At our fair, they freely give out blue and red ribbons. It’s not a biggie to get a blue ribbon.

However, when Rachael excitedly gold me I got a real ribbon - the best of the blues - for my Mercantile quilt - I was astonished! They call it the Grand Champion. :)

I guess the judges just liked it.

No, they don’t know me. I don’t know them. I wasn’t around when they were being judged and Rachael didn’t utter a peep. They were some ladies from a city north of here.

Rachael overheard them talking, however, and they were amazed that apparently “she didn’t cut off any of her points!” I had to smile. Most of those points on the appliqued blocks would not be cut off because the whole block was floating and you trim it into the round block. But maybe they were looking at the triangles closer to the center. Since HST and I aren’t good friends, I appreciate the affirmation.

I know that this kind of judging is apparently personal preference, and they must have preferred this kind of piecing to the amazing paper piecing that was in the show as well. I would have given either appliqued or paper piecing first place, but come to think of it, at least the applique quilts were in a different category.

My cross stitch got a second place (Reserve Grand Champion) in the cross stitch category. I think this is where Rachael broke down and told them to not give me the top prize again. I was just putting my stuff in the fair to help round out the number of items. A real prize didn’t even occur to me!

I am aware that our fair is quite small and while it is nice, probably in a big fair like the Florida State Fair I wouldn’t get anything if I could get things accepted at all. But that’s okay. This is where we are and these are “my people". I’m delighted. To be honest, I don’t really care - as people who care would have thought about it when submitting it.

But it was a nice surprise.

When we were out, I heard my phone going beep, beep, etc. like Rachael was sending me messages, but we were at a dinner with people from the church we were visiting, if I remember right, and I didn’t interrupt that to check my phone.

But I do like my cross stitch, even if it is from 1995!!!

The submissions are supposed to be completed within the last 5 years, but overall, I think the most important thing is that it hasn’t been in the fair before. And this one hadn’t been submitted before so I got the okay to put it in the fair.

My other one got a blue ribbon. But they give blue ribbons like you can get an A on a test - and it’s not that only one person gets an “A” - everyone can get an “A” if it is well done.

The best part is that I got them put back in mom’s house and I am not sure she even realized they were gone!! :)

Here is my other quilt hanging up, as well.

Now that this is over, I will go back and show pictures of Collura Cottage - where they set up all the things we had submitted in the quilts, and other handcrafted categories. I got a lot of pictures!!

And thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this.

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Feel free to browse the site.