The Middle Sister

Quilting Frenzy

2012-01-27T14:33:00.003-07:00

I have been a quilting fool this month - making one small quilt after another - and not just flimsies - but actually quilting and binding them! They're all washed a crinkled now - YUM!

It all started with this one that was a Mystery Quilt from Temecula Quilt Store. I got it done quickly and realized how much I enjoyed the size and the instant gratification. 17" x 20"

I decided to follow along with Kathleen Tracy and made this one. I do have the book, but couldn't lay my hands on it, so just guessed about the size of the blocks - close enough for me! It measures about 19" square. For some reason this block gave me fits - I probably had to unpick at least six of the blocks which is very unusual for me. But I perservered and conquered the project!

Next was this little pinwheel quilt - I can't remember who shared on their blog recently about how to draw the template for this block, but six of them worked up really quickly - I'd actually like to make a larger quilt like this one some day! 12-1/2" x 16"

Cheri's quilt in Primitive Quilts & Projects magazine was next on the list. I love the combination of scrap piecing and wool applique. I discovered errors in the instructions, but made it work anyway. 17" x 23".

A version of this quilt is in one of my Jo Morton books, so I grabbed my basket of 1" strips and started sewing. Kinda wish I'd made the very center strip a bit longer so the proportions were more pleasing to the eye, but it'll do. 17" x 18". (Did you know that Jo has moved her blog?)

For this quilt I used my 1-1/2" scraps - I don't believe that any of the fabrics are duplicated on this one which makes it fun. Finished size is 18" x 21".

I followed along with Cheri on her blog when she shared instructions for making this small vintage reproduction quilt......

......but I decided it needed something more in the middle. Since it's close to Valentine's Day and the colors were so suggestive of that day - I cut out a red wool heart for the center. It's not actually attached to the quilt yet, but should take me just a few minutes to stitch it on. 15" x 17"

These go nicely with the small Grandmother's Flower Garden variation I made back in October when we went to Santa Fe. 16" x 20".

And even though I made these next two quilts several years ago, I don't think I've ever shared photos of them before. This one is 19" square - - - -

- - - - and this one is 12-1/2" x 14". Each star block measures about 1-3/4" square.

Last night as I was stitching the last of the bindings down, I had all the quilts spread out on the floor around me so I could admire them. Hubby didn't quite understand why we had quilted carpet, so he'll be glad to find them picked up when he gets home from work today.

As far as displaying these, I'd like to hang them en masse on one big wall - perhaps in the guest room eventually. That's actually the only room with enough in the house with enough empty wall space where they'd fit. If I ever get them up I'll share another photo then.

Hope you enjoyed my mini quilt show. I've had a blast working on them for the last two weeks and actually have a couple others started already. Not sure when I'll get back to my hooking! [I actually have one other quilt done, but can't show a picture until it is delivered for a birthday gift]

Blog Problems

2012-01-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

For quite awhile now I've been meaning to give my blog a facelift, and last week I decided the time had come. But it hasn't all worked out like I planned - for some reason there are glitches in blogger that are giving me fits - is anyone else having these problems? DD#2 helped me load a new background that I really like when using Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers - but when I pull up my blog on my new iPad it just shows totally white - what's with that? Also, I tried to add a new picture for my header and I keep getting an error message saying that I am out of photo storage space and I need to buy more. Well, I have never paid for anything connected with my blog and I'm not about to start now, so I'm hoping if I'm patient the bugs will get worked out and I'll be able to make things look nice the way I want them to. I was able to add a tiny little header photo that looks totally ridiculous - but that's what I'm going with for awhile. DD#1 added a 'Follow Me on Pinterest" button so people can visit my boards there. So anyway, that's what's up with the changes.

And just so there's a little eye candy with this post, here's a photo of a new rug that Nancy is working on - a Margaret Shaw design with big fun borders that I took a couple of weeks ago.

(If I'm supposedly out of storage space, then why can I post this picture? Grrrrr)

My Project

2012-01-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Lauren tells me that I forgot to show a picture of the rug I'm working on in my last post, so I thought I'd share it here. It's a scrappy rug - I'm using lots of leftover worms - and it's kinda mindless so it's easy to hook. Nothing spectacular - but it'll look good on my dining room table with a big wooden bowl full of 'goodies' displayed right in the middle of it.

Rug Hooking

2012-01-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

Last week our rug hooking group met at my house and we had a nice turnout because the weather cooperated - there has been no snow so far this winter to hinder travel. Without further ado, I'll share photos of the rug projects that everyone was working on that day.

Jeanette brought her finished Americana rug.The antique black background has great movement in it!

I love the finished edge on this one - she used a ticking stripe to make a facing for the prairie points. She said the instructions in the book were no help at all in explaining how to do this, but she finally figured it out all on her own.

Here's a picture so you can see close up the way it looks on the back.

Sharon is working on a new rug for the floor at her front door that has quilt blocks on it. The plaid wools she is using look really cool when they're hooked up - and I like the way she's hooking nearly the entire rug using straight lines. She says that it does get kinda boring, so she'll probably start another rug soon so she can switch back and forth between them.

Sandy brought a quilt for show & tell - the very first one that she's ever made! It was a mystery quilt with kits put together by her LQS and we all ooh'd & aah'd over it.

