Treasured

Remember awhile ago I shared pictures of the wood carving that my hubby made of the clasped arms? Well, today he finished another wood carving, and this was something special he made especially for me. A heart! It stands about 12" tall and is made of black walnut - the pedestal and heart are carved as one single piece. He stained the heart with a red stain and the stand with darker wood stain - then it was waxed and now it is as smooth as silk. It immediately became my most treasured possession! Love it!

Here are a few photos of it in progress - wish I'd been home when he started it so you could have seen it when he rough cut it with a chain saw!

I'm still working on my 'problem' hooked rug - I added another border to the name portion of the rug - this part measures 11 x 48. The finished rug will be 48 x 56 - it's a big one!

One of the things I didn't like about the rug was the house that I had hooked - I drew the whole rug freehand because I wanted it to be naive and funky, but this wobbly house was really bothering me.

So I pulled it all out - except the roof - and redrew it with straight lines by following a thread. It's still not perfect, but I think it's better than before. 

In two weeks Maggie Bonanomi will be here in Utah to teach a three day workshop for our Guild so we're getting very excited about it. I need to get a pattern on linen and pull some wool so I'll be ready for class! WooHoo! Unfortunately, that means this big rug of mine will get put on the back burner again - sigh!

Just finished up this book by an author I hadn't read before. I liked it a lot - great setting (Wales England) - great characters - and a great story.

Glimpses

I've been working on several projects the last few days and thought I'd share just a little snippet of each. I amazed myself by pulling out a very large rug that I haven't worked on for years and years - and I actually added a narrow salmon colored border to one section of it. I would really love to finish this some day so I've put my thinking cap on to see if I can figure out solutions to some of the problems that made me put it away in the first place.

I've made progress on my Kim Diehl quilt - here is is arranged on my design wall.

Since there is quite a bit of wool applique to be done around the edges I was worried about having the cotton background fabric fray from all the handling it would be receiving. I took a class from Kim many years ago and remembered that she always ran a bead of Fray Check around the outside of her blocks for just that reason. So that's what I did and I hope it will help.

Have started working on a brightly colored baby quilt for DD#1. The baby is due in November and the baby shower is about a month away so I have plenty of time to get this made for her.

And my son's girlfriend will be a brand new 5th grade teacher next week. She's been busy organizing her classroom and fixing it up with fun bright colors. She has one window that I made some simple valance curtains for.

Jeanette's House

Last week our rug group met at Jeanette's new home for our monthly get together. Standing on the sidewalk I admired front porch and those gorgeous hanging baskets of fibrous begonias. Wanted to sit down on a rocking chair and never leave!

There is a play house in the back yard for the grandkids - 

And a wonderful vegetable garden -

A putting green -

And a river - (if you look closely you can see some ducks)

This neatly stacked firewood makes me long for a roaring winter fire -

And in the house her laundry room has a bird theme going on - love the two hooked rugs - 

Her sewing room/wool room is awesome - she had cubbies built-in on either side of the window - 

I love how she has the wool neatly stacked by color - and little decorations and trinkets displayed amongst the wool -

Smaller bits of wool are in this little box on a table -

Thanks so much for a great day and the delicious lunch Jeanette!

Things I Did

I have finally finished hooking and binding and blocking my small wreath rug and I sure like the way it turned out.  The design was taken from a quilt book where each block was a different wreath. The background wool I used seems to get a lot of comments - even from those who don't hook. I used a thrift store skirt in a light color with a small plaid using tan & grey/blue threads.

I have gotten a good start on a Kim Diehl quilt pattern that I've wanted to make for a long time. The blocks are all finished and are ready to be sewn together now. I imagine that hand appliqueing the wool leaf shapes around the border will take me longer than the piecing did.

Just finished this book and really enjoyed it. This is the author's first published story so I'll have to keep an eye open for any more that she writes.