Gladys Fennell's cross stitching earns decades of blue ribbons, an Iris Cup

At night, when everybody's sleeping, Gladys Fennell cross stitches. It's quiet enough, then, to focus and get it right. Any mistake affects the whole piece; you have to catch it early and rip it out and start again. Cross stitching takes patience. Fennell's had a lot of practice — and she has about 60 blue ribbons, several Best of Shows and a state championship title to show for it. Fennell learned how to cross stitch about 40 years ago, from a classmate at East Tennessee State University. Since then, she's stitched hundreds of pieces for herself, friends, family and coworkers, for housewarming gifts and Christmas stockings and special occasions. Fennell gets cross stitching patterns from books, magazines and online. The patterns show where to stitch, and in what color and size. The most basic stitch is an X, or a cross, but Fennell has graduated to more complicated maneuvers. Her friends encouraged her to enter pieces in the Appalachian Fair, which Fennell has been doing since around 2000. Fennell lives up the road from the fair. You know it's fair time, she said, when all the cars start driving by. "It's important, and people get into it around here," Fennell said. "I am very grateful and happy to go and put out what I've worked on, and get some kind of recognition for it." She likes seeing the variety of items entered in the fair's categories — and how her cross stitches stack up against them. Fennell usually enters pieces in about eight or nine categories a year, winning a few blue ribbons each time. A blue ribbon means you're the best in your category, which can vary in size and material. A Best in Show, which Fennell has won about 10 times, is the best work in all the categories, spanning different crafts. In recent years, the Tennessee State Fair introduced the Iris Cup Award for the best piece in the state. So, when Fennell won the Appalachian Fair's Best of Show last year, she was sent to compete at the state level. She won there too, and became the second Iris Cup winner. "I've been doing this a long time, so I should be getting better," Fennell said. "That's probably why I won that competition." Fennell chose the pattern for that best-of-the-best piece because it was a challenge, with lots of specialty stitches and embellishments. While it is Fennell's most high-achieving work, it is not her favorite. That title goes to a cross stitching — which won a Best of Show at the Appalachian Fair — of the poem "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann. Fennell described it as advice for how to live your life. This year, Fennell will compete with no more than five pieces in the Appalachian Fair. She's slowing down, she said. "The eyes are getting too — I usually work on linen, and the holes are pretty tiny. I'm using double glasses," Fennell said. "The 'Desiderata' tells you you have to slow down and go with the flow. You have to give up some things as time goes by." "Take kindly the counsel of the years," the poem says, "gracefully surrendering the things of youth." But, for now, Fennell has her entries framed and ready to go. The "Desiderata" also says to "Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans."