I think you are greatly underestimating the ability of any professional judge, not just quilting judges, to set aside their personal preferences and judge solely on the merit of the work/art/animal/performance/talent they are judging at that moment in time.

The Best of Show winner at the first ever International Modern Quilting show, QuiltCon 2013 in Austin, was a double wedding ring. Do you believe that happened just because the judge favored traditional quilts over modern quilts?

The boundries between quilt styles cannot be nailed down and many times the distinctions are solely in the eyes of the beholder. The desired ideals for all styles, however, remain the same...quality workmanship, powerful design, and a masterful use of color. Those can be judged regardless of personal taste or whether the quilts are competing in one category or many.

Too many questions to be answered in this forum.

I am certainly no authority on the different styles is quilts/quilting. But like everyone else, I have my own opinions. ;)
Traditional to me brings to mind things like double wedding ring, grandmothers flower garden, four patch, hand embroidered state flowers, and all the others from the era of our parents and grandparents, usually done in vintage type fabrics.
Modern brings to mind designs like rectangle in a frame, ones done primarily with jelly roll strips, Bargello, ones with lots of "white space" and blocks or circles of color.
Modern can also be traditional patterns done in more unique color combinations. Or would that be considered Contemporary?
I think of Art Quilts as being things like landscapes, portraits, thread painting, as well as wall hangings that are just "different".

Fiber art includes knitting, crocheting, embroidery of all types, weaving, tatting, lace making, braiding, etc. as well as quilting and any other type of sewing.

Can't answer anything about quilt shows as I've only been to two so far.

I do know that judging in the art category at a local county fair had been known to be very much determined by the judges taste. (For a number of years if it wasn't a floral landscape or a cowboy on a horse it didn't stand a chance. Lol!)

Maybe I am underestimating their ability to be fair and well-balanced....

Why was a double wedding ring quilt entered into a modern quilting exhibition?

My own experiences as to judged competition is the local county fair and cross stitch. I had one cross stitch project win a blue ribbon which shouldn't have won anything--it was one of those kits that the color was prestamped onto the fabric--all I had to was to cross stitch over the top of the colored fabric--total cop out as to skill required!--that project was so "small" and not all that wonderful--yes, it looked great, but didn't actually take much skill to do.. A couple of my other rather good projects didn't get anything--I just laughed. And I figured that some judge somewhere (fair judge or not), really just didn't know. It didn't deserve to be judged higher than my other ones. (My family entered my projects in my absence--I was already here in Poland when they decided to enter my stuff in the fair.)

So, as to my own meager experience in judged competitions, says that the judges lean to one type or the other....

I watched a cooking show (Chopped) where the judge didn't like raw onion and got upset when the participant gave him raw onion in the appetizer and the main course. The judge said that the competitor wasn't paying attention to the client when he did that. (Judges are people too and sometimes can't get past their own bias.) I personally didn't see that the judges' personal taste buds (raw onion or not) should determine whether the cook actually did a good job at cooking.

I certainly don't mean to pick at anyone about judged competitions, but I've learned to take all these kinds of things with grains, if not chunks, of salt. Anything that has a chance of bias, whether diving competitions, figure skating, gymnastics, including fiber arts, etc...the winners may or may not actually be the best in the land/world. (I suppose I'm cynical.) --for sure the winners are the ones that the judges chose and that is all I really know.

And that's okay with me. My self-worth isn't based on what any human judge says about my work--cross stitch or quilting, etc.

I hope justflyingin you're going to have a better day. I love to make quilts, no matter what the category someone wants to put it in. They will not be perfect, they will not be entered into competition, but, they will be loved. If you don't love what you're doing, then don't do it, just saying.

I have no answers for you either. Your questions reminded me of an article Bonnie Hunter wrote. I will try to attach a link.
http://mystarsblog.com/2013/07/18/th...ney-to-modern/

I'm having a great day. I am not sure what you are getting at.

I so totally agree :) As for me no labels, I never did fit into a box and that is fine with me.

Thanks for posting the link to this article!

I wonder if the answers/classifications might vary according to the level of the show/exhibition?