Last night, shortly before I settled in to work on my state fair project until it was done, I decided that I should double check the entry deadline which turned out to be a good thing because I had nowhere near as much time as I thought I had, and when all was said and done, I finished with just 30 minutes to spare.

For reasons unknown to me now, I had it in my head that the deadline to turn in entries was October 8, at 1:00 pm, and I had been annoyed that two hours had been lopped off last year’s deadline time, but my recheck showed that three hours had been lopped off the deadline time; I had to have my project turned in by noon.

With no time to waste, I fortified myself with coffee, grabbed my hook and got to work.

As a late night stretched into an early morning, I crocheted one stitch, then another, and still another.

The stitches accumulated, and by two in the morning I had finished the largest of the last three pieces needed to finish the project. I wove in ends and then started on the last two pieces.

By the time my son got up for breakfast, I had nearly finished one of the two remaining pieces and had a good start on the second.

After I got my son on the bus and took Clooney for an abbreviated walk, I resumed work on the state fair project. Then, around nine o’clock, finally confident that I would finish all of the border pieces in time, I began the task of joining them — first one side, and then another. By 10:30, all that was left was to weave in few ends, trim them, and take pictures.

The last item on the list proved to be more of a challenge than I had expected. It had rained yesterday, and I had squeegeed the deck earlier in the morning in the hope that it would dry.

Two hours later the deck was dry enough, but it was not wide enough.

The two green border pieces I had added to either side had made the project too wide to lay smoothly on the deck — what, I wondered, was a crocheter to do?

The light in my living room was not spectacular, but it was serviceable, so I pushed the furniture out of the way, swept up as much dog and cat hair as I could, then laid out the completed piece.

Here is a photo that highlights the color work:

here is one that highlights the texture:

and here is a view of the entire piece in the best light I was able to find on this always overcast, sometimes rainy day:

And now that the 2012 North Carolina State Fair project is behind me, I am ready to move forward to whatever crochet adventure awaits.