Tulsa State Fair stuff

I dragged the whole family up to the fair grounds and we turned in our fair entries.

I, of course, had tons of last-minute stuff to finish, the most-recent item being this bag:

I put a lining in it (deliberately long, because I'm anticipating that the outside will stretch a little as I use it). It's got a pocket on each side and in the side seam there are two lanyards with hooks for keys and my wallet, so that I can dig them out quickly.

I also (finally) finished my Hey Teach sweater, which is unfortunately too big (but not huge on me) so it's still wearable.

I'm calling this my Ridiculous Doily, for two reasons: 1.) it's done out of size 30 crochet thread; and 2.) it's done out of size 30 thread because the Tulsa State Fair category for "Lace" specified that said "lace" must be done out of size 20 thread or smaller.

Seriously.

It's pretty darn obvious that whoever came up with that ridiculous rule didn't pay attention to the nine entries in the "Knitting: Adult Accessories" category that were lace, and not ONE used "thread."

Thus, this is my Ridiculous Doily, made expressly to enter a knit item into that category:

I think it's around 14" across, although I didn't measure it before I turned it in.


The other last-minute project is my rubber-stamped scrapbook page, entered in the Rubber Stamping division. The rules stated that the entry had to be "70% stamped" so I stamped the brown paper, the tag, the ribbon, and the blue paper in the background.

Last week I posted about the flowers I was making using scrapbook paper, and here's the finished ornament:


I made a tassel out of gold embroidery floss and I think the whole project turned out really nicely. The tutorial can be found here (part 1; part 2 is at the end).

I just realized that I didn't take pics of the kids' Lego entries. Bad Mom! I'll be sure to take pics at the fair itself.

The fair opens September 30, so hopefully we'll hear pretty quickly after that if anything won.


The *best* part of the day, though, was meeting IndigoGentry and Saradippity, two of my fellow Ravelers. They're just as awesome as I thought they'd be.
I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Quilt Machine Monday (a day late)

I've been trying to get pictures of what's on the quilt machine every Monday, and obviously I've been failing miserably. :-)

I did manage to get a pic yesterday though, as well as the finished (quilting, anyway) quilt:

The color is off in this pic, but you can see the quilting really well:


And a detail pic:

This one is Teresa Marler's, and it's fabulously scrappy! (I love scrappy quilts--they go with everything and they're interesting to look at. I have a hard time making non-scrappy quilts any more.)

As well as quilting like a mad woman, I've been working on stuff for the Tulsa State Fair.

I'm making a Christmas ornament, and these are two of the 12 flowers that will make up a hanging ball:



I'm also working on finishing up my Hey Teach sweater (it's only taken me a year!) and a small doily. No pics yet.


Greg has continued to work on Gillian's bed, and now it's primed! The next step will be the glossy white paint, I believe. It's coming together, and it's going to be beautiful!


Now it's time for me to go shower--it's almost 2:00 P.M., after all. LOL!

SewFlakes!

One the local quilt shops, Sew Flakes, is having a Great Sewing Room Tour, and I (as Pieceful Stitches Designs) am a sponsor. I've donated two copies of each of my patterns as well as a gift certificate for $25 off machine quilting.

Go check them out!

Speaking of quilting, a while back I made a slideshow function of the customers' quilts I've done this year, which you can see here.


Every so often I get the urge to dye my hair and I did it again yesterday:


You can also see the blue pearl necklace that I made yesterday. It's a single strand, knotted between each pearl, and long enough that I can wrap it around as a choker. I see more like that in my future.

I think this hair color looks more natural than my natural color with my skin. The really funny thing is that the kids didn't notice until Greg said something. LOL! [This stuff is supposed to wash out after a month or so.]


Speaking of Greg, he's started building a bed for Gillian and she's been helping.


Greg has developed an allergy to sawdust, and I'm thrilled that they're wearing masks and safety glasses. YAY!


I'm terribly behind on my blogging, and so I'm going to continue with some catch-up stuff.

Last week was the annual scrapbooking convention, and I took two classes. The first one is called "Boxerpalooza" and is where they give you lots of scrapbooking stuff from their company (Boxer Scrapbook Productions) and show you ideas to use it. I got a lot of excellent tips as well as cool scrapbook supplies. One of the owners is a quilter so we chatted about fabric after class.

The other class I took was "Four Pages, A Bazillion Photos" and it was neat--they had some good ideas for putting lots of pictures on a page. Here are two of the four pages (without pics--I haven't gotten that far yet):



I also did a Make and Take from the Tattered Angels booth, using Glimmer Mist:



It was really cool, and I now understand more of the appeal of Glimmer Mist.

I also did some shopping. I couldn't resist a bunch of clear stamps, especially since the big ones I got were $3!!!


Now I just need to *use* them. LOL!

On the knitting front, I finished a pair of socks:




The yarn is some that my wonderful Aunt Louise sent a couple of years ago (I don't use sock yarn all that quickly, but I sure enjoy making socks!).

I also made a headband to use up some of my leftover sock yarn:

That's Mountain Colors sock yarn and it bleeds read like nobody's business, which is why I didn't send it to my Mom to use in her sock yarn blanket.

And I finally found a project that would successfully use the Disco yarn that started to be two different pairs of socks:

That's the Lacy Baktus, with an edging I stole from something else (I think a stitch dictionary--I'd have to look to be sure).

And last up on my catching-up list, this basket that we made in spinning guild at the August meeting:


It was fun to make! The teacher had the bottom and first round one for us or we would've been there all day. :-)

I think that's about it for the moment. I've been doing customer quilts but you can see those in the link at the top of this post.

