This was the message that greeted me when I went to check the North Carolina State Fair website to see if there were any anticipated delays in light of the damage wrought by Florence, I learned that:

1) there are no delays, and
2) there are just twenty-two days and twenty-one hours until I learn the fate of what is destined to be my 2018 North Carolina State Fair crochet project

What that means that I have less than twenty-two days and twenty-one hours to get my state fair piece done, and while I am reasonably certain I will get the project finished this year, as previous years have shown, this project is not about reason, it’s about detail, and there are lots of details to go around.

Lots.

The detail that I first worked on these past two days is a gap almost in the center of the piece that is just to the right of one fan and just to the left of another. I had to crochet a piece with a very pointy-point, and worsted weight yarn does not lend itself to that, but with a 5.0 mm hook, some yarn of a colorway called “tomato,” and enough fiddling, I was able to create a piece that will (when seamed) fit perfectly:

Another area of concern to me was on center far-right edge. I needed to trick out several crochet crazy quilt pieces before I seamed them because it is easier to do when you aren’t working with a huge piece. Using pictures of embroidered irises as a guide, I came up with this which evokes, rather than resembles, the flowers that inspired it:

and with all of that done, it was ready to be seamed into place:

When that was done, I took a much needed break and stood up to get this photo that measures my overall progress:

along with this view that is a “detail” of the detail:

I know that the days between now and the October 7 deadline at high noon will pass very quickly, and I will be working furiously between now and then, one stitch at a time.