County Fair

[cirestan]

So last year I was at the county fair... yippee.
But I saw there was a cross stitch category in the textile crafts competition.
So I said to myself, "Self, there aren't that many entries, I can come up with something that would have a pretty good shot at winning."
With that in mind, last year a freakin' Santa Claus won.
So give me some ideas. Images, that if you saw at a fair, would make you go, "Wow, that's cool."
Yes, I'm blatantly asking you to help me brainstorm.

I can make patterns. So the sky is the limit.
But I want something manageable and doable and won't take every second of free time over the next six months.
I live in Walking Dead Territory so maybe something along those lines, but I'm open to any ideas.

[SheWhoRoars]

Does it have to be fair themed?

[Firestarterr]

So, I am slightly bitter at county fairs. I enter stuff almost every year. One year, I submitted a P-40 Warhawk, and you know what won some tiny little stitch silhouette of a lady. That was it, nothing mind blowing or amazing. There was also mistakes. SO, my bitter self is pretty sure it is rigged.
I would try a landscape, maybe a silhouette of a lady but bigger, I would stay away from anything nerdy (from my experience), animals seem to be popular, as well as samplers. Good luck!!