A Whole Lotta Happy

That's this year's State Fair quip. I got two days worth this year (after not having been to the State Fair in about 20 years). On Wednesday, Laura and I observed the quilt judging (well, we helped a bit too. It's hard to just stand there for 6.5 hours).

There were 107 quilts in the running this year. Here's a few waiting to be judged.



Here are the ribbons waiting to be hung.


Two of the judges and one candidate take a look at this very sweet pink elephant quilt.


And, y'all, this quilt was incredible. It's inked not applique (inklique, if you will) and exquisitely machine quilted. I later found out the maker (and quilter) is a lady some of my buddies here are hiring to do their quilting. Expensive but worth it.


Here are a couple detail pictures.


Here's Marcell checking out this very cool African-themed quilt. Is was drum-shaped.


A detail of a cute quilt using a discharge technique (maybe, I need more education on this). She attached the articles she used to make the faces as embellishments in the border. I thought of Karen when I saw this. Maybe she can teach me?


Okay. The big mystery of the day. No, it's not in the quilt category. It was a couple of tables over in the crocheting department. There were tables full of beautiful table cloths and afghans, etc. Then there was this cake.


Those are plastic eyeballs, worms and spiders embellishing the sides...and weird rubber ducks on top with the feathers. It had to have been a lot of work but yikes. Sometimes the card attached will give some incite on the origin of an item. All the card on this one said was that the duck with the green cape and SD on his chest was the Head Duck.

Huh.

On Thursday, I had to drive back to Raleigh to deliver my grant applications so Dave went with me. He's lived in NC all his life and had never been to the State Fair. It was opening day; therefore, it was cold and drizzly. Actually, it wasn't that bad. The cold wasn't obnoxious and the drizzle was only now and then. We covered most of the fairgrounds. They've changed things just a bit since the last time I was there so we missed a couple of things (like the poultry tent and the sheep and pigs) but the rest we saw. We didn't ride rides - one, too expensive and two, I'm not as brave as I used to be.

Here's what some of the quilts looked like set up in their display.

Back in the garden section, they have this guy on display. I remember reading somewhere that a design student from NC State took some orange barrels off the road somewhere and make this guy. He got in trouble for it too. (Stealing orange barrels is a crime I guess...kind of like picking the wildflowers from the highway medians. ) I'm guessing someone else thought it was funny, let him off the hook and decided to display his work at the fair. Personally, I think this guy is hysterical.
I thought this looked cool...but I'm still not getting on it.

I asked my husband what he thought of the State Fair, seeing it was his first time. "It's big" he says. "There's a lot of stuff" he says. "He liked walking around and seeing all the displays" he says. What made me happy about the fair? It was fun to see things that matter to people...things they are passionate about and proud of like their quilts, their pound cake, their photography, their blackberry jam, their entomology box, their cows, their pottery, their giant rabbit or even their wacky eyebally crocheted cake.