Houston County Fair Entries 2011

Here are two garments I entered in the fair. The black apron I'm proud of, and it won a blue ribbon. The eyelet blouse I entered because I said I would enter a blouse and I did not have time to make a better one. It's okay. It won a red ribbon, and probably did not even deserve that much.

The apron has a little story behind it. Last spring, when Lisa Fruitful were making costumes for The Sound of Music, I quickly made a black half apron with colored rickrack trim for one of the older von Trapp girls. It was very striking from a safe distance, not so great close up because I was in a huge rush by that point and it was, after all, just a costume. But the drama coach Tammy Manning just loved it. So I redid the idea, taking my time and finishing seams and putting the rickrack on for keeps this time, and now that the fair is over, I have given it to Tammy to keep. I took a picture to keep with the blue ribbon it won.

On Sunday, when Lil Miss A and I drove back to the fair to pick up our stuff, we passed a pile of free stuff on a curb. Caledonia has a lot of garage sales during fair days because of all the added traffic. I had not gotten to go to any of them and was sad. Yet here was a lovely pile of garage sale leftovers with a big FREE sign on them. Even better! Look what I got:

It's an old suitcase with real travel stickers on it, mostly from Europe, though I see Florida on there too. I'm very excited. Can't believe nobody bought this at whatever price they were willing to take for it rather than leave it in the free pile, it could not have been much.

Saturday's Apron: Playing Catch Up

You want to know my favorite kind of blog contest? - The kind where I win, of course! I have been on a real winning streak lately. I haven't told you about all of them, and it's time to catch up. Plus since most of the prizes were aprons, I'll combine this with a Saturday's Apron post.

First of all, I won this cutie pie from Christine of Pies & Aprons. A cute, diamond-shaped half apron with a tulip print and lots of pretty yellow rickrack trim.

Next, I won Michael's blogversary contest, the one I linked for you here. See, it all comes out in the wash.

As did these pretty aprons that he sent. A wash, starch and session on the clothesline, then a touch-up with an iron, and they are all ready for another few years helping out in the kitchen. First is this cobbler's smock style apron. I'm not normally a big fan of them, and this one looks silly on the dress form, but it looks unusually cute on ME.

 

Next is this full apron with a cute heart-shaped pocket decorated with rickrack. Love, love, love.

But wait, there's more! Here's my favorite of the aprons from Michael:

It was made of a blue and white border print. It fits so cute, and I feel gorgeous in it. I need to make more just like it. Where are my border prints, anyway? :)

Michael also sent more goodies:

Fabric trims, rickrack and gift wrap ribbons:

And a cute little souvenir plate for Missouri, about 4 inches across:

That's all the prizes. I also bought this little half apron with big comfy useful pockets at a garage sale. It's not pretty, it's just a hard workin' little apron.

The print fabric is all pockets. See what I mean?

And finally, I have to show off a really beautiful apron that I bought from Cate's Vintage Linens in Arizona. She has closed her blogs and so I can't link for you. I miss her! Anyway, this appears to be an unused cotton apron. I love it so much. I plan to make more just like it. I think there would be quite a demand for them.

I don't have any really handy ways to store and show off full aprons. Any thoughts, anyone?

Saturday's Apron: Houston County (MN) Fair Winners

I entered 2 aprons in the Houston County Fair this year. One you have seen before, and one I made specifically for the fair. Here they are:


The purple and green one is a clothespin apron. Both are blue ribbon winners, as you can see, but don't get too excited; for some reason, nobody else put any aprons in the fair this year! So they not only got first place, they also got last.

The family did well this year!

Lil Miss A entered black cherry jam, the first time she has ever made it. Our friends Carol and Fred Reese stopped by on their way back home after a vacation in Glacier National Park and brought us a bunch of black cherries that they had picked at a pick-your-own orchard. Lil Miss A made some of them into jam.

A blue ribbon! And she had PLENTY of competition, unlike her mama. I'm very proud.

