Labor Day weekend is our local Apple Festival, the biggest event of our year. For four days, we celebrate our county’s apple orchards. North Carolina is the 7th largest producer of apples in the US, and Henderson county provides 85% of the state’s production. Downtown is closed to traffic and set up with orchard booths and vendors. Downtown merchants dress their window displays with fun apple scenes. Dozens of varieties of apples as well as treats of every kind imaginable are for sale. The orchards open in mid-summer offering additional fun to patrons such as picking apples, hayrides and corn mazes. They continue to welcome visitors through early November. See more about the annual festival on my post It’s Apple Festival Time!
Of course, this time of year requires a new tablescape. I like to use apples as a transition to autumn. It is still too hot for pumpkins, but summer is ending. So I got out my apple dishes and my red ceramic basket and set a new table. So much of what I’ve used in the past has been donated to the thrift shop like my apple ramekins and napkin rings. I didn’t use them at any other time, so they were part of the downsizing I’m currently doing. Still, I have plenty of things left to make a fun table with an apple theme.
The place settings have red chargers with white stoneware dinner plates topped with my apple theme salad plates. Red napkins are held with wooded rings. Every day flatware, crystal water glasses and individual salt and pepper shakers complete the settings.
Two of the salad plates have little wrens, and two have just apples.
The red ceramic basket is sitting on my original design Apple Wool Penny rug from the Autumn Jubilee event in 2023. See the post for the tutorial and pattern. The basket is filled with faux apples. Sitting beside the basket are more faux apples, and the sliced apple salt and pepper shakers. I don’t use them for salt and pepper, only for decoration.
We’ll enjoy this table for a couple of weeks until the weather cools off a bit.
Now that we have the table set, let’s make some apple foods to go on it. Make a batch of my baked Apple Cake Donuts, recipe on the link. You’ll need a donut pan and I have two. I recommend the Wilton Gold Donut Pans, sold as a set of 2, as they are PFAS free. My recipe makes one dozen.
In 2019, my Shrimp Apple Bacon Salad Wraps won second place in the apple cooking contest at the Mountain State Fair.
In 2021, I won first place with my Spiced Apple Galette.
I won another first place in the Apple Cooking Contest in 2022 with my Apple Upside Down Cake.
I didn’t win in 2025, but everyone who has tried this cake says it should have. Moist and delicious with Caramel Latte frosting. Yum!! – Caramel Apple Cake
Brats and corn on the cob are usually on our Labor Day cookout menu.
Other than my Farmer’s Market quilt that has an apple block, the only sewing project I have with an apple theme is my Produce Bag made with an apple orchard theme fabric. I need to figure out a wall hanging for September next year that is apple themed. I thought about using this same fabric, but it is more of a spring time feel with apple blossoms.
September is National Sewing Month, and I’ll begin showing more of my quilting and sewing projects later this week. I worked on four quilts during August, and all were completed in time for the fair this year. I didn’t get my Cozy Fireside back from the magazine before registration ended, so it will go into next year’s competitions.
The heat wave is supposed to break tomorrow, and I hope it does. It is turn in day for the fair, so I will be taking all my entries in. Each entry gets an official fair tag that has to be attached to the item. There was a lot less space inside to tag the entries last year as they reduced the number of tables for entrants to use. So I’ll be doing that at my car instead this time, and it will be much more pleasant with a cooler day.
What are you working on this week? Do you have plans for National Sewing Month?
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Lots of Labor Day Weekend specials right now!! Thank you for using my links when you can, keeping obnoxious ads off this blog.
All Stabilizer packs, bolts and rolls are 35% off this Labor Day weekend at Sulky Threads! Check out the most popular items from 2026, new sale items, fun Halloween projects and get one of the last remaining Mystery Boxes Under the Sea.
Find Apple Theme fabrics, patterns and notions at Fat Quarter Shop!
Shop the new September Fat Quarter Shop specials! Take 20% off the Basic of the Month Shades by Riley Blake Designs, 30% Off the Notions of the Month by Clover and books of the month by Annie’s Attic. Take 30% off featured Patterns of the Month that are Jelly Roll Friendly! Then, check out Today’s Flash Sale and see the Precuts of the Week!! Check out the new holiday project bags by It’s Sew Emma. Pre-order the Limited Edition Christmas travel mug from Fat Quarter Shop. Modern red and teal on a pink background, it has cute motifs with the look of a vintage quilt. And check out the new CLEARANCE AND CLOSE OUTS page. Find Moda’s Quail Run fabrics to make Cozy Fireside at FQS.
New items on sale at Milk Street, check out the Special Sale Page with deep discounts on kitchenware and cookbooks. See the new Hammered Carbon Steel Skillet.
Electric Quilt Labor Day Sale! Sitewide Sale 20% off at ElectricQuilt.com. September 4-8 with Promo code: SEPTEMBER. Check out the super sale on slightly flawed printable fabric. Excludes EQ for You Starter Box, EQ classes, and EQ Membership. Now is a great time to get the expanded Block Base!
My design called Cozy Fireside just published in Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting Fall 2026 issue!! Click on the link to get the digital version of the magazine for just $5 right now. The print version will be available next week. The fabrics are from Moda’s Quail Run line. I am now an affiliate for Golden Peak Media, so purchases may give me a small commission to help with the costs of writing this blog. Plus, this Labor Day weekend, get amazing savings on your favorite magazines like Love of Quilting, McCalls Quilting, Quilting Arts, and Quiltmaker magazine, one year print subscriptions are just $19.95 until Monday at QuiltingDaily.com. Video downloads are discounted this weekend too.
AND, get my Freedom Waves Pattern published this summer in McCalls Quilting for just $4, that’s half off!
From My Carolina Home 
Apples are a great transition into fall. However with our temps near the 100’s, it is still feels like summer. I love your fall tablescape celebrating apple season in your area. I missed your posts while you took a break. Happy September!
Congrats! On your idea being published!
That’s a wonderful table! Your festival sounds fun. Our apples are just coming in and looking forward to my next visit to the market. Love your centerpiece — that basket is perfect for your apples! All the recipes sound delicious. Fingers are crossed for more fair wins this year!
Apples are such a fall flavor, and your table scapes are perfect to celebrate your town’s festival! We have two apple tress now, a honey crisp that may actually give us an apple or two next year, and a pink lady we planted early this summer. It has done very well so far, and we are hoping it grows quickly and gives us a bit of shade in the next few years, (as well as apples).
That apple festival always sounds like a neat event! I love your apple-themed tablescape, too, Carole. Although I ready for fall temperatures, I’m not quite ready for fall decorating yet, so I think apples are a good transition into it. Good luck at the fair!