When I first moved to my little slice of paradise I had never been to a County Fair and barely knew that they existed. I grew up in NYC and the greater metro area and Fairs (other than art faires) were few and far between. I jumped on the proverbial band wagon 25 years ago though when my first fair entries were photographs.
Although I comsidered myself a quilter at the time I did not enter anything in that division for some years. As it turned out, that was a very good thing because my quilting hubris was much larger than my quilting talents were at that time! What I did not about quilting is, in hindsight, embarrassing! Over the years I learned a lot from the amazingly talented local quilters. My skills increased and I even managed to take a few classes over the years. In the last few years, for some reason, I have not entered many items in the quilting section and almost did not again this year. But........
Of course, County Fairs acquire funding based on number of entries and so I decided to enter "Within Limits" - a large bed sized quilt. It is based on a pattern called "Wagon Wheels" from American Jane by Sandy Klop and was beautifully custom quilted by local friend Keri Leighton-Stome from Orcas Island. As a huge fan of colorful scrappy quilts I challenged myself to use a more controlled palette of red, my new neutral, black, grey, white and splashes of mellow golden yellows.
When the quilt made it home....with thanks to my friend Janet for picking my entries up for me and even hand delivering them.....I was thrilled to see the bevy of colorful ribbons attached to my quilt. We all love and lust for the coveted blues and honorable mentions are a real bonus, but it was that fluffy Viewers Choice ribbon that meant the most to me. I had never received one before and I was tickled pink by this teal colored beauty. It encourages me and I am so grateful to anyone who took the time to vote on Saturday!
We had a special exhibit called the "Itty Bitty Teeney Tiny" challenge. We have a severely limited amount of available space for display in the "wool shed" (which houses quilts, sewn textile items, knitting, weaving, spinning, basketry etc etc) and so this year's theme was created to be not only a creative challenge but also to save on valuable real estate within the exhibit area. I entered two teeny tiny fabric baskets that I had made for a similarly theme challenge a few years ago. There was no restriction that entries had to have been made within the previous year.
I now understand County Fairs much better than I used to. They serve so many wonderful functions. I cannot imagine m world without them any more. County Fairs foster a love for all things wonderfully rural, critters, horsepersonship, the growing of good and beautiful things and the myriad displays of creative works by many talented hands.
County Fairs are empowering, they help to build a healthy self-respect, they engender a needful love of things that mean "we live in the country". Fairs bring communities together for a special annual week of friendship, sharing of all things fair ...."fair food", trashion fashion shows, getting to know our neighbors...and perhaps best of all they reconfirmed the joys that I feel every day for being able to live in "my special'place", and enjoy the benefits of deep roots and long friendships.
Have you always had County Fairs in your life?
Do you always enter things or not so much?
What is you favorite thing about your County Fair? Memory?
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