The weather has been absolutely beautiful the past couple of days, mid 70’s and sunny.  Perfect weather for the start of the Minnesota State Fair.  The first two days of the fair set attendance records for their respective days. After just three days, the attendance is over 500,000 – perhaps we may even surpass Texas this year!

On Friday, I went to the fair with a few friends.  It was a fun day.  Since my boys are grown, the past couple of years I have gone to the fair by myself, mainly to see the quilts and other crafts.  Of course, even with friends, the first place I went was to see the quilts.

This year, I entered my “Fractured Tree” quilt hoping that it might do well at the fair.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed to learn that the quilt did not ribbon this year.   Fortunately, it was displayed in a spot where it was easy to see.

Interestingly, this was the only quilt this year that I originally planned to enter in the fair even before making it.  The other quilts I made were not made with the fair in mind.

After making my son’s “Moonscape” quilt, I realized it was such a unique quilt that I thought I would enter it in the fair and see how well it might do.  I did receive a ribbon and look forward to reading the comments after the fair is over.

When I was finalizing the registration of these two quilts for the fair, I decided to include two other quilts. 

One of these was a shibori and hand painted wall quilt.  I will describe the technique used for this quilt in another blog. I was pleasantly pleased to see that this quilt received a blue ribbon! 

The other quilt was one that I was making for an acquaintance and finished sewing the binding on the day before I needed to drop it off at the fair. This quilt “Blended Cultures” was made to commemorate the birth of his first grandson.   I was really surprised to learn that this quilt also received a blue ribbon.  I am really glad I was able to complete it in time to enter it in the fair!

Sweepstakes Winner made by Mary Alsop. She has tremendous skill and is an award winner ever year.  In fact, she was the sweepstakes winner last year as well.

I’d love to meet her some day.

Some other quilts that caught my eye:

After a day of exploring the fair, I think my favorite spot was the Horticulture Building.  The flowers there were stunning!