Angela is working on a rug of her own design - I love the beading she's done on it.

Kim drew some cute mittens hanging on a line and is hooking them with some fun bright colors and a black background.

And Tonia is making headway on this huge rug designed by Karen Kahle.

On Saturday our Rug Hooking Guild had our quarterly meeting where we were each provided with an inexpensive plastic photo album. Then we were turned loose with scrapbooking paper and rubber stamps and ink pads to design a cover for it. The idea is to use these photo albums to store pictures of the rugs that we hook so we'll have a record of them. Since some rugs are given away as gifts, it's nice to remember exactly what it looked like. You can also include information about when it was hooked, who designed it, what kind of backing was used, etc......

Here's a picture of my album, and you can see the rest that were made on the Guild's blog.

Sew Far, Sew Good

2012-01-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I've been stitching along with lots of other quilters in blogland lately, and just finished up the last block of Temecula Quilt'sTwelve Days of Christmas project. (it took me quite awhile to realize that the 4th day had 4 pieces, and the 6th day had 6 pieces - DUH!)

I'm looking forward to see their suggestion for a setting. It's been quick, fun and easy! And I love seeing all the different fabric choices that have been made!

Dresden Plate

2012-01-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I found a nice round oak frame at the thrift store for a ridiculously low price and couldn't pass it up. I decided to make a single Dresden Plate quilt block to go in the frame and set it on a shelf in my family room. The frame measures about 8" across so I made my own template by folding a circle that size into smaller and smaller wedges - then I added seam allowances and started cutting and sewing. After a rejected first attempt, I'm real pleased with the way it turned out!

The shelf could still use some tweaking on the right side - I'm working on it.

The first one I made was rejected - something went wrong and it was turning out way too big and had a gazillion pieces.....

Little by Little

2011-12-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

I only meet with one quilting group anymore - back in the day I think I belonged to three different very organized guilds. But this group is different - we meet in each other's homes once a month. At one time there were probably 14 of us, but the numbers have dwindled in recent years and now there are only five of us. At our last meeting we met at a restaurant for dinner and exchanged small gifts. I tried my had at using the metal letter stamps I've owned for years an never used. The name of our group is Little by Little cuz 15+ years ago when we started, our focus was on making miniature quilts. Anyway, I stamped our group name on flattened spoons from the thrift store and glued on a few embellishments, plus added a hanging ribbon.

I tucked each of them into a small woolen mitten that I bought at a local gift shop.

And then slid them into a little package that I stitched up on my sewing machine.

I think they will be a fun little addition to the sewing rooms of my friends!

Projects

2011-12-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

Last week I met with the hooking group in Salt Lake City and we had a nice time - shared treats and goodies and enjoyed each others company.

Myra brought two of the five pillows that she has made as gifts for her daughters - I can't remember who the designer is - but she especially like the pattern because it wasn't 'just' for Christmas, but could be displayed all winter long.

Nancy showed us her finished rug and told us about some sticky stuff she puts under her rugs so they won't slip on the carpet - I'm going to try and look for some of this and use it for my rugs too.

She also showed us some ornaments that she hooked using a pattern in the most recent Rug Hooking Magazine. Just needs to get the back finished and they'll be ready to hang on the tree. She wanted to add some metallic touches, but instead found some irridescent beads that added a bit of sparkle to them. Cute!

And I actually started a new rug so I had a project to work on too! Scrappy - it'll be for my dining room table.

What Was I Thinking?

2011-12-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

All over blogland, talented people are sharing photos of their beautiful homes all decked out with Christmas finery - but not me! For some dumb reason, we decided to get new carpet about a week ago and the house is in terrible disaray. We're making a bit of progress at getting things put back together, but it's slow going since we're thinning collections and weeding out old clothes and other stuff - what a huge job! Anyway, I've had emails from a couple of concerned folks who were worried about me since I hadn't posted lately, so I'm sharing these disgraceful pictures to show you what I've been doing. Hope to be back to normal soon!

Walking Trail

2011-11-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

About 2-1/2 years ago I started taking better care of myself, and I started walking 2, 3, or 4 miles a day. In the winter I get on my treadmill, but I love the warmer months when I can go outside and enjoy the fresh air. I walk down the street about a half mile and then hook up with a paved walking trail that goes for miles and miles - it's an old railroad bed that has been paved over. Once in awhile I'll ride my bicycle and go quite far! This morning I brought my camera with me and snapped a picture of the trail - I can't believe there are still some leaves clinging to the trees - in the summer it's like walking through a green tunnel - nice and shady and cool.

I also walk by a spring-fed pond where there are usually lots of ducks and sometimes swans, but not today. Not even the fishermen were there!

Little Things & Authors

2011-11-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

I still haven't done any hooking lately, but I have been making a couple little projects with wool. I've made these three items: A Heart & Hand pinkeep from a Maggie B pattern that I stuffed with worm tails leftover from previous rug hooking projects, a daisy pinkeep from a Lisa Bongean pattern that I stuffed with ground walnut shells, and a darling little snippet bowl from a tutorial that Linda shared on her blog recently. They all worked up really quickly so I was able to feel a sense of accomplishment. FUN!

