Showing Off

The Melbourne Show started today, which means the results are in for the Art and Craft competition. This year I entered two classes/categories: Doiley in Cotten or Linen Thread and Original Design.

For the Original Design I entered my Dino Bug. For the Doiley I tried something different - colour.



The pattern is the Water Lily Doiley from the Paragon Crochet Book number 122. I chose it because it had the little 3D flowers on it. They do make it completely useless as a doiley, but they do look lovely. The thread is Guttermans 100% cotton and I used my favorite 0.5mm crochet hook.

Here's a close up of the flowers, just so you can appreciate how much work went into them. Each petal is joined and crocheted separately, which means I had to sew in over 80 ends. Just for the record, I will not be making another one of these.



I thought the flowers were looking a little messy, so I tried sugar starching. I went wrong somewhere and the whole piece ended up covered in white powder. It did starch nicely though, I could have used it as a frisbee.




Fortunately sugar washes out fairly easily, and a little spray starch was all that I needed in the end. Even better the judges at the Show must have liked it. It won First Prize! Now I just have to go in and see what beat the Dino Bug.