It's time for the East Texas State Fair! Doesn't that name sound grand? I think that's why they use it.
My little family and I (plus my husband's friend) trudged out to the fair on Saturday night. I forced them to go that night because the Bellamy Brothers were in concert on the "big" stage at 8 pm. I've loved the Bellamy Brothers since I was about 12 and heard them in concert at Fan Fair (a country music festival in Nashville, TN) way back in the early 80's. They were really funny and entertaining back then and they still are. Plus, they're songs are fun and catchy.
Our first stop was the Arts and Crafts building so that I could see my pincushions and see what ribbons I got, if any. Excitement! My "Flower Garden" set got a blue ribbon! YAY! First place!
And my Christmas ornament set got third place. yay! I was not as excited about that but I do realize they could have been better. I'm going to start working on more and I'm going to take Nancy's suggestion that I put the ribbons on the outside with decorative buttons. Thanks for the suggestion, Nancy!! I'll let you all know how that turns out.
Then of course, we gorged ourselves on foot long corn dogs and batter fried brownies. We got pie to go and brought it home. The food is actually the best part of our fair. We have tons of food booths that are owned by local churches and restaurants, so it's not the usualy carny food. It's yummy!! And fair food calories don't count!!
At 8 pm, I ditched the family (they went to watch my son ride on the rides and play the games - he won a stuffed penguin) and I went to the concert. It was awesome! They've just gotten better with age. Still fun on stage and I still love their songs.
On Saturday, I took my 2 sets of bottlecap pincushions that I had made to the fair grounds to enter them into the Arts and Crafts contest.
I'll be sure to post what I win (if anything!).
Here is the second set that I made. They are bottlecap pincushion ornaments. I'm not happy with the way I sewed the ribbons in so if anyone has a suggestion for a better way, PLEASE let me know. On the tree and 'be merry' ornaments, I just stuffed the ribbon into the pincushion and blanket stitched them in place. On the snowman one, I sewed the ribbon to the inside of the pincushion first and then blanket stitched around the top. You can see a little pucker on that one so I'm thinking that wasn't the best idea.
These little buggers are addictive though. They make you want to see what else you can make little and tiny.
I'd like to make some of the Christmas ones for gifts this year but I need to perfect them first.
Here's a pic where you can see the pucker on the snowman pincushion:
Also, yesterday I bought some metallic silver embroidery thread, so the next one I make, I'll use that for the snowflakes and maybe even around the snowman.
I'd love to hear comments about my little creations! And please leave suggestions on how I can fix my ribbon problem!
Finally, I'm ready to show you my first set of 3 bottle cap pincushions that I've been working on and that I plan to enter in our county fair arts and crafts contest.
As I mentioned here, I used the tutorial on Craftstylish for the basic pincushion but the tops are all my idea. I'm calling them "Flower Garden".
The Turquoise Flower
The Ladybug Daisy
The Butterfly Has Landed
I learned a new embroidery stitch for the white/turquoise pincushion - the Lazy Daisy stitch. My embroidery skills are all a bit rusty but I'm getting a lot better at the blanket stitch and I 'think' I'm doing the whip stitch correctly. Sometimes, if I can't figure something out, I just wing it. But I think that's kind of good because you can be more creative and what you make is truly your own.
I worked really diligently on my stitches for these (not that they're perfect). I didn't want any stitches under the flower petals, so I sewed the ladybug and butterfly onto the top layer of felt of each flower and then attached another flower layer on with the blanket stitch. So each petal is actually 2 layers of felt. If the judges are experts at embroidery, I'm sure they'll catch all my mistakes.
I'd love to hear any comments you have about my little flower garden.
And keep your fingers crossed that I win a ribbon :)
