Ready for the Fair

I finally made something out of those Dresden plates.  Well, I made two somethings--and I still have several plates left over, plus a ziploc bag full of blades.  Anywhoo, on to the finished products:

I used five of the smaller plates to make this table runner.  I was thinking about entering it in the Grange Fair this year, but my lack of patience won out.  I wanted to be finished with the binding, so I stitched in the ditch instead of hand-stitching.  I really feel like it should be hand-stitched to enter it in the fair.

But I really love it.  I love how pretty my table looks.  And I don't even mind that I've already spilt coffee on it, because I know it's the first of years' worth of spills that this table runner is going to see.

I used a thrifted sheet for the back.

Now that quilt?  I did hand stitch the binding on the back.  'Cause this one is going to the fair.

Let me be clear: there are mistakes in the quilt.  My free-motion quilting is full of irregular stitches and meandering straight lines.  And I harbor no delusions of this quilt's winning.  Believe me, I have seen the winners in years past, and they are magnificent.  I do this for fun. Last year when we walked into the exhibition hall, we saw my quilt on display, and the kids got all excited (I did too).  The Grange fair is quickly becoming the highlight of our August.  Now I have to start tweaking my cookie and cake entries!