Creativity at the County Fair

It's county fair week here in Hood River, Oregon which means it's crazy time. Animals were bathed, shaved, loaded and hauled and boys have been running to meet all the demands of a 4-H showman. Tonight we watched the first of several shows- the dairy cattle. Peter won a blue ribbon and reserve champion in the confirmation class for his Jersey heifer, Annabelle.

I also mosied over to the textile building to see the quilt show. There were so many fantastic quilts in the display! Such stellar artistic and technical quilters we have here.

       

             These are wall hangings from the "Lime Challenge" by the quilt guild (I recently joined). 

       

                              

                                                              Such beautiful appliqué work.

         

         

                                                               A sweet "sampler" quilt.

                                       

                                                                 So many perfect points!

           

                                        This quilt had such intricate patterns of machine quilting...

                                          

But my admiration diminished a bit when I learned that, indeed, the machine can be computer programmed to sew those patterns. It is not a "free motion" technique by the operator.

                                        

The majority of the quilts in this county fair show were machine quilted (which is typical for modern quilt  shows).

                                      

But, there were a number of lovely hand quilted quilts too. They deserve the highest admiration.

     

This spectacular quilt was hand appliquéd and hand quilted by a nice Lutheran lady I have known for many years. Long ago I visited her log home and saw her quilting room. She is a machine quilter also but her hand quilting abilities are masterful.

                                     

                                                Appliqué, embroidery and hand quilting.

                                       

                                      Just. Wow. (Notice those tiny yet perfect yellow circles!)

                                      

                                 What a clever and technically difficult use of quilting methods!

                                      

                              This is the group made quilt that is being raffled by the quilt guild.

                                      

                                     The center is this intricate design of appliquéd felt pieces.

         

                                         

What caught my eye on this quilt was the border- changing from light blues of bright daylight to the dark blues of night.

Oh, look! My humble quilt is among the master works. I entered it for fun to have it hang in a show before going to its final home.

                                     

I was not a bit surprised or disappointed that it got a third place white ribbon. That is because of my many non perfect points and corners. (I'm trying not to cringe at the idea of having local people closely examine them) 

I have many miles to go to make anything of the caliber of some of those quilts. There is always room to grow!