Siskiyou County Golden Fair...

I can't believe that we're nearing the end of August already!! And I've neglected the blog for a month now - time is going too fast!

Last week was our county fair...which I haven't gone to or participated in since 1993, the last summer I came home from college. That's quite a long time. Well, this year, I had several entries...mostly in the sewing/textiles department. In years past we always entered a bunch of ceramics. I did a little of that and was shocked at how very little ceramics there actually was (my 2 entries and someone else's 2 entries were all that I found!) They've changed how they do things from when I was a kid, so Joshua was very limited in what he could enter, and received no money for his ribbon.

Here he is with his ceramic frogs (Grandma Lorrayne did the eyes - she did my santa ones too):

Nathaniel was disappointed that he didn't get to enter anything, but his monkey boy quilt (that he doesn't get until his birthday next week) did quite well...1st place in beginner quilts (it was my first time hand quilting) plus a $25 bonus from the Siskiyou County Quilters Guild!

Everything I entered got ribbons except for these 4 items...I didn't expect to get one on the afghan for Thumpy, especially when I knew I was competing against my Grandma! There were tons of crocheted & knit baby afghans this year. The knit purse is something that was supposed to be a scarf, but I didn't have enough yarn, so with some ideas from Mom it became a purse...and the baby tag blankie thing is from a pattern I got at Walmart...they probably had no clue what it was! The britches were just for fun...I don't know if they figured them out.

The stocking was something Mom found cut out in a box in her sewing room that she gave me to finish...the Elmo bib was one I started either before Joshua was born or shortly after...and I just finished it last month. The dishcloth I did do specifically for the fair - it turned out nicely. The Halloween placemat is for Joshua (I still need to sew Nathaniel's). The pattern (from the same thing as the tag blankie) is nice, but a little small...I need to figure out how to make it bigger.

My other big surprise, besides the quilt doing so well, was this cross stitch pillow. I finished the cross stitch piece early last year or late 2007, I can't remember. I put it in a frame, but didn't really like it framed...I decided I wanted to make it into a pillow...sadly, it hadn't gotten wet during the great storage disaster of June 2009 and I hadn't realized that. I rinsed and washed and rinsed some more, but still had water spots on it, though they were hard to see. I had no pattern for the pillow, but knew how I wanted it to look. Things aren't totally straight, borders aren't quite equal, but hey, someone liked it because it got Best of Show!

I only did 2 ceramic entries...both Christmas, both Santa...the tall pillaresque Santas are some I've liked for a long time...and finally got around to painting them. There are 3 so eventually each kid will get one (the boys already have it figured out who gets which)...the little thimbles were fun to do...I've done several sets for gifts and never kept any for myself, so this time I will.

This is the first time I've ever entered scrapbook pages in a fair...it was fun. They just limit you so much - only 4 categories (I didn't do the wedding one because I had nothing to scrap) and only 1 entry per category. I think the Honorable Mention is because they didn't figure out that the flowers moved and behind them were the names, etc. for each of my ancestresses...there was a note saying that I needed to label them...they were labeled, just differently. So I'll remember next year - NO HIDDEN JOURNALING!