Worm Storage

I have subscribed to the Wool Street Journal since it's first edition was published. In a recent issue, Bonnie (the editor) shared how she stores her leftover worms in clear glass jars - sorted by color - so she can always find what she needs - and she asked readers to share what they did with their worms. I snapped a couple pictures of my little chest and sent them off to her - and promptly forgot all about it. Last week I received my new issue of the magazine in the mail and was surprised to find those pictures near the centerfold! How fun! So I thought I'd share them here too. I bought this little chest at the thrift store several years ago for $15.

I think it was designed to store CDs, but the little compartments work perfectly for my color-sorted worms. It sits right near my hooking chair, so I can just lean over and see if there's anything in there that will work for my projects.

A couple months ago I visited my friend Sharon and finally got to see the antique set of drawers that she purchased last summer - she uses this to store her worms - and other supplies. Her's is SO much bigger - and nicer - than mine. I wish I could talk her into a swap! Can you say E-N-V-Y-? LOL
 

How do YOU store your worms?

From a Shopping Trip

Saw these hand towels when I was shopping a couple weeks ago - thought they would make such cute aprons to wear to a hook-in. But the price was $10 each and I decided that was just too much to fork out, so they stayed at the store - and besides - I already have one - why would I 'need' another?

I also saw this print - thought it would be fun to make a penny rug with a similar design.

I wonder if I'll ever have enough sheep to satisfy my cravings! LOL

Another Finish!

I got the 'I Spy' quilt all finished today and threw it in the washer & dryer so they could work their magic. I'm pleased with the end result - finished size is about 48" square.

After looking through all the fabrics that I had received in my internet swap, I decided to use only fabrics that had a motif centered in the middle. There were lots of other pieces that had an allover design that I saved - perhaps I'll make another I Spy quilt using a different pattern in the future.

This is the backing fabric I chose - pencils all over the place.

I used a rainbow striped fabric for the binding to bring a bit of color to the outside edge of the quilt.

Can't wait till our little guy is big enough to identify all the different pictures - it'll be so much fun!

NOT My Favorite Thing!

My son is 21 years old and for the last four years he's been having a love affair with the beat-up truck that he drives (Big Blue). You would not believe all the stuff he's done to 'fix it up'! Last week he was on Spring Break from college and decided it was time to tackle the upholstery in the cab. Of course, I was recruited to 'help' with the project. I refused at first, but he wore me down and I finally said I'd 'help' - just to make him stop nagging me! LOL So, he pulled the entire seat out of the truck and brought it in the house. Then he dismantled it and removed the fabric. Instead of replacing the entire piece, he decided to just sew some new fabric over the sections that had received the most wear & tear from use. We call him our 'redneck' - and he lived up to his name by choosing some hunting camoflauge fabric to use. I slipped a pattern off of the seat and edged it in some contrasting piping (as instructed). He wanted to have our family crest incorporated into the project, so I directed him to a neighbor who has an embroidery business and she did a great job on that for him. My home sewing machine proved much too small and inadequate to manipulate this massive piece of fabric under the needle, so I sent him to another neighbor who has a long arm quilting machine - where he spent 3 hours with her doing that part. He came home and had to finish some of the edges by hand. It's not perfect, but he was totally thrilled with the way it all turned out. I was SO happy to have it done and out of my house cuz there was grit and grime falling onto every surface it came in contact with - like the living room floor, dining room table, and kitchen counter. UGH! He finally promised me that the next time he needs to have this done, he will pay a professional lots of money to do it!

A few weeks previous, he replaced the fabric on the headliner of the truck and added a Browning logo that he covered with the same camo fabric.

 I'll leave you with a couple pictures of the finished seat - and ask a question: What's the most unusual thing that YOU'VE ever sewn?

I Spy.....With My Little Eye

Years, and years, and years ago - I participated in an internet fabric swap so I could accumulate a large variety of novelty prints appropriate for making an I Spy quilt. Now that I'm a grandma, I decided it was time to get started on this fun project. I received 4" squares in the swap, and yesterday I started cutting them into hexagons using my acrylic template - centering the motif of each piece. I chose a cheerful yellow fabric to use for the setting triangles. Today I got the first bit of sewing done and it's been so fun to see all the different pictures! It's really quite amazing how many different things there are. Everything from flowers, bugs, animals and people to cars, space ships, trains and holidays. FUN! I plan on making it lap sized and I'll keep here at my house so that when the grandkids come for a visit we can pull it out, lay it down on the floor and see what we can find.

