I have thought of entering one or two of my quilts in competition but chickened out last minute for fear that mine wasn't good enough. Some competitions state that profesional and beginners are welcomed but I feel that I wouldn't be able to stand up to a pro when they have such experience far above me. I think that it's not leaving me enough room for winning when all I could think of is competing against pros. OK, maybe I am just thinking wrong, but seriously, anyone can win, but the pros are not excluded.
As for the pictoral quilts, I remember reading about the catagories and that the quilt can be re-catagorized by the committee or judges if it wasn't entered in the proper catagory to start with when it was received. So maybe that happened to hers. Unless it wasn't an original and they lean more towards the owner's creativity.