State Fair

Warning - this is a post full of pictures from the state fair! 

I had to go and see my first-ever entry.  I entered this tatted doily in the state fair after receiving a blue AND a sweepstakes ribbon at the county fair. I received a second place ribbon at the state fair - pretty fun for the first time trying!

I wanted to see what the other entries were.  There are not many tatters in my area, but I know they are out there!  The entries were gorgeous, though few.  The categories in the Minnesota State Fair are 1) Tatting, clothing accessory; 2) Tatting, ornament; and 3) Tatting, other.  These categories are under Handcrafts - weaving, knotting, felting, and caning. The main thing I noticed here is that most entries were white or cream in color.

I have no idea why my doily took second place over that top one - it is as gorgeous as the first place one.

An edging took first place in the clothing accessory lot:

 and earrings took 2nd place:

First place ornament:

 And some other tatting I found was in the quilting.  These blocks appear to all be old hankies with tatted edges:

The other place to enter tatting is under Needlecrafts - lunch and dinner cloths and table runners and centerpieces, judged with crochet and knitting. This is where I originally saw the only place to enter tatting - but figured out where my entry belonged at the last minute. This is the only tatted piece I saw in this category - large and beautiful!

Most everything at the Minnesota State Fair revolves around FOOD!  I enjoyed apple cider from Minnesota grown apples, garlic fries, deep fried cheese curds, deep fried dill pickles, shrimp cocktail, and a mojito :)  Yum.  Enough grease to make my heart hurt from grease clogged arteries!


We have everything (not just food, but mostly food) "ON-A-STICK".  Some of it sounds weird, but most of it is funny, creative marketing.  Do other state fairs do this?  I had to take photos and make a collage - it was fun to take pictures of every sign of food "on-a-stick" I saw, and these are definitely not all of them!

Other things "on-a-stick" - a quilt on a stick competition with a theme each year:

and this cracked me up:

(OK, so I have a weird sense of humor.)

 
It was a great day for the fair!  It was sunny and unusually COOL.  Last Sunday, the high temperature was in the upper 90's and uncomfortably humid.  Yesterday, the high was only about 68!  Only in the midwest do we deal with these kind of temperature fluctuations - 30 degrees different within one week.  (Even within one day sometimes!) 


Edited to add:  Oh yeah - and check out this scarecrow contest at the fair!

The fair signals the END of summer in Minnesota.  Labor Day weekend is the last getaway to cabins, camping and family weekends before school starts on Tuesday.  I love this time of year and the cool weather it brings.  Not looking forward to snow yet, but cool, fall days are most welcome!