Tuesday night was the third cooking contest, this time with eggs. The rules specified a frittata, so I decided to make mine Mediterranean. It has Italian sausage, spinach, onion, garlic, mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes often add too much water to a recipe, so I had the idea of cutting cherry tomatoes in half and placing them cut side up on the top of the frittata. This worked well when I tested the idea on a quiche a month ago, so I went with it.

It did not place in the competition, but we ate almost half of it when we got home. My Sweet Babboo said it was good. The basic recipe is on my post Crustless Anything Quiche except that I made a full size one with 8 eggs and a half cup of milk.

In the exhibition hall, my final entries were found in the photography and clothing categories. I entered five photographs, and the one in Agriculture won a third place. It is interesting that the Best of Show ribbon I won in photography two years ago was also in agriculture. This time, my photo was of colorful peppers at my favorite farmer’s market produce stand on the south side of town, called Johnson Family Farms.

Since I haven’t been able to carry my Purse In A Day Project yet because it has been too warm to wear the sweater it goes with, I entered it in Clothing. The set won a third place ribbon.

That brings my exhibition total to 9 ribbons on 25 entries. So, as you can see, most of what I entered did not place, including my Japanese art quilt Yugana Tsuru. (On that one, I don’t think the amount of detail and handwork in that quilt is apparent on a cursory examination.) Competition was really fierce this year, with the crafts category rebounding hugely in number of entries compared to the previous two years. There were literally hundreds of entries in each of the divisions in the exhibition hall, in total probably well over two thousand, which makes each ribbon that much sweeter. Quilts were hung around the edge of the hall rather than in the middle.

I have permission from fellow guild member, Alice E, to show you her Best of Show Quilt. Her work is extraordinary, with this large bed size quilt having piecing and applique, miniature Dresden plates and tiny HSTs in the alternate blocks, and stunning needle turn work flower vases, custom quilted. Amazing, a real show stopper. Congratulations, Alice, well deserved!!

There are lots of food and agriculture divisions that I do not enter.

Photography competitions were on wire stands this year.

During the judging for the cooking contests, we take some time to enjoy the fair. We don’t do rides or games, but we do enjoy seeing some of the shows, like the Sea Lions.

A one-man musician, Leon Jacobs, is at the fair every year, and we like his show too.

We walk the midway area just to see what is there.

We watch people ride the crazy rides. I would never get on any of these.

I take a lot of photographs for next year’s photography competition as one of the categories is ‘last year’s fair’. We have to have at least one corn dog, too.

We go to the livestock area to see the babies. These little pigs were playing, tumbling and running around, so cute.

Baby chicks just hatched were exploring their new world.

On the egg incubator was a little barn quilt block.

Most years we manage to see at least one youth competition in livestock. This year, we were able to catch the final judging on goats. Most of them were loudly complaining about it. We could hear them “baaaa” from outside the arena.

It is a fun time of year, and feels like fall is beginning, my favorite time of year. I have more cooking competitions to go, and will share the last of the fair on Sunday. Then, next week, I have some great books to share with you for fall reading, and some other projects for National Sewing Month. I’m also working on projects for Autumn Jubilee coming in October. Never a dull moment around here.

What are you working on for fall?