Every summer the craft barn at the county fair fills up with the best work in town: quilts hung from the rafters, jars of pickles in neat rows, and a judge with a clipboard trying very hard not to play favorites. Resting Stitch Face Crafts is our own entry table, a mix of designs that celebrate the making itself, from the tools on the table to the faces we pull while using them. The judges have finished their rounds. Here are the ribbons.
Blue ribbon: heirloom category
Grandma's Studio wins it going away, a heart drawn from everything that lived in her sewing room: a vintage machine, a stack of folded fabric, pieced star blocks, a pincushion, a rotary cutter and a long ruler, all traced in fine white line work. Seeds of Stitches takes a close second, an antique machine with sunflowers blooming right up through the fabric at its feet. Boho Stitches rounds out the category with a vintage machine framed in an ornate mandala of rust and gold, patient as a doily.
Red ribbon: most daring entry
Exploding Patches sets a spool of thread at the center of a burst of flying fabric squares, the moment a stash finally breaks free. Prick Poke Pin Cushion hands a red polka dot pincushion a full comic book fight, complete with bursts that read Prick, Poke and Ouch. Quilting is My Cardio spirals spools of every color into a dizzy loop, which the judges agreed counts as exercise.
Honorable mentions from the crowd
F-CAW-F now comes in color, the black crow spreading its wings over a vintage machine and a bright patchwork quilt, with a tomato pincushion close at hand. Cheeky is a round patchwork face with button-bright eyes and rosy cheeks, clearly pleased with her own seams. In My Quilt Lady Era returned for another year in its letters cut from mismatched prints, and a caribou badge from Kobuk Valley National Park, stitching in Arctic light, won the prize for the farthest-traveled entry. The Quilteontologist lines were spotted near the judges' table, explaining that seam ripping really does go faster after a glass of wine.
For the quilter who enters every category
These are for the friend who has a ribbon or two pinned inside her sewing room door, the guild member who talked the whole group into entering the fair, and every maker who believes the process is half the fun. Let her pick the design that would win her vote. And if the judges ever pass over her quilt, she already knows the truth every quilter learns eventually: the real prize is the funnel cake on the way home.
Written by Judy. Thanks for reading.
