I use to be very involved with a quilt show and got to work as a scribe many times for different judges it was really a learning experience they all went for color impact at first look they did check binding to see if it had any empty spots and the squareness of a quilt could not be longer on one side or another no ripples in the side eveness of stitches and if machine quilted how good are the stops and starts in hand applique does ant stitches show also have had them comment on the quilting design for the quilt this was several years ago and they did have a catagory for machine quilts and another for people who sent them out I don't think they do that anymore and they really do check the back of your quilt to see the stitches there the one thing I learned use a busy fabric for the back unless you really want your stitching to show