That time I won a blue ribbon at the fair

A few weeks ago I read a blog post about why we, modern quilters, should enter more quilts in the local fairs. It was a great post and I really wish I had pinned it because of course I cannot find it now.  [Update: it was this post from Right Sides Together] Anyhow, it inspired me to look up a few of the local fairs around where I live. It just so happened that the deadline for the one closest to me, the Evergreen State Fair, was just a few days later so I went for it.

I ended up submitting 2 quilts and a bag. The first, Crossknot, came from a pattern by Aria Lane. It was the first quilt where I have free motion quilted the whole thing, and also conveniently worked for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's binary show last January.

Today was the last day of the fair and the first day I've actually been able to go. It was pretty cool to walk into the sewing building and have this be one of the first things I see.

And that ribbon! First place in my category - though, to be fair, it may have been the only one in the category. As I looked around, there was a ribbon on everything. Womp, womp. But still - first place for me! 

As I turned around, I saw my mini quilt that I had made for a contest a few months ago with Timeless Treasures and Dear Stella. Another blue ribbon! LOL.

There were several quilts there to see, in all different styles.

There was one other item I took as long as I was making the drive out to the fair, my purple and grey cargo duffle (in the lower right of the picture). There were no winners for that category so everyone got a participation ribbon. It's quite a variety of styles.

After the sewing stuff, we checked out some delicious fair food (a foot of bacon drizzled with peanut butter and chocolate!!) and some cute animals before calling it a day. Oh, and a few other fun things like the hamster-like balls on water. I would TOTALLY go on those if they were bigger!