City Girl Goes to the County Fair

I went to my first county fair today. I thought the baby would like to see the animals and I was interested in the crafts. All they had today were these little cows and shaved sheep. The baby seemed to like the cows but was not impressed by the bald sheep. Oh, and there was a big white bull scratching himself on a fence. He only seemed to be restrained by some kind of leash - no fence or anything - so I got the hell out of there. I'm a city girl. My experience with animals is pretty much limited to squirrels, pigeons and ants. So I find most large, unrestrained animals alarming. It didn't seem to bother most of the kids running around there though. From their t-shirts I gathered they were Future Farmers of America, 4-H and that kind of thing. I'm glad those groups are still around. I wish more people would take advantage of locally grown food instead of the stuff that comes from God knows where to the mega stores. What's going to happen when all of our food is produced by big conglomerates?

I was also hoping for a big craft show. But they had all of the submissions in a weird room and you had to look through a glass to see them. So the quilts, were all folded up and way up high. I hate it when quilts are displayed folded up. Magazines do that too - drape them over stuff so you can't see the design. Spread that bad boy out so we can see it in all it's glory. The other problem with having the quilts behind glass was that you couldn't see the quilting. Hello, it's a quilt because it's quilted. So it was a little disappointing in that respect. On the other hand, I did have my first funnel cake.

On an unrelated note, I got a new book called "Painted Quilt: Paint and Print Techniques for Color on Quilts". It's a pretty cool book. The pictures are great and there is a lot of content. I especially like that it has ideas for your sketchbook. I actually keep several sketchbooks in different sizes and with different weights of paper. The heavier paper lets me use watercolor pencils and paint. I also use pencils, markers, and different types of pens. It seems the authors of this book understand how important it is to work in your sketchbook. I hope I can get some time soon to paint the fabric for my artichoke quilt. Maybe I can submit it to the county fair next year. As a quilt, or produce?