Thursday, March 21, 2013

Little of This, Little of That

Tuesday I got the itch to stitch up something quick, so I made this little quilt - don't even know if there's a name for this block. Measures about 14" x 20" finished.

I finally finished hooking my row rug - now I need to finish the edges. I usually whip with yarn, but this time I'm going to try a crocheted edge. Wish me luck while I try to figure it out!

My little grandson moved from his crib to a twin sized bed a few months ago. I've been collecting fabrics to make him a new quilt and I think I finally have what I need. This should work up quickly and it'll be fun to work with these bright colors that are not part of my normal palette. The background will be a plain white, and the grey polka dot at the bottom of this pile will be the back of the quilt.

I made my new header months and months ago, and then couldn't get it to load. I found the picture and tried again the other day - voila!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Little Yellow Chicks

Years ago when my kids were small I used to pull out all the stops when it came to decorating for the holidays - I've slowed W-A-Y down since then. This is the extent of my attempts at Easter this year - a small tablescape. About five years ago I switched from using Easter bunnies and now enjoy making and collecting little yellow chicks. I have a hooked rug and several chicks made in different mediums on display on my kitchen table - fun stuff. I did make a couple of chocolate rabbits out of painted muslin that I included in an old wooden bowl of mossy rocks.

Last week was my meeting with the Salt Lake rug group - Nancy has finished her little rug showing a house on a hill.



This is the cross stitch she made 20+ years ago that inspired the piece - can you see the similarities between them?

And now she's working on a fun little horse rug that was a free pattern in a recent issue of Rug Hooking Magazine that she has personalized with some of her own touches to make her own. Everyone else was working on the same projects that I shared last month so I didn't snap any pictures of them.

A couple weeks ago I won a giveaway on Anne's blog for a lighthouse ornament and I realized that I hadn't shared a picture of it yet - so here it is - it's hooked with yarn that she gets from her own sheep that graze right near the ocean - so the lighthouse has extra special significance. Thanks again Anne! I love it!

Lauren has received the little quilt that I made her so I can share a picture of it now. She's passionate about her pugs - and she's so generous - always giving away hooked rugs that she makes - so I decided she needed to be on the receiving end of a gift for once. This was a fun little project - I printed the picture on muslin and pieced a small border of squares to frame it. I think the finished size was about 10" x 12" or so.

A couple weeks ago I met with a group of friends and we had a tea party at Janet's house. She asked everyone to bring a vintage hat if they had one - and to wear a string of pearls. Each of us also brought some kind of finger food. We had cucumber sandwiches, eclairs, dipped strawberries, tiny muffins and apple tarts - all of it was delicious.  We also had our choice of 6-8 different kinds of herbal tea to drink. 

The table was set with some pretty dishes and a small square tablecloth that she bought on a recent trip to Sweden.

Here's a picture of us wearing our hats behind a display of all her vintage goodies.

After eating, we used the supplies on this tray - - - -

- - - to make these cute little wool felt charms. She had kits made up for each of us and we hand stitched them together - stuffed them - and embellished with beads. Each one measures about 1" tall.

She had this vintage baby quilt on display for the evening - one of many great ones she's purchased through the years.



I've been fighting a bad head cold for the last couple of weeks - the only good thing about being sick is realizing how healthy I usually am. Hope it's gone soon!





Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Catching Up

Yesterday was my First Tuesday Rug Group - we met at Kim's house for the first time and enjoyed visiting and eating potato soup (in honor of St. Patrick's Day) while we worked.  There was some nice show & tell.

Jeanette brought this darling child's chair that she had painted to coordinate with the little mat she hooked for the seat. 

And she was working on a bird rug that is one of Sharon's designs.

Sandy has made progress on her rabbit rug - she named this bunny after a neighbor who is a generous gardener (Gerald?) - I like the different layers of brown that she hooked for the ground and the triangles on the sides.

Kim is also working on a small bird mat.

Victoria's half circle rug is coming right along.

Tonia brought two great rugs - this first one is totally finished with a crocheted edge and is a design called Three Hares. She got  the inspiration for it from an antique butter mold - but after doing some research she discovered that the Three Hares are a common folk art motif found in several different mediums and cultures - if you do a Google search for it you can find out more - interesting. The three rabbits share three ears in the center of the rug - and yet each of them look like they have two ears of their own - very clever. I love the polka dots in the background.

This rooster rug was also inspired by a butter mold - a fox playing the bagpipes while riding on a rooster - crazy fun!

I didn't bring a rug to work on, although I do have another finished row to show you.

Instead I was working on a hexagon quilt project that I'm making in conjunction with Pam Buda's Prairie Women's Sewing Circle class that I'm taking at my LQS - I think it's Journey 3. These are 1" hexagons and I'm making good progress - I always enjoy hexies because they're so portable.

I've made another project for this class - little 2" blocks set on point in rows. I'm hoping today I can choose the sashing and border fabrics for this and have it ready to take to class on Saturday.

I also have all my blocks made for the Temecula sew along - I need to add the sashing and borders to this one too. So much fun pulling from my collection of Civil War Repro fabrics.