Having two year’s worth of projects to choose from meant lots of entries into the Mountain State Fair. I had to go back twice to the expo building to find them all! During the cooking contests, we had about an hour each time to enjoy the shows and exhibits, see the Moo-ternity ward’s newborn calves, little pigs and baby chicks. Many of the entries did not place, but a few more ribbons were discovered. I ran out of quilting categories to enter, so many quilted items were put into crafts in various categories. In the expo building, the quilt entries are hung from the ceiling, while the crafting categories go on the lattice and tables below. That’s the Autumn Jubilee quilt from last year on the top with the pumpkins sporting its third place ribbon.
My leaf panel quilt won second place in senior quilted items.
One more stunning discovery came as I was doing the hunt for my projects. The 12 placemats I made from the Lori Holt book Vintage Christmas were put into the table linens category. I put them on hangers so they could be displayed on the lattice. They not only won a first for the category, but a Best Of Show for the crafts division!!
At the last moment, I decided to add my Kitchen Wreath to the entries in the wreaths category. It won a second place ribbon.
The embroidered wall hanging took home a first in machine embroidered projects.
The Eggs For Dinner cooking competition was fierce. I made a steamed egg on mushroom ricotta pasta garnished with bacon and fresh parsley from my garden. I hoped for presentation points with my individual servings. But, I think the recipe was just too fussy for the judges. The winner was a frittata, and second place was a quiche – essentially the same dish with and without a crust. My recipe just had too many steps, likely scoring low on ‘ease of preparation’, plus it didn’t travel well. But I learned a valuable lesson for future cooking competitions – make it easy and fast, and not so fancy. We enjoyed the leftovers at home.
In the blueberry contest, my Blueberry Parmesan Risotto with Shrimp didn’t place either. Now, I know this seems strange, but know that 50% of the score is “healthy”, and the rules specifically state that they are looking for things without added sugar – like cake and muffins. There were only three bites taken from the dish for three judges, so it apparently didn’t stand a chance. You just never know what the judges will look for. The winning dish was a blueberry salsa.
Back to the crafts category, in the hand embroidered category, my Roll With It project earned a third place.
My wool applique table runner from last year’s Autumn Jubilee won a third place. For this pattern, click on the Autumn Jubilee category on the sidebar, and look for the posts with wool applique.
In the middle of the expo building, the produce competition had lots of veggies, and a 405 pound pumpkin! The jewelry competition is displayed in locked cases, with the photography competition behind. More quilts hang from the ceiling in rows all the way to the back of the space.
I found the last photograph in the black and white nature category, thrilled to find a first place ribbon on it!!
My wholecloth dahlia quilt was the last entry I found, and it was sporting a red second place ribbon.
All in all a great year for the project competitions. I love the Mountain State Fair! Twilight came each evening, making the lights of the rides a magical sight. Crowds were smaller this year, but lots of people were enjoying the rides outside. We had a couple of corn dogs of course, and some fresh churned ice cream.
So, two more cooking competitions and a shift at the raffle quilt table for our guild are next before it is all done for the year. Are you going to your state or county fair this year?
From My Carolina Home 
Congratulations on your medals! I think both of your food submissions look very good.
congrats on your ribbons
Congratulations, Carole!
Congrats on all of your hard work! Love the way the quilt is glowing in the picture. I just finished quilting mine, now onto the binding!
Well Done!!!
Congratulations on winning those ribbons – you did some really beautiful sewing AND quilting 🙂
Way to go, Carole! Will any of these go into the state fair in Raleigh?
Mary Ed
Congrats on the additional ribbons! I chuckled at the egg and blueberry dish competitions – because it reminded me of a cooking competition my son did in his high school culinary class. Their last grade of the year was a competition kind of like iron chef – they had one hour to complete the dish, but could make whatever they wanted; teachers were selected as the judges. He made a fabulous roast tropical chicken breast with jalapeno strawberry salsa. He practiced it at home until he had it perfectly seasoned, precisely cooked, and beautifully plated. (We really enjoyed eating the practice plates, lol) On the day of the competition, he placed third: the first two places were super easy chocolate desserts that didn’t even have a pretense of beautiful presentation. He said he learned his lesson on that one: teachers love chocolate, lol. The grade wasn’t based on the judging, and he did get an A 🙂
Wonderful story!
Congratulations all around! Well done. My husband did Dutch Oven cooking competitions for many years. You never really know how it will all turn out.
