Tuesday, October 6, 2009

State Fair

This post is going to look like a re-run of the county fair -- in fact, I'm using the same pictures, just changing the ribbons. If I wait until I can get all the stuff back together with the ribbons, I'm never going to get this done. There aren't 24 hours in a day any more. I'm certain something has happened to the physics or something and there are only about 6. But -- I digress -- the State Fair was held very nearly a month ago (September 10-20). I demonstrated tatting on four of those days -- three evenings from 6 to 9 and one day from 10 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon (but I took the whole day off work, lovely). Here are the pictures:
I ran out of categories in tatting and had to enter my tatting-covered purse in the "large bag" category. I'm not much of a seamstress, and I don't think they knew I used a worn-out pair of jeans on purpose. I did get a comment on it "Lots of Work!!" Well, yeah. It was interesting to see the difference between entering it in miscellaneous tatting in the County and entering it as sewing in the State (especially when it was the tatting that was new, not the purse). I'm going to be more careful about picking categories if I do this again!

The only new things I entered were a bookmark (there is a category just for tatted bookmarks!) and a "wearable motif". The bookmark is "Honor" from Sherry Pence's The Exquisite Collection of Tatted Butterflies with an added tail to turn it into a bookmark. The judges liked it. That was good, because I like it too. The wearable motif is my original pattern for a t-shirt decoration made with buttons. For this shirt, I made single diamond motifs to match and sewed them on the sleeves.
The State Fair gives money prizes. In the categories in which I entered, they pay $3.00 for a first place and $2.00 for a second place, third and fourth places get ribbons. I got 6 firsts, 2 seconds, and a fourth in Home Arts and 1 first in Creative Arts. I am a rich woman now. [uh-huh, as if] I got one check for $22.00 from Home Arts and a check for $3.00 from Creative Arts. Considering it cost me $11.00 to enter all that stuff, ending up with $25.00 felt pretty good. In the first flush of ...well, actually, greed... I thought maybe I'd get out the list of categories and start now to make something in every one. But then I noticed one was "tablecloth - tatting". Uh-uh, I'm not tatting a tablecloth! My sister suggested I purchase a small doll table and make a tablecloth for that. I don't think the judges are that liberal, really, I don't.

12 comments:

rainbows and raindrops said...

These are BEAUTIFUL. Congratulations on your 'windfall' - that's quite a bit to your craft fund in all honesty! The amount of beads I could get with that money here! wow!

One of these days I'd really like to attend these fair things. Though I might never get to... =(

Marilee Rockley said...

Congratulations! Your things are all so gorgeous, I'm sure there was much ooo-ing and ahh-ing going on.

The butterfly bookmark is so clever with the tiny butterfly attached. I was going to say "baby butterfly" at first, but then realized that a baby butterfly would be a caterpillar - LOL.

Unknown said...

Woweeyay! They are all lovely! Nice work. That tee-shirt embellishment you've got going on there is totally awesome! Congrats on all those fabulous blue ribbons!

Miranda said...

Wow, $14 profit! Keep it up, and soon you'll be having to pay taxes!

Carol Schockling Lawecki said...

Wow, everthing is so awesome! Congratulations on all your ribbons. They are well deserved. The t-shirt is fantastic!!!

Sharon said...

The tatting is gorgeous and it's no wonder you received so many firsts. It probably blew them away just seeing so much modern tatting! It's wonderful that you were able to get so much awesome tatting in front of the public eye. Way to go!!!

Marty said...

Thanks, everyone. I was trying to recall everything else entered in the tatting categories at the Fair as I did this. I think that, with the exception of some four-ring butterflies done by a first-year tatter (12-years-old!) and a pastel yellow coaster, mine was the only colored tatting there. Maybe the Judges have finally decided to like color!

Gina said...

I'm amazed they have so many categories for tatting to begin with! Love the trim on the t-shirt.
Tablecloth - another option is to simply tat an insertion between squares of fabric. It would still take a lot of time to do though.

Art by JoyMac said...

Congratulations on youe wins the work you have done is fantastic I love it all
Hugs
Joy

Sherry aka Celtic Dream Weaver said...

I was wondering...is the thistle looking doily in black and purple tatted or is it crochet. If tatted where did you find the pattern for it. I really enjoyed looking at all of your eye candy and WOW...all those ribbons...beautiful work to be sure.

Marty said...

Sherry, The thistle doily was crocheted from white thread, then dyed with three different shades of purple.

Jane S. said...

Congrats on the state fair winnings -- they are well deserved! You're the most prolific tatter I've ever seen. I just love the shirt decorated with the buttons & tatting. Wonderful stuff!

Cheers,
Jane