You may recall seeing this rocket ship as a work in process - that was awhile back in this post. Yes ... I finally got over my frustration of miss counting and finished it.
Anyway, since the Minnesota State Fair runs the last two(ish) weeks of August, Creative Arts submissions are due at the beginning of that month. Well ... technically there are two cut off dates.
First - you have to register your submission online. This year's cut off date for that was August 6th.
Second - you have to physically deliver your submission ... this process varies depending on if you decide to mail in or hand deliver. Since I chose to hand deliver, and I was in the needlecraft category, my window of delivery was August 10th through 12th.
Below is my recap of this process ... and my final results. I'm sharing details in the hope that you might consider entry in future fairs.
PLEASE DO IT! I don't want to be one of the only people under 40 standing in line for submission again next year.
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Registration
If you're new to submitting works to the fair, I will admit - this part is very confusing.
First, you have to figure out your Creative Arts category:
Then, you need to read through the Premium Book for your craft of choice to determine what sub category to enter.
Ok - you tell me what category/sub I qualify for in Needlecraft. DERP! This is harder than you'd think!
Of course this part is pretty obvious:
But then ... what next?
Since it wasn't abundantly clear how to select my category, I needed help. Obviously the rocket ship is not a sampler or piece focusing on lettering ... so I figured I belonged in the picture - framed category ... but what size?
Not knowing if I should enter based on frame size or image size, I emailed the help desk. Turns out what they told me was wrong (enter on frame size), so I registered my 8x10" framed entry in Counted Cross Stitch 172.
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Delivery
Being I was on vacation through the 10th, I opted to drop off my work August 11th. On delivery day, I took my son with me and made an event of it. After all, this is "his" cross stitch - it lives in his bedroom when not being displayed at the fair, so I thought he ought be a part of the entry process.
In reality, he wasn't so much into the submission process as he was into testing out empty fair benches. Ok, whatever.
On the plus side, the staff helping at intake was very excited to see a child involved in the process and made a BIG deal about him being there and sharing "his" piece. My son wavered in between being proud and shy, but landed on excited when they gave him his own "50th Anniversary of the Giant Slide" button. (The things that excite a 3 year old!)
As part of the entry process, staff took measurements of my piece and noted I had entered into the wrong category. Instead of frame size, measurement is done based on finished piece size. No big deal - they just crossed out 172 on my entry slip and corrected it to 171.
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Fair Time!
Submitting an item for judging is a nerve wracking process. First of all, you have no idea if you even placed unless you (or someone you know) goes to look at the fair. Plus, there's no guarantee of display.
Figuring the worst that could happen is my piece not be displayed and people couldn't find it, I threw caution to the wind and announced on all my social platforms "I'm going to be on display at the fair!"
This created a fun, 2+ week long social feed from all sorts of folks posting pics of, and selfies with, my work. But regardless of who sent me what photos - I have to admit, there was really no comparison of seeing my work on display in person (despite it being displayed upside down - LOL!).
And of course, I had to take the obligatory selfie in front of my work.
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Placement Scoring
As apparent in the photos above, my finished work did not ribbon. Darn! But, knowing my submission category alone had 24 entries, and that this was my first year competing ... I can't complain. At least I was displayed!
Wanting to compare my work to winning pieces (to understand what makes a ribbon worthy submission), I decided to look for the winners in category 171. That was a bit of a chore, as Creative Arts displays are done to be visually aesthetic - thus, item placement is in total disregard to category or ribbon placement.
After spending over an hour trying to find the ribbons in my category - no exaggeration - I finally figured out 1st place was miss labeled as 172 and finally got all of 171 photographed.
Using this as a reference point, I figured out First through Fifth per the photos below.
Aside from seeing your work at the fair and any possible ribbon awards, all other details in regards to judging are released after the fair at submission pickup time - that's when I was pleased to see that although I am a self taught newbie with less than 10 years "experience" in the craft, I still managed to score a 90/100. Hey - that's an A in an average grade book! Heh!
Most of my points were lost in:
- Design: Structural and Decorative (read: framing, 2 lost out of 20)
AND
- Workmanship (read: inexperience in my craft, 6 lost out of 40 ... I was disappointed to lose so many points in this category since it's really the judgment of your skill level - but at least this is the easiest one to improve on, since this year I just picked my best/most showy completed work rather than pre-planning my entry and primping it in advance)
I also lost a single point out of 10 in both "Beauty & Charter" and "Condition of Article" (read: I should have ironed my work better).
The hand written feedback points included:
- Frame goes well with piece. Interesting choice of round mat cut in square frame.
(Me: I wonder what this means ... is interesting good or bad?)
- Centered under circle opening in mat quite well.
- This is an interesting piece. Stitching covers ground fabric quite well except in darkest areas where ground fabric shows through - stitch tension? Or should another strand of floss be used?
(Me: To me, this is personal preference, and I feel like a light ground showing through ultra dark floss is to be somewhat expected when stitching ... plus I don't like the look of 3 strands on 18 count fabric, but that's me)
- Piece seems lumpy in areas where there are many color changes. Did you stitch in hand or use a frame/hoop?
(Me: Not sure the reason for the hoop question, but the lumpiness is due to the fact that I kind of suck at ironing cross stitches, and also I was afraid to use too much heat and melt the silver metallic threads in the "stars")
- Is this a digitized version of a photo/picture? If so it could have been entered in the original category.
(Me: No, LOL! I'm just really good at picking the strange and obscure in life, though I did 100% choose all the colors in this pattern myself because I couldn't find the pattern source when I decided I wanted to make it)
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Takeaways
Based on the winners in my category, I do have to admit I have some personal concerns that I might never ribbon. Why?
Well - a few factors.
(1) Full coverage
As you can see in my rocket ship, I had a fair amount of blank/white space around my finished work. Most of my competition stitched all of their fabric from corner to corner - this is called full coverage. Since I tend to choose pieces with blank spots as part of the design, this may cause me to lose points in the eyes of judges.
(2) Framing
When looking at cross stitch winners in all categories, it became apparent that judges seem to favor works with expensive, professional frame jobs - sometimes to the point of being overdone and distracting to the cross stitch itself. Since I prefer a clean, modern aesthetic, and also have no intention of spending hundreds of dollars on professional frame jobs just to win a fair ribbon, this may cause me to lose points in the eyes of the judges as well.
(3) Finishing
This one I can try to work on at least. Both my stitching and ironing skills need work. From a stitch perspective, I learned I need to make even cleaner and more consistent stitches while I work. From an ironing perspective - yes, I do know how to iron, but you try ironing a delicate item like a finished cross stitch and see how well YOU get wrinkles out! LOL!
And finally ...
(4) My ultimate fear is that judges are swayed by personal taste, and being under 40 ... I'm not exactly doing "traditional" work in a category saturated by women much my senior. Since I refuse to put tens to hundreds of hours of work into a piece I don't care for aesthetically, it's very possible that I will never choose a piece that is "ribbon worthy" to the judges.
Regardless of my personal concerns ... will I try again next year?
As they say in Minnesota ...
Ya, sure, you betcha!
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