A Fair Weekend

Last weekend was our county fair.  My Guy grew up on a farm and his Dad was one of the 4-H sponsors, so he's done the fair thing before.  Neither Drama Teen or I had much experience with county fairs.  I had considered entering a quilt a few times, but up until this year, all the quilting divisions required that the maker had to do both the piecing and the quilting.  That pretty much shut down any possibility of entering a quilt as I don't do my own quilting.  But this year they added a category for "commercially quilted".  So I got a copy of the fair book to see what was required for an entry.  My Guy took a look at the book and suggested that we all enter photographs since I was making the trip to the next town over to enter the quilt anyway.  I hadn't actually decided to enter anything, but both he and DT were having such fun talking about which photos to enter that I just gave in.  It was a learning experience for all of us. 

 

I decided to enter the purple and yellow scrap quilt (aka And Kiss Me Jack).  We'd never made it up to the fair before, usually we have swimming or something else going on, so we had no idea what the competition looked like.  I was pretty surprised to find  a blue ribbon pinned to my quilt. 

 

That definitely exceeded my expectations. To be honest there wasn't a lot of competition in my division, but it's still a nice feeling to place well. This was the first time outside the blog that I've shown any of my quilts.   

The photography division was a lot more competitive. Drama Teen garnered a third place for one of her photos.

She was a bit disappointed because what we all regarded as her best photo didn't place at all.  But once we got to looking at the junior category, it was obvious that she should be pleased to have placed at all.  There were some really good photos in that division. 

 

My Guy and I had to enter the advanced category as we have DSLRs (which is a bit ironic as I'll explain in a minute).  My Guy garnered a second place for his panoramic entry.

 

 

This image was taken on the DT's school trip to Colorado they took back in May.  (DT's picture above is from the same trip.)  This shot was taken with My Guy's point and shoot camera, not the DSLR.   It's one of the boys climbing up the sand dunes. 

 

Much to my surprise, I ended up with three ribbons in the photography divisions.   

 

 

The tulip shot was taken with my point and shoot, the other two were taken with the DSLR.  The second place on the dragonfly shot is ample payment for my battle with the horseflies that I lost just before that picture was taken. 

 

So our first family experience as fair entrants was a pretty good one.  I think we ended up with a grand total of $9.00 in fair winnings.  We celebrated with ice cream, which just about took care of the winnings.