A Trip to the Fair

Mike and I made our way down to Salem yesterday to see the quilts. Of course, it was fun seeing my own quilts there, but there were a lot of cute quilts in yesterday's show. Also, it was fun having Mike along for the first time. He's always been working on these days in the past. I think it was fun for him to see some of the techniques that don't usually make an appearance in my own sewing room.

For today, I have some photos of the quilts. Tomorrow I'll show you some of the other things we saw in other competition categories. Also, I wanted you to see this...the last carnival ride I ever subjected myself to when I was 18. Actually, I didn't even want to go on this ride, having sworn off carnival rides months earlier. But I was there with a date, and I wanted to be a good sport. It might actually have been the last time I gave in to the "good sport" mentality because this ride just about had me barfing before I was mercifully allowed off.

I give you "The Zipper."

If you've never seen or ridden The Zipper, congratulate yourself for your good sense. The cars spin around individually, and they are all on a belt that rotates around the whole ride. Then, for one final appeal to nausea, the whole shebang revolves around on an axis giving you a triple, um, opportunity to upchuck. Yes. That was my last carnival ride. Ever. Just looking at it makes me sick all over again.

Let's move on to the quilts, shall we? This one was hanging at the extreme left of the quilt exhibit on an outer wall. You know that I try not to get too invested in winning when I enter a quilt in a show, but I really wanted this one to win something.

Gingerbread Square was hanging a few quilts down.

I loved the colors in this next quilt. It was hanging right beside Snips and Snails.

Mike was quite taken with this next one. He'd never seen hand applique before, and this one was beautifully done. Incredibly tiny stitching and pretty fabrics.

This next one was hand quilted with the cutest detailing.

I like how she'd used the quilting to add detail and texture to the structures.

Some cute kitties.

Here's one for you woofie lovers.

This quilt had some nice work done with printing on fabric, and it's just a cute quilt to boot.

There was a civil war soldier inside the tent.

To the right of the tent were these details. The dog's ears are three dimensional.

Here's a cute idea. This quilt is made entirely with this woman's retired McDonald's uniform shirts.

Here's a combination t-shirt and machine embroidered quilt honoring the lowly Edsel.

This one gave me a chuckle. Very cute idea and nice work on the embellishing.

This next one won best of show and a slew of other ribbons. Fantastic work, machine quilted using the embroidery module of a domestic machine.

I briefly dabbled in machine embroidery a while back and I quilted a Downy Quilts for Kids using the embroidery module. I certainly didn't do anything as elaborate and beautiful as this.

We took a peek at the back and realized that this was a quilt-as-you-go quilt. The blocks were first quilted and then sewn together. It was impressive how well she was able to get them to match up.

Finally, there was this exhibit. It almost looks like a quilt the way it's hanging there.

I have a few more pictures to show you from the fair tomorrow. For now, I need to get a move on. I'm making an early trip to the grocery store because I have an early afternoon appointment for my monthly pedicure. We have a guest staying with us overnight, here for the memorial service of a friend from high school. I'm not going to the memorial service, since I haven't seen the friend in years, and I've never met his family. It'll be good to see our guest, even under such sad circumstances.