County Fair Results 2018

Thanks for your patience (a whole 24 hours)...here are the results of my entries to this year's fair:

1. Knitting: Socks

An auspicious beginning...a first place for my socks.

I couldn't find them in the displays for a long time and was actually starting to worry that they went missing. But the displays were just overcrowded and they were sitting on top of a quilt entry. (I rearranged the displays a little later in the evening to make room for all of the entries.)

I didn't see any other socks for the category which is astounding to me. Where are the other sock knitters, because I know I am not the only one!

2. Knitting: Vest - Child

Another first. I don't think there were any other entries in this category either. :)

3. Knitting: Doily or Table Topper

Oh my...another blue ribbon. I doubt there was any other competition in this category either. (I didn't look closely, but I don't think so.)

To be honest, I had hopes this might get the Grand Champion, but that honour went to a sweater knit in a bulky variegated acrylic. (There was a much nicer lace cardigan up for Grand Champion too; I can't imagine how the sweater beat out the cardigan, but I didn't get to listen in on any of the judging.)

As I was rearranging some of the displays, I noticed there was an empty rack and put my shawl over it. It displays the shawl better and it made more room for the other items to spread out on the tables.

4. Knitting: Hat, Scarf and/or Glove/Mitten Set

No ribbon on this one. It is fun they had the head to model it on. The cowl isn't very well arranged so I fixed that later too.

5. Knitting - Any Other Not Listed

No ribbon on this one either. Since it's a miscellaneous category, it's hard to know what it was competing against. I know I saw a nice shawl with a blue ribbon so that would have been one of them. (Since there's no shawl category -- what?)

6. Quilts: Full, Queen, King Size - Machine Quilted, Pieced

No ribbon. I saw a little bit of the judging when they were looking at this category. They liked it, but there were five entries so someone has to come in last.

The quilt was hung right beside the door so it got some attention as people walked out. The volunteer desk is right there so I got to hear some nice reactions. Most of the time, I mentioned that it was my quilt and that led to some nice conversations. It's a little awkward, but I figure it's more polite to let them know before they say something they may not want overhead. :)

7. Quilts: Twin Size, Pieced

No ribbon. I didn't hear any of this judging. I know the piecing isn't fancy but the quilting is quite detailed.

8. Quilts: Wall Hanging, Appliqued (180" & smaller)

No ribbon. Remember my comment about the applique pieces not being sewn down? Yah, well, the judges didn't like that. You can see a note hanging from the quilt in the picture - it's an explanation that they liked the design but since the pieces aren't sewn down, they didn't judge it.

I guess they didn't find another category to move it into. Usually the volunteers try to move entries around if they don't work in the category they were submitted in.

9. Quilts: Mini Quilts (96" & smaller)

Blue ribbon here. I saw a little of the judging for this one. I think there were only about three entries, but they really liked my little mug rug.

10. Quilts: Table Topper/Runner

No ribbon. There were five or six entries in this one. The judges didn't like my quilt much. I think I overhead one judge say something like "I don't like this fabric at all." I left a note that I had painted the fabric, but I'm not sure they got it.

But the other entries were great and deserved the ribbons so I'm not trying to say mine should have won.

11. Quilts: Quilt Block Contest

Honorable Mention. (It made it on the quilt.) Remember my worries about the additional fabrics and using the purple upside down? They held it and another one to the side for a long time and I heard a few of the fair coordinators talking about it on an off. But in the end, they let the blocks in.

There were at least two other blocks with the purple fabric used both right side up and upside down. (And the other ones ended up in the top six.)

12. Color Photography, Head or Figure

Second place. I wandered by after the judging was done and the volunteer in that department let me know that the judge really liked the picture. It was nice to hear.

You can see the first place and third place photos in this category to the right and left.

And that's all of it! It was a fun day on Saturday. Tiring, but fun. I like my judges in the canning department and I'm getting to know more of the other volunteers as I see them year after year. The judging in the other departments was done fast, though; I didn't get much of a chance to observe any of it!