Last night I attended an event at my local library to see and hear the New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini. Utah was the last stop of her current book signing tour of the country, and she said we had the biggest and friendliest crowd that she'd ever encountered. I've read nearly all of her books and enjoyed them. She spoke for about 30 minutes and then answered questions from the audience for about 10 minutes. After that people stood in line for who-knows-how-long to get their books autographed and visit with her, but I didn't stick around for that part since I don't own any of her books - I always get them at the library.

On another subject, I was at JoAnn Fabrics yesterday and was totally shocked to see my new favorite magazine on their stands - Primitive Quilts & Projects! I've subscribed to this since it's first issue and because it's what I call a 'grass roots publication', I didn't expect to see it at the mainstream retailers. Good for them! If you haven't seen this magazine yet, you might want to stop by and take a look!

Monthly Meeting

2011-11-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last week was rug hooking on the day after Halloween and we had a great turnout of eleven people - it's always so much fun to visit and see what everyone is working on each month.

Marilyn brought these hooked cobs of Indian corn all finished up - so cute - and perfect to display during the harvest season. She got the pattern out of a recent issue of Create & Decorate.

Last month Tonia was working on a 3D sheep project, and this time she brought it and it's friend - both completely finished. The swirls give the illusion of curly sheeps wool - and she used twigs from her yard for their little legs. They have little rusty bells tied around their necks.

Jeanette found a wooden star with an opening that was just screaming for a hooked insert.

This is the project I've been working on - a penny rug that I started during the long drive to and from California last month. I'm using coat wool that felted up too heavy to use for hooking. It's pitiful, but I really haven't pulled a single loop all summer long - I need to get back to it.....and SOON!

Marliss had a lovely table set for our refreshments. Such a nice time!

The Giveaway Winner Is -

2011-11-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Rainbows in Wool! Congratulations! My son was in the same room as me ironing his shirt, so I asked him to pick a number between one and twenty-seven (that's how many entries there were) and he picked number 22. I don't know this blogger's name, but she has some nice quilts and rugs to share - I especially like the rug shown in her header picture - go check it out here. I'd like to thank each of you who visit often and make blogging such a great experience for me!

Time for a Giveaway!

2011-11-02T11:49:00.001-06:00

This giveaway is now closed, and the winner has been announced above.

I've been fortunate enough to win a fair amount of giveaways lately, so I decided it was time to give back to the blogging community by having my own giveaway. I think mostly rug hookers will be interested in entering because all these goodies are related to that. Here's a picture of all the treasures.

And some close-ups of the various items. A pincushion made from an extra hexagon block that was leftover from a little quilt I recently made. It's stuffed with sand and polyfil.

A pattern that I have already made for a hit & miss star rug - no sense having this just sit around when someone else can get some use out of it.

Here's a candle mat that I made when I taught a penny rug class to our guild a couple of months ago.

A little sheep to add to your collection - he has a tiny rusty bell tied around his neck and has clothes pin legs.

This is a cover for an iPod that's made of wool that will protect your screen from scratches.

A little tiny tote bag that is filled with a few pieces of yummy colored wool all rolled up.

Also included is a worm bed made of ticking where you can store your cut strips of wool and keep them organized by color and they won't get tangled before you need to use them.

Please leave a comment here on my blog and be sure there is a way for me to contact you. I will draw the winner on Saturday night or sometime on Sunday. Thanks to all of you for visiting and being part of the this blogging rug hooking community I enjoy so much!

Some Nice Rugs To Share

2011-10-12T19:01:00.000-06:00

I drove to SLC for a rug hooking meeting today - I missed it last month because of our trip to Santa Fe, so it was nice to visit with the ladies and catch up on all their news.

Yvonne has finished hooking her Halloween rug and she was busy stitching the binding down. It's pretty big - about 36" x 40" or so - and she says she won't ever make one this big for a holiday that will only have it displayed for a few weeks of the year - way too much work for that! There's so many fun details in this rug - the spider web - the checkerboard - the bright red fingernails - and all those fun pumpkin faces!

Myra is working on a long runner - I think it'll be about 48" when it's done. She's planned the colors to go in her front living room - very pretty! I love that there a little squiggles of color in each diamond that are slightly different to make it more interesting to look at.

Nancy is working on a geometric that I really like.

This is the last rug Nancy made after taking her inspiration from a woven Indian tapestry.

And here it is displayed in front of the couch in her sitting room - the colors are so perfect
together!

I'm headed to CA for a few days of visiting family. I plan on hosting a giveaway here on my blog when I get back so you rug hookers will have that to look forward to. (There will be WOOL involved!)

Quilt Meeting

2011-10-10T13:04:00.000-06:00

We met at Janet's house last week for our monthly get-together. She had all the supplies on hand and taught us how to make these fun wet felted acorns. I have seen them all over blogland so I was tickled to try my hand at doing it.

She showed us this beautiful vintage dresden plate quilt she recently purchased at the thrift store for $9 - can you believe that?

She showed us this cute necklace she had made from a thrift store t-shirt. It was v-neck to start with and she just cut off the ribbing around the top. Then she cut up the t-shirt itself to make the rosette flowers, and stitched them onto the ribbing all the way around. Finishing touch was the embellishment dangling in the center.

