Let's go to the Fair!

I suddenly feel like a missed out on a huge part of childhood... 

I've been researching home brew competitions for my husband to enter his concoctions into, and I found out that our county fair is hosting one this year. I also found out that you can submit just about ANYTHING to the fair and WIN RIBBONS! ha ha... my inner child is totally geeking out right now. I was always a super creative and crafty kid- why didn't anyone tell me this before!?

Beyond sewing, crochet, painting, beading, photography, etc., there are also the obvious livestock judging things that everyone knows are part of the fair. One thing I'm bummed about is that the "dog" category- dog obedience and agility (something I've ALWAYS wanted to do with my dog) is only open to Juniors (AKA kids). Boo. I tried desperately to train my childhood Yorkie, Sniffer, how to jump and weave polls in our tiny basement when I was 9 years old... had I only known I could actually do it for real!

Ha! That's adorable.

I printed out all the guidelines and rules for the crafting categories I'm interested in... and I'm going to try my hardest to submit at least a few things! The submission deadline was July 15, and entries are due on site by August 15 so I've got a bit of time yet. I just need to pick something and run with it!

I'm way more excited about this than I should be... let's go to the fair!



I was able to get in a handful of submissions before the deadline... I entered 9 photos (a mixture of "snapshots" and "enlargements"), as well as two small quilts, a sewn tote bag and a crocheted tote bag. I'm just a tad nervous about the quilts and totes... I have plans for them, but I don't really have anything started yet!  

My photos are all printed and ready to be mounted to poster board; "snapshots" are 4x6" photos mounted 4-up on one board (not entirely sure why?), while "enlargements" are no larger than 8x10". I'm having a hard time finding dry mount tissue in craft stores, and I'm afraid to try fusible webbing for fabric. I guess I can try a sample first! I'd rather do dry mounting than spray adhesive...  yuck!


I want to try to different styles of quilting for my quilt submissions. Both are "small quilts", both fully machine-sewn, and one is specified as long arm quilted. I have never used a long arm! I will have to spend some time on my mother-in-law's sit-down long arm... both for practice and to actually quilt my quilt.

One of the quilts is going to be a reverse applique snowflake quilt. How did I not come up with this idea?!? Rob Appell of Man Sewing does some really fun and creative stuff, but my snowflake will be super curvy and detailed (I've won the family snowflake making contest several years in a row. lol!). I'll hopefully FMQ the background of the small 36x36" quilt with some swirls to match the icy blue background print I purchased, and applique the silver-dotted snowflake with a nice silver satin stitch. 



The other quilt will be constructed with curved piecing. I love the idea of this Fizzy Block quilt, and I want to use up some of the pretty batik charm packs I've been hoarding for a while. I'm having an acrylic template cut on the laser cutter at work, so all my pieces should be exactly precise. This will be the quilt I'll put on the long arm... and we'll see how it goes!


I was originally going to submit my yoga mat sling tote bag- I designed the pattern a while ago and I really love how it turned out- but I noticed that Mr. Quark seems to have enjoyed sticking his claws into it while it was hanging by my workout stuff in the den. Grr. Poke holes = no blue ribbons! I will have to make another one. Fortunately I have no shortage of fabric lying around. 


It even has a cute little tassel key chain!

Darn cats and their claws...

As for the crocheted bag... I do have a finished granny hexagon bag that I made as a class sample when I was teaching at JoAnn, but it's not really my style. The Exhibitor Handbook also specifies that all entries must have been completed in the past year. I have enough hexagons made to construct another one (examples from teaching the class), and I like the color scheme a lot better, but I'd have to figure out where I put the pattern. Or maybe I'll just wing it.



Have you ever submitted anything to the fair? Am I too excited about this? Ha ha... my dork is definitely showing. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kaffe Fassett Jelly Roll Jam Quilt

Image
Here it is! I tried something new with this quilt, and I'm not sure I was 100% successful. The binding was unusual for me. I normally do the whole 2.5" strip, hand-sewn binding thing, but I wanted to try using the backing as the binding this time to keep it simple. I LOVE this backing fabric ; it's so soft, and it tied in so nicely with the color scheme of the Kaffe Fassett "Tides" jelly roll. I have noticed though, that this particular fabric shows a lot of poke holes, so be careful with pin placement and try to get your seams right the first time around. I worked really hard to turn my edges under nicely and pin well, at least every 2 inches. Unfortunately, as I kind of  suspected, some of the loose ends bulged out in between the pins as my presser foot went over them. Now that I've washed the quilt, I can see that I need to do some seam ripping to fix a lot of little peeks of batting and frayed edged. Sad face. I also noticed tha
Read more

Temperature Record Cross Stitch

Image
I tried telling people years ago that cross stitch was cool again... and I WAS RIGHT! Pay no attention to the random pet hairs... I'm in this crazy cross stitch group on Facebook that features non-traditional subject matter, from naughty words to feminist themes to potty humor and beyond. While I don't consider it my style to be crass or subversive, I do appreciate the modern approach to a very old craft that is normally associated with "grannies" (not that there's anything wrong with that, either). This group has introduced me to a variety of interesting new project ideas, including the concept of a temperature stitch. Essentially, each day's high and low temperature are recorded in different colored stitches to provide a really interesting visual of our climate and seasons. This whole idea has my head spinning around ways to physically represent climate change in artsy-crafty form by going through the last hundred years and stitching a huge collecti
Read more

Football Blanket Crochet Chart

Image
Here is the chart I worked off of for the football blanket... it is sized for a baby afghan, about 36 by 48 inches, but the chart can be easily modified to make it bigger. I worked the entire blanket in double crochet, and the white laces in the center were made with the tapestry stitch, in which the color not being used is carried across the top of the work and the stitches are made over it, concealing the color. Here's a pretty good tutorial for the tapestry stitch, although as I stated earlier, I did all double crochet for this project, but the concept is the same. For this particular blanket, I used five balls of Bernat Waverly yarn in brown, and almost a whole skein of Red Heart Super Saver in white for the lines and laces. I believe I used a size J hook, which made the project go nice and quick. Adjust the size of yarn and hook to fit your needs- everyone crochets differently! Happy crocheting! :) Update: if you love this football blanket, check out my football
Read more