Here is the Shelf of Fame for the preserved foods category:

Kieffer (he told me to quit messing around and just use his name, he uses it on the Internet all the time anyway) dried cherry tomatoes as his entry in the Preserved Foods category. He cut them in half, scooped out the guts with a watermelon baller, and then dried them on racks on the back porch for a couple of days. We got this idea from Judy Laquidara's blog. And look at that: Second place! I knew he faced stiff competition, because there was a jar of lovely dried morel mushrooms there when I dropped off his cherry tomatoes.

Good job, son!

I entered my red currant jelly but it didn't win any prizes. I'm not really surprised. My jelly is usually cloudy.

And now (drumroll please) comes BARRY STAHL who entered two categories with his ceramics: A woodfired piece (which won a first prize) and two of his bottles (which won a giant purple ribbon)!

He looked around at the photography, scoffed at the judging, and then wondered where the professional photography exhibits were. There weren't any at all this year. Next year we mean to fix that.

Now a little show of some of the other exhibits that I thought were great:

Floral arrangements

Woven rugs. The tan colored one was made of jute twine.

Vikings Stadium depicted as an afghan.

This awesome handbag embellished with tons of old Bakelite and other early plastic buttons and doojobbers. Want.

We didn't stay very long. I am not feeling very well today (I'm supposed to be driving to the Twin Cities right now for my 30th high school reunion, and I'm staying home feeling sorry for myself instead), so it stopped being fun pretty quickly. We didn't even check out the 4-H sheep and they are normally a must see. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I'll feel better.

Saturday's Apron: Apron hooks!

No new aprons, but Barry put hooks up for me to hang a few aprons in the kitchen. He also hung that vintage GE clock.

The Return of Saturday's Apron: A repro of a cute homemade vintage apron

This apron is made of vintage and new fabric and is from the design of an apron one of the women of our church brought one Sunday when she would be working in the kitchen. She said her grandmother had made it. She kindly allowed me to bring it home to write down the design. It's made of two fabrics, a cotton print and a cotton organdy underneath. I reproduced it using pieces of a pretty polished cotton chintz (vintage) and new white cotton organdy bought on eBay from seller Exclusive Silks.  I used vintage bias edging, too.  It turned out so pretty that if I don't come up with something I like better, it's going to be my fair entry apron this year.

Fresh rhubarb, April 2010

Fresh rhubarb, April 2010
Originally uploaded by sweetgaldecals

The rhubarb is going crazy this year. It got an early start and has been very happy with the weather. (Catherine, do you recognize the apron? I bought it from you!)

I woke up in a cranky, self-pitying mood this morning, but when I stepped outside to pick the rhubarb, the air in town was scented with lilacs. How could I stay in a rotten attitude with all the lilacs in town working against it?

Tracing old patterns, and migraines

This is one of those posts that give Shallow Thoughts from Iowa its name! Shallow. Anyway, here are two little random tips:

One is, if you're going to trace off an old pattern (and never use the old patterns as is, they are too fragile), use bleached  muslin instead of tracing paper. Much sturdier and it still folds up nice and small for storage. Doesn't slip around on the fabric as you are cutting out the pieces, either.

The other is, I may have found a migraine cocktail that works for me:  One Imitrex, 800 mg ibuprofen and 3 cups of very strong coffee. Rest in a dark room 1 hour. Can I get a hallelujah?

Saturday's Apron: Simplicity 4868 from 1943

This Saturday's apron is just a pattern. But oh, what a pattern. I bought it on eBay at a very tiny price. So it was a tiny splurge. I'm really looking forward to the chance to sew it up pretty.

Dig the seamed stockings. We all dress like that to do housework. Right?

Saturday's Apron: A Dressy Floral Apron

This was a Way Station find: A homemade chiffon apron with pansy motifs added, possibly from an old tablecloth. It's very cute, but I don't wear these (I need something more substantial for my messes). Not sure yet if I'll put it in Lulu's or not; it has some issues, and I like to list things are perfect.

