Interesting...I didn't really think about it much, but our county fair separates quilt entries into several categories, including if the quilt was made by an individual or if a group/club made it; if it was quilted by hand or by machine; if it was
pieced by hand or by machine; and in the quilted-by-machine categories they further split it between long arm and domestic machines. Then they do more splits by quilt size. Then they duplicate everything so there's a "novice" category and an "expert" category. (I probably have those category names wrong, but if you've ever won a blue ribbon anywhere they consider you an expert; everyone else is a "novice".) So in the end there are dozens of different categories.
I won a 4th place ribbon last year. I was in Novice/Individual/Machine pieced/machine quilted - domestic/large quilt category, and my quilt was very minimally quilted. First time entering...and I won a ribbon! Only 4th place but I was over the moon.