She's gotten into paper crafts a lot lately and shared these little books she made using manilla folders that had been folded and stitched and embellished - very cute!

A New Quilt and a New Quilting Friend

2011-10-06T16:25:00.000-06:00

Dawn Heese - of Linen Closet Quilts - posted a free quilt pattern called Folk Art Tribute on her blog awhile ago. I made all the blocks as she shared them month by month. I've finally gotten them all sewn together and now I need to get a border on it to finish it - then the quilting. I did all the applique using an invisible machine applique technique that I learned in a Kim Diehl class a few years ago. (BTW - I just visited Kim's website and learned that she has cancelled all her classes because of health issues - so sad!)

My good friend Clydene became friends with a quilter who lives in Holland named Yvonne. Yvonne and her husband Alex were here in Utah for an extended stay recently and the two of them made plans to meet face-to-face for the first time. I was really pleased when Clydene invited me to tag along with her for the meeting - we spent about an hour having lunch all together in Park City and it was so much fun. Yvonne has been blogging all about her vacation so her quilting friends back home could see what she's been doing. It's been fun to read her blog posts and see Utah through the eyes of a visitor from out of the country. Here's a picture of the three of us that Yvonne's hubby snapped just before we parted ways. You can read Yvonne's blog here.

She loves the mountains of Utah because in Holland everything is very flat - much of it built below sea level so there are dikes built to hold back the waters. Holland is also very small - she said they could fit three of their country inside of Utah's borders. It makes me appreciate the natural beauty of my everyday surroundings more when I realize that other people don't have that! It was really nice meeting her.

First Tuesday Group

2011-10-05T14:34:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we held our monthly meeting at Tonia's house. She showed us one of her newly finished rug projects that was hanging on one of the bedroom walls. This patriotic fish is a pattern in one of Polly Minick's books.

And this will be a three dimensional sheep when she finishes the hooking and sews the two parts together.

Appropriately enough there were two pumpkin rugs being worked on. Marliss is doing this one...

.....and this is Sharon's. Both are very cute, and even though they both have crows and pumpkins, they have a very different feel to them.

Michelle is making some big loopy flowers that she will eventually attach to sticks from her yard so she can arrange a bouquet of them in a vase.

A couple months ago I received an email from a gal who knew she would be visiting Utah in October, and she asked if there were any rug hooking meetings she could attend. Turns out her timing was perfect, so this is a picture of our special visitor Jane from Michigan who was able to spend the day with us.

She brought a very small project to work on and had a collapsible frame to make it easier to fit in her suitcase - such cute sheep!

And everyone LOVED the purse she was carrying that was made with a geometric design and fun bright colors. She bought the pattern from Perennial Blessings, and it's called Flapjacks - because of the round shapes used in it.

She crocheted the seams together with some green yarn she dyed to match - so I got a close-up picture of that, but I forgot to show the fun lining fabric that she used.

We had a delicious homemade minestrone soup for lunch and I think everyone really enjoyed the day!

Vacation Project

2011-09-25T16:54:00.001-06:00

When I found out we were going to Santa Fe for a week, I had to scramble to find a hand sewing project to take with me because I knew I'd have a lot of time to work on it while on the plane, and in my hotel room. I took a quick look through some of my quilting books and decided to make a small doll sized quilt from Kathleen Tracey's book The Civil War Sewing Circle. I chopped off a few pieces of fabric and stuffed them in a ziploc bag. Then I cut some hexagons from my junk mail to act as the foundation papers for the English paper piecing. I know most people cut their hexagons by hand - or buy die-cut papers, but I found a paper punch at a yard sale years ago that I knew would be perfect for a project like this. Yay for yard sales!

I got the hexagons all prepped, sewn together, and stitched to the background fabric during the week I was gone.

As soon as I got home I sewed the blocks together and added the border - then I machine quilted it and attached the binding.

Turns out I made two extra flowers, so I turned them into little pinkeeps for fun.

Home From Santa Fe

2011-09-18T19:23:00.000-06:00

Hubby & I just spent a nice week in Santa Fe, NM. He was attending a conference for work there and I got to tag along. I've decided that this is a really good time of the year to travel - the temperatures are cooler and the crowds are smaller - a win/win situation!

Santa Fe has a very distinctive architecture as you can see by this home in a 'normal' neighborhood. I think home prices must be very high because we saw several homes for sale with a Sotheby's real estate sign in the front yard.

This is a photo of one of the big hotels we walked by every day.

We stayed right downtown near the Plaza - there was a Fiesta going on when we arrived - with streets closed off for a big parade - and street vendors setting up booths everywhere you looked. When that was over, things got a little quieter. There are a gazillion specialty shops geared for the tourists, and I got quickly tired of seeing expensive turquoise jewelry and fancy art galleries. I finally took the rental car and explored the Santa Fe that the locals live in - checked out a few thrift stores and consignment shopss where I found a couple treasures. This plate is about the size of a pie pan and with the sheep in the middle I had to buy it - might use it for my snippets bowl. And I found a quilt shop with some striped Brannock & Patek fabric on clearance - most of their fabrics have a southwest flavor that didn't appeal to me at all.

