Oh Charlee, I agree with you! A longarmer deserves to be both paid and recognized. However, if a longarmer is paid, then I don't think she should receive part of any prize money that the quilt wins, unless this was previously agreed. I don't enter quilts in judged shows, so I don't have a lot of wisdom on the subject, but I have served as helper to the judge at the local fair (helping lay out the quilts for the judge's inspection with my mouth firmly closed to keep my opinions to myself). I know that even at the local venue, the judge (from another town) was able to pick out quilts made by the same person, although I don't think she necessarily knew or cared at all who that person was. It seems to me that the judges should have enough integrity and experience to judge a quilt on its own merits, even though they know whose quilt it is. I don't have any problem seeing the same quilt in multiple shows, and I guess it's up to the venue to specify how new the quilt should be and what the categories are. I've heard from many quilters that the quilt's date is the time the last stitch was put in it, so if they want to enter a quilt in a show that limits the years it was made, they just have to take another stitch to make it new. I don't subscribe to that theory. Once the quilt is bound, it's done, and adding something else does not change its completion date.
I do have to say that I am SO PROUD that one of the members of my small local guild had a quilt accepted into Paducah this year, and that same quilt hung in our local non-judged shows. I can't go to Paducah, but I'm happy I got to see a quilt that is going.
There is certain basic information I would like to see with all quilts at a show - year made, designer and pattern name if there was one, piecer's name, quilter's name and status (professional or not), equipment used in quilting (by hand, DSM, freehand longarm, computerized longarm). Although I don't really care who put on the binding, I would like to think that the names of all who worked on the quilt in any capacity are included with the entry. But I never thought about someone else cutting the fabrics, as with jelly rolls. I really don't think that's an issue, any more than whether the person used scissors, rotary cutter, or other method to cut the fabric. But wow, so much to think about.