Rossey brings quilting passion and leadership to Wayne County Fair

As a child Diane Rossey used to hide out under her grandmother’s quilt frame, playing with a box of buttons.

Years later the Wooster resident has mastered the fine art of quilting, and she’s got the ribbons and rosettes to show for it. And in the run-up to this year’s Wayne County Fair, Rossey is putting the final touches on the eight or nine entries she hopes will add even more ribbons to the pile.

How many of her works will actually be finished and entered is not yet known.

“I have a couple of weeks,” Rossey said. “I work well under pressure.”

It’s a trait that will serve her well as co-superintendent of the fair’s home economics division, housed in Buss Hall and comprising everything from quilts and embroidery to decorated cakes, pies, dried herbs and home canning. She joined the division as a committee member in 2018, shortly after the death of her husband, and became co-superintendent when she took over for Betty Boreman in 2022.

Rossey said she’s been entering projects in the fair for at least 40 years, from flower arranging and cross-stitch to quilting in all its many forms — from coverlets to hangings and mug rugs.

In the final few days before the fair opens, Rossey and the home economics committee will turn their attention to getting Buss Hall — now in its 70th year — cleaned and ready for entries, which will start to come in three days before the fair opens on Saturday, Sept. 6. Sewing, knitting, crochet and other hand arts will come in and be judged on Wednesday, then put up for display Thursday. For the full day Friday, culinary is the focus, with intake, judging and display all completed by the time the fair opens the next day.

“I have family and good help,” said Rossey, whose one sister from Florida and another living locally will pitch in to help. “I don’t think people realize how hard those few days are. It’s kind of crazy.”

Judges in the home economics categories — whose names Rossey would not divulge — are typically contacted in February and confirmed in August.

“I cross my fingers that there’s no reason they can’t come,” she said.

Rossey, who retired after more than 37 years as the administrative coordinator in The College of Wooster Chemistry Department, said that job taught her a lot of skills she uses as co-superintendent.

“I have lots of lists, lots and lots of lists. I’m pretty good with my files,” she said.

Evidence of her own projects, both old and new, is everywhere in the dining and living room of her home. A member of the Tree City Quilters’ Guild, she said, “I am patient, and I’m very particular,” traits she said she owes her fair successes to.

She no longer enters the cross-stitch categories because the work is hard on her eyes, but Rossey said, “I figure I’ve got enough cross-stitch (from past years) for each of the grands and great-grands to each have one when I’m gone.”

While the competition at the fair is generally friendly, make no mistake — Rossey is in it to win it.

“I’m very competitive, and I enter to win,” she said. “And at 71 I’m allowed to be that way.”

Once the judging is complete and the ribbons are awarded, Rossey said she is free to enjoy the fair, though visitors might find her helping to staff Buss Hall’s informational booth. There, she said, she’ll work on a new project and, of course, people watch.

And like many other fairgoers, Rossey will wait in line for some fair food. 

“I like to go down and eat,” she said. “I like barbecue and Lerch’s Donuts. I eat.”