Today was the semi-annual surplus book sale at my local library, so I stopped by first thing and stocked up on books on tape - I like to listen to them while I'm hooking and sewing. The price for these is 25 cents each, so I got ALL of these for a mere $5.50! That's pretty cheap entertainment! It'll take me months to get through all of them! I just hope I like them all - it was really, really crowded and I didn't read the synopsis of every single one that I purchased.

My Rug Is Finished!

I can't believe how quickly I hooked this rug! It took me eleven days from start to finish. And it's a pretty good size - 30" x 36". Hooked all in a 8.5 cut on Monks cloth. The wools I used are all textured - with a couple subtle plaids thrown in too. Some are as-is, and some are hand-dyed.

I got the idea for my rug after seeing pictures that Amy shared from the Lenexa Hook-In a couple weeks ago - this is the one that inspired it - because of the shape - although it really looks nothing like it now. Funny where our ideas come from, huh?



Rug Hooking Last Week

I seem to be slow about posting pictures from meetings lately - sorry 'bout that! Last week I attended my monthly Salt Lake City rug hooking meeting and wanted to share some pictures with you. First of all, Nancy finished this darling rug for her newest grandchild - the design is so perfect for a little kid - I can see her playing "I Spy" with this rug!

Here's a close-up so you can see all the gorgeous colors in that antique black background.

And this is Nancy's new project - a pillow pattern that was in a recent issue of RHM.

Nancy's daughter Kathryn is also a rug hooker - I haven't seen her for over two years, but she arrived towards the end of our meeting and shared her newest project with us. Crows are a favorite of mine - I have quite a collection of them - so I really like this one.

Myra is SO close to being done with her huge fall runner! Just a little bit of the border remains to be finished. One of my favorite parts about the rug is the lettering on it. She said a friend drew that part out with calligraphy - then she enlarged it and transfered it to the linen.

Progress

I'm making good progress on my new rug - hope to share a finished picture sometime next week!

Ice Castles

I found some pictures on my camera today that I had forgotten about - thought I'd share them with you today. A couple weeks ago I drove up to Midway on a Saturday to see the Ice Castles. Now I know that in the far northern states - like Minnesota & Michigan - there are ice festivals every winter - but here in Utah there isn't much like that. I only recently found out about this castle and just had to go see it for myself. From what I understand there is a structural wooden frame underneath the ice. A sprinkler system is installed over that and water is added on a regular basis so the ice will form and grow. Because of that, the castle is constantly changing and evolving.

It looks totally different at night with lights shining through the ice. You can see some pretty spectacular photos on the website here and the blog here.

I snapped this photo of someone's front yard as I drove by - guess the ice fever was contagious to the whole community!

Sneak Peek

Here's a little glimpse of the new rug I'm working on. I'm using #8.5 strips and it's going really fast.  I like it!

Teeny Tiny

I made another version of the Row by Row quilt - using pretty much the same color palette as the first one I did. Except this one is really, really small! The finished size is 13" square - with the ivory squares measuring only 1/2"! I made fewer blocks to keep the scale appropriate.

And I've decided I'm very fickle. For the last couple weeks I've been working on my Crazy Horse rug - but Wednesday I drew up a new design and started hooking on it after being inspired by a rug I saw from pictures of the Lenexa Hook-In. I think it'll go fast and it's a fun one. Will share a picture soon.

I just realized that I hadn't shared pictures from my First Tuesday group yet! Marilyn is working on a sheep & a willow tree - classic primitive design! It's an oval right now, but she plans on adding a squared off border to it to make it rectangular which makes it much easier for binding!

And Cindy is doing a rabbit surrounded by flowers. I love the low contrast for the background - that rabbit will really pop when she gets him done!

I took my little grandbaby with me for show & tell that day, so I didn't get a single loop pulled, but that's okay - he's so much fun!

From the Thrift Store

Yesterday I found a treasure at the thrift store and it only cost $2.99! It's a collapsible wire laundry basket - VINTAGE! I looked around on ebay and found one just like it that's got a starting bid of $81, so I feel like I got a pretty good deal. Pottery Barn also has one similar that they're selling for $159. I think I'll make a fabric liner for it from some striped ticking, and use it to store some of my rolled up rugs.

This is the one on Pottery Barn - the liner is nice, huh?

There's a little metal tag attached to the basket with a patent number on it so I did a bit of searching on Google and discovered that the patent was issued in 1955 - the same year I was born - so that's a fun bit of trivia!