I just realized . . .

That it's 7 months to fair season.

And I don't have anything ready.

I realize that 7 months is a long time in just day time, but in terms of stitching time, it's not. Not when the average large project takes 2-3 months, and then it's a month (or more) to get things framed. Ey yiy.

Now I should really start to buckle down and get figured out what I want to have to enter


To be framed:

New Fallen Snow (have the frame, just need it stretched and mounted)
New Birth of Spring
Lost Dragon Sampler--perfect for the fantasy class.

Those are really the only entry-worthy pieces I have finished.

I have the Margaret Sherry afghan at the finishers.

I will put BF's stocking in, cause I am not working with blending filament and then not entering it.

The Joan Elliott winter angel for the religious class--I don't know if it quite counts as "religious," but it's an angel. Angels are religious.

Cedar Hill Sheep in the Meadow--for the special class for the state fair, but I will put it in the county fair too.

I want to have my Stunning Irises for the flower class. I am just worried because (hanging head in shame) Felix Anne has been using the lap stand as a kitty hammock, which is NOT good, and it's rather hair covered. I have to take the lint brush to it.

I need to do some small finishes, but what gets me is that county fair judges size by framed size, state by design size. The consistency issue bugs me.


I did see a cute idea for finishing yesterday at Michael's. They had little purses to make. They showed them with iron-ons of Paris, but you could pretty much take a small set of designs and put them on and it would look good. I love iron-on interfacing for things like this. Anyway, they were reasonably priced, about $5 for the purse body, the same for the handle, maybe $3 for the trim. It might be worth it to pick up one on payday. The pink one I looked at would be cute with shoes or hearts on it, but if they had a straw one, think of the cute summer stuff you could put on.

Back to the fair last night

I took Mom over to the fair last night. She wanted to see my entries. She was pretty proud of me. I am a little bit happier since I realized that my Christmas pic won over a really pretty Mary Engelbreit that was really pretty. That one deserved to win.

I did see though, not a lot of primitive things placed high. Of the 1st place, it was my HOHRH, and my San man, a BOAF, and two Bent Creek pics that won. So I am thinking the judges just prefer realistic pictures. Which was kinda sad because there were some beautiful primitives entered. I think some of the problem, too was size. At county, they measure by frame size. State measures by design size--that seems a fairer way to judge to me. Anyway . . .

I have such a little bit left to do on New Birth of Spring, stitching wise. I want so badly to get it finished before I go to Dallas. Then I am going to work on the ornament for my exchange partner. I chose Funk and Webber's Dead of the Night for Lorna. I have some black evenweave, so, as part of my on-going effort to blind myself, I decided I will stitch that over-one with the new glow in the dark light effects. It looks pretty straight-forward. I just wanted something cool for Lorna, because she's putting up a Halloween tree. I already bought her some non-stitchy ornaments, and a little container Michael's had, she can put some M&M's or something in there, and I thought I would buy some candy and tuck it in the package too.

The Fair Results are In

I think I am pretty happy with them. I did learn that the fair people don't judge primitive stuff like they judge realistic stuff. So I just know what to enter next year.

Sea Life--2nd As Far As We Go--1st
Stoeny Creek kat and Pumpkin from Oct 2006--2nd
HOHRH-1st Santa's Unexpected Gift-2nd
Celebrate-SNN kit made into cube--2nd
Wishing for snow--2nd
Chincoteagues-3rd
Christmas Day wallhanging-2nd
Drawn Thread Cat Sampler--2nd
Friends Gather--1st
Americana Sampling--3rd--
Down By the sea pillow--4th and that's OK, it took me about 10 hours to stitch
Hip Hip Hooray--4th--as Mom said, "You didn't really like that one anyway."

I am only mildly annoyed by the ornament not getting first place. It lost to a Prairie Schooler Santa, I am thinking the finishing on the other one was better, because it wasn't as complicated as mine. And I am pissed that my Christmas Day WALLHANGING didn't get entered into the WALLHANGING class. It is a WALLHANGING, not a Christmas item. It was better than the wallhangings that were entered. I know that's a bitchy comment, but I am skeeved by that. At least one person said they liked my Chincoteagues.

So now to start getting ready for next year.

Notes from the Fair Prep

I have the cross stitch under control, now I am baking. It is not going well. I don't know what is wrong, but my flour isn't working right. And I got a bad recipe for Cheesie Rice Krispie cookies, because I've misplaced my other one. It didn't work. However, it must be getting better because I just finished my Honey Crunch cookies and they are good. Butterscotch is such a wonderful ingredient to use in recipes becasue it masks inadequacies in other areas. Now, just to go make Oatmeal Butterscotch cookies. They aren't anything fancy, but they are my favorite recipe next to those.

Though I do have to say, my mother is rather dense about cooking. I was holding a cookie sheet that, in temperature, was closely approzimating that of the sun, and she was just standing in the middle of the kitchen. I learned today that oven mitts only protect your fingers for so long.

The Importance of Winning a Stitching Show

I learned a valuable lesson from Woodlawn. I did not win a ribbon, but I realized I don't need ribbons to affirm my talent. I have friends who care about me, who saw all the work that goes into things, that support my efforts. Which is not to say that I would have not been tickled with a ribbon, but, let's be honest, there is only so much you can do to improve your stitching. My stitching all faces the same direction, it's clean, I had it professionally framed and chose a challenging piece. I can't do any more than that. And if the judges didn't choose to reward it with a ribbon because it wasn't "perfect", oh well. There is nothing I can or would do better on it. And it's given people a lot of pleasure, plus I value the comments made by people I know or at least know of than judges I have no knowledge of.

Anyway, it was a nice day at the show. It was warm, and I met with Pat, Pam, Karen, and Bluedragon. Lots of fun!