OC Fair Entry Results

The Orange County fair was fun as always this year! My sweetie and I went once just the two of us and again later with some friends. There was lots of delicious (yet oversized) food, cool animals, and of course, lots of fun art! Of course one of the first items of business was to stop by the Fiber Arts building to see how my entries did!

I was delighted on my first visit to see a 2nd place ribbon on my mermaid tail for the crocheted blanket category!

None of my other entries had any ribbons on them at the time, so I figured that was it. Then on our 2nd visit, I noticed a Staff Award on my knit Captain America dress! This is a discretionary award given to exhibits that the judges feel deserve recognition. What a nice surprise!

Another favorite from the fair this year was the Fur, Feathers, and Fiber exhibit, which of course included a display of different kinds of yarn and fabrics, and the plants and animals used to make them. My favorite example was this adorable French Angora bunny. Not only is it a sweet and cuddly pet, but when the bunny starts to shed you can take the loose fur and make soft and beautiful yarn! How perfect is that?

I hope everyone is enjoying the last couple weeks of summer and getting ready for some fun fall crafts!

-Assunta

Orange County Fair Entries

The Orange County Fair is just around the corner! I actually forgot about it until the day before the entries were due, oops! Luckily I had a few things ready:

1) I enjoyed watching my favorite yarn from the LA Yarn Crawl turn into this awesome rainbow shawl! Lace shawls are pretty common at the fair and I didn't win anything for the one I entered last year, but I thought I would give this one a try just because the yarn is so cool. The pattern for this shawl is available on Ravelry (not my design) and is called Mother of Dragons.

2) Next, because I am such a super-hero nerd I just had to make myself this Captain America sweater dress from the book Geek Knits! Normally, I struggle with modeling my projects so I asked a friend--who is a model herself and an excellent photographer--for some help with the posing and picture taking.

My last entry is my mermaid tail, which you've all seen and which has already had a couple of pattern sales on Etsy and Ravelry!

Because the OC fair gets such a huge volume of applicants, there is a juried selection process before entries are shown at the fair. Then there is yet another judging process to decide which things actually win prizes! I find out on Monday if any of my entries are selected for the fair. Wish me luck!

-Assunta 

OC Fair Results!

This past Sunday, the husband and I decided to brave the opening-weekend crowds at the Orange County Fair. We shared a funnel cake, said "hi" to all the animals, and of course stopped by the fiber arts building to see how my entries did. What I didn't do was take any pictures, so I will make sure to do that next time we go.

I was pleased to see that my crocheted rose got 2nd Place and my crocheted cactuse got 3rd! The dress I sewed got Honorable Mention, which still isn't bad, but my knit lace shawl didn't place. I was surprised because I thought it was the best thing I entered, but there were a lot of knit shawls so the competition was pretty tough.

So that I don't sign off without showing you something pretty this week, here is my latest Tour de Fleece progress:

The Tour officially concludes on the 24th, but spinning updates will continue until this yarn is done. There's still a lot of fiber left in the bag!

-Assunta

Orange County Fair 2016

The Orange County Fair has is coming to town! This year is a little different from previous years. They've been getting so many entries they've had to add a whole extra round of judging just to decide which stuff will be shown at the fair.

 I got my results back and here is what I will be showing:

 My crocheted rose and cactus made it into the fair...

So did the dress I made back in December...

And my knit lace shawl...

Lastly, you may remember these two little guys from the Newport Beach Art Exhibition last year. I decided to give them another shot by entering them in the fair, but alas, they didn't make it. I tried entering them in the Visual Arts category, which had over 6,000 entries. I'm not too disappointed, given how tough the competition is this year.

I'll let you all know what the final results of the fair are. Happy summer!

-Assunta

Orange County Fair Results!

My Sweetie and I had a chance to go to the fair this weekend and here is what we found in the craft and hobby department!

My wedding dress won second place in its division!

Here it is with some of the other dresses that were entered. I especially love the Day of the Dead and Oogie Boogie costumes on the far left!

My ruby slippers and Cinderella shoes got 3rd place and honorable mention!

I'm really happy with how well I did, especially beacause of how good the competition was and how many entries there were!

The whole fair was huge and there were so many cool things, we want to go back again!

With cotton candy wishes,

Assunta

The OC Fair starts this weekend!

I am in Portland, Oregon visiting friends and family this week but for those of you in Orange County, the fair starts this Friday, the 19th! It looks like it's going to be awesome, with lots of live entertainment, food, rides, and of course, all the great handmade stuff competing for ribbons!

I'm not sure exactly how the award process works, but if you get to vote, please consider voting for my wedding dress and miniature shoes in the sewing and crochet sections of the Fiber Arts category. Here is a link to the fair website if you would like to know more: http://www.ocfair.com/2015/

Wedding Dress

Cinderella Slippers

Bridal Red Bottom Shoes

Ruby Slippers

The fair runs through August 16th. I can't wait to check it out when I am back in town! 

Save some cotton candy for me,

Assunta

Cinderella Shoes and Orange County Fair Entries

You've all seen my entries for the Newport Beach Art Exhibition, which I applied for last week. Now I'm finalizing my entries for the Orange County Fair, which is coming up in July!

I haven't prepared anything big for the fair this year, but I just finished these Cinderella slippers, inspired by the new movie:

Here's what the movie shoes look like.

Here are some more Cinderella-blue shoes. I'm not entering these in the fair, they will go straight to Etsy!

I've decided to enter my mini Ruby Slippers, which you've all seen before.

Again, the movie version.

And I may enter a pair of the bridal Louboutins, I haven't decided on these yet.

Lastly, you may recognize this wedding dress, which I will be entering in the fair as well.

I'm so excited for this year! I'm sad to be missing out on the Multnomah County Fair, which I have done the last few years and is always a ton of fun. The Orange County Fair will be fun in a completely different way, though. And the fairgrounds are huge! There will be so much to see!

Dreaming of ribbons and elephant ears,

Assunta