My personal contest entry story is I made a jacket to enter in the Sulky Challenge back in the day. I works SO hard on it. I had it done a week or so before it had to be sent off and was very disappointed. After all that work, I didn't think it was good enough to enter. I hung it up and just left my sewing room for a few days. I went in one evening after work and flipped on the light. There was my jacket hanging right where the light shone on it. It looked so pretty! I decided then and there to enter it. I sent it off a few days later and out of all the entries from all over the country, I got 3rd place! I was so excited!
Sometimes I think we work so hard on things and have such high expectations that we are disappointed and don't see our work objectively. Enter it and see how it goes. You'll probably be surprised at how nice it looks on display.