Ranfurly Fair Entries

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

1 Corinthians 9:24,25

Three months later, I finally realized that I hadn't blogged anything about the Ranfurly Fair back on August 8. It had been 5 years, I think, since the last time I had entered any of my craft projects in the local fairs. Last year, I considered it, but then we ended up with the Corona virus pandemic interfering with everything. This year, while I may not have agreed with the decision, the premier of Alberta decided that we were "open for the summer." Some events proceeded and others did not, and I determined to enter some items in the Ranfurly Fair. I also considered entering some in the Innisfree Fair, but then decided to take my daughter and grandson on a quick trip to Drumheller, and we set out on the day of the Innisfree Fair.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have probably commented before that I find the small local fairs quite generous with their ribbons, and often they will award more than one first, second or third place ribbon in each category. I wanted to explain that when I say that I won either a first or second place ribbon on each item I entered. 

In the Quilting Class, in the Table Runner category, I was awarded a 1st for On Guard For Thee, 

another first for Work Zone in the Baby Quilt category, 

a second for Fiesta in the Lap Quilt category, 

a first for Audacious in the large quilt category, 

and a second for Celtic Ballad in the wallhanging category. 

In the Knitting class, I won a first for Lavender Rhapsody in the afghan category. 

In the Crocheting class, I won a second for Mistletoe and Lace in the afghan category (Because I consider this a rather non-descript afghan, I was actually trying to finish the Circles Throw to enter it, but didn't quite make it. It will likely be entered next year). 

I won a first for the Daffodil dishcloth 

and a second for this bowl cozy in the Other Crocheted Item category. 

Finally, in the Christmas section, Christmas Tree Skirt class, I won a first for Blue Christmas, 

and another first for Country Christmas in the Table Runner class. (This is the centre runner of a set of three, so I can still enter one of the side runners in next year's fair, since they are not identical). 

An interesting note is that On Guard for Thee, Fiesta and Audacious have each been entered in other contests, without placing at all. And that's the difficulty of most contests - there is usually only one grand prize, one gold medal, one first place...

But that's not true in the game of life. While my quilts may never be good enough to even be entered in Quilt Canada's Juried Quilt Show, and I certainly will never be an Olympic athlete, everyone of us can strive for the "incorruptible prize" mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the Bible text at the beginning of this post. That prize is eternal life, and it's already been won for you and me by our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16

You may never win a prize in a fair, contest or challenge, but none of us needs to be a loser in the game of life. 

Another Fair, More Ribbons

At the next country fair in our area, I entered even more items than at the previous one and brought home 6 red (firsts) and 3 blues (seconds). Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, which is too bad because they had the larger quilts displayed nicely at the fair. I took these photos at home afterwards. 
The Florence Nightingale quilt and So You Think You Can Quilt both took red ribbons again,

while this time the Scrappy Shine quilt and the Firecracker Throw got reds as well. They both placed second in the previous fair. 

There was a Paper Pieced class at this fair, so I also entered the Dreamweaver Quilt 

which was awarded a blue ribbon.

I entered two different cowls in this show, the two dropped stitch cowls. The knitted one took a blue ribbon

and the crocheted one was awarded a red. 

In the Small Crocheted Article, I entered my Argyle Crochet Pot Holder, which won a red ribbon.

And finally I decided to include my first attempt at an acrylic painting (outside of the practice ones I did in class). 

Surprisingly, my Painted Trillium won a second. 

That's it for fair season this year. Now that the "fair bug" has bitten, I intend to plan better for next year's fairs. 

My First Fair Entries

This is my last day of vacation. During my vacation, my daughter and I took Damian to the local fair. It was kind of a bust for a toddler, not quite 3 years old. Most of the rides are too advanced for him. And the bouncy castle had too many bigger kids in it for it to be safe for him. The petting zoo had so many other kids that Damian found it overwhelming. And the bench show was rather disappointing for me as well. Only 4 quilted items total, all of which were small items. No large quilts.There was only one knitted afghan which was barely baby size, no crocheted afghan, and a few smaller items in those categories. And that for a town of 6000 with the largest fair in the area. It got me to thinking about entering some of my projects. 
I first started thinking about entering my projects many years ago when I was still living in London, Ontario. While visiting the Western Fair, I noticed a cake that had won a ribbon that was just covered with stars (different colours, according to the desired design), which is one of the simplest ways to decorate a cake. And I knew I could do better than that as I was into cake decorating at that time. However, I never followed up. Then, when my daughter was younger and we were living in Alberta, I helped her enter several projects in the local fairs. It seems almost every little community in rural Alberta has a fair or rodeo. So my daughter entered in the bigger fair in town, and a couple of smaller fairs in other communities. 
After seeing the rather dismal display at the local fair, I remembered that the two other area fairs were around the same time as our fair. And decided to investigate. Sure enough, today was the one in the small hamlet and this coming Wednesday is the one in a nearby village. Since I had never entered anything in a fair before, I had a collection of projects that qualified to enter. (You cannot enter the same item in the same fair more than once). I managed to come up with 7 items to enter: a large quilt, a crib quilt, a small quilted article, a knitted article not listed (cowl), crocheted doll clothes, crocheted afghan, and a crocheted item not listed (another cowl). And I brought home a ribbon for each one!
You may remember that I have said before that I do not make "show quality" quilts, so I did not expect to win much, if anything for my quilts. However, entering a quilt in a quilt show and entering one in a local country fair are not the same thing. 
Here's the rundown of my ribbons, just note that red ribbons are first place in Canada and blue ribbons are second place. 
The Florence Nightingale qult 

won first place in the Large Quilt class.

The Scrappy Shine quilt

won second place in the crib quilt class.

So You Think You Can Quilt

won first place in the Small Quilted Article class.

Candi's Checked Cowl

won first place in the Other Knitted Article Not Listed class.

My toilet paper doll won first place in the Crocheted Doll Clothes class (second place winner in the background).

The Firecracker Throw

won second place in the Crocheted Afghan class (first place in background, third place on the left).

And the Twisted Cowl

won second place in the Other Crocheted Article Not listed class (seen here in the background with the first place item in the foreground).

On Wednesday, I will enter some items in the next fair. I haven't decided if I'll enter all of the same items or not. I have other cowls that could be entered that I will not have the opportunity to enter again as they will be given away at Christmas. 

This was fun. There was more competition in this small fair than there would have been had I entered the one in town. And I earned a little money, too, as there are small cash prizes along with the ribbons. Next year, I will likely have entries in all three fairs, but I might be competing against my daughter as she is resuming her hobbies of quilting and crocheting. And that will make me proud. And I intend for my grandson to begin his fair entries as well.