Nicole's Fair Entries 2013

My niece, Nicole, is eleven. This year she entered four things in the State Fair and brought home a ribbon for every one of them.  In Creative Arts she entered her woven painting, mini-paintings, and a wreath. The woven painting was made by painting on fabric, tearing the painted fabric in strips, weaving them together and fastening them to a wooden frame, then putting on other bits of fabric and decorative gizmos. That one got a second place ribbon. The mini paintings are 10 small canvas paintings with velcro on the back of each.  They are placed on a larger canvas which has the other side of the velcro -- so the paintings can be arranged to suit the mood.  She calls this one "Seasons of Utah".  It got a nice first place ribbon.

Woven painting

Mini-paintings

Wreath

Her final Creative Arts entry is a wreath.  Each wreath was required to have a theme.  So, here's her first place winning "Forever in Blue Jeans" wreath:

Challenge Qult - Cowboy's Closet

The piece we were most pleased with was her "Challenge Quilt".  Every year at the fair a small piece of fabric is available for purchase for $2.00.  This is the challenge fabric and a small wall-hanging quilt of a specific size must be made to suit either the theme or traditional quilting patterns, and having at least 50% of the fabric showing of the front side.  This year's theme was "Best of the West" and the challenge fabric is the red bandana fabric. Each quilt must be completed by only one person, and the quilt must be sewn without help. Nicole thought up this "Cowboy Closet" idea, which I thought was really clever.  My sister, the mathematician, helped her plan the actual size of everything once Nicole had drawn out her basic plan.  I helped her find the Shirt, pants, boots and hat images on the 'net and she did the rest.  The front of the shelf is made from a strip from some fabric my sister had in her fabric cupboard -- it says "What happens on my tractor, stays on my tractor". This is the first sewing Nicole has done. She got a little sewing machine for Christmas and has made some practice seams and started a bag, but this is her first completed project -- and she got a second place ribbon.  Nice, eh?