Oregon State Fair

My quilting buddy Pat and I headed down to the Oregon State Fair yesterday. It was a perfect day for it. We drove down to Salem, about an hour south, and had breakfast first. Then, we went to the fair. Fortunately, everything we were interested in was housed in one large expo center, and so we didn't have to do a lot of walking. So I'll just get right to it!  I have lots of pictures!

When we walked through the main door of the building, the quilts were off to the right, and so we headed in that direction first. The most prestigious ribbon winners were the first quilts we saw. This one won for Best of Show (or Judge's Choice...or something big like that...can't remember what it was exactly). The quilting was really fantastic.

I've seen these vegetable cat blocks on sale individually, but I really liked how this quilter had pieced them together.

I've seen this embroidery motif...I might even have it in my collection...and I liked how it was pieced with these traditional blocks. They were labeled, and most of them represented states in some way.

Love this colorful Elsie the Cow.

We turned the corner from this first walk of quilts, and what do you suppose we saw waaaaaaay down there in the corner?

What a delight to see my own quilt with its pretty red ribbon.

It was hard to get a handle on how the quilts were judged or what the judges were looking for. There was almost no information on the ribbons or quilts themselves beyond Division, Lot and Level of experience. Some quilts that were sort of so-so (in our opinion) were pinned with blue ribbons, while quilts that seemed more impressive went begging. Not knowing more than just numbers of divisions, lots, and levels made it hard to know what the judges liked or didn't like. I'm hoping that when I pick up my quilt, it will have more information.

But I digress. On with the show. This next quilt was was fabulous for its details and embellishments.

These next two images are for you, Padsworth.

I loved the dimension and texture on this next quilt.

This next quilt was elaborately machine embroidered and embellished with hot fix crystals.

Pat and I had to agree that this was a very brave quilter to take on all of that machine embroidering using metallic thread. S/he deserves a blue ribbon for perseverance, if for nothing else.

I liked these wonky houses with their wonky traditional blocks.

Some of the quilts were hung way up high, which made them hard to see and photograph. Still, look at the piecing in this next one.

Someday I would like to try a Baltimore Album quilt, but first I'd like to learn to do needleturn applique. Maybe I'll learn one Baltimore Album block at a time.

Here's another one for you, Padsworth.

Cute chickens.

Someday I'm going to make a chicken quilt just so that I can quilt chicken wire onto it.

Honestly...where do some people get their talent and patience? Especially, patience!

This next quilt was some sort of "Anne of Green Gables" challenge. I never read that book growing up, nor did I ever read Charlotte's Web. It might explain a lot about me. In any case, I still liked the quilt

and its details. Seeing this goat made me think of my brother-in-law who had some property that included an apple orchard. He and his wife were "earth muffin" types and they had chickens, goats, etc. running around on their property. The goats would steal the apples from the trees, and my sister-in-law would run after them to shoo them away. The goats knew precisely how much time they could spend in pursuit of apples before she would reach them, and they took every last second before running away from her. Naughty goats.

This next one was also excruciatingly detailed. Each little ripple in the water, and each little plank in the dock, and each little leaf was cut out and pieced individually. Amazing.

The quilt was three dimensional with a back and everything.

There were lots more quilts, but our eyes were just about full of quilts by this time. We sort of wandered around the rest of the exhibition hall and saw lots of things. These ladies were spinning thread. I've seen the woman on the left at the Portland Farmer's Market where she sets up a booth each Saturday.

Another woman spent quite a long time convincing us that we had the patience and temperament for bobbin lace (sorry I didn't take a picture), but neither of us was buying it. It was still fun to hear her explanation of how it was done. I explained that I would need to be in a quiet room with no distractions to be able to do it, and she said something like, "Oh no! You'll be sitting chatting with a group in no time at all." (Guffaw!) She seriously overestimated my ability to learn and to concentrate.

Here was another beautiful but tedious art...basket weaving with pine needles. Incredible, but not something I could ever have the patience to do. 

There was a display of crocheted and knitted items. Being a sucker for anything sock monkey, I loved this hat and doll.

Then we saw the cake decorating. Fabulous, although many of the cakes didn't really look edible. The frogs were well in attendance at the fair. Here's another one for you, Padsworth.

What mother hasn't seen this classic baby pose? (And may I just say that I seriously need a grandchild.)

So we'd had just about enough after wandering around for several hours. 

When I got home, I received the most wonderful package from a dear friend from high school. Marei (pronounced "Mary") and I were friends from about 7th grade on, as I recall, and even into our first two years of college. Although I don't remember this, Marei reminded me that when there was a football game, these "spirit ribbons" were on sale for kids to wear around school the week before the game. Our school colors were red, black, and white. Our mascot was a panther. So Marei put together this little mug rug/doll quilt for me made up from spirit ribbons she's kept all these years!  Not that Marei and I are that old, you understand.

She sewed the ribbons to the fabric using a zigzag stitch, but I was hard pressed to tell where the ribbon ends and the fabric begins. It feels like a solid piece of fabric. And I love the way she quilted it.

It came with this pieced card. So cute.

Thank you, Marei. What a thrill!

So today I'm all back to what passes for normal, although after seeing my quilt with a ribbon, I'm suffering from a bad case of a swelled head. Maybe "suffering" is too strong a word. It's the kind of "suffering" one might experience after winning the lottery. In any case, it's the highlight of the month, if not the entire year.

I have a few little things to do today. I need to do a little bit of housework and I need to check the tomatoes and the plums. The poor birds haven't been fed in days. It's been raining here off and on, but mostly at night. It means I don't have to water the plants, but I never like trudging out into the grassy field when its been raining and the grass is wet.

Smitty is positively despondent over the change in the weather. He loves being outside, but he doesn't like getting his feet wet. Ugh.

Nothing to do but stay inside and kill his friend, feather boa on a stick, over and over again.

(It's not actually a feather boa. I just don't know what else to call it. It's his favorite toy. He alternates between humping it or killing it.)

Also, I finished up the last of the embroidery on the Wonky Houses wallhanging. Next week I'm going to sandwich and quilt it. It's a small piece, and so it won't take long.

Then this afternoon, I'm going to get started on my August NewFO. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. You would never do that, would you? I'm going to start on the first block for the Wind in the Whiskers BOM.

I'll be starting with the center of the quilt...the block with the clothesline in it. It extends to where the tree trunk is and then to the left where the cat is hanging on the boxer shorts on the clothesline. Some of the applique pieces overlap other blocks, and you can see that the clothesline extends through the three center blocks. (That is added when the quilt is completely finished). I was looking at the pattern last night, and this will definitely be the most difficult and complicated applique I've ever attempted. I seriously hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

So that's it from this end today. I hope you have a great Thursday.