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How anonymous judging works

The most common question we get is some version of: does it matter who you know? It does not. Judges never see who made a quilt. Here is the whole process, plainly, so you can decide for yourself whether it is fair.

Your name is removed before a judge ever looks

Entries are shown to judges as a photograph, the measurements, the techniques used and your statement about why the quilt suits the room. No maker name, no town, no social handle, no guild. The show software simply does not hand those fields to a judge's screen.

Round one — First Glance

Every entry is seen by every judge, one at a time, and each judge says yes or no to it moving forward. It is a fast, instinctive pass. A no here is not a comment on you as a maker; it means that judge did not see it in their room.

Round two — Grading

Quilts that moved forward are scored against published criteria — things like colour and how it sits in the room, construction and finishing, and the strength of the idea. Each criterion carries a stated weight, and every judge scores independently before anyone compares notes.

Ties are broken in the open

If two quilts finish level, the judges meet and talk it through on the record, and the resolution is written down and shown with the result. Nobody's score quietly changes after the fact.

Names come back at the reveal

Makers are matched back to their quilts only after scoring is locked. That is the first moment anyone involved in judging learns whose work they were looking at.

What anonymity does not fix

Anonymous judging removes names. It does not remove taste — three judges with three rooms will always want different things, and that is the point of a show built around rooms. Read the judging guide for the criteria and weights, and the room briefs for what each designer is actually asking for.

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