Oregon State Fair

My friend Sue and I met for lunch today, and then we headed down to the Oregon State Fair. We spent most of our time with the quilts, although we did wander around the animal pavilions for a little while too. Sue wanted to see the piglets. It doesn't seem possible to have a fair without piglets, but this one had none. Sue was terribly disappointed. We did see some fanciful critters, however. I'll say more about that in a bit. For now...on to the quilts.

Sue and I both liked this one really well. It is iconic images from our state capital of Salem, where the state fair is held. Sue lived in Salem for a while earlier in life, and so she recognized some of these images, while most were unfamiliar to me.

At the top is our state capitol building. Our state capitol building has a golden pioneer on top of its dome. Below that is the "old mill" as Sue put it. The details were wonderful in this quilt. In the image below is an osprey with a fish in its talons

and we liked the use of this doily on the church.

Would you believe this next one...approximately king sized...was hand cross-stitched and hand quilted?

Just so you know I'm not kidding, here is a close-up of one of the stars.

And what about this next one. Is this called a feathered star?

Beautiful quilting. It was machine quilted, but I thought it might have been done free hand.

This little owl was interesting...

with its 3-D tummy.

This next one was one of my favorites.

And who's old enough to remember the Purple People Eater? We happened to be standing next to a man about our age who was explaining the song to the younger woman (a daughter, perhaps?) with him. She hadn't ever heard of the Purple People Eater. Such a pity. The man and Sue and I sang a chorus for her.

Not old enough to remember the Purple People Eater? Shut up.

This next one is for you, Padsworth.

This next one was another of my favorites. Machine applique.

This next one is hand-applique and machine quilted.

Look at the details in the appliques.

And this next one is for you, Denise P., queen of cupcakes.

Cute quilting in the borders.

And look at those polka dot sprinkles.

Sue and I really loved the detail in this next one.

And if you can stand to see one more picture of my quilts, here you go. If not, just close your eyes, and keep scrolling.

It's so much fun to see my own quilts on display with the others. Winning some ribbons makes it taste even sweeter.

After that we wandered around a little bit. Of course, I had to take a picture of this counted cross-stitch cat.

The cakes always amaze me, but I often wonder if anyone would actually eat these cakes. And is there actually cake under all that frosting?

Here are some really cute cupcakes.

It's kind of hard not to reach in and grab one for a little snack, but we resisted.

After that, we wandered around the animal pavilions. When there were no piglets, we went and looked at the chickens. Some are so exotic. I'm thinking of this for my next hairstyle.

Sue was naughty and opened the door of this rabbit's cage. He was kind of a dalmatian rabbit, and he had the cutest black spots over both eyes.

Oh, and our day couldn't have been complete without the two of us acting like goof balls. It sort of made up for the sting of being old enough to remember the Purple People Eater.

Sue wanted to be Farmer of the Year.

So that was our day. It was fun! When we left the exposition center, a woman in a golf cart came by and offered us a ride to the parking lot, which was very much appreciated. It was a hot day, and we were tired.

I made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home to get a few things for dinner. Tomorrow will be a longer trip. Also tomorrow, I'm meeting with the woman who will be my lead instructor when I join the other instructors at the Coffee Creek Quilters next month. Also today I was signed up for the Department of Corrections training held the first Thursday of each month. I won't go until October, but in the meantime, they were kind enough to provide me with a 90-page pdf manual and pre-test that I need to complete before the training. Oy. In my spare time, right? I'll take it along on the trip and make my way through it during down time.

So with that, things are about to get ugly as we make last minute preparations for our Sunday departure. I still have two rounds to go with the canner. Tomorrow I'll be making one last batch of salsa, and if the plums ever ripen, I'm hoping to get in a batch of plum chutney. There's also laundry to do, including taking our big king-sized bedspread down to the laundromat where they have some heavy-duty washers that can accommodate something that large. And then there's packing! So I'm hoping to keep up with blogging the next couple of days, but it might be slim pickings if all I do is work on getting ready. In any case, the August NewFO Challenge and Giveaway will go live on August 31st (Sunday). Are you ready?

And if I don't blog before we leave, just know I'll be taking lots of pictures and blogging along the way while we're traveling. I hope you'll come along with us on this year's trip to the Great Lakes region.