I found some cool designs carved into wooden chests that I thought would lend themselves well to a hooked rug or punch needle project - they were in museums for the most part.

My favorite shop was located in one of the swanky hotels and it was called Faircloth/Adams. This gal sells antique quilts, coverlets and hooked rugs that are in pristine condition. She has been featured in both Country Living and Country Home over the years - unfortunately she didn't allow me to take any photos to share with you.

I enjoyed seeing an exhibit in the Capitol rotunda sponsored by a local group called BAG - they shared books that they had made from scratch, and some that were old books that had been repurposed in an artistic way. You can see them here - and one of my favorites is pictured below.

I checked into meeting with the local rug hooking group, but it just didn't work out with my schedule. It was a great trip, but it's always good to come home again!

Extreme Room Makeover

2011-09-12T10:23:00.002-06:00

Awhile ago I shared some photos of a quilt I was making for DD#1. She chose the pattern and the brightly colored fabrics, and I made it just like she wanted. But after I got started on it, I decided that I wanted to do more than just give her the quilt - I gave her a new bedroom to go with it! I spent the last three months planning and buying and painting and fixing and imagining how to make this a success and I think it worked! She and her hubby went on vacation for the entire week following Labor Day, so hubby, DD#2 and I descended on her empty house and got to work. Hubby helped with the painting, removed and reinstalled the blinds, put up the curtain rod, hung the chandelier, and helped carry in furniture. Then we got busy with the fun stuff, making up the bed with new sheets, the new quilt, a bedskirt, and a bunch of new throw pillows I made. We hung stuff on the wall that included empty frames, dinner plates and professional art. It was an awesome experience!

You can read more about it and see lots more pictures on DD#2's blog HERE.
Here are just two photos to give you and idea of what we accomplished.

(edited to add: I have now corrected the mistake I made labelling the two photos - thanks to all of you for bringing it to my attention)

AFTER:

BEFORE:

Two Recent Projects

2011-09-09T16:22:00.000-06:00

Our Guild had a retreat in the spring. Turns out that I couldn't make it because of hubby's unexpected surgery, but I still finished up the project that I had planned to work on while there. I purchased this stool at the thrift store for $5 - I think it's just made of plywood, but after a coat of black paint it doesn't look too bad. I bought some baskets for the little shelves so I could store magazines (or baby toys) in them. Then I designed a geometric rug to make for the seat and dyed some wool for the border to kinda match the color of the baskets. I'm pleased with the way it turned out!

This is the before picture.

I hooked this pillow as a gift for a friend who recently redecorated her living room. It looks really nice on her celery green sofa!

Oops!

2011-09-07T16:39:00.000-06:00

The toilet in our main bathroom has been acting persnickity lately - you'd have to jiggle the handle once in awhile to get it to shut off. Hubby & I finally got tired of dealing with it and we bought a brand new handle and chain with the hopes that replacing it would fix the problem. Last night hubby installed it - easy job, right? He was tightening the screw by hand - not much pressure at all - when suddenly the porcelain tank broke from the top clear down to the bottom. Now I'm not sure how many gallons of water it holds - maybe 5 or 6 - but all that water ended up on the bathroom floor! Can you say disaster? Sheesh! We got it all mopped up and found we had been 'lucky' because very little of it seeped over the door thresholds into the hallway or into our bedroom. We're not sure if we can just replace the tank, or if we'll have to replace the entire toilet, but you can bet this project is right at the top of the to-do list! I'm so glad we have a second bathroom downstairs!

Oh yeah - and when I got on the electronic scales to weigh myself this morning, I discovered that I had lost 15 pounds over night! (yeah right) Looks like we'll need a new one of those too cuz the water must have damaged it somehow. It's always something, huh?

Summertime Hooking

2011-09-06T21:07:00.000-06:00

Here are some rugs that I snapped pictures of this summer at our various local meetings.

But first, I must show you this darling fruit salad that Jeanette brought in July - she made a watermelon basket and the presentation was just adorable. I can't imagine how much work it was to do this! The fruit was delish too!

This is an Americana rug that Jeanette is working on right now - a design by Polly Minick.

Tonia is working on a Karen Kahle design.

Kaye is busy with a rug that has a lot of personal meaning for her - it includes a poem and information about some of her pioneer ancestors. Her husband is an artist and he always draws her designs for her.

Marilyn is a quilter as well as a rug hooker and got started on this traditional quilt block last month - I wonder if it's done yet?

And here is another of Marilyn's rugs - I love the BLUE sheep - very whimsical!

This is Sharon's crazy bird - he has such personality!

Marliss pulled her last loop on this rug at our meeting today. I love the colors she used for it. She was telling us about her recent visit to Anaheim and how she got to shop at Gene Shepherd's studio - she showed us the yummy wools that she bought while she was there. Lucky girl!

Kim is busily working on her second rug - a great vase of sunflowers.

Garden Junk

2011-08-08T17:20:00.000-06:00

We have a lovely yard - with lots of trees - that provide lots of shade and keep the house quite cool during the hot summer months. The only drawback to all that shade is that it's really hard to find flowers that will bloom and provide color. A few years ago I discovered a great place on the web called the Garden Junk Forum where people share pictures and instructions for making all kinds of yard art out of castaway treasures. I started collecting cobolt blue bottles and displaying them on bamboo stakes planted in the groundcover we have in the backyard. I grouped them together and thought they kinda look like a cluster of flowers - and they look especially nice early in the morning when a tiny bit of sunshine peeks through the tree branches overhead.

