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Since 2001, I have entered items into the Arts and Crafts competition at the Great New York State Fair. Entrants must be residents of New York state and entries arrive from all over New York. I am fortunate to live within 20 minutes of the fairgrounds so I bring my entries in personally, rather than mail them. What is amazing to me is the beautiful items that do not win.

Until the 2010 fair, it cost $6 to enter up to 5 items. The prize money is small. The most I ever won was $25 for an afghan.

Here are most of my award winners. I am missing a couple of pictures and may have been awarded one or two more prizes in the earlier years.

In 2012 I became a Master Knitter so I applied to be a knitting judge at the 2013 Fair. Because of that, I did not enter any items. I was a judge from 2016 to 2018 and enjoyed seeing all of the entries. Sometimes it was very difficult to determine a first prize because the entries were amazing.

My friend, Jane Wojtaszek, is the person who encouraged me to enter my items. It took seven years before I did. Jane has been a frequent award winner over the last 20 years or so.