Maggie B.

Last weekend was our Guild's 3-day workshop with Maggie Bonanomi. It was a lot of fun to spend so much quality time with my rug hooking friends. Each of the attendees received kits to make the velveteen strawberries and puzzle balls that are included in one of Maggie's books. I got the strawberry stitched up this weekend - I added beads instead of using dyed pins like she suggested.

And I'm well on my way to finishing the puzzle ball - just need to get the fancy stitching done along each of  the seam lines and attach each section to each other. 

Maggie suggests using cotton stuffing for these small projects - I believe she uses the kind of cotton balls for removing makeup - but I went to my local upholstery shop and bought a bunch of cotton for $2 - I think it's used to pad arms on chairs and couches - and it worked perfectly for these. I stuffed it in there really tightly and it gives a nice heft to the project. 

This is the small heart mat I made when she taught us her Wonky Technique. I had never realized it before, but she never uses a wool cutter for her strips. Instead, she tears a piece of fabric that's between 3/4" & 1" wide - then she uses scissors to cut that strip up the middle. It ends up imperfect and wide - gives a really nice effect.

And here is the main project I worked on for the class - made a little bit of progress on it and hope to get it done kinda quickly - using that wide cut helps it move right along.  

The highlight of the workshop came on the last day when we got to see the projects from her new book in person. If you'd like to see them you can click on this link to view the Guild's blog - there are lots of photos there.

This photo below shows my favorite item from her new book - she showed us how she cuts her letters freehand for her applique projects so I think I might like to try and make one similar to this using a bit more color. Fun weekend!

Exciting Times!

It's been a very eventful week at my house. Today was my daughter's baby shower - and she definitely got showed with gifts from family & friends. Her baby boy is due to arrive in about eight weeks and we can hardly wait. One of my contributions was the baby quilt I made for her and I can finally show it to you now that she's received it.  A simple design of nothing but half square triangles set every which way - no rhyme or reason to the arrangement. I used 10 different Kona solids and a stripe for the back and binding that tied them all together.

And on Monday my son proposed to his sweetheart - in her classroom - with the help of her students (and the principal & office staff) Our whole family was there for the occasion and it was really special. The wedding will be held in December during winter break from his college classes.

Life is GOOD!

One Thing Leads to Another

I have finished appliqueing the colored wool leaves onto my Kim Diehl quilt - now it's layered and pin basted and waiting to be machine quilted. 

I had a few of the wool leaves leftover and started playing with them - found out that they make a nice design all by themselves. So I cut out a few more and started stitching them down onto another piece of wool - this will make a small table topper eventally.

Just finished this book about four sisters of a certain age - enjoyed it!

Rug Group

Last Tuesday was one of my monthly rug meetings so I'm kinda slow getting pictures posted - but better late than never, right? First of all - the group 'scolded' me for sharing only snippets of the rug I'm currently working on - so I decided to show you the whole thing - such as it is. You can see the house that I re-hooked. The problem that's always held me back on this is trying to figure out how to mesh the background areas - if anyone has a brilliant idea on how I can do this, please share any suggestions. For now I'll be working on the borders until inspiration strikes. I guess I should explain that this is my memory rug. You can see my little family and the Dalmation we had - a quilt hanging outside - and the mountains that edge our valley. We have trains that run right behind our house and we also live close to an Air Force Base so there are always planes flying overhead. The Great Salt Lake is pictured and the Salt Lake temple with it's beautiful flower beds. Lots of shade trees in our yard and we have always grown a garden. I drew all of this freehand so nothing is to scale.

There was lots of nice show & tell - the gals have been busy! Jeanette pulled the very last loops on this rug while we were all there. This pattern originally was for three different Christmas stockings that would be hung on the mantle and be stuffed with goodies. But she chose to combine them all into a single rug and then added a border of her own design.

A couple posts back I shared pictures of Jeanette's new house. Before her old home was demolished she salvaged the wooden door of the medicine chest from the bathroom and she hooked a piece to insert in the center panel. It's attached with velcro and she plans to make several more little rugs so she can switch it out with the seasons. This way she was able to preserved a small bit of the home that she loved so much.

Sandy brought a darling little step stool that Tonia designed - she painted it and chose wool to match the color - a very useful addition to her kitchen will make it easy to reach the top shelf - and her grandchildren love sitting on it!

This is what Sandy is working on now - a special order for a granddaughter. It's a Sharon Smith design and the colors she's using are so pretty - soft & muted but not pastel. 

Tonia brought her finished Red Riding Hood rug - her own design. The colors in this project are so rich and beautiful! She blogs at BaaRamEwe and I'm sure the pattern will be available for purchase if you are interested in hooking one for yourself.

Kim wasn't able to make it to our meeting last month, so she had a lot of show & tell to share with us. At a Guild meeting earlier this summer we learned how to make these cute proddy flowers on sticks, so she made up a bunch of them and had them all finished.

She also finished her little purse that was started at a Guild meeting - here are photos of both sides. She used a few different techniques to make it interesting.