After that, I saw some fun totems - also made from glass dishes - and started scouting for pieces at the thrift stores when I visited.

My most recent addition is glass flowers made by glueing together plates & bowls and adding glass marbles from the dollar store.

I scored at the thrift store one day and found a big shallow blue bowl that I turned into a birdbath.

I chose to make all of mine using clear glass and certain colors, but they can actually be made using anything your heart desires - tea pots - stoneware - ceramics etc.....

I used 3E clear silicone adhesive for windows and doors. (although it didn't turn out as clear as I would have liked) and I attached a flattened spoon to the back so I could mount it on a piece of conduit pipe from the hardware store that was cut to the desired height.

Fun project!

Tree of Life

2011-08-05T10:15:00.000-06:00

I finished whipping the edge of this new rug last night and I'm really pleased with it. It's not very big - just 15" x 19" - because I used a scrap of linen that I had in my stash and just made it work. I included 5 fruits to represent my hubby and our three children. Used an assortment of yummy browns for the border and trunk.

I based it off of a design I found in one of the old needlework books I have in my library, and just drew it freehand.

Talking about the tree of life makes me think of my family, of course. My little grandson Tyce just turned 10 months old and they had family pictures taken. We are so smitten with this little guy - how could we NOT be with eyes like this?

More photos can be seen on the photographer's blog here.

ATC Swap

2011-08-03T12:20:00.000-06:00

Two months ago, there were five of us in our rug hooking group who decided to do an ATC swap. Yesterday was the appointed day for the exchange and it was so much fun to see what everyone had made - each person did a great job and they were all so different and fun!

I made these little heart & hand pieces - funny how I drew the same exact design on each piece, but they all turned out a wee bit differently from each other.

And below are the five that I came home with. Marliss did monograms for each person. Angela did the stars. Cindy made cute little sheep using roving or fluffy yarn (can't remember which), while Marilyn made the sailboats.

It was a fun swap and I hope we'll do another one some day! Thanks ladies!

Sunglasses

2011-07-15T15:23:00.000-06:00

I'm making a new queen sized quilt for DD#1 and her hubby. She chose the design and the colors. As you can see, her colors are far different than what I normally use in my projects and there are times I thought I needed to wear my sunglasses while working on this! LOL

Each block is made with four of these foundation pieced triangles.

Since I didn't have any of these colors in my fabric stash, it was a lot of fun buying bits of this and that so it would turn out scrappy like she wanted.

I've made 35 blocks and now I need to get them all stitched together - add a border - and take it to the quilter.

2011-06-24T12:54:00.000-06:00

Heading Out!

2011-06-20T12:07:00.001-06:00

Hubby & I are heading out for vacation in a few days, and we're going to Mt. Rushmore - a place I've never been to before! We're really looking forward to taking a break from our everyday routine, and will be traveling with our 5th wheel trailer with no itinerary or schedule. If any of you have been there before and can share some information about the area, I'd love to hear about it - we don't want to miss anything important!
Thanks!

Lovely Swap

2011-06-17T13:03:00.000-06:00

Julie - of Me and My Stitches - started blogging back in January, and I fell in love with her beautiful minature quilt pendants as soon as I saw them. I've done paper piecing myself before, but never anything on a scale as small as what she does. The colors she uses appeal to my love of all things primitive. I admired them from afar until recently, when she shared a picture of some wool that she had purchased. The thought occured to me - if she was wanting wool, that I have a LOT of that - and maybe she would be interested in doing a swap. I bravely emailed her to present my idea and she wrote right back saying that she loved the idea! So we made the arrangements and now I am the lucky owner of this 2" pendant. She puts her work under glass and solders the edges - adding a ring for a cord or chain. Each little strip of fabric is less than 1/4" wide! Teeny, tiny!

In exchange, I went through my stash of hand dyed wool and carefully chose several pieces in the colors she wanted and mailed them off to her. I think we're both happy with the results!
Thanks Julie!

Same Design - Different Fibers

2011-06-13T15:03:00.000-06:00

I made this rug a few years ago, but I had forgotten that it was originally designed to be a quilt pattern.......

.........until I recently saw this post on Carol's blog showing the quilt she made using the same design. I love that quilting and rug hooking are so compatible!

The pattern can be found in Lori Smith's book titled "Fat Quarter Quilting".

Yay For Yard Sales!

2011-06-11T15:13:00.000-06:00

Good shopping today! My favorite bargain was this collection of punch needle supplies that included a Cameo needle with all three sizes of needles, plus two needle threaders, plus a sunflower pattern, plus the kit to make it - all for a total price of $.75! Can you believe that? WooHoo!

At a church rummage sale I found this little flying geese quilt - already quilted for just $2.00. I think I'll turn it into a pillow.

Someone did a really nice job on this little stitchery - it was $1.

I got this little vintage metal funeral basket for $.25. There's one listed at this site for $74, so I think it was a good deal, yes? (BTW - has anyone ever heard of this auction site before?)