National Tie One On Day (a little early)

National Tie One On Day has nothing to do with what YOU were thinking just then. It's supposed to be a chance for women to encourage other women in the midst of the holiday bustle and fuss. See, you're supposed to make a homemade baked good, possibly bread or maybe something else, wrap it in an apron and give it to a woman in need of encouragement, with a little note offering encouraging words. I made my apron Saturday night because that's when there was time, and as I sewed, I prayed about who it should go to. I got an extremely clear, and rather surprising, answer - a woman I see about 3 times a year and don't know well at all. So I really think it was an answer to my prayer. Since I had an easy way to deliver a gift to her on Sunday I also made a loaf of bread.

A funny thing is that since God had given me this woman's name as the person who needed some encouraging, I assumed that He would also give me the words of encouragement she needed. So I opened the Bible and started searching for the words I was to give her. And instead I kept finding words that really aren't very encouraging - like geneaologies. :o) And proverbs about not eating too much honey, or wisdom calling out at the gates. Very obscure, if it was meant to be encouraging! I ended up just writing her a note saying the truth, that I pray for her, and I do, and I'll keep doing it, too.

Here is the apron and bread I sent. The apron is a disappointment to me because I made it of scraps and wasn't thinking and made the waist sash rather short. I ran out of scraps! Argh!

Houston County Fair

Here is Barry's entry in the home brewed beer class: A Belgian strong ale. (Edited to add: The beer is very clear, that's just condensation on the glass.)



And here is my entry in the Aprons category. There are two subcategories, work aprons and fancy aprons. I put this one in the Work Aprons category. I got a nice compliment from the superintendent of Needle Arts on the workmanship, which means a lot. It's very simple, just gorgeous fabric, and I let the fabric speak rather than fussying it up much as is usually my wont.

Saturday's Apron: A Little Yellow Gingham Apron for E

I made this child-sized apron out of a piece of yellow gingham plaid that I had in my stash, plus some vintage yellow rick-rack that my mother had given me a long time ago. I have been happily drawing on Mom's stash of vintage rick-rack for several years now -- it's so much fun! This little apron with pocket was a gift for my niece, E. The family got to see her last month and hand delivered it to her.

I used an inset of rickrack to hold the body of the apron to the hem section. It looks like perforated paper but should be sturdy enough for a little girl to wear to play. My niece is a great one for pretending.

Please Vote For Our Aprons

The Quilts and More Quarterly Challenge voting is open! Please vote for the best pair of aprons. (Vania and I hope you will like ours best, but please vote honestly.) You can vote once per day per email address.



Honestly, the judges picked most of my favorites. Our competition will be fierce! I especially like the fireman apron and the mixed drink aprons.

Saturday's Apron: A One-Hour Apron for Mrs. Mac

I haven't posted a Saturday's Apron in ages. This one was made as a present for Mrs. Mac. It's from Jona's one-hour apron pattern, only I made it reversible again, and added a pocket to each side.

I chose all the fabric from my stash. I hope it works in her kitchen.

Apron Challenge: We're finalists!!

I just got an e-mail saying Vania and I were chosen as one of the 10 finalist teams for the All People Quilt Apron Challenge!

Voting starts Tuesday, and when it does, you can rest assured that I'll post a whiny, begging, vote-grubbing link. Over and over, probably.

Quilts and More Quarterly Challenge: Aprons!

Remember I told you about my sister-in-law Vania and me entering the All People Quilt Quarterly Challenge? Well, we each finished our aprons a few weeks ago. Vania mailed hers to me so I could do the photographs, and then I returned it to her, and we uploaded them today. I thought I'd show 'em to you here, too.

To see all 6 photos, click here.

Never one to leave well enough alone...

This year for Medical Transcriptionist Week, Webmedx sent each of us a black barbecue apron with the company logo embroidered on the bib.

I like the gift, really I do - when have I EVER said no to an apron? - but I believe that all aprons need pockets, and this one had none.

So I fixed it.





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