Fair Time!

If you have never had the wonderful opportunity to experience your local fair, don't miss it next year! I don't mean just going and riding the rides and eating fair food, but actually participate as an exhibitor. There are so many things you can do for entering an exhibit! Don't miss out on the fun!

I have a cloverbud who exhibited at the fair this year. Cloverbuds are the youngest in 4-H. They are not allowed to exhibit animals until age nine :(((((((((. However, they can do other projects. My little cloverbud hooked a rug! She was so excited to complete this project! I spun the bulky yarn on my spinning wheel, then we dyed it two colors she picked from kool-aid...pink lemonade and grape. When it was dry, she designed a pattern all on her own, coming up with a beautiful large heart in the center surrounded by little hearts all around. I drew the pattern on the burlap for her. She started with the center heart, doing the whole heart by herself. It took awhile! Then she asked if I could help her outline the small hearts, as they were challenging to get just right. She filled them in, then tackled the grape background. I steamed the back when she was done, and stitched the backing down for her. Isn't it great?

She also made a seed poster, showing how seeds can look and feel so much different from each other. We have plenty of seeds laying around here! She came up with a seed flower design to display them, picked out her seeds, glued them on, and wrote all the words describing how they are different. Then she numbered each one and made a key for the bottom, informing the reader what each seed was.

The scrapbook she made is three pages of a hen we own, Sweetie Tweetie, the Buff-Laced Polish. I put a picture of her on a previous blog. The scrapbook is really cute! Also exhibited were Red Norland potatoes she grew, a Johnny Jump-Up violet she started from seed (we had to trellis it to keep it upright, it was so tall and bushy!), fridge magnets and three lovely zinnias she cut from her own garden for a cutflower display! Whew! Seven exhibits, seven ribbons!! What a great experience!

I also had a knitting/spinning student exhibit carded wool, dyed carded wool, and a singles yarn handspun on her drop spindle. Blue ribbons for all! It was a really fun fair, and I cannot wait for next year! Between the fair, AND the farmer's market, we were sure tired on Sunday!