A little metal stool on wheels that will look cute with a pot of flowers plopped on top. ($1)

And this metal floral display stand - I'll need to find some pots to fit in the openings and plant something that will trail down and look pretty - maybe give it a fresh coat of paint.

Summer is NOT my favorite season - because of the heat - and the bugs - and the road construction that I always have to deal with - but yard sales are one thing that I DO enjoy about this time of the year!

Keepsakes

2011-05-26T08:51:00.000-06:00

I collect old cardboard suitcases and use them for storing various items in my studio - I like them SO much more than a plastic tote! One day I found an old metal suitcase that was pretty beat up and had several dents in it. I brought it home and decided to give it a little love - so I went through some old quilt magazines and cut out pictures of various quilts that appealed to me. Then I coated the surface with some Mod Podge and started attaching the pictures all willy nilly - followed that with another coat of Mod Podge. Inside of it I keep a lot of the birthday cards, Mother's Day cards and other little mementos that I have received through the years from my family and friends.

One of my favorite items in there is a pair of teeny tiny socks that DD#2 gave me to announce her pregnancy. I enjoy sifting through these tokens of love from time to time and thinking about the people who gave them to me.

Pillow Project

2011-05-24T12:30:00.000-06:00

There are so many wonderful projects in the premier issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects that it was hard for me to choose which one to work on first. I finally decided to do Maggie B's wool runner, but I altered it a bit to make a pillow instead. Although I used all the pattern pieces at the same size they were printed, I scrunched them closer together to make a smaller version. I really like the striped fabric I used for the background (Maggie used a solid black wool), but the yellow sunflowers don't seem to show up quite as good as they should have - I guess I could re-do them, but that's probably not going to happen!

A little close-up of the wool fabrics and the stitching. Now that I think about it, I wish I had embroidered my initials on there somewhere too - oh well!

Flowers!

2011-05-19T11:29:00.001-06:00

My back yard looks SO pretty this spring! I had forgotten how many new tulip bulbs I planted last fall - now they're all blooming and making a riot of color with the blue forget-me-nots and the purple money plant that has joined them.

A friend allowed me to dig up some of her forget-me-nots last year, so now I think of her everytime I see them and their tiny little blossoms!

2011-05-16T10:29:00.000-06:00

It was so fun over the weekend to read blog entries from well known quilt designers who were here in Utah for the International Quilt Market - they said really nice things about the beauty of our state, and about Salt Lake City and the mountains behind it that set it off so wonderfully. Living here I sometimes forget that people come from all over the world to see the sights that are practically in my back yard.

I'm way overdue for posting pictures from my rug hooking meeting a couple weeks ago, so without further adieu, here they are.

Sharon hooked up this antique rug design, and added the little mouse in the corner to put her own special touch on it. I'm always amazed at how the colors she uses in her rugs makes them look like instant antiques - beautiful!

Sandy made this cute little round sheep pad.

Marliss is pleased with how her floral rug looks now that she's switched the background from a light to a dark wool.

Kim's very first project is coming along nicely. The vibrant colors of her hollyhocks are so pretty!

Jeanette got the whole border on her rug hooked, and made huge progress in getting the background in.

Victoria has hooked most of the animal motifs on her rug in a dark color and is planning on hooking the background in a red wool, which will be a great contrast.

Cindy finished her rabbit rug and I feel so badly that my photo of it doesn't do it justice because the flash didn't work or something on my camera. She was disappointed that she didn't have enough of the same white wool to hook the rabbit in it's entirety and she had to use a couple different pieces for it. I think that it made the rabbit MUCH more interesting to look at with the slight variations in color.

Marilyn brought a doll and a rabbit that she had made and they're just adorable!

All Caught Up

2011-04-28T14:32:00.000-06:00

Dawn Heese, of Linen Closet Quilts, started a free monthly quilt project quite awhile ago she calls Folk Art Tribute. I stitched up the first block very quickly when she posted it on her blog. After that, I printed out the pattern each month and cut out the applique pieces, but rarely had time to stitch things together. That changed this week because I made the time to get things done. There is one remaining block that she will be sharing, and when that's finished I'll get the blocks all sewn together and quilted. It's a fun project using some classic motifs.

New Project and Exciting News!

2011-04-25T09:53:00.000-06:00

I started a new rug hooking project last week. I'm making it for a specific reason so wait till you see what I do with it!

I'm sure you've all heard about the wonderful new primitve magazine that's out? I subscribed as soon as I heard about it last October.

On their blog, they asked folks to send them pictures of some of the favorite projects that they had made so I sent them photos of my stair rugs. I received my copy of the magazine in the mail on Saturday and they included my rugs! Now I'm doing the happy dance!

Hubby recovered from his surgery well enough to go ahead with a hiking trip he planned for the weekend with some of our kids and two of his brothers - they went into the red rock country of So. Utah and were going to explore Dark Canyon. I was invited, but they took tents to sleep in because the terrain is too rough for our 5th wheel to navigate, so I politely declined and have been home alone all weekend - they'll return Tuesday night. I've enjoyed every minute of my solitude and have gotten a lot done.

Woe Is Me!

