It's (nearly) Fair Time!

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Summer means lots of things to lots of people, but I think many would agree that "The Fair" is a summer must. No matter where you live, fond memories of local county fairs abound.

For me & mine this means the Washington County Fair on Route 29 in Greenwich, NY. (The fair is technically in the Town of Easton, but as Easton has no post office, or even one, unified zip code, the address says Greenwich. Bear with me, the historian in me is coming out. Let me switch gears again.) It is, arguably, the best county fair in NY State.

Anyway, Mom & I have decided to (gasp) enter some of our projects in the fair! Why had we not thought of this before? Mom has been quilting for nearly 20 years & she used to win awards for her clothes when she was in 4-H. The quilt divisions tend to be pretty competitive, but Mom did get 3rd place in the NY State DAR competition!

The needlework/embroidery/cross-stitch divisions tend to be a bit more open. I have quite a few pieces that fit into the categories. Plus, two more projects I need to complete before the middle of August. All told, we are submitted 6 items each!

portrait of Fiona in progress- based on a selfie

Oh, & Mom has a new blog! Check it out here...

Current project- Town of Greenwich, NY

The annual Whipple City Days festival is occurring next weekend & mom & I signed up to do the craft fair. Well, mom signed up & is taking some of my stuff because, as duly appointed public historian for the beautiful Town of Greenwich, I will have a booth of my own.

I decided to work on some different kind of projects in the hopes of making a sale (it's been a while).

Town of Greenwich design traced out on tea towel

This particular pattern I created myself for a quilt project by a professional organization I belong to, Association of Public Historians of New York State (APHNYS). I blogged about it before in my Greenwich History blog. Check out that post here. I just "googled it" & found an image of the quilt with my 2 blocks included!

Embroidering Susan B. Anthony in Redwork

 Since the tea towel has red stripes, I chose to do Redwork, which is my embroidery of choice. Susan B. Anthony (displayed in progress above) & her family lived in Battenville & Center Falls. Susan even taught school in the area. As a Quaker, she was active in the Temperance Movement before devoting her life to the passage of a national suffrage amendment.

The image of Chester Alan Arthur (21st president) came from the book Presidential Redwork: A Stitch in Time by Michael Buckingham. Arthur lived in Greenwich while his father William was pastor of the local Baptist church.

Finished tea towel in Redwork

Below is the finished tea towel. I think I will do this pattern again in green & place it in a hoop for wall art.

If you are out-&-about in Upstate NY next weekend (6/14 & 6/15) my mom (Just-A-Duck) & I will be there on Saturday, 6/15 from 9:00-6:00 p.m. For more on Whipple City Days click here.