Judging At State Fair

What a weekend!  We spent Saturday working around the house doing all our weekend chores so that we'd have Sunday free to play.  Sunday was my family reunion here in Traer.  It was nice to see all the folks and get a chance to visit.   We always have a potluck dinner and the food is simply incredible!  I know there are people out there who poke fun at potluck or covered dish dinners.  I guarantee they've never been to one in Iowa!  Holy Cow!

After the reunion we threw our overnight bag into the car and headed to Des Moines to spend the night.  I was scheduled to judge quilts for the Iowa State Fair on Monday and it's a whole lot easier to spend the night in a motel near the fairgrounds than it is to get up at 3:30 in the morning and drive to Des Moines -- so that's what we did.  The categories are divided up and we start judging at 8 a.m.. We take short morning and afternoon breaks plus a very brief lunch and then we just keep judging until we're done.  This year we finished up at around 8:30 p.m.!  I believe we had a total of just under 800 pieces!  There were three of us judging and even though we move right along it still takes time to look over every piece and make comments.   We finally finished up around 8:30 p.m.   Even though I was absolutely exhausted it was, as usual, a wonderful day filled with beautiful quilts.

We took a few photos of the quilts as they were being hung.  Unfortunately, due to space limitations they can only show about 18" of each quilt.  The Blue Ribbon winners are exhibited separately and displayed fully in a separate area.  Please bear in mind that they still had a lot of quilts to hang when the photos were being taken. 

These photos may give you an idea of the talent and diversity within the quilting community here in Iowa.  There are so many talented quilters here -- both men and women -- and it never ceases to amaze me.  I'm truly blessed to be allowed to judge these entries and I truly thank every quilter who  entered a quilt in the Fair.