PA Farm Show, part 1

The Pennsylvania Farm show is kind of a big deal. There are no exact numbers but many thousands of people attend each year. Along with seeing all the animals and eating all the unhealthy fair-type food one of my favorite things is the “Family Living” section of the show. The Family Living Department is kind of like an old-type home economics program gone crazy. There are hundreds of different exhibition/competition categories. Everything from an apple pie to canned vegetables to quilts to woodworking to needlepoint. It is everything a crafter, especially one who tends to dabble in all sorts of crafts, could think of.

I am lucky enough to live maybe 2 miles from the Farm Show complex which makes entering “exhibits” into family living almost a no brainer for this crafter. I discovered such things were possible 4 years ago when I entered a single skein of yarn which was given an honorable mention. The year after that I entered 5 or 6 different items and netted some ribbons. Last year I was distracted by life and didn’t enter anything, so to make up for it this year I entered 14 items.

I branched out this year and entered some non-yarny things.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="427"] There is a greeting card contest and I thought it would be fun to try my hand at quilling again. It’s been a long time since I quilled anything but once upon a time my Mother and Aunt did some wonderful pieces. After wandering around the interwebs for inspiration I settled on making this funky little tree. It felt kinda like something a Who might have in a Dr Seuss story. And it got third place![/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Wait this project is actually yarny. But the category was Hobbies: Christmas Ornaments so it wasn’t a fiber category. It seemed like it must be a huge category. But when my friends and I visited we could never find where they were all displayed so I really have no idea what the other entries were like. I just know that this “sheep ball” that myself and so many others seem to enjoy also got a third place.[/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="427"] At the ninth hour, so after Christmas before the Farm Show deadlines. I whipped up this little cross stitch. It didn't win anything but I think it's absolutely delightful and it makes me want to do much more embroidery.[/caption]

 

I don’t consider myself to be a serious photographer but I do like to take pictures and some of them are even pretty nice (I hope). So I found five photographs that seemed to fit in the competition categories.

Domestic Animals:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Helo, who is actually dreadfully uncooperative when it comes to picture taking.[/caption]

Wild Animals:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Up-close to a giraffe while in Animal Kingdom.[/caption]

Portrait and Personality:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] I actually kind-of cheated here. I love this picture of Father from our Peru trip but it was actually taken in 2013 which is against the rules. Shhhhh.[/caption]

Scenic:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Love these flowers out in the spring along the Susquehanna. Although I do wish that daffodil was not quite so half dead.[/caption]

Still Life:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] And lastly we have yarn! This picture is kind of like the inception. I took a picture of yarn that I spun from fiber that I dyed from fleece that I processed myself. And holy moly it actually got an honorable mention. I’m probably most proud of this unexpected honor.[/caption]

 

Stay tuned in another day or two for the rest!