One entry has lead to another and another for Joyce Reestman at the county fair

Editor’s note: This is the second of a four-part series leading up to the Antelope County Fair.
By Skylar Reestman
Student intern
When it comes to the Antelope County Fair, many people participate in the same categories. Whether it’s bringing a different canned food, another baked goody, or new plants, in general, people tend to stick to what they are good at. Some will try out a new techniques or ways to perfect it. However, that is not always the case. Joyce Reestman, a community member of Elgin, has decided to bring something new to the upcoming Antelope County Fair this year.
Joyce and her husband Kenny have been participating in the Antelope County Fair for only a few years.
“We always go over there and look in the building. And Karen Kinney said something to me once and she goes ‘why don’t you enter some food?’ I had never thought about it. As she said it’s open class and I go. So Kenny and I talked about it and decided to enter some food products.” Since they started participating in the Antelope County Fair, they have brought many different food items, including potatoes, spicy pickled beans, green beans jelly and some Bloody Mary pickles.
However, this year, Joyce made the decision to bring her first craft item, a counted-cross stitch of the Last Supper. Cross Stitch is a form of sewing using DMC thread and a pattern. “So first you have to find your center on your cloth. And you see each hole is a square so you go up one, down there, and up and down and you make your x” Joyce said when explaining how to do the counted-cross stitching to make an x-shaped stitch. When doing cross stitching, Joyce follows a pattern from one of her many cross stitching books. After finding her pattern, she grabs all the colors of the DMC thread she will need. She finds the center of the cloth by counting the squares and starts there.
Joyce also explained how some people use the stamp, where the image is placed on the cloth and you follow the pattern. However, Joyce prefers to do the counted-cross stitching.
“I would rather do the counting. I think it looks a lot better. But it takes a lot more time.” For the complete story, turn to this week’s edition of the Elgin Review.