I have heard from several sources that for some reason judges always look at binding. They look at the stitching, how even the width is, how the miters are done, if the miters are stitched and if the batting fills the entire binding with no voids. I was told that often the piecing, quilting and appliqué on a quilt are all outstanding, but the binding is what separates the winners from the others. I would take the info as constructive criticism and go from there. If you do a search on this board about quilt judging, they all mention binding as being very important.