Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Sheep For My Collection?

I saw a wonderful sheep while shopping yesterday that I would love to add to my collection. It was very creative and original, plus it had a sweet black face that all my sheep must have. And it was very hefty - standing about 24" tall. Unfortunately, the price tag was WAY out of my price range at $580! I love going to Anthropologie to window shop and get inspiration, but I have never bought anything there and doubt I ever will.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Local Quilt Store

Last week I went to a great quilt store and asked for permission to snap pictures of their wonderful wooly projects to share on my blog. Enjoy the eye candy!



















Saturday, February 20, 2010

Hit & Miss

As a quilter, scrap quilts have always been my favorite kind to make. And so, I also have a fondness for hit & miss rugs because of the huge variety of wools that are used in them. I hooked most of these rugs quite awhile ago and just recently got around to finishing them.


This one I turned into a pillow for my couch. I like the way I finished the edges - I sewed the hooked piece to the backing right sides together about a quarter inch from the hooked edge - then turned it right side out and stuffed it. I whipped the edge with yarn - covering the foundation that was still exposed. The four layers of 1/4" seam allowance made it look like a piped edge.


This little star runner just got the edges whipped with yarn and it will look really nice displayed on the coffee table in front of the couch.


This piece was hooked to fill the opening of a clock that I picked up at the thrift store ages ago. Not sure if I like those two really light pieces of wool......


This is a rug that I made quite awhile ago - can you guess when? I just added the picture here because it's also a hit & miss.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Surprised!

Hubby surprised the heck out of me on Sunday by presenting me with this awesome new bicycle for Valentine's Day!  I can't wait till the weather warms up a bit (it's snowing today) so I can ride it on the paved trail that runs near our home. The seat is big and comfortable, and the handlebars are quite close to the seat so I don't have to stress out my arms and shoulders like you do on a regular bike. This is a hybrid - designed for women by women.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Fun flowers

Yesterday on our local TV station these gals did a Studio 5 segment on how to make some really fun flowers - I'd use wool, of course, instead of the felt they recommended - both will work great! I actually made one of the other flowers they demonstrated a couple weeks ago using the lining fabric from a wool skirt that I dismantled for my rug hooking. While the pillows that they have displayed are definitely not primitive, they could easily be made to look that way through fabric choices. Hope you'll try some too after watching the video!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bookish

DD#1 has always been a bookworm. I could never read her enough stories when she was a small child. As a pre-schooler, storytime at the library was the highlight of her week. She taught herself to read before she started kindergarten. She's 28 now and the passion still hasn't let up. Last year she started keeping a book list to keep track of her literary accomplishments and the grand total was 112 books - can you imagine? This year she as already read 8 - just in the month of January! I made this vase using a book I bought at the thrift store - thought it was appropriate for her - all things considered. Hope she likes it!


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Vintage Rug

We had two new ladies at our rug hooking meeting today - they had both seen the TV segment I did a few weeks ago and were interested enough to come and see what exactly we were doing. One of the gals brought a half-finished rug that she had found when she went through her mom's things. She knows nothing about it - did her mom make it? Did her grandma make it? No idea! But it's just beautiful - and she thinks she would like to learn how to hook and try to finish it herself. It will be quite a job because there was no wool found with the rug - she'lll have to dye it all to match what has already been used. Arline in our group is the perfect resource for her because she's done exactly the same thing in the past. It's a beautiful scroll done in a #3 & #4 cut.

The other gal brought a large bag of wool clothing she'd bought at the thrift stores - she wanted to ask us if she was buying the right kind of stuff. She was very enthusiastic about everything and I know she's going to be a great rug hooker. They both found out what kind of cutters, and hooks and frames they would need to get started. I think they might be hooked!

We meet each month at Myra's house and she was getting the border hooked on this cute pumpkin rug that is her own design.


Monday, February 8, 2010

Thanks April!

Awhile ago I joined the 10-minute rug hooker group that April set up on her website. The idea is to commit to hooking 10 minutes a day to slowly but surely work away on your project. April put everyone's name into a drawing and I was the lucky winner! I received this wonderful tote in the mail today and it's so cool! One thing I couldn't tell from April's pictures, was the great texture of the chenille yarn she used on the border of the tote so I'm sharing a close-up of that part. I can't wait to use it - thanks April!


Saturday, February 6, 2010

My Pet Peeve

I love, love, LOVE reading blogs, but I often stop by blogs that play music and it really bugs me. I usually have my own music playing - either on the computer - or on my stereo - and when the blog music starts it just makes a horrible cacophony of noise that makes me scramble for the mute button. I have a hard time understanding why people put the music on there - it's not like most of the readers will be there long enough to even listen to one whole song. And everyone has such different tastes - why subject readers to something they might not care for? Whew! Anyway, just wanted to vent a little - I'd like to start a campaign to bring this practice to a screeching halt! LOL Hope I haven't offended anyone, but wanted to voice my opinion.

Friday, February 5, 2010

My Newest Rug

I just finished stitching down the edges of this little rug. It's a quilting design from a Lori Smith book that I have. All her applique patterns translate really well to rug hooking. I changed the colors up just a bit to make it my own and I really like it. My second finished rug of the new year! I ran out of red wool on the border when I was only half way around, so started mixing in some other pieces that were close. I like the variation that it gives. 

Lots Of Rugs!

At our 1st Tuesday rug hooking meeting this week it was so nice to see all the gals. The last couple months our attendance has been sporadic because of the weather and other problems, but this time there were no issues and we all enjoyed our time together. Everyone was working on lovely projects, and we talked about books, and food, and families, and started planning for a rug hooking retreat that we're all  looking forward to. I snapped pictures of all the rugs that were there and will share them with you.

Tonia has been very busy since we saw her last and brought these projects all finished up!


I love how the design she did on this pillow bumps out into the border - I think it adds a lot of interest.
And she finished hooking part of the background on this one while she was at the meeting. She said her next rug was going to be a large runner - can't wait to see it!
This is Sharon's fun rooster rug. It's her own design and I love those polka dots! The border will have pennies all around the outside. The outline on the rooster really makes the design POP, huh? It's quite a large rug.

Marliss is working on a penny rug design from Maggie Bonanomi's book "With These Hands". She's going to hook the background with a dark wool and all those colors will look scrumptious. I have that book too, but haven't seen it for months - I need to unbury it so I can droll over all the wonderful pictures of her home again.


Victoria is doing a rug from a Need'l Love book. Love that red clamshell border.


Sandy is working on a small sampler rug when she comes to meetings, but there's a reallly big one on her frame that she works on at home.