Blue Ribbon Dreams

On Thursday, August 21 hundreds and thousands of people will flood the gates at the Minnesota State Fair. They will eat corn dogs and cheese curds, visit the Oink Barn and the giant pumpkin display, search for the elusive deep dried candy bar and critique the craftsmanship of every item lurking in the Creative Activities building.


For the third year in a row, they will train their eyes to my own project. This year I will enter my van Gogh rug, my own little bit of insanity, for consideration, a possible ribbon, and a possible $8 prize. In 2006, I entered a coat I made from handwoven fabric. That was my among my first 5 projects and the first thing I've sewn since junior high and yet it won the grand prize. Last year I entered 2 projects: a handtowel and a woven portrait of Audrey Hepburn. No grand prize, but a blue ribbon for the portrait. I'm not sure the van Gogh rug is worthy of a purple ribbon, but hopefully it will get a blue one for it's category: Lot 250 -- woven rug, other than rag, warp-faced.

Inspired by a van Gogh painting of the artist's own room, my rug was finished way behind schedule on April 21, 2008. I counted and measured approximately 2000 pieces of yarn, strung these strands one-by-one through the loom's heddles and reed, and stuffed it with 3 or 4 pounds of thick, blue mop yarn. This photo shows me preparing the loom for weaving -- I had to sit underneath it in order to tie the pedals to the harnesses which would control the pattern. With the help of my extraordinary teacher, Kelly Marshall, I used a traditional Scandinavian weaving technique called rep weave to make this rug; rep weave just means that it has a ribbed texture that feels great on the feet.

UPDATE: I won the blue!