As usual, I worked the desk in the Home Arts building on Monday evening. I'll be there again Wednesday evening and Saturday around lunch if you want to stop by and say hi.

Buy a ticket (or 6 for $5) for the raffle quilt you can see hanging behind me. These are the blocks from last year. (And my block happens to be in the picture...the paddler in the bottom row.)


Before I was due at the table, Troy and I had a walk around the fair.

We stopped to watch a dressage event; they were putting the horses through their paces.

We also took a walk through the rabbit and chicken barns. From very small birds,

 to the very large:

This rooster was fantastic:

even in the more literal sense of the word.

Rabbits, too, come in tiny sizes,

 and large:

We always like seeing the satin breeds because that is what we had. The one above looks just like our "Red". Speaking of large, there was only one flemish giant that we saw and we think it was a juvenile because it was not as big as most.

We capped the evening with a delicious ice cream from our favourite truck, "Good Dips". They weren't in the same place as previous years and we fretted that they didn't come back. But with persistent looking, we tracked them down. It was worth it!

Lucy Boston Progress

I have completed 11 more Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses blocks. Here they are ensemble:

And here's a closer look, starting with the most tradition constructions -- four different fabrics arranged in sets of four on the inside and sets of eight on the outside ring.

I fell in love with these gnomes, especially the fishers! They were the perfect scale for these honeycomb pieces and were spread out on the fabric so I could cut just one. How handy!

Peter Rabbit characters -- how am I supposed to resist these little fabrics? You can see these rabbits weren't spread as far apart as the gnomes so the pieces aren't quite so "clean", but it works.

Blue and orange and pink - oh my! I really love the pink/purple circles fabric. It has a lot of very useful colour combinations in it.

I pulled out these three fabrics because I saw a similar funny orange colour in them.

I can't imagine using them all together in a quilt that would use larger pieces, but I think this block works:

The block above and below are less traditional in that they use the same fabric for all the pieces in the outer ring. They weren't cut from the same part of the fabric though, so they still look like different pieces.

I had the pieces for the outer ring of the block below for quite a while before I found fabrics to go with them.

The next block uses the same fabric (and fussy cuts) for the blocks in the middle, and the same fabric, but different cuts for the outer ring. I made pairs of sheep, hens, cows and pigs, but even the pairs aren't identical to each other.

In the following block, there is a middle ring formed by using the same fabric for those pieces. I had this fenced village put together for quite a while before I found the right creatures to live in the "village square" in the middle. :)

My most recent block put together some Eiffel Towers. The towers are formed by fussy cutting and pattern matching three different honeycomb pieces.

While cutting out the fabric and basting them to the papers, I made sure to mark them in sets (A-D) because there was no guarantee the top of one tower would match with the bottom pieces of another set.

It was some very customized fussy cutting. I gave myself a break by making the rest of the pieces non-pattern matching!

I really liked some Tula Pink fabric with snails on it and did a similar pattern matching over three honeycomb pieces. But you can see I arranged the rest of the block quite differently:

Finding the purple and greens to go with it was a happy accident of having a ridiculous amount of fabric out at the same time.

Finally, I can show you a new spiral block design. The first uses some Cotton and Steel fabric with squirrel tails and a grey text fabric. (I call this "squirrel swirls". :) )

For the next one, I had the idea to do a primary colour gradient. First thing I did was go through all of my fabrics (scraps, fat quarters, and full yardage) and cut a honeycomb from any fabric in the right colour that read mostly as a solid or tonal.  FYI, that took a really long time.

Then I arranged them from light to dark. (I can't imagin why there are so many more reds than any other colour!) Then I pulled out six fabrics that made a nice gradient from light to dark.

Here is the final block:

I really like the softer look of the solids/tonals. The spirals are not quite as obvious, but it's still an interesting block.

And here are all the sewn blocks so far:

That's 29 out of 56. I have five more ready to sew and a couple more that are partially designed.

I can't sew quite as much as I would like because my left wrist is acting up. (It doesn't like gripping the pieces together for such long periods.) If you have any ergonomic suggestions for me, please let me know!