2009 Fair Results - Better Than Last Year, but Still One Head Scratcher

I found yesterday that the results of the fair judging are online - must be a new thing, and I have no idea when they put it up - last week, when it was done? No idea. At any rate, of the 11 entries I had, I managed to place 6 of them, four in 1st Place, two in 2nd Place! We went last night - it was just DH & I, as Big Kid was supposed to go to practice (and didn't find a ride), and Little Kid came home from school with a headache, and wasn't up to it. Which was actually okay, as we didn't have to spend time trying to force him to ride rides he is scared of, by himself no less, or listen to him whine about walking and looking at things :) Though I did have to listen to DH whining about food the whole time we were looking at the exhibits - can't wait to help those arteries harden up a little more, I guess....

At any rate, my winners were as follows: Halloween Fairy won 1st in the Other-Than-Christmas Holiday Craft of Any Kind - a really cool Halloween wreath was there last year.

This was the very first display area when we walked in. Then the hunt was on to find the rest of my stuff :) It was set up a little nicer this year, in that they had like items together - not sure if they were by category or subject matter, or both. They also had the individual alcoves blocked off - they should have done this every year. I wonder if something hanging up last year got broken by a fair goer? Probably. It made taking pictures harder.

The next one I found was my purple iris photo - it won first place in its category!!! I was complimented on it by the woman behind me in line on entry day, so I had high hopes for it :) There were a couple of 1st Place ribbons in the category, so I assume the judge couldn't pick one over the other, and awarded more than one (they can do that).


Then I found the photo I had of the soccer team lined up, waiting for their turns in a penalty kick tie breaker - it didn't place - but I'm not telling them until the season is over :)

Next was Christmas Corner; my set of 4 Dragon Dreams ornies won 2nd, just like the other set did last year - but at least this year, they were displayed much better! They lost out to a set of blown egg ornaments, one of which was really, really cool. My little Rosewood Manor ornie that got redone didn't place, but I didn't think it would, since I was too lazy to go back and try to fix that wonky seam where I closed up the opening after turning & stuffing.

Then I found the jewelry entries; my Autumn Cloisonne won 1st Place!! And the other two entries were almost identical pieces, which is really, really weird. They had to have been done by different people, as you can only enter once per category, and there's only 1 jewelry.

Next to the jewelry were my Autumn Mosaic Pillow, which won 1st place in the Miscellaneous Needlework category (they have nothing for cutwork of any kind), and Bouquet for Cheryl, which, like Fire Flower, got completely passed over.


You'll notice that these things are really just laying there, pretty much out in the open. There are signs everywhere to Please Do Not Touch, but you know, those aren't any more effective on adults than on kids :( As I was taking the picture, a woman walked over and picked up my pillow!!! Okay, she was showing the worked side to another lady in a wheelchair, but you know what? Don't touch the exhibits! If it had accidentally landed on the ground, I would have totally flipped out - for god's sake, we've had 20" of rain in the last couple of weeks, there is mud EVEYWHERE! I did mutter under my breath about not touching things, but I figured I'd better shut up, even though it was mine, dammit.

Now, the disappointment with Bouquet isn't the fact that it didn't place; the disappointment is in the fact that in it's category, only 1 ribbon was awarded. It went to a ginormous Monopoly Board that was done on 14ct aida - Bouquet was on 28ct something, so the two were in the same category. I saw the Monopoly Board when I took my entries in. The thing is just massive - at least 3' x 3'. The judging criteria is supposed to be 60% workmanship, and while the Monopoly Board really was pretty cool, there were a few very obvious boo boos in it, one of which should have been picked up easily enough by any non-stitcher who looked at it - in the outermost light blue-grey border, they either had a huge issue getting threads to lay right, or they changed dye-lots in their thread, so there was a section of 8-10 stitches in that border that looked totally wrong. The stitcher in me decided that on 14ct, they should have used 1 more strand of floss, especially on the black, and the two they did use weren't all laid very well consistently, making the coverage inconsistent. So, if this piece won on sheer size alone, okay - but why did Bouquet not merit a 2nd Place? I am not sure what other entries, if any, in this category there were; these two may have been it. But between the two, based on the actual criteria, mine was the clear-cut winner. And for the judge to decide to not award any other ribbons - that kind of smells like what we like to call home cookin' to me. Who do I have to buddy up with to get my damn samplers some recognition? Here's the Monopoly Board, which had to have a wall all it's own to hang on:


I then looked for my other two photos, The Woods & Dragonfly. Neither of them placed, either - I guess other folks don't dig dragonflies as much as I do - what's up with that?

And we thought we were done. The I remembered The Castle - see what happens when I throw something in last-minute? We looked and looked, and couldn't find it. From the online listing, I knew it had won 2nd place, but where did they put it? Finally, I walked over to the horticulture side, thinking a different perspective would help me spot it (in it's tiny 11 x 14, 2" frame). And there it was, on the back of one of the displays, all by itself, with a 6' table shoved up under it so you couldn't get close enough to see the metallic threads at all! I guess it didn't fit in with the way they were laying stuff out, so they just stuck it somewhere by itself :( At least the ribbon was showing, but if you didn't look at the horticulture side - and we rarely do - you would never have seen it - but that damn Monopoly Board gets a whole wall unto itself??? Again, I smell home cookin'.


Well, at any rate, not a bad showing, I guess - since I had more entries to help soften the blow of disappointment this year, I can live with the results. Still just stumped on the BfC category... There were so few needlework pieces entered, I guess I'm lucky they even have them at all. In the Fair 09 album, I did manage to take a picture of every piece of needlework I saw, including a few of the quilts; I did not include the afghans and all of that because they were too many, not laid out for photography, and to be honest, I didn't look at many of them - there are only so many neon & primary color things I can look at before my retinas hurt. Lots of pictures of the tigers and elephant, as well as things from the midway. Next year's special photo category is Americana - maybe one of these will be my entry :) And when I get my stuff picked up Sunday or Monday, I'll have $28 I didn't have before (which MIGHT cover my gas getting over there and back) - I'm buying a chart or two. no idea what one(s), but that's what i'm doing :)