I've entered our county fair the last five years. I did it to hear what I'm doing right and what I need to improve on (yes, I'm the baby of the family and I need some approval sometimes....). The first year, I walked out with two blue ribbons. My quilts weren't hard patterns, but my point were better than the competitions.
Some years, the judge is a quilter and looks at the workmanship, color coordinating and so on. One year, the judge wanted to give everyone a blue and just pointed to the quilts in the order they were on the table and said,"one,two, three!" I was horrified and thankfully the next year's judge knew to look at craftsmanship, not just what one she liked best. :P
They do not give blues just to give a blue (except that one judge....). Last year's quilt judge gave many classes only red ribbons and down because there were not blue ribbon entries. The outstanding exhibit award I earned from her means a lot to me!
I'm entering my first real quilt show this week, put on by our local guild. I have no expectations of winning and I don't get to hear what the judge has to say, but I really love the quilts I entered and it'll be fun to see them on display.