I can't imagine a fair taking on the responsibility of keeping track of which quilts are charity and which quilts go back to the person that entered them.

That was my thought. It's a big responsiblility for an organization to put on a fair, let alone keep track of where to "send" the quilts. Someone had a good idea at the time.

Actually I think it's fairly common for a fair to have a group of quilts that will be donated at the end of the fair to a particular charity. They usually name the charity in advance (the last group I remember was for Project Linus), and in my experience those quilts aren't judged. They're displayed as a group. Maybe this practice is more common in some parts of the country than in others.

I hope the fair kept the ribbons

I choose to think that there must have been a good reason for this too :wink:
Bless your heart for making these quilts to be donated :D:D:D