The curator selects three judges for the challenge. They are selected in July, and judge the challenge shortly after the entry deadline. To be considered as a judge for future challenges, or to recommend an individual, please contact the curator.

Many thanks to our judges for this year's challenge, Terry Waldron, Janet Elertson, and Kathy Gaines.

I ran into quilting when a tennis friend said that she wouldn't be playing with us the next week because she was taking a quilting class.

I asked her why she wanted to make a bedspread when she could buy a pretty one anywhere! Months later when she brought the finished quilt for us to see, I wanted to make one, too. When I wandered into the local quilt shop, I found myself standing inside a riot of colors and patterns and shapes. I signed up for my first quilt class taught by the wonderful Blanche Young, and promptly bought 78 different bits of fabric. After that Saturday class, I couldn't stop. Even though I was teaching high school English and grading papers at night, I made a queen-sized top in 6 days!

Four quilts later in 1995, I entered the NQS show because I had never been to a quilt show and it would be held only 20 miles from my house. According to their rules, it looked like they would accept any quilt from a member! I joined, I attended, and I nearly fainted! My first-time-ever entry had won Honorable Mention in the hand-quilting division!

After more classes I made more quilts, and with more quilts I entered more shows, and there were more ribbons, but best of all, a quilt of mine was published in a popular quilt book. That gave me the courage to send a quilt to a challenge sponsored by a national fabric company where it won Honorable Mention.

Quilting has become my passion and my art. Since that beginning, there have been so many quilt shows, local, national, and international, and many ribbons. I compete in the Professional division and have learned so much from the judges' comments. I've had my own experiences judging quilt shows with some wonderful judges who have taught me so much, as well. My work has appeared in five books now, and I have a published article that appeared in "American Quilter," winter 2003. I was even featured on "Simply Quilts" in episode 824, "Log By Log." The best thing, though, was being the Co-Featured Artist at my guild (Orange County Quilt Guild) quilt show along with my first quilt teacher and wonderful friend, Blanche Young! Who would have thought that would happen!

In "real" life I am a secondary teacher who taught art for 11 years, but after moving to California, began teaching English (my other major).I LOVE teaching all students, from at-risk sophomores to Advanced Placement Literature seniors, from 7th grade English Language Learners to 8th grade GATE students. I was named Secondary Teacher of the Year for the Orange Unified School District in 1986, and I love teaching just as much today. I am a Fellow in the U.C.I. Writing Project and one of only 15 people in the U.S. to be picked by the N.E.H. professors to study "Chaucer and the Illuminated Manuscript" in Vermont and London, England.

In my other life - quilting - it´s my pleasure to teach at quilt shops up and down the state, and to speak and teach at guilds and conferences throughout the U.S. But being chosen as a judge for the Hoffman Challenge is such an honor. I'm excited to see what wonderful ways quilters have invented to use the challenge fabric. What a pleasure! What a challenge!

Marriage and raising three children afforded Janice the opportunity to develop her sewing skills. Along with sewing and designing her families clothing, she learned to quilt, upholster furniture, make full draperies, and decorate her home. A career in interior design was a dream of hers for "someday". Meanwhile she discovered the new world of wearable art, and has been hooked ever since. "I have always felt the need to have a project going. I love the process of picking a theme, and running with it. Since I am self taught I don't mind breaking the rules...because I don't always know what they are. I tend to get bored with making quilts, but love the piecing techniques. I look at quilting with an eye towards wearables. I can have too many quilts, but never enough clothes.

Janice´s work has received many awards and won several competitions including the 2002 Hoffman Challenge. She was invited to participate, and has just completed an ensemble for this years Bernina Fashion Show in Houston. Janice also teaches wearables and works in a quilt shop in San Diego where she can indulge her passion for color and texture on a regular basis. She considers one of her greatest achievements to be, training her husband and daughter to cook dinner often!

I am a California native living in Huntington Beach. I am an avid quilter and award winning doll artist. Quilting, beading and doll making are a very important part of my life. I have tried many artistic and creative pursuits and always return to my love of sewing and the fiber arts.

I am a member of the Long Beach Quilters by the Sea Quilt Guild. I am also a member of the Sisters of the Cloth, Order of the Flying Needle, a cloth doll club located in Manhattan Beach and the UFDC, United Federation of Doll Clubs.

I have been making dolls for many years and am a guest artist in the recent publication, Creative Cloth Doll Making by Patti Medaris-Cuela.

I am currently involved in a community project teaching senior citizen ladies to make comfort dolls for the local police department and shelters for battered or homeless women with children. I will never lose my enthusiasm for making dolls or quilts for the children.

I would invite and enjoy any communication regarding the Hoffman Challenge.