Maybe we were reading the same magazine, because I noticed the same thing this past week, lol. We also have a quilt that DH's sister made, and that took first place in a show, and the quilting on that wasn't perfect either.
I agree that we tend to expect perfection from ourselves and that probably just isn't realistic given the nature of quilting. Yes, we can strive to do better each time, but I'm sure that even the very best quilts have minor imperfections if you get up close.