The local Bloomsburg PA Fair is almost a memory - it is over today. There was NO quilt that rated a "best in show". There is a historical district where our quilt group demonstrates hand quilting and we discussed why there was no quilt chosen. One of the reasons may have been that the quilts submitted did not have a degree of difficulty in the patterns the quilters selected. Another problem may have been the use of long arm quilting which may or may not have been done by the quilter. Have any of you noticed a change at your fairs?

That's sad... surely there must have been one that stood out above all others..wow..

That doesn't really make sense to me either. If every quilt displayed was a "dog", at least one of them had to be better than the others.
Isn't that what "best" would imply?

I would think that for the integrity of the award, it would be better to not award a "best" if there truly was nothing that was exceptional. Its unfortunate, but makes perfect sense to me.

The category is "Best In Show" As a Judge that means that in my opinion the quilt is the best of all those displayed regardless of the quality. Unless, of course, all the quilts were really bad workmanship. It sounds like the judges or management is placing other preferences into the selection process. If I had a quilt in the show I would write the show managementg and ask some questions including who judged. Usually the best in show is taken from the 1st place winners in the categories and then, depending on the wishes of management, those iin the category are bumped up. Not always the case but often.

One year at our county fair there were no ribbons awarded in one of the art categories apparently because the judges did not 'like' any of the entries. I really felt bad about it because there were some very well done pictures but as my friend said "there weren't any with flowers or windmills and that's what they like"...and my son's picture (and some of the other students as well) was rather 'out there' as far as the content.

What was really kind of ironic was the year before I had gotten a best in show in the flowering plant category for an amarylis I had gotten on clearance after Christmas that just happened to bloom the week of the fair!

Im very new to quilting and by no means good at it yet. When i went to my fair, my daughter was laughing at me, i keep looking at all the points matching and to my surprise,,,,, NONE did and these had ribbons on them. They looked like my own quilts. I was shocked. Yes all were longarmed or home quilted.