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Sunday, September 16, 2012

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. 

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations! That is so exciting. Great way to spend your winnings too!

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  2. Congratulations! Well done to all of you but especially to you on winning with your first quilt entry.

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  3. Congratulations on your ribbons! Sounds like you found the perfect way to spend your loot.

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  4. Congrats on the ribbons! I can never seem to get myself together to enter things in the fair, but we love going to see all the entries!

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  5. Woo-Hoo on all the ribbons! What a fun way to experience the fair. I'd spend my winnings on ice cream too. :) Happy Monday!

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  6. county fairs are so underated - I love them! the one here in vermont where I live has a homemade craft building that sells all handmade things - quilts, knit stuff, wood you name it and all you have to do is drop your items off, label them - they sell them and keep only 25% which better than putting it in a shop. no investment at all - this year I netted $260 bucks :-) of which I immediately brought to the nearest quilt shop and bought fabric with guiltless pleasure. look in your area to see if the fairs sell home goods - its well worth it

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  7. Way to go on the fair bling! Our county fair is huge with quilters, so I won't enter anything...really can't compare. And a great way to spend the winnings!

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  8. excellent placing for all of you~!
    i'm not surprised that your quilt won a ribbon as i thought it was totally gorgeous~!!!~

    :-)
    libbyQ

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