Results of the Fair - 2016

Are you ready? Here we go with the results of my entries at the fair. I'll take you on a tour of the building, showing the entries in the order you would see them if you walked through the building.

First up is always the raffle quilt, immediately on your left.

They didn't have many entries this year. Only 18 blocks made it onto the quilt. (You can see the top left and lower right corners are empty.) So my block (right column, third from the top) did make it onto the quilt, but only one entry didn't!

Here are the top six:

My favourite was third place (yellow ribbon). It was a really detailed applique of all different vegetables in baskets. I also liked that they took all the veggies from the seed packet fabric, so they used the fabric, but you didn't see the fabric design in its entirety. It was a good fabric for the theme, but it wasn't very good fabric to quilt with.

I was pleased to see more pieced blocks this year and two of them even made it to top six. Yeah! Personally, I preferred the one just above my block with the checkerboard corners, but I'm not studying them for quality of work.

Next comes the sewn garments and the the knitted items. You can see two of my projects here:

The blue scarf won first place. I was surprised it beat out the blue and gold shawl above it. I think I saw the judge admiring the 3D texture, but I still think the shawl is a better overall project. Pretty sure it was made with Malabrigo and it was gorgeous.

On the lower shelf you can see a dark square that is my alpaca vest. It was the only vest/shell as far as I can tell and got a blue ribbon (1st).

Here are two more projects:

The hat and cowl were awarded second. If my memory is correct, the light blue scarf hanging down got first.

And also pictured are my socks. A blue ribbon (1st) but they were the only socks! All the entries were down by my estimation, but I was especially disappointed that the sock category was so low.

Here is my landscape quilt with a red ribbon (2nd):

There were four in the category and this barely squeaked in. The one judge really didn't like this quilt. She kept dismissing it as done with a technique. And she kept saying that like it was a four-letter word. I'm not sure what technique she thought it used because I just followed a pattern and sewed it. Anyway. There was no comment about all the free motion work. (There was also no comment about my tension problems.) And they didn't even look at my invisible binding stitches. It was going to be third behind one that I really thought was worse, but in the last minute the judges changed the order and I got second and the other one got third.

I couldn't get any closer to take a picture of these quilt minis:

Mine is on the right and the other one in the same category is on the left (with the triangles). (The one in the middle is in a different category.) They really didn't like this quilt of mine either. Although they had heard of big stitch quilting (I described it as such on the label), they admitted they had no idea how to judge it and from their attitude, they had no interest in judging it. They couldn't find the 9-patch pattern or understand that it was an improv version. They also didn't like that the stitches when in different directions. (I made spiralling squares following the lines of the blocks. It didn't seem that hard to me.) Both judges at some point said they liked the back better than the front.

The other quilt was very cute but it wasn't square and the bottom was a good half inch smaller than the top. So they decided it didn't deserve a first but there was no way it was coming below mine. So with two in the class, they awarded a second and a third. (There's no ribbon on my quilt because they didn't have enough white ribbons.)

After the knitting and crochet, we move onto the yard art, ceramics and other miscellaneous crafts. Here is my purse knitted from VHS tape and lined with a purple garbage bag:

It was awarded third (again no white ribbons) behind a small wooden wind chime and a string of lights decorated with the 4-H emblem.

After the 3D arts is photography. Here is my seascape which was given third:

You can see second and first place beside it. Second place includes a rainbow and that has to be the only reason it placed because the rest of the picture was washed out and flat. Next year, I am definitely having my pictures printed professionally because my colours were terrible. :(

Black and white landscape:

Well, I see first and second right beside my trees, but I don't see a ribbon on mine. But there weren't enough white ribbons, so it is possible this picture was third. I'll find out when I pick them up! (In canning I made sure to write "3" on both sides of the card so it was easy to see if you placed even without the ribbon, but not all departments did that.)

And speaking of, after pictures comes baking and then canning:

Here is my tomato juice which was awarded first. I was disappointed there were no more entries in the category (there usually are) but at least the judges quickly decided that it merited a first. (Not a given. We had three applesauce entries this year and none were awarded a ribbon!)

My beans were in much stiffer competition--there were nine entries. My jar was quickly sorted into the top five and then they started to narrow it down. First place was apparently an easy choice and then it was down to 2 and 3. They decided my beans were too skinny and so they were given third. Funny to me because they apparently didn't realize they were a different variety of bean. It was quite obvious that they were ripe enough. (And to reinforce that thought, the first person I discussed this with knew exactly what variety I had used. If a random stranger knows, I thought the judges should too. Next time I write it on the tag.)

Finally they got to the honey I submitted. Again I was disappointed there were no other entries. One person usually puts in the only entries in the meat and honey classes, but he only put in maple syrup this year! So there was my lonely honey. The one judge flips over the jar and notices small round things on the bottom. She wonders if they are pollen but she's not sure. They decide to not award any ribbon because the honey she gets from her friend never has that.

After the judging is done and I'm talking with another volunteer, she sees that it is just the beginning of the honey crystallizing (you know how old honey gets) and I should have just soaked the jar in some warm water for a bit before bringing it to the fair. Ok so maybe it didn't deserve a first in that condition, but I think the judge should have recognized what it was. Oh well.

And that's the end of the displays. In summary, there were a lot of ribbons, but not a very large pool of competition. On the other hand, several of my entries demonstrated that just because you're the only one, doesn't mean you'll win!!