Doris Goins
Doris Goins lives in Kendallville, IN and grew up in a rural area of Ohio where she began learning the needle arts at an early age. She sustained a long working career in both school and public libraries, before opening her longarm machine quilting business, Loving Stitches, in 1996. In 2005, she became a professional quilt judge certified by the National Quilting Association. She has judged quilt shows both large and small throughout the country. Her quilts have won awards in numerous quilt shows, including those specifically for machine quilting, as well as, NQA, and the Hoffman Fabric Challenge. She is currently the treasurer of the newly formed National Association of Certified Quilt Judges.
She believes that it is not just her role to identify the best quilts for awards, but to provide substantive comments of both praise and constructive criticism for each entrant. She views judging as an educational vehicle to aid in the improvement of skills among quilt makers. During judging she not only looks for quilts which exhibit excellent workmanship and design, but also a personal reflection of the quilt maker which gives it a unique or unexpected twist.
Karen Blocher, Certified Quilt Judge at NACQJ
Karen took her first quilting class in 1998, and has been involved ever since. She quickly joined the local quilting guild, where she held several offices and committee chairs. She served on the Board of Directors for the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show, including two terms as Chairman of the Board. She was Secretary for the National Quilting Association, and was a Co-Director of the National Quilting Association’s Annual Show for two years. She has been part of the management teams for 16 regional and national quilt shows and competitions.
Karen is a National Quilting Association Certified Quilt Judge, and has judged locally, regionally and nationally since 2000. She has been involved in the judging of more than 12,000 quilts. She is a member of the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges, and is qualified to judge Masterpiece Quilts.
Having won numerous local, regional and national awards, her designs can be found in books and magazines, and her quilts have been commissioned by Indiana University and private collections. Karen graduated from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. She and her husband live on 30 wooded acres near Bloomington, Indiana. They are parents to three grown sons and are grandparents to Jordan, Lee, Kira, Vivienne, James, Joelle, and Josie.