I'm Alive!

I know I've been terrible at blogging lately, but life has just been getting in the way. Everything is fine with me and mine, so let me share some show & tell with you from my last couple rug group meetings....

Last time I saw Sharon, she was working on a set of chair pads and this is one of the designs she was doing. Her work is always so recognizable to me!

Coralee finished this Nativity rug in plenty of time to enjoy for the Christmas holiday.

She was also working on a needle punch project made from a drawing a neighbor girl drew. I think she was going to gift it to her when it was finished.....

Sandy was doing an architectural piece.

Kim is hand quilting this quilt she made from a kit given to her by a friend. Such beautiful work. I was so surprised to learn that she doesn't use a thimble - OUCH!

Leisa put the finishing touches on this ogee design - I think I'll be adding one of these to my 'must do' list some day! The color ideas are endless! Do a Google image search for ogee to see some inspiring photos.

Nancy is nearly finished with the center of this large floral rug she's making. It will have wide borders on all sides inspired by an article in a recent Rug Hooking Magazine.

Yvonne has finished this rug now, but I can't find a photo of the completed rug, so you can get the idea of it with this picture. Such a happy design!

Myra has been doing a lot of stitching on this wool project. Here are the pieces in progress.....

....and here is the finished box. So fun!

The other Nancy knitted these gloves to give to a friend. You might remember that she's written several knitting books and travels the world teaching classes. She's SO talented!

This is a bag that she began hooking in a recent workshop - can't wait to see it all finished.

I'll share my completed project after Christmas so there's no chance of being seen by the recipient and spoiling the surprise.

Merry Christmas All!

Hook-In

I attended the Utah Hook-In on Saturday, but sadly, didn't think to take very many photos. A friend snapped this picture of me with the door prize I won - a basket full of yummy wool!

And this is the project I started that day. My sweet DIL said she'd love to have me hook a rug for her, so she looked and looked to find something she liked and decided on a design from West Elm. I will hook MY version of it. It's very modern and definitely out of my comfort zone, which will make it fun to work on. With any luck I can get it finished by Christmas (crossing my fingers!)

Two weeks ago we went with two of our kids and their families to Moab to go off-roading and do a bit of hiking. We had a wonderful time in a beautiful place - people come from all over the world to see our state!

2nd Wednesday Group

Last week when I met with the SLC rug group, our numbers were fewer than normal. One of our gals was cruising up the coast of New England (and got to visit Cushings) and another gal had just left for Italy. Sheesh! World travelers, both! LOL In spite of that, we had a good visit.

Here is the rug I've been working on for the last month or so. I'm hooking it with a #9 cut so it's going pretty quickly. It's long and skinny and will be a table runner. The yarn I found will be perfect for whipping the edges.

We meet at Nancy's house and she showed us a pillow that she had just made from one of her hooked pieces - it had a nice envelope backing made of wool.

And she pulled the final loops on this sweet rug while we were there..... might be another pillow!

The other Nancy was working on a small rug that will be the topper for a footstool - a vine with several hues of green leaves. She was still deciding what color to use for the background.

This floral arrangement was the centerpiece on Nancy's table for the season. So pretty!

My friend Yvonne - from the Netherlands - is visiting in Utah again. You can follow her travels here. I'm heading to the same area with my family later this week - sure would be fun to meet up with her, but I have a feeling she'll have moved on before we arrive. Darn!

1st Tuesday Rug Group

Last week I attended one of my monthly rug meetings and enjoyed visiting with all my friends there. Lots of beautiful rugs to see! First up is one that Kim recently finished a floral with birds and an urn.

And this is what she's working on now. Our guild recently had a workshop on how to hook a rug and attach it to a small footstool. This is how she will be using this.

Sandy is the one who designed this floral. She had the entire thing hooked but ran in to a glitch and is now pulling out the wool to rehook on a new piece of foundation exactly the same way.

Marliss is nearly finished with this pumpkin that she plans to give to a friend.

Coralee is working on a stained glass image that should be ready for Christmas.

Sharon was finishing the edge of this penny-style rug.

Victoria is nearly done with a memory rug depicting a silhouette of her & her sister sitting on a swing watching the fireworks as children. The border will be hooked to look like a wooden picture frame.

She's using wonderful shinny metallic fibers that capture the sparkle of the fireworks perfectly!

I'm nearly finished with my most recent rug so I'll share a picture of it when I'm done in a few days.

Maybe This Works?

I bought a little camera from a neighbor who got a fancy new one and didn't need this anymore. It seems to work okay, except it doesn't look like I'm able to rotate photos like before. Guess I'll have to always take them in the horizontal position (which isn't great for some quilts), but I'll give it a try for only $35. Here's the barn quilt I tried to share in my last post.....

Camera Woes

I have two small, inexpensive digital cameras that I've been using for years when I blog. What are the chances that both of them would decide to quit at exactly the same time? Argh! I know some people can blog from their phones, and since that's the only camera I have right now I thought I'd give it a try on this short post.

I recently made a wooden barn quilt and attached it to the front of the house above the garage door.

It measures 36" square and was pretty simple to make. I used a tutorial I found on the blog of a local gal who makes these and sells them at fairs & boutiques - she also teaches classes at quilt shops all over the country. Her tutorial can be found HERE.

