As the deadline for the 2018 North Carolina State Fair draws nearer, I have made a point of making sure that each day I do something that moves me forward on my state fair piece. Sometimes it goes slowly, and sometimes — as seems to have happened, this past couple of days — things click, and so my progress on the crochet crazy quilt continues.

The other day, when I finished crocheting a crazy quilt piece I think of as a linchpin for the project, I also finished work on an edge piece, and that edge piece was the focus of my efforts yesterday when I watched the Durham Bulls play their last regular season game.

I had it in my head that I wanted something that evoked hollyhocks. Several internet searches later, I came up with a simple stem stitch for the stalk with a thirteen wrap bullion/French knot for the hollyhock:

Satisfied that I was on the right track, I continued in my efforts and was pleased with the effect when it was done:

Then I placed the piece along the edge where it would be joined to the panel. Here is how the corner in question looked five days ago:

and here is how it looked today shortly before the increasingly earlier sunset:

Before I put it all away, I wanted to step back and get an overview so that I could better see what still needed to be done:

A careful review of the photo leads me to think another twelve or thirteen crochet pieces left to be made for this crazy quilt panel, and those, or course will need to be tricked out and seamed, but I will move forward with focus and a crochet hook, one stitch at a time.