This has to be my second favorite weekend of the year behind Thanksgiving!! Autumn is on the way, football season has started and the Mountain State Fair is in full swing! I get to bring out the fall quilts, change the wall hangings and get ready for the next three months of cooler weather, wearing sweaters, and seeing the leaves change to glorious color. Settle in with a cuppa for a long and picture heavy post! I hung the Welcome Pumpkin on the wall near the front door to start the change of seasons in decorating. I like these flat signs, and will look for a couple more for winter and spring so I can give away the half dozen wreaths taking up space in the basement.

This past week, the brutal heat has lessened a bit, with a wonderful day on Labor Day. It was overcast most of the day, and I like that, with the temperature only reaching 75ºF (23ºC). A lovely sunset is a rare treat, with clouds reflecting the evening sunlight.

In the garden, it was harvest time again. Lots of tomatoes ripening, and no more awful hornworms.

I came inside with a full basket, including two large stalks of basil. Bruschetta on the menu!

Cooler weather put me in the mood for baking, so I mixed up the batter and baked two loaves of my Pumpkin Orange Bread.

While the oven was hot, I baked a batch of garlic cheese biscuits from a Cheddar Bay mix. My Sweet Babboo caught the aroma of fresh baked goodies and snitched a biscuit before I got a photo of the tray. He loves these, especially warm from the oven.

While all that was going on, I sliced some apples and cooked them on the stove top. These were the first batch of an experimental recipe for the fair cooking contest. That one is next Saturday, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Before I cut it up, this apple was photographed a half dozen times. What for, you may ask? Well, I can’t tell you just yet, but soon!

Another lovely sunset.

I’ve only had one cooking contest at the fair so far, the others will come this week. The Tomato Recipe contest was Friday night. I decided to do a slow roasted tomato spread, which meant putting slices into the oven at 250º for four hours with a bulb of garlic. I got smarter this time and lined the baking sheet with parchment paper making cleanup much easier. When finished, squeeze the garlic from the paper bulb, mash and add to the tomatoes, chopping them up into small pieces. Add a bit of salt and pepper, and they are done.

I served the tomato spread on artisan bread toast rounds with whipped cream cheese topped with a basil leaf. Alas, not a winner. I have to tell you that what did win did not look appetizing to me. First place was a tomato layer cake with some kind of frosting and pecans. Second place was a cheesecake topped with green tomatoes cooked with brown sugar. It really didn’t look good (even the maker said so!), with brown lumpy goo on top of little muffin size cheesecakes, but it must have tasted good. Third place was a simple salsa.

In the exhibits competitions, I entered six quilts in Quilting, a purse set and a tote bag in Clothing, and five photographs. I did pretty well! I’ll show you some of those ribbons today. First, in photography, I won three ribbons. I got a first place in the category of Mountain State Fair photos from last year.

In Color Landscapes, I got a third place.

Then, in the Black and White Animals in Nature category, I got third place.

In Quilting, my custom quilted Christmas panel from last holiday’s season won second place in the Other Techniques – Wholecloth category.

Freedom Waves won third in bed size quilts. Competition is stiff in quilting, and the ribbons mean a lot.

In the Clothing category, my Lemon Embroidered purse with its two accessories of an embroidered cell phone case and sunglasses case won first place.

My embroidered tote bag with the large pocket and two embroidered sections won first place in Clothing Accessories Other, as well as Best in Show! I did get two additional ribbons, but I’ll save those for later. I want to show you the completion of the projects and then how they did. Later, I’ll show you more of the competition as some of the quilts were quite extraordinary!

Yesterday we did an Apple Orchard drive, dodging the rain, with our MINI club. We began at Justus Orchard, a wonderful orchard off the beaten path with beautiful, well maintained orchards, and a tap room with all kinds of ciders and ales.

Acres of apple trees in lots of different varieties were laden with ready to pick fruit.

They also had a gorgeous field of u-pick zinnias.

When we’d toured the orchards, bought some apples and fresh baked apple goods, got a burger at the food truck and enjoyed a cider, we got back in our cars for a short drive to Stepp Orchard. We didn’t stay long here, as we thought they had ice cream, but they did not. No one wanted to do the corn maze, so we drove into Hendersonville and got ice cream at Harry and Piggys.

Whew, a busy few days! Next week is more fair fun, and I’ll show you the quilting on Busy Bees, along with the finish on Fleur Lumineuse. Have a great weekend!

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Milk Street has some of their Cookbooks on Sale! Single year annuals with all the recipes from the TV show that year are on sale for just $10. The Season 9 Cookbook with over 700 recipes from all nine seasons of the show is almost half off!! My favorite one, World in a Skillet is also on sale for a limited time. Check out the Cookware and Kitchen Tools Sale as well. Start your holiday shopping with cookbooks for yourself or someone on your gift list.

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Shop Sulky.com for 20% off Tools and Supplies and 40% off Digital Products. Sale ends tonight at midnight!

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 from 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 including a bunch of newly added cross-stitch kits and patterns!