When you think of the Shawville Fair, the first thing to come to mind is usually the agriculture competitions or the midway. But tucked away in the Ag Hall is a competition just as fierce as the animal showing going on in the arena: the homecraft competition.
Participants can submit their own hand crafted items like quilts or artwork to any of the over 30 divisions. Avery Richardson, the 2017 Fair Ambassador and ambassador for homecraft said that she has been submitting her work since she was five and usually enters a wide variety of categories.

“I enter anything from quilts to potholders, table runners, jewelry, whatever I can make,” she said. “It’s usually my summer project.”
This year there will be several new divisions to celebrate Canada 150 such as quilts featuring maple leaves and the like.
Homecraft co-director Debroah Coelho explained that they added an extra hour for competitors to bring in their submissions the night before the fair.
“We have changed the time from 7-9 p.m. to 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30 at the fair hall for submitting all entries,” she wrote in an email.
The entries will be judged on Thursday.
Co-director and fair Vice-President Stacey Howard added that the division requires a lot of work and help from volunteers.
“Behind the scenes is a crazy spot to be,” she wrote. “We have to prepare all the entry’s we like to see by looking on how popular it was in the past, we contact all the judges and all volunteers, find demonstrators for shows during the fair, advertise, prepare for all the set-up of the hall and the dreaded clean up after.”
Richardson said that she would likely be helping out with receiving and organizing the submissions on the Wednesday night as well as keeping things running smoothly during the judging on Thursday.
Both Coelho and Howard thanked all the volunteers that will be judging and keeping things from going off without a hitch.