....and it looks like that's all I can post because the rest of the photos I was going to share are all sideways and I can't figure out how to rotate them. If any of you have experience with this and would be willing to share, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

I'm heading to California tomorrow to visit family, and I purposefully timed my trip so I could attend an outdoor quilt show I've heard about for several years now. It's held at the Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore. There are also classes offered, but I will just see the quilt show since I'll have extra people with me who aren't in to quilting as much as I am. I'm hoping it will be a great visit!

Help Me Decide!

I have a dilemma!  I have made a quilt top for my newest grand baby. It was super easy and it's super cute using only black & white solids.  My DIL saw a picture of it somewhere and I went from there. Made entirely of HSTs.

I found a white/black print for the back, and the aqua will be used for the binding. I plan to applique the baby's name on the back with the aqua also.

SO - I have no idea of what color of thread to quilt it with! Black? White? Gray? Clear? Maybe change colors to match the fabric in each section? I just can't decide, so I'm hoping someone will give me a solution and steer me in the right direction! And any suggestions on a quilting design would be greatly appreciated too!

Last weekend I had an itch to make a quick small project, so this is what I ended up doing.

Allover meandering turned out pretty well the very first time I used my new sewing machine.

It's a Juki and I'm really liking it so far.

Halfway June

Hard to believe that June is half over already. DD#1 & her hubby have gone to Cancun so I have their little boy for the week. Yep, feels a little like deja vu since I did the same thing for DD#2 a month ago! Sure do love those little ones, but I know why we have kids when we're young ourselves. Whew!

I met with one of my rug groups last week and there was some good show & tell. Kim hadn't done any hooking, but showed us her beautiful blocks for a square-in-a-square quilt she's making. She'd planned to make it for herself, but her younger son is making wedding plans so she decided it would be made for the newlyweds instead. Beautiful fabrics!

Sandy's husband designed and hand drew this awesome rug for her entry way. It's at least 4' x 6' - maybe a bit bigger. She plans to hook is using only brown & cream wool - very classic and totally awesome! I have several friends who's husbands are interested in their rug hooking and it always amazes me to hear of their support, since my hubby isn't like that. Lucky gals!

Yesterday I met with the Salt Lake Group - our newest member had finished her very first rug hooking project - a floral pillow inspired by a piece of fabric. The back and piping were black velvet - very rich looking.

I love the way she added bits of purple fabric to the black background when she hooked it.

Yvonne is making progress on her bright floral rug - plans to put it in the guest room where her grand daughters sleep when they come to visit. Isn't it happy looking?

Nancy is nearing a finish on her rug - she often includes clever and/or inspiring sayings in her projects and this one is a goody.

Myra has been very busy and brought two sewing buckets that are spectacular. She designed several of the motifs on the outer pockets to reflect the owner - this one is her's......

....and this is for one of her daughters. She has plans to make many more. What lucky family members she has! Makes me wish she would adopt me! LOL Over the weekend our guild had a workshop and made Nuno felted scarves. Sadly, I was too busy helping put in a sprinkler system and couldn't attend, but Myra brought her scarf and it was just beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that. I'm hoping to try this technique myself some day!

Mary Jane featured one of my rugs on her blog yesterday - I was honored that she asked to do so - she did a great job on it! You can read her entry here.

Friendship

A week ago I spent the day with two of my good friends and we took the 90 minute drive to visit the Spiral Jetty on the north end of the Great Salt Lake. They had never been there before, and I'd only been once before about 25 years ago, so we were all looking forward to it. We stopped at Subway and got sandwiches & salads for our lunch, then sat in the dirt parking lot on lawn chairs and enjoyed the view after walking the spiral and hiking the overlook. Fun day! (I wore a quilty shirt!) If you Google Spiral Jetty you can see more photos and learn about the artist and the history of the installation - it's kind of interesting. People come from all over the world to see this, and yet very few local people even know it exists!

Also last week, I won my friend Janet's blog giveaway (Rogue Quilter) and the goodies arrived in the mail yesterday. Her handmade soaps are SO luxurious - love using them in the shower. The little thread snips will be great for both machine work and hand work so they'll be used a lot. And what quilter doesn't enjoy receiving new fabrics? The little Dresden pincushion is perfection itself! Thanks for your generosity Janet!

When I packed up my studio to move to the new house, I discovered some vintage fabrics I had forgotten all about. This small piece of cheddar & purple really caught my eye - it was shaped irregularly - maybe a fat quarter in size - and I loved the colors.

Janet had just shared a free pattern available on the Henry Glass website and I thought it was cute.

After I chose some coordinating fabrics from my stash, I decided to try making it.

This is what I had leftover, and I had to piece together small bits for one of the alternate blocks - I felt very 'make-do' in my efforts. The largest piece is probably 2" across.

The top is all finished - and just this minute I noticed that two of the blocks are turned the wrong way. ARGH! Guess I'll get my seam ripper out..... The finished size is 23" x 29".

A bit of a close-up shot below - a totally different feel than the original design by Stacy West!

I'm so thankful for friends and their influence and contributions to my life!