Are you ready to be visited by ghosts and goblins?
Bonnie dressed up for Halloween
The local Historical Society was going to have a “Mutts and Monsters Parade” like they had last year but had to cancel due to staffing issues. My granddaughter and I were disappointed as we had been planning dog costumes for a couple of months already. Due to being busy with other things I hadn’t put much time or effort into the costumes before hearing of the cancelation. But I still thought it would be cute to dress up our dog. I found this little ladybug costume at Dollar Tree for a couple of bucks. It is a kid’s costume, not a dog’s, but it works for pictures. She sat very nicely – okay, I was lucky enough to catch her sitting still for about a half second.
Our church youth group put on a Fall Festival last night, serving chili and cinnamon rolls. Then they had games outside, like kickball, bocce ball, and corn hole. They also had pumpkins to decorate (with paint pens) and a bonfire to make s’mores. There were also hayrack rides. The weather was perfect, crisp and cool! There was a nice turnout for it, too. It was a wonderful night! I played corn hole, decorated a pumpkin, took a ride on the hayrack, and roasted marshmallows.
The pumpkin I decorated
You can see by this poor gourd that I don’t have much imagination when it comes to pumpkin decorating. Some of the other pumpkins were so much better! But it was fun to do it.
My tatting lately has been working on an edging. Okay, it was supposed to be an edging. I wasn’t getting anywhere with the edging before it morphed into a snowflake.
October Snowflake
I did the original in all white and finished it with another round of tatting. When that was done the legs were not visible at all. I tried it again in Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 20 with Mocha Brown Dark #692 as the chains. I am happy with how this turned out.
And now I’m back to working on the edging that should have already been done. And snowflakes. And Christmas ornaments. What are you working on?
Halloween is an opportunity to be really creative. Judy Gold
I almost didn’t enter anything into the Kansas State Fair this year but at the last minute – the first day you had to pay a late entry fee – I decided to. I didn’t have time to make more than one item but I found two places I could enter tatting. There is only one tatting class and then there is a class for holiday decorations in any fiber medium. For the tatting class I entered the Martha doily I made back in February. I am excited that I got first place but very disappointed in how very few entries there were. A grand total of three.
Judging is done against a standard as well as against other entries, so they do not have to give out ribbons if the items do not meet those standards – finished nicely, clean, even stitches (though the judge might not know tatting they probably know knitting and crochet or other lace-making techniques.) It is subjective to a point. But the judge still liked mine enough to give a blue. That makes me happy.
My pumpkin holiday decoration came in third. Considering there were more entries and they were in different mediums I’m pretty happy with the result.
Here is a picture of the other holiday entries. I’m not sure where the blue ribbon – 1st place – item is, I didn’t see one with anything. Maybe they got a best of class or show and was put in a different place. (My granddaughter wouldn’t get out of the way for me to take a picture but wouldn’t hold still either.
Holiday Decorations at the Kansas State Fair 2015
My granddaughter did like the second place entry, a crow holding a basket with a watermelon theme. There was another similar crow with a sunflower theme but I couldn’t tell if they were supposed to be together or if someone else had a similar entry. They were both cute.
Overall I was disappointed in how few entries there were throughout the domestic arts categories. The last time I was there I seem to remember quite a few more of about everything – quilts, crochet, knitting, all of that. I have told myself that I must enter more things in the fair next year. I did go to another building that had categories that I think I could find a way to enter with tatting – I’ll have to give it some thought over the year.
“It is nice to have valid competition; it pushes you to do better.”
At the beginning of August, I realized that the Kansas State Fair was coming up and that this year I was not going to be on vacation while it was on. So I got the bright idea to enter a couple of items. You know, get a little more tatting out there for people to see. The fair only has one class for tatting and you can only enter one project but they have a couple of other categories that tatting could fit in if you do it right.
With the fair so close I thought I would take something I’ve already made for the tatting category. I looked through the pieces I haven’t given away or sold and decided on the Martha doily I did back in February. The rules state the items must be made within the last two years, so it works out okay.
The other category I thought I’d try is the “Holiday Decoration other than Christmas”. This is the same category I entered the spider in a few years ago. But what to make? And for what holiday? No idea just jumped out at me so I made a list of holidays and what was associated with each. Then I searched for patterns that looked interesting or fun. I decided on Mark Meyer’s “Autumn Pumpkin“.
The entire pumpkin is tatted with one shuttle, no chains. It’s not really hard, just different. The outside is done first then you fill in the center, piece by piece, then add the stem, then the leaf. I think I started each individual piece at least three times. The start of the pumpkin at the top still doesn’t look that good. When the stem was added per the pattern the rest of the pumpkin puckered a bit so I added one more ring to it. Now it lays much better.
The top part of the pumpkin still looks a little off but with the leaf added it disguises it a bit. Maybe the judges won’t notice ***fingers crossed***
Of course, that doesn’t mean it was done as an entry. The category is “holiday decoration” not “tatted applique, finished” so the next step was to decide how to finish it as a decoration. While at Jo-Ann’s the other day (before the actual tatting had begun) I had purchased some brown material with this in mind. When the pumpkin was done this material was too dark, completely hiding the brown stem. With time getting short a quick trip to Walmart saved the day. They don’t have nearly the fabric selection as Jo-Ann’s but it was the closest place available and did have a something that would work.
Just having a background material wasn’t enough – the pumpkin by itself just didn’t look like a finished decoration. So further tatting had to be done. The day before it had to be taken in I thought it was done, but when looking at the picture I had taken of it there just looked to be something not quite finished about it.
I think this looks a bit more finished. I didn’t have time to take a picture in better light as a friend offered to take it to the fair with her as she was taking her quilt in, so I let her (with many thanks!)
This category has all types of textile mediums entered and, from what I’ve seen in previous years, a lot of people put in a lot more thought and time into their entries than I do. I’m hoping for a ribbon but not really expecting one with all the marvelous competition. But this will get tatting out there in front of people in a way that isn’t a doily or an edging (which I like, by the way, but some people aren’t interested in them so much).
I’ll be going to the State Fair next week to see how I’ve done and to check out all the fabulous things people have made. I’m hoping there are a lot of tatting entries – wouldn’t that be cool?
“If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you’ll be going, ‘you know, we’re alright. We are dang near royalty..'”