Awesome showing and lots of fun too!
Congrats on all the wins! The California State Fair was cancelled this year so I haven’t been motivated to make anything for it.
You racked up a lot of honer. Congrats. Our state fair comes next month but I probably won’t be there. Back in our boys 4H days we were there a lot.
Congratulations on your many ribbons. Your dahlia quilt is my favorite. You are so very talented
Congratulations Carole. You are building up quite a collection of amazing ribbons for a variety of your creative talents. But best yet, all those whom you have inspired with your wonderful creations. I feel like I’ve almost attended a fair from virtually “stalking” you via your lovely blog. Just wish I could have enjoyed some good fair food! Maybe next year I can go to a fair. Either way, I look forward to seeing what you enter in your fair next year.
Congratulations on all your endeavors Carole! I do enjoy all your posts and have taken some ideas of yours and put them to good use. Love posts about your property and all your little wild friends.
How exciting for more of your wins. You are a very talented lady. Love the Christmas placemats. The black and white photograph is stunning.
More congratulations to you! Thanks for taking us to the fair, our county fair was cancelled & we rarely bother with the state event. We might visit the living history harvest fair if the weather is good.
Congratulations!!! However, if memory serves me, I think this is rather typical of you!!! They should give you a ribbon or something for have the MOST winners also! Thanks for sharing!
Good luck in your last cooking competitions. You did really well in the ribbon category! Yay! Congratulations.
What a great showing! You had lots of entries and lots of wins….all well deserved.
Most of our counties and state fair were cancelled this year. I haven’t competed since 4-H in high school. I remember it being frantic time getting everything labeled and boxed as we were expected to have 2 entries for every area you had chosen that year. In Cook County (Chicago) it was a lot different from Schaller Iowa! Not too much livestock left in Cook County. But you epitomized the ideal of The Fair. To share your beautiful work and wonderful food and recipes, to put yourself out there and share the arts and crafts and foods. Thank you for being such a great example to us.
AND Congratulations on so many ribbons. We are all so happy for you.
Congrats on all of the ribbons! They were well earned.
Way to go, Carole! You had an excellent showing and results!
Wow Carole, you won so many ribbons! I think your blueberry risotto and egg dish sound really good, you should post the recipes! Congrats!
Jenna
Congratulations on all of your ribbons!
Ours is held in May each year….. Much smaller then yours ……. But I do enjoy going….
Congratulations on your placings and winnings. It was wonderful to see all the quilts hanging there. Our gathering is called an Agricultural Show and it has been cancelled this year because of covid. Maybe next year. Yours certainly sounded and looked wonderful.
Congratulations on all of your ribbons. You do such good work!
Congratulations!!!!! That’s quite a few ribbons there, and I went back and read the first state fair post to see your other achievements. I miss county fairs, my area is too urban to have them. When I was living in Minnesota, we traveled around to several counties to go to the fair and I really loved the state fair. And fair food is pretty great, too!
Didn’t you do well! I loved seeing all your prize winning entries! This is from someone who has never won a ribbon in her life!
Congratulations on a banner year Carole! You did some beautiful work this year! Those cooking competitions can be such fun, but quite a conundrum too!
Congratulations!!! 🎊🎉🎈🍾 I always enjoy 😊 seeing your work. I think 🤔 there were more ribbons – next year I’ll try to keep a running tally for you as we hang. I was really pleased to see the number of quilts in the show as Bonnie was afraid there wouldn’t be many.
Congratulations Carole!!! You did great! So happy you got best of show! We went to the Missouri State Fair this year for the first time in over 20 years. They said the entries were way down this year but it was still fun to see everything. The three women in our group were inspired to enter something next year! It was a great time and of course we ate corn dogs; funnel cakes and homemade ice cream!
I can’t believe you ran out of quilts! But oh, three cheers, huzzah, congratulations, bravo and well done! I’m so impressed. An embarrassment of ribbons and well deserved. Love all the pieces you shared. That’s the best!
I hope the fair board commission appreciates the time and effort that you put in to supporting the craft division. It is hard work and very time consuming to prepare each item you enter not even taking into account the making of the entry, and then to round up and retrieve every entry once the fair is over. CONGRATULATIONS on your efforts and ribbon winnings and best wishes for full steam ahead for next years entries.
What a wonderful array of ribbons. Well done.