Upcoming! 2025 Tanana Valley State Fair, Fairbanks, Alaska: I am looking forward to entering more pieces into more events…so much fun to plan for!
- My goal is to submit twice as many items as I did in 2022 (for a total of eight items). Here we go!
2024: Due to the time I spent saving my father’s life (I was his only available caretaker after his kidney transplant), I did not participate in the Fair this year.
- The items I had planned to enter..? You can find them now featured on this website!
2023 Tanana Valley State Fair, Fairbanks, Alaska: 28 July-6 August 2023
- Blue Ribbon: Division A, Class 1 — Clothing/Scarf: Zucchini Rows, with 100% baby alpaca warp and weft, which helped create a super-soft texture with the “garden path crackle weave” pattern, from Marguerite Porter Davidson’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book (ninth printing, 1971), combined with the skipped dent technique.
- Blue Ribbon: Division C, Class 4 — Woven Household Goods/Towels: Waffle & Twill Towel Set, with 100% cotton warp and weft. This bright set of three cloths is based on a design by Sue Anne Sullivan.
- Blue Ribbon & Don’t Go Bacon My Heart Theme Award: Division D, Class 1 — Decorative Weavings/Miniature: Cheeky Pig, self-designed pattern, with cotton seine twine warp and 100% wool weft. My 1st experiment making a figure using tapestry techniques.
2022 Tanana Valley State Fair, Fairbanks, Alaska: 29 July-7 August 2022
- First Place: Division C, Class 1 — Woven Household Goods/Blanket: Purple Honeycomb Sparkle, blanket, pattern designed by Sarah Resnick, with warp of 100% 4/8 Brassard cotton (‘natural’) & weft of Caron Crystal Cakes 64% acrylic, 24% polyester, 7% nylon, 5% metallic yarn (‘dusk’ and ‘amaranth’), hemstitched, regular fringe. The waffle weave technique blends with the two distinct fibers to give the blanket a delightfully cozy 3-dimensional look and feel.
- First Place & Class Champion: Division A , Class 1 — Woven Clothing/ Scarf: Deflected Doubleweave Scarf, pattern designed by Elizabeth Springett, with warp & weft of 100% silk noil (‘denim’) and 100% cotton (‘licorice’), hemstitched, twisted fringe. I love how the deflected doubleweave technique creates a fabric with both a visual pattern and a 3-D-esque texture. The two similar sides of the scarf each have a distinctive look, making this a fun reversible scarf to wear.
- First Place & Class Champion: Division D, Class 1 — Decorative Weavings/Miniature: Heart Balloon, self-designed pattern, with warp of 100% 4/8 Maysville cotton (‘white’) & weft of yarns pulled from my leftover knitting yarn stash. This is my first venture into lap-loom tapestry weaving and I experimented with different weaving and binding-off techniques. Currently a decorative hanging, this piece may eventually become half of a cute over-the-shoulder bag for a young girl.
- First Place, Class Champion, & Sheepherder in Paradise Theme Award: Class 3— Table Linen: Helianthus Blooms Shifting in the Sun, table runner designed using the ‘Berea Sunflower’ pattern from Marguerite Porter Davidson’s “A Handweaver’s Pattern Book”, with warp & weft of 2/12 worsted spun wool (warp colors: ’daffodil’, shades 1&2, and ‘marigold’, shades 1&2; weft colors: ‘tangerine’, shades 1&2, and ‘cayenne’, shades 1&2), hemstitched, regular fringe. The pattern’s large overshot technique delineates the shape of the flowers, creating a design that is mirrored on the fabric’s reverse side. Blending the graduated tones at the transition between each red, orange, and yellow helps give the idyllic impression that living sunflower blossoms are following the path of the sun.
