Anyway – with 6 1/2 months to go till the local fair I’ve rededicated myself to working on fulfilling my set project list.  With that goes lots of planning… and more obsessive list making – because I love lists! (Yes – I have issues). I’ve been trying to come up with as many off the wall things as I can – things people wouldn’t expect to see at a little country fair.

So with that in mind – here’s what I’ve got so far:

• 10. Counted Cross Stitch Picture – Mario Brothers Pattern.
• 14. Crewel Picture – Old School Tattoo style sampler (think Sailor Jerry).
• 27. Hand Knitted Article – Klaralund Sweater in Angora Handspun (this one might be a bit ambitious since I’m wanting to do my handspinning from my own bunnies – yikes!)
• 30. Handmade Toy – Big Sock Monster (look up Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphey).
• 55. Smocked Garment – Smocked/tiered/Sleeveless Gown (again – probably overambitious but we’ll see.  I’m thinking of a gussied up sheath type thing that’s almost see-through. It looks neat in my head – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).
• 56. Soft Sculpture Article – a Felted Lanscape of some sort.
• 58. Tatted Article – a Tatted Baby Bonnet
• 98. Large Gourd / 99. Small Gourd – not sure how much planning I can do for these two yet – still waiting to see how many of my gourds make it though the winter and the drying process. It should be weird though.
• 112. Hobby Article – a Macrame’ Purse. (How much Macrame’ do you see anymore, really).
• 115. Jewelry – This thing is going to be all natural and therefore a bit freeform depending on what materials I wind up with. I’m thinking of an Egyptian Collar type design made mainly with polished twigs from a fruit tree (apple/cherry/peach) with spacers made up of gourd shards, and somehow work in some thin slices of either this thick shelled nut that’s around here or maybe some other seed pod. Again it’ll depend on what I find on my nature walk when it warms up.
• 118. Novelty – a Warhammer Terrain Piece. Not sure what it will consist of but it’ll definitely be 2′x2′. I’ve actually got a bunker started… it’s been languishing in my studio since the weather changed…
• 128. Recycled Art – Steampunk Dollhouse! I could probably spend the next few months just on this one! I’ve got an old 5 drawer dresser that the back legs broke off of and the veneer is in really bad shape; I think it would make a great dollhouse – and of course since I’m wanting to weird everyone out I’m thinking goth/steampunk!  Plus steampunk is the essence of recycling – buy/find old appliances – tear ‘em appart and reassemble the parts in funky ways. I’ll need to find some old dolls and jazz them up as well.

That leaves me with 24 undecided projects – 22 if you take out the 2 photography categories. Not much planning involved in that one (at the moment), I’m just going to take lots of pictures in the next 6 1/2 months and see which ones I like the most.

If anybody’s got an ideas, let me know!

There will be T-shirts people, oh yes there will!

Participants will get a free shirt once they’ve finished their 1st project and submitted a photo - I’ll have to figure out the cost of production for folks who want a shirt to show support.

For those readers unfamiliar with the contest just click the tab at the top of the page that says ‘ County Fair Craft Competition ‘… or here - there’s a $50 gift card to the creative outlet of your choice (see the rules for examples) for the winner!

Good luck everybody – let’s get our Craft On!

This is the cross stitch pattern I came up with for one of my 37 Projects Entries. I love it! The music from the game has been playing in my head since I got this idea.

This was done totally on Excel – if anyone is interested I may post the ‘how’ – just let me know.  If anyone wants a copy of the file so you can stitch your own tribute the best game ever I’ll be happy to send it to you.

There was some question as to whether or not it would be allowed by the Fair judges since the imagery is copywritten… but images in cross stitch kits are copywritten also so I’m thinking the rules would be the same and it would be admissable. 

I’ll probably check with them before I start – ’cause this thing is huge! It’s graphed for 14 Aida cloth (14 squares per inch) so that comes to… 16″ wide x 24″ tall… ouch! It may take me all year just to do this one project!

But it is supercool…

***OK – so that fabric panel quilt was legit – when I was retyping the full category list for posting there is a category for printed panel… but still***

On the bright side, there was some very nice black & white photography, the 2 smocked pieces (by the same person) were cute, and there was a darling crocheted child’s dress with a beret.

To make the whole dismal affair even drearier, the items were all just kind of tossed up onto metal retail shelving that looked like it had been salvaged from the old Roses store when it closed 15 years ago. I mean, come on people! Goody’s just went out of business a few months ago.  Are you telling me in this town of doctors and lawyers galore that no one could scrape up a bit of dough to buy new-ish displays from them? They were cheap as hell!  Cindy M got 20 torso mannequins for like $15.

I was heartily disappointed.

I’m thinking about speaking with our county extension agent about the whole thing.

And I’m a bit more determined about the ’37 Projects’.  In fact I’m starting a new category on here just for that.

I’ve decided that for # 4 (Counted Cross Stitch Sampler) – I’m going to do an homage to the Mario Brothers… ‘cause they’re awesome.

For # 3 (Counted Cross Stitch Picture) – I’m going to look into that photo to cross stitch conversion software… If it’s cheap enough I may take some photos of a gothic still-life type thing and turn that into a cross stitch pattern.

I may have to talk to my man Eric D about setting up a 37 Projects page…

NOW I CHALLENGE YOU ALL!

I want you to match me! I know 37 projects is a lot – and I doubt I’ll actually DO 37 projects… but we need a better Crafter presence at these Community Events. So I want you to make a list of the categories you are interested in participating in and match me Completed Object for Completed Object! There’s only 1 entry per category but a lot of craft types have several categories – (there’s at least 6 for cross stitch and 10 or 12 for quilting, etc).

So come on! Get started! Send me your lists and progress reports! Send me pictures of your FO’s and I’ll post them here! I’m thinking there might even be a $50 gift certificate to the craft store of your choice in it for the winner…

It’s the 1^st Annual 37 Projects Challenge!