This year was my first time ever I entered my crochet items into our county fair hobby contest. I had no idea how this contest works, what the judges will be looking for, and which items would be most interesting to them. I just decided to do it for fun. And to my huge surprise and pleasure, all of my items got ribbons!
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County and State fairs crafts and hobby contests are a great opportunity to show your talent and to share your interest with others. Every year my family attends the county fair and I love to spend some time looking at crafts, photography and kids creations. But I never even thought that my crochet creations could also be one day on display and even be winners!
This year I also didn’t even think about participating in the contest. But one day in my Facebook news feed popped up a post from some lady about our county crafts and hobby contest. And the days when you needed to bring your entries were the next two days!
As I love to crochet, I have a large number of crochet items – appliques, wall arts, scarfs, hats, clothes, toys, etc. I previously made them for myself and my family or for my blog.
It was very hard to choose which items to enter into the hobby contest. It took me a while to make a choice and finally, I decided to enter my Sunset Flame Scarf, Whale Coaster, Crafter Granny, Christmas heart ornament and my Maple Tree Wall art.
When you enter your items into the fair contest, you don’t know if you got a ribbon until the fair is open. In my case, I had to wait for 10 days.
When I came to the fair in 10 days, the first thing my family did was go to the hobby contest exposition. All winners were on display and when I saw one of my items with a blue ribbon I couldn’t believe it! But I was very excited! My husband and son started looking for my other entries and soon they found three more items, also with ribbons!
But we couldn’t find one last item. My husband said: “I can’t believe that this item didn’t get any award. It such a clever and beautiful design!” And then we noticed another display with the sign “Textile Exhibition of Excellence”. And my last item was there with a blue ribbon, a special award ribbon, and the division champion ribbon! I was so very happy and proud.
So, here are my entries to the fair hobby contest with links to the patterns:
My Christmas Heart ornament received the Pink ribbon and fourth premium in category “Holiday”. This Christmas heart is my own design and a free pattern is available on this website in Crochet Christmas Hearts post.
My Whale coaster received a Red ribbon and second premium in category “Coasters”.
This pattern is my own design as well. It was published in Happily Hooked Magazine, June 2019 issue. It is available for purchase in my Etsy store and in the Ravelry store.
My crochet wall art – Maple Tree received another Red ribbon and second premium in category “Other”. In the “Crochet Wall Art – Fall” blog post you can find out how I made this maple tree.
My Sunset Flame Scarf received the Blue ribbon and first premium in category “Original Item Designed by Exhibitor”.
This pattern is available on my website for free. It also was published in Happily Hooked Magazine, February 2019 issue.
And my final item, which received the blue ribbon, division champion ribbon, and the special award ribbon – is Crafter Granny! This crochet Crafter Granny is designed by Zhaya Design and a free pattern is available on ZhayaDesigns website and on Zhaya Designs on Ravelry.
It is such a clever idea to use a crochet Granny Doll as a craft organizer! Her hairdo serves as a pincushion, and her apron has many convenient pockets where you can put hooks, scissors, and stitch markers.
In my blog post – Crochet Crafter Granny Organizer you can find how I made it and which yarn I used.
Now I am looking forward to next year’s county fair! Now I know what to expect and what the judges are looking for. It also gave me a wonderful chance to share my craft and crochet passion with people in the area where I live.
I hope this article will inspire you as well to show your hobby and your talent at your local fair and, maybe, bring home a blue ribbon! But I think we all would agree that even items which do not win ribbons are often interesting to see and are a source of pride for those that made them.
With Love,
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Daisy BROMLOW says
Congratulations on All of your awards – I’ve always thought your patterns are blue star worthy .
GoldenLucyCrafts says
Thank you so much for your kind words!!!
Sandra L Allen says
I just love these and you should be proud to show them off!
During our state fair, I won Best in Division for a poem, a red for some tiny bottles, and a white for a recycled craft. Wish I could show you!
GoldenLucyCrafts says
That is wonderful! Congratulations! Maybe you can post pictures on your Facebook page and send me a link?
Crystal L Paul says
Thank you for sharing! I wanted to enter something into this year’s fair but as a newbie, wasn’t totally sure what to make or submit, and couldn’t recall from past years any examples other than clothing. This certainly helps!