2016 Kansas State Fair entries

It’s that time of year, time for the Kansas State Fair.  I’ve been very busy this year with things other than tatting but I wanted to enter something in the fair. It’s my attempt to keep them from dropping the category.  Last year there were only a few entries, which has me worried about the category disappearing.  I’m not all that confident in my entries, but they will be out there, showing the general public that tatting is not “a lost art.”

I took my doily with “Harper” edging that I had entered in the county fair.  It was already made, might as well take it, right?

Only one item per person can be entered in the only tatting category they have so I always look for other types of category/classes that will work for tatting.  There are several holiday classes that don’t specify media type that fit the bill.  I entered a Christmas decoration and a holiday, non-Christmas decoration.

I had several ideas for the Christmas decoration.  First thought was covering a satin ball.  I have several balls, and even downloaded a few patterns.  And changed my mind.  Then I was going to do a 3-D bell.  And changed my mind.  It ended up being a 3-D angel instead.

The main body developed with only a few changes, other than it started as a bell and ended up the angel body.  The wings came out great the first try.  As I hadn’t planned on it being an angel I didn’t plan how to attach the wings while tatting.  They were sewn on after both body and wings were complete.  The hard part was the halo.  Yes, the halo.  I made something like six different ones before I was happy with the result.  These pictures do not show the halo that finished off the angel right before taking it to the fair.  I forgot to take a picture.

The third item was the non-Christmas decoration.  I had a terrible time even coming up with an idea of what to take.  I’ve done Halloween and Thanksgiving in the past, maybe I should choose another holiday?  Nope, it came down to Halloween again.  It was down to the wire on whether it would even make it to the fair or not.  I started multiple ideas and messed up all of them.  The final touches were added just before leaving the house.

I downloaded the ‘Pearl Tatted Skeleton’ by Martha Ess to start with.  It did not turn out well, so I tried a couple of other things, which ended badly as well.  Then I perused Lindsay Rogers’ book ‘Tatting Collage’, hoping for inspiration.  The outcome was a combination of things, using parts of the skeleton and a few ideas from the book.  I don’t feel this is quite done, but I ran out of time.  It’s not my best work, and I have no idea what the judges will think, but I took it to the fair anyway.

Whew! I’m glad I have the fair items taken care of.  Becky, one of the Tuesday Tatters, took me with her to drop things off yesterday.  She entered a beautiful quilt and a quilt block but no tatting (we talked about that 🙂 ).  She is going to the fair on Friday, opening day, and will text me the results.  I hope to make it on Monday.

Now that is done I can make sure I’m all ready for Palmetto Tat Days.  It’s this week!!  I’m so excited! This is my first time going.  It’s gonna be great!  Hope to see a few of you there!

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn”