A "Wooly" fun day!

About a month ago I was asked to judge the State Make it with Wool contest. This contest is sponsored by the Utah Lamb Growers. I didn't ever think I would be asked to something like this. What a great and fun opportunity for me. I went up on Wednesday, Dec. 3 to the Sheraton Hotel in Salt Lake. There were 5 other judges besides me. I knew two of them, they are from here in Spanish Fork. Janeen Olsen, also from here is the chairman over this event. She is the one who extended this invitation to me. They are doing alot of remodeling in the Sheraton so we had to judge in one of the rooms closest to the Convention Room. These were tight quarters but we managed to do it. I was judging the Sr. and Adult division. Can I just tell you how impressed I was with the sewing abilities of these young girl's and men. There were some amazing outfits including coats and jackets, dresses and pants, and even western shirts. This bright pink jumper was adorable and she did a great job with it. She was a runner-up in the Sr. division. We had over 40 in the Sr. and 4 in the adult division we had to judge. The girls' and some young men, would come in one at a time so we could get a feel of their personality, and to give us time to see how their outfit fit them. Then they were asked to line up together so we could see them altogether. After we were done with that, they were asked to change their clothes so we could inspect and look at them close up. This is where is got hard, they all should have been winners in my book.

About lunch time, we were brought in box lunches, we tried to judge as were eating but that was a little hard not to get the out fits dirty.

This is a pile of some wool that was going to be given to the the winners, but before they gave some away they let each of us pick out a 2 1/2" yard piece. What a nice gift, some of these wools can run up to around $32.00 a yard. I couldn't make up my mind there were so many pretty pieces. I finally decided on a brown tweed piece. After we were all done judging we had a few hours to waste, so I went and did a little shopping at the Gateway. We were to be back at 4:00 that afternoon for the fashion show and awards.

This is Karen Lamb and Michelle Boyack the other 2 judges that were judging with me. We had a fun time getting to know each other, and fighting over the wool. jk

This is Janeen Olsen, she is the lady in charge and was the MC for the fashion show. The show consisted of all the participants ranging in ages 6 to 30. I was sitting in a bad spot so my pictures aren't that hot but I did manage to get a few.

This is the gal who won the Adult division, her black hounds tooth checked coat was adorable, and the little black dress she had on unerneath was just as cute. She did an awesome job on the sewing. These pieces could be bought at Macy's if you ask me.

These girl's were the Jr. Division winners. All of their outfits were done so well. They were given such nice prizes.

And these are the Sr. winners. The little and I mean little girl in the pink jacket was the over all winner. Her outfit reminded me of something Audrey Heburn would wear in the show Breakfast at Tiffany's. Her shoes were even pink, and her accessories were so cute too. It was hard picking out the 5 best. I wish we could have picked them all.
This is me and the pretty wool I picked out. I don't know what I'll make out of it yet. Maybe a skirt for me or a vest for Stuart. I guess that will be a project for the new year. I really enjoyed my day and look forward to doing it again in the future, I hope!

Just a little piece of something extra. Kira was priviledged to be one of the contestants about 9 years ago. She was chosen as a runner-up in the Sr. Division. I remember all the hard work and time that she put into her outfits, so it was fun for me to go and see it again and see the work that goes on behind the scenes.