How judging works

Round one is a yes / no pass over every single entry — nothing is scored. An entry advances to grading when at least two of the three judges say yes. Nobody is told whether they advanced; there are no public finalist lists, and the field stays whole until the reveal.

Each criterion is scored 0–10 by each judge and multiplied by its published weight, producing one weighted total out of 100 per judge. Your final score is the average of the three judges' totals, carried to two decimal places. The weights are fixed before entries open and are never changed mid-edition.

Judging is anonymous and we enforce it technically, not on trust. Judges see entry numbers, room, dimensions and photographs — never your name, location, account, social handles or price. Files are renamed on upload and image metadata is stripped, so a filename or EXIF field cannot leak you. Moderators check every photograph for labels, watermarks, studio cards and signatures before it reaches the panel, and an entry that reveals its maker is returned for correction rather than quietly penalised. Names are re-attached only after all scores are locked. Attempting to identify yourself to a judge, or a judge attempting to learn who made an entry, voids the entry or the judge's card for that entry.

Judges declare conflicts before judging begins: their own students and clients, family, business partners, anyone they have taught or been paid by in the last two years, and any quilt they have seen in progress. Because judging is anonymous a conflict usually surfaces mid-round — a judge who recognises a quilt must recuse from that entry immediately and tell the organiser. A recused entry is scored by the remaining judges and its final score is the average of those cards, so no entry is advantaged or penalised by the recusal. Judges may not enter the show, may not accept gifts or payment from entrants, and may not discuss individual entries outside the panel. The organiser does not score and cannot change a judge's card; every recusal and tie-break is logged with the award.

• Best in Show — the single highest final score in the whole show, across all rooms, from the three judges' score cards.
• Room winners (one per room) — the highest final score inside that room, again averaged across all three judges. Judges score every room, not only their own.
• Judge's Choice — not scored. Each judge personally names one quilt they loved, with a short written rationale. Three judges, three Judge's Choice awards.
• People's Choice — decided entirely by public vote. Visitors sign in and cast one vote each; the vote is final and the entry with the most ballots wins.

Ties are broken in a fixed, published order, applied one step at a time until the tie is resolved: (1) the higher score on Fit to the room brief; (2) then Design & visual impact; (3) then Craftsmanship & construction; (4) then the higher number of individual judges who ranked the entry first; (5) if still tied, the panel meets on a recorded call and votes, and the organiser publishes the resolution alongside the award. Where the deadlock is between two entries for a cash award and the panel cannot separate them, the prize is split equally rather than awarded arbitrarily. People's Choice ties are broken by whichever entry reached its vote total first.

• You must be signed in to vote — this is how we keep the ballot honest.
• One vote per person per show, and it cannot be changed once cast.
• Voting opens and closes on the dates published on the show floor.
• Running totals stay hidden until the organiser publishes the result.

Visit the show floor to vote.