Monday, September 7, 2009

State Fair - part 3

Time to look at a few more crafts that are entered into the State Fair. I ended up taking a ton of pictures and decided rather than picking a few, I'd draw out the posts for several days because I really do believe we have a great state fair for crafts & arts and its fun to show off what all the great crafters in our state do.

Polymer cray - here's a major award winner. The owls are really cute. I just wish the pic showed a bit more detail.
Basket weaving - just a few samples.

Weaving & a few more baskets. We have a very active Weaver's Guild that meets in the same building as the Knitters Guild - The Textile Center.
Tatting is not a lost art. The little bonnet and doily under it were beautiful.

Hand spun yarn.
Wood work. The middle of the building has a "home" display where they like to set the larger crafts as if they were in an actual home. I would be very happy if my furniture looked like this!


More wood work. The clock (yes, its a clock) is absolutely amazing. I'm guessing its probably 4-5 feet tall at least. The clock is in the center set back a ways.
Hardanger. Back in the 80s. I used to do hardanger and after seeing some of the samples I have a feeling I'll be pulling out my supplies and making something this year.


Another part of the Creative Activities building is education. There's an area where fiber crafts share the display/teaching area. Each day a different group (or 2) is there to share with the public.
The day I was there was the Weaver's Guild. One section had a couple ladies set up with spinning wheels.

Around the corner in the next section was a lady set up with a 4 heddle loom working on what I think was place mats.
This got me missing my loom and yup! I think I'll have to get the loom set up this year and do a bit of weaving. I've got a 4 heddle loom and all the accessories that go with it. Somewhere around the house are fair ribbons from back in the day when I wove and entered a few things.

The 3rd area was the American Sewing Guild.
Continuing in my "I used to do that" mode - I haven't opened up my sewing machine for a year and have a few quilts close to done. Sounds like I need to start a list of fiber goals for the next year between now and the next State Fair.


Tomorrow I'll post a few more craft pics but thought I'd leave today's post with a few fun places. Right outside the entrance to the Creative Activities building is - SPAMVILLE. Yup - if you can't make it to the Spam museum in southern Minnesota you can visit a smaller version of it right at the fair.

After leaving the building I headed over to the Horticulture building for my annual honey sunflower seed ice cream fix. Just around the corner from the ice cream is my favorite place at the fair. A nice quiet area where you can get away from the crowds for a moment to enjoy this special treat in peace and quiet.

If you take a look over the bushes you can see the hustle and bustle of the fair is going on just a few feet away but - this spot had shade and peace. Just what you need to survive the millions of people that visit the fair.

Tomorrow - crochet, beading and machine knitting.

No comments: