Fairly Coasting

A couple of years ago I made a tiny doily from Iris Niebach's "Stella Alpina" pattern in her book Fantasia.  It sat around in my drawer until I got a wedding invitation this year.  It looked like at least a start on a set of coasters.  I still had some of the Sulky machine embroidery thread and white quilting cotton I used for that one, so I made a set of four.  I entered this one in the doily category at the fair (fortunately the wedding's not for a couple of weeks).

It has a nice second place red ribbon (I forgot to take a picture before I entered it).

The competition in the doily category was pretty stiff this year.  One large doily made in cream and brown of a bazillion little motifs won the sweepstakes ribbon.  The variegated brown looks very striking with the cream used for most of the doily.

We picked up all out fair entries today and I read through all the judge's comments attached.  Both judges disliked the thread color.  They said it detracted from the pattern and my "nice, even stitches," which it why it got a red ribbon.  One also said that the addition of the white thread caused it to look fuzzy and out of focus. Rats.  I liked the effect -- it looked tweedy to me.  Now I wonder if I should get something else for a wedding present!

More from the Fair

Back in April I made a bookmark from my own button decoration pattern with a long perle-tatted tail.  I called it a Pink Diamond bookmark because this year's fair theme was "Diamond Days, Country Ways".  It didn't matter, though.  The only "theme" brownie points being given were for quilt blocks.  *sigh*  Fairs seem to have a love affair with quilts.

I did get a nice first place ribbon on it, and a "high blue" which means it was considered for sweepstakes -- even without the brownie points.

It's also made of size 20 Lizbeth pink thread -- but it's a pink variegate.

County Fair

Last Sunday we took the long trek out to the county fair grounds and entered our ...er... stuff (can't think of a more elegant word).  We had a dozen things which meant we could purchase a parking pass for all four nights of the fair for the price of parking for one night of the fair.  That was good. We used it tonight -- just to see how we did.  Though we looked through the whole fair building we did not venture outside except to go home.  We'll save the animals, food vendors and carnival for the weekend.  There were some pretty interesting things at the fair, and some really strange ones.  I liked the little beings and bugs made out of vegetables. 

All the tatting is in the glass display cases, so my pictures aren't very good.  That's why I made scans or took pictures before entering the stuff in the fair.  In the category "other" (so descriptive!) I entered this pink Heart's Desire bookmark designed by Wanda.  She did such a good job, I got a blue ribbon.  Now, that's a mark of a great design!  Anyway, here it is as displayed in the case (under somebody's ID card) and the scan before it was entered.  I made it with pink Lizbeth size 20.  It needed minimal blocking -- another mark of a good pattern for me.  Thanks, Wanda!