Thursday, September 4, 2014

State Fair Ribbons

I used to compete in my county and state fairs and I have a pile of ribbons to prove it. I Competed in the Washington county fair for seven years - 2006 to 2012, and the Minnesota State Fair for five years - 2008 to 2012.
It's a crazy big pile. I really enjoyed being in the fairs, but after a while I found that I was stitching what I thought would place well not necessarily what I wanted to stitch. To be honest, when I started designing and teaching professionally and could not compete in the fairs anymore it felt good to stop.

I thought that I was done with ribbons, but to my great surprise my designs won blue ribbons in two state fairs this year. So I kind of won ribbons by proxy. :-)
Mary C won a blue ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair with my Interchangeable diamonds series. She worked all three charts and had them framed together as a triptych. She does such beautiful work!
Donna F won a blue ribbon and a special award (yellow rosette) with the Flowering Lotus Box at the Maryland State Fair. Donna is a fantastic needleworker!

This makes me ridiculously happy. I think this must be what a proud grandparent feels like.