MN State Fair - Day 3 With Sharon, Chickie and DH

Day three, Sunday, was cloudy with a few quick rainstorms. Fortunately we were near the Fine Arts Building at that time, so we ducked into there and looked at the art exhibit, voted for our favorite pieces, and by the time we were done, the rain was too. DH went on ahead and spent several hours on his own looking through things at his own pace. "The girls" and I headed down toward the Creative Activities Building - one of the major stops for us. Again - photo heavy, but lots of wonderful things to share with all of you. 

I'll start out with this lovely 3-D beaded holiday
ornament by my customer, Judy Fey. This was one
of three ornaments she had in the show, one of four
different items she had entered. She won ribbons
on all of her work this year, so was quite happy. 

Sara Glantz, also a long-time customer, had several
items in the show, all with either 1st or 2nd
place awards. This lovely bead-embroidered necklace
was stunning. 

Kelly Churkland does amazing renditions of artwork in
beads using peyote stitch and Delica beads. They are
all quite large and every one of them is a masterpiece.
Her daughter had requested this one. Award ribbons are
eight inches from top to bottom, so you can get an idea
of the size of this piece. All beaded in small beads, then
mounted and framed. 

In the center of one side of the large building is an area for
demonstrations. There are always at least four different crafts
being demoed in an average day. On Sunday, it was the Weaver's
Guild with spinners in one quarter and weavers in another. I loved
the balloon sheep they were all wearing (head for the back
lady, wrist on the gentleman). 

Moving along to other winners I wanted to share, here's the Muppet
Band, a sweepstakes award winner. It was so fun to see these
guys made out of yarn, but just as exuberant and boisterous as they
would be on TV. 

Every year there is an invitational for the center-front display cast. This
year it was devoted to art glass and these three peas in the pod really
caught me. Each pea uses a different technique for the glass surface, and
they are placed in a shaped piece of glass that has been carved and
roughened for the pod. It was stunning and very difficult to pull off. 

This needlepoint sweepstakes winner was stunning. It was
needlepoint on cardstock, so any/every mistake would
show. The tension had to be perfect and the color choices
had to really meld. So pretty. 

This Halloween alphabet needlepoint had all of us
laughing. Here's what it says if you can't read it easily:
All Hallow's Eve - Bat - Candy - Dress Up - Eek! -  Frog -
Ghost - Haunted House - Icky - Jack O'Lantern - Key - Leaf -
Monster - Nightmare - October - Pumpkin - Quiver -
Really Scary - Spider - Trick or Treat - Ugly - Vampire -
Witch - Xtra Creepy - Yowl - Zombie. 

This embroidered piece had us all stunned. The silk was
treated in three places to pull the color away, the leaves and
grasses, as well as the fireflies were embroidered, single
strand thick. I'm hoping you can see that there are lines going
across from left to right. Each line was a pulled thread from
the silk background, creating a precise dimension and a
real feel of depth. It was outstanding. 

This little needlepoint had all three of us laughing. We all
remember The Monkees with great fondness, and knew
who each one of these small figures were without
a second thought. 

Home arts is also a large part of Creative Activities, with everything
from canned vegetables and pickles to cakes and cookies. Here was
the sweepstakes winner of one branch of the cookies competition - a
pair of perfect macaroons. 

After much more roaming, we finally gathered together at the Frontier
to rest up and to wait for sundown. Here's a rare picture of DH on the
left, and of course, Sharon directly across from me. 

To my right was Chickie. We spent a pleasant hour or so off our feet, and
spent quite a bit of time teaching Sharon about how to use her "new"
upgraded phone. We know there's a lot to learn with the new phones, but
I hope we were some help, showing her different applications we
consider essential. 

I loved the sign across from our table and immediately
thought of my cousin who has a couple of horses on
her land in Colorado. I'm pretty sure she'd agree
with this sentiment. We sat at the Frontier until
sunset, then toured the Midway. The Carnival games
and rides are always more fun with brilliant
neon and lots of noise. We just walk through, we don't
ride anything. 

At the end of the evening, we each bought our final bits of Fair food. I
indulged and had the ice cream sandwich I had been craving and it was
pretty good. Snickerdoodle cookies and vanilla iced cream. I decided
it was worth the calories for a once-a-year treat. 

So there you have it - our final day at the State Fair. It wasn't the end of our adventures, however. On Monday, we all awakened bright and early and headed out to the Renaissance Festival. I'll have some photos of that tomorrow and that will wrap up my photo blogs of my "vacation" with Sharon, Chickie and DH. I promise, more bird photos, because they're so beautiful and amazing to watch. In the meantime, have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow.