First Timer in the County Fair Open Class!

This spring my friend Kate encouraged all of our fellow “Cotton Mill Stitchers” to enter a piece of work in the Jefferson County (IN) 4-H Fair Open Class. She is quite persuasive and gave each of us an instruction booklet with application. I intended to enter, but when I read the booklet and saw all of the possible categories of entry, I quite simple went down the rabbit hole. So many possibilities! I decided to enter five different categories to see how this thing went. I know my Mom would have said, “Don’t worry if you don’t win – at least you tried.” Being a tad more positive and thinking it was possible I might win something beyond the green participation ribbon, I girded my loins and jumped in!

To see what I entered (and why), and how I fared at the fair, please read on!

CATEGORY: Food Preservation, Jams & Jellies

Last winter, I made my first batch of traditional orange marmalade. It turned out great! I’d used navel oranges from the grocery in a recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, You Can Can. So when a friend gave me a 2 pound bag of clementines, I decided to make a different version – mandarin orange marmalade. The fruits were much smaller, and the peel-to-fruit ratio was much higher, but I decided I could figure that out. There was a lot more work involved, removing the heavy pith from the peel, and all the little “threads “on each segment of the clementine. Ugh. It took me about three times as long to prepare the fruit than using regular oranges, but I thought the flavor might be worth it! The resulting marmalade had a much brighter orange taste and was a little less bitter. Slow to set, the marmalade was still a tad loose when I turned it in. I can’t say that I liked it better than my original batch, but it was delicious and a great variation. Pretty sure I will try grapefruit marmalade somewhere down the road!

CATEGORY: Gardening, Small Vegetables

Last March, I had gone with my friend Hilary to the Indiana Flower and Patio Show in Indianapolis. I purchased a package of heirloom watermelon radish seeds from Circa Seeds. I planted them at the end of April and let them grow undisturbed after thinning. After I had decided on the four items I would enter in the fair, I happened to look at the pot of radishes growing on my breezeway, and thought, “Maybe I could enter those?” Five samples were required in the Small Vegetable category, so I pulled plants until I had four good sized bulbs.  The rest were pretty scrawny, but I included one of those to make my minimum number. Love the colorful center of these radishes!

CATEGORY: Handstitching

I love to needlepoint, and I’ve made several projects that were challenging and showcased a variety of stitches and embroidery embellishments. But rather than focus on technique, I decided to enter a project that was near and dear to my heart – an eyeglass case made from original paintings by two of my grandchildren. (This was a project I competed in 2022, but the fair allows you to submit projects completed within the last four years.) The kids had studied Claude Monet in their school art classes the previous year. Grandson Shay (grade 2) painted a frog on a lily pad, based on the book “Phillippe in Monet’s Garden”, and Granddaughter Bridget (grade 3) painted the bridge in Monet’s Garden. The most challenging part of this project was that the paintings were not the exact shape needed for the eyeglass case. Using photos I sent to the Art Needlepoint Company in Maine, they were able to digitally print the images on 18-mesh canvas, but there were areas above and below the printed images that were blank. I had to fill in those spaces with stitches similar to each child’s painting style. I really love how this turned out.

CATEGORY: Recyclables

This was by far the most involved project that I entered in the fair this year. I wanted to participate in the Bicentennial Celebration of the Marquis de Lafayette Farewell Tour, one stop of which was in Jeffersonville, Indiana in early May. Period clothing was encouraged, so I thought, “Why not! This will be fun!”

I decided to upcycle my 1972 wedding dress, using the skirt (with some additional new trim at the hem) and creating a new taffeta bodice to achieve a Regency period look. Sounds simple enough, but first I had to soak & wash the gown and remove all parts of the existing bodice before I could begin construction! I thought the outfit really needed a Spencerian jacket, so I bought a very inexpensive one on Amazon. I didn’t like the front ties – or the way it fit – so I removed the ties and overlapped the jacket front. Then I removed vintage ribbon work from an old shredded silk jacket and hand stitiched the flowers onto the redesigned jacket. Voila! I was ready to meet General Lafayette!

CATEGORY: Sewing, Accessories

I made a bonnet to wear with my 1820s Regency reenactment costume, so it seemed obvious to enter it in the fair as well! I purchased the Regency high crown straw bonnet online from Samson Historical. I found silk leaf stems and silk flowers at Hobby Lobby and sewed first the leaves, then the flowers to the “hat band” area. Using the embroidered tulle I’d used at the dress hem and on the sleeve edges, I hand stitched a gathered piece at the back of the neck and lined the inside of the brim. A wide blue satin ribbon tie completed the look!

And there you have it! Five entries = 1 Participation Ribbon, 2 Third Place Ribbons, 1 Second Place Ribbon, and 1 Category Champion Blue Ribbon! Woohoo!! And it was such fun seeing the projects of my friends, from knitting to photography to hand stitching to quilting – and ribbons from white to blue! Well done, everyone – Congratulations! Let’s all do this again, shall we?!