary celebration. The quilt is on permanent display at the County’s new Development Services Building in Oregon City.
Elizabeth Spannring
Elizabeth Spannring of La Center, Washington has been actively involved with quilting since 1992. In 2002 she completed the course on Judging Quilts and Wearable Arts sponsored by the Northern California Quilt Council and in 2006 completed the program requirements and is now designated a National Quilting Association Certified Judge.
In 2002 Elizabeth judged her first quilt show and has since judged over 40 quilt and wearable art competitions throughout the US and Canada. She feels her experience as a competition quiltmaker and an international quilt instructor have helped her to stay up to date with new methods and techniques of todays quilt artists. While evaluating a quilt her objective is to encourage quilters to improve and expand their artistry, creativity and expertise in their preferred medium.
Entering her first national show in 2000, Elizabeth's quilts have won awards at AQS Quilt Exposition, Pacific Northwest Quiltfest, International Quilt Festival, Quilter’s Heritage Celebration, Machine Quilter’s Exposition, Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, the National Quilting Association Show, Pacific International and Road to California.
When not on the road teaching or judging southwest Washington is the place Elizabeth calls home, where her husband and four cats carefully maneuver their way through fabric, thread and pins!
