County Fair Quilts and Miscellany

The county fair ended on Saturday. I had one last turn sitting at the Home Arts table on Saturday morning. There were only two of the quilt block kits for next year's raffle quilt left and we sold them. They made 60 kits and they were all sold, which hasn't happened in a few years. The biggest reason was that we were selling them right there in the Home Arts building instead of at the fair office. Hard to forget to get a kit if it's right there in your face!

The theme is "Grandma's Scrap Quilt" and the fabrics are all 1930's/depression era fabrics. They used a limited number of fabrics, but each kit was unique in the combination, including a white, a yellow, and three prints.


And what about this year's blocks, "Harvest of the Grapes"? Here are all the ones that made it onto the quilt:

 (Mine is the third over in the top row.)

Here are the top six:

And here are the ones that didn't make it onto the quilt:

Some (if not all six) will be made into pillows next year.

I'm sorry I didn't get more close up shots of various quilt blocks because there were many good ones this year. Even the judges agreed:

 Here is the quilt made from the blocks from last year "A Day at the Lake":

(My block is the third one on the bottom row--the paddler.) This is the quilt that was being raffled this year. Apparently I didn't win because there was no phone call on Saturday evening. :( I haven't heard official results, but I think we sold more raffle tickets this year as well because the quilt was assembled and you could see exactly what you were getting.

Here are the pillows made from last year's blocks:

I didn't bid on any of them but I really love #3.

And now let's take a walk around the building and look at the rest of the quilts...(keep in mind that clicking on any picture will give you an enlarged version.)

The Grand Champion of large quilts!
This was in the same class as my nine-patch.

Another Grand Champion.
This is all hand stitched needle-turned applique. See the
detail shot below; it's incredible.

I think this was in the same class as my
red and yellow checkerboard quilt and no
ribbon for this one either!

A couple of traditional quilts - the double wedding ring
on the left and a drunkard's path in the middle. It's too
bad there wasn't room to hang them.
The blanket on the right is Swedish weaving ("huck" I
believe it's called). The black and grey are surface
embroidered onto a blanket of a specific weave. To
state the obvious, it was very pretty.

This is about where a lady saw me taking pictures and asked me in a challenging/teasing tone how many I was going to put in next year. She was surprised when I said I already had three in this year so I wasn't sure what the number would be next year. I think she got caught in an assumption, there.

I found this one so intriguing. It sort of looks
like a plaid or a weave but something doesn't
quite line up.

Then I realized it was because the alternating blocks
are 3x3 and 4x4. They don't really line up, except on the
outside edges. (See pic below.)

I really like this one too. It's one of those where
I could make lots and lots of simple blocks
and then figure out how to put them together
afterward. It's also the most modern of all
of the quilts displayed with the simple design
and plenty of white background.

And now for a few of the non-quilt entries that caught my eye:

Belle's dress!

In the class of flowers in unusual containers.

4H kids waiting their turn to
have their ducks auctioned off.

Getting pictures in the "winner's circle".

And that's a wrap on the 2018 Cass County (MI) Fair. See you all next year!