I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Tulsa State Fair wrap-up post

I've been a bit scattered lately, but I finally got the pictures ready for this post.

My friend Calista and I went to the fair on Monday, October 5, just the two of us (NO KIDS!) and had a great time looking at all of the Creative Arts stuff. We spent about an hour and a half just looking. It was great!

We found the kids' stuff first.

Gillian's Lego kit entry:


Gillian's decorated T-shirt entry:


Gillian's weaving:

Ryan's drawing:


Gillian's drawing:


Ryan's Christmas ornament:


Then we wandered over to the Creative Arts exhibit area and found my stuff (and Calista's, but she's got pictures elsewhere).

My quilt (which will be going to Karen for her birthday, which was in January):


My socks (at the top):

The Sweepstakes winner for knitting (Rori's Hey Teach sweater is the blue one on the right):


My broomstick-lace-ish crocheted scarf, next to the first place winner (not sure why that one got first, but it's not up to me LOL):

My crocheted hot pad, which was in the Crocheted Article, under 24" division:

And my Hyrna Herborgar shawl, center bottom:

Last but not least, here's my rubber stamp entry, in the scrapbook page category:


Here's a view of the glass cases:

Everything still smells like fair food (fried), but at least they're secured in the cases.

These were some really neat baskets that I loved:


And finally, Calista and me:

I'll post pics of the family excursion to the fair a little bit later!

Fair Results (mine and others') *VERY LONG*

We made it to the Tulsa State Fair today, and we all had a great time.

We got smart and took the free shuttle. That is DEFINITELY the way to go! Not only was it fast and easy, but we didn't have to pay $10 for parking then still have to hike to the fairgrounds. I highly recommend it.

I was so proud of the kids--they made it for 3 1/2 hours! We started at the Sugar Art Show, then the Creative Arts display, then we got corn dogs and a yummy cherry-aid and strawberry-aid (lemon-lime soda with cherry and strawberry juice) before heading to the Just for Kids area. After that we went to the petting zoo, then back through the midway to the Sugar Art area where the kids decorated two graham crackers. I didn't get any pictures because I was in the middle of the cake display. That's the quick summary, and what follows is the long version with pictures.


Here's Mattie's cake, (DJ's daughter). She did great!

This is DJ's entry. It's all from sugar! No real flowers. Isn't it beautiful?


These two cakes cracked me up. I assume they're for a baby shower. Not quite what I'd want, but it takes all kinds.


The flowers on the cakes (and the cakes themselves!) were amazing.


These aren't real roses, if you can believe it.


From the Sugar Art Show we went to find all my stuff. Here's my Black and Tan with a Little Spice quilt, which got a first-place ribbon:


My Floral Fantasy got a second:


Here's Rori's Ice Queen, which got a third. The "Adult knit clothing/accessory" category is a FULL one and she should be really proud!


Here's my Rose of England shawl, which got first and Sweepstakes for Hand Knit articles:


And my handspun got first and Sweepstakes, but I think it was the ONLY entry in the handspun category. That makes me really, really sad because we have a lot of very talented spinners in this area.


Here's Gillian's Wallaby sweater, which took a second place. Hey now, whose sweater got that blue ribbon? RORI!!! YAY, RORI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My socks got first place. Those are Dawn's socks in the background (you can just see the toe) and Emma's socks took second. (I'm not sure why mine got first and hers second, because I think that pattern is more difficult than the one I did.)


Here you can see Rori's socks (top left) as well as some of the crocheted entries:


Here's my necklace, the one hanging over the edge of the table:

It got a second place, which I'm quite happy with. I hadn't ever entered anything in that category.

Rounding out the entries, here's my rubber-stamped card which didn't win anything. The ones that did win were spectacular!


After the Creative Arts building we headed out to the Just for Kids building, via the midway where we got corndogs:


and then went to the Just for Kids building where they had a great time building:

They added onto something that had been started at 10:30 that morning. Quite impressive!

Then we found the kids' entries.

Here's Gillian's artwork:


and Ryan's artwork:


and finally, Gillian's weaving, which took a second place. I'm so proud!



After the Just for Kids building we headed over to the barns and the petting zoo area.

The kids fed all sorts of animals and saw some Cavies, whose pen had a Jackalope sign. I kept hearing people calling the Cavies "Jackalopes" which totally cracks me up, because where I grew up Jackalopes are a taxonomists' creation to fool gullible tourists.

Here's the sign in the pen, just to clarify about Cavies (click to embiggen, as with all the photos):

And here are the Cavies:

Gillian fed a camel:

And her awesome Dad helping Gillian feed baby goat:


They also petted a HUGE cow-like animal although I didn't see a sign on its pen. It was really friendly and obviously loved attention. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures.

After the animal pen (and thorough hand washing), we headed over to where Dawn, Janae and Brittney were working and the kids went through the Fun on the Farm. They were thrilled to have "earned" a bag of chips and yogurt bar.

We slowly made our way back to the Creative Arts building (we ran into Donna Titsworth and her daughter on the way) and the kids decorated a graham cracker with icing. It turned out that they got two of the last three graham crackers! I didn't get pictures of them decorating them or eating them, but they told me all about it.

After that we headed back out to the shuttles, hopped on a bus and got back on our way to Broken Arrow.

After dinner we had a little fire in our fire bowl outside and really enjoyed it.

Now we're tired and I'm heading to bed! Have a great Monday, everyone!