2011-04-16T14:45:00.001-06:00

This weekend a bunch of my rug hooking friends are attending the Utah Rug & Fiber Guild's retreat and I'm sure they're all having a wonderful time. I had planned on attending also - I helped with the planning of the event and was going to organize the rug show. Unfortunately, things turned out quite differently for me. Hubby had his gall bladder removed unexpectedly on Thursday and it just wasn't a good idea to leave him home alone yet - so I've been tending to his needs.

To console myself, I started a small hooked mat and got it all finished up. Ages ago I bought a bunch of wooden fur stretchers on ebay and finally used one for this project. Attached the mat to it and that's why it's an unusual shape.

I made the name tags for the retreat using my Cricut and a great cartridge I borrowed from a neighbor for the sheep.

and put together some little sheep-themed refrigerator magnets for the goody bags.

Here they are in the little packages I made for them - sometimes the presentation makes a small simple gift more fun to receive!

Can't wait to see pictures from the event. I was excited a couple days ago when the library called to tell me that my name had come up on the waiting list for a new book by my favorite author - I look forward to reading it!

This Week's Highlights

2011-04-08T09:23:00.000-06:00

We had a great turnout for our First Tuesday rug hooking meeting this week. Tonia was whipping the edges of this small mat that she made - I like the squiggles - they add a lot of interest to a simple design.

Jennifer came to our group for the first time - I hope she can attend regularly now that her schooling is finished and her work schedule might permit it. She was working on a round mat with cute flowers on it.

Jeanette is making the cutest chickens from a Minick & Simpson design. I wish I had gotten a close-up of the middle chicken - she used a black & white fabric and it hooked up to look exactly like real feathers - perfect! That fabric was a little too thin for hooking so she cut the strips extra wide and folded them in half to beef it up more - I never would have thought of doing that! Good to know for future projects of my own!

Marliss has started an antique floral with a few animals in it. She decided she didn't like the light background, so will be pulling it out and redoing it with an antique black.

Marilyn is closing in on finishing the border of her sheep rug.

Angela is hooking this great floral - got her inspiration for the design & color from a quilt block.

Sandy is hooking a large rug that will be a reproduction of a stained glass window made by a local guy - she got permission from the artist to do this and it's going to be totally awesome! So far she has hooked a lot of the leading (outlines) and is using marbelized wool for the glass. After she cuts the wool, she keeps it in the exact same order so that when it's hooked, the marbelized effect is left intact. I look forward to watching this one progress.

Here's a close-up so you can see the marbelizing.

Kim is a brand new hooker who we all met for the first time - she's only actually pulled a couple dozen loops so far. But she had a hollyhocks design all drawn on linen - and borrowed a strip cutter while there so she could get her wool ready to work with. I love the colors she chose - it will have a dark background. She mentioned that she won top awards in high school (just a couple years ago - wink - wink!) for sewing a wool coat, so she's excited to be working with - and fondling - wool again.

On Wednesday at quilting, we got to visit with a friend we haven't seen for awhile - she showed us her newly remodeled kitchen that featured this great custom mosaic centered in the tile work above her stove. A lot of the broken dishes that she used have sentimental value for her and it was so fun to hear the stories behind each piece. I like the way the slivers of mirror really added sparkle to the piece.

She & her daughter started this mosaic on a birdhouse and incorporated some fun stuff into it also.

Janet's daughter is tyeing the knot next month so she's been making goodies for the wedding. These bride & groom dolls will be displayed next to the cake - their faces and other details were done with threadwork on her sewing machine - lots of detail! She said the groom doll actually ended up looking a bit like her future son-in-law!

And she's made all these darling wool flowers. The ruffley ones will have lots of company and be incorporated into the brides' bouquet. The turquoise zipper flowers will be the bridesmaid corsages, and the mustard ones will be boutineers for the groomsmen. (how the heck do you spell boutineers?)

I have the most talented group of friends - it's always so inspiring to see their new projects and learn new techniques from them!

Fiber & Art

2011-04-06T22:05:00.000-06:00

My friend Kaye is a member of the Utah Surface Design Group. They recently had an exhibit hung at an art gallery in SLC that I was able to attend. Some of the items were quite interesting, and some of them made me scratch my head I'll start with my favorites - the wooly ones.

This piece was needle felted roving onto a black background - the colors were bright and vibrant to look at - I snapped a couple close-ups too.....

These felted bowls were so soft and pliable - they were knitted and felted, then embellished with needle felted polka dots and other shapes.

These little heads were a hoot - such funny expressions on their faces...... each was about the size of a softball.

This piece was tiny - probably 2" x 3" in a gilded frame to lend it an air of importance.

Painted and embellished shoes.

A piece of handwoven fabric that was manipulated and augmented with pieces of cut & painted wood.

Vintage white gloves - stuffed and climbing a pole......

And a dress - of sorts - displayed on a dress form - visitors were asked to add strips of fabric after writing a message on them.

Strips & bits of fabric that were dyed and coiled.

A very interesting visit.

Worm Storage

2011-03-30T14:32:00.003-06:00

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

2011-03-29T14:20:00.000-06:00

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!

2011-03-26T22:05:00.000-06:00

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!

2011-03-22T21:39:00.000-06:00

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

2011-03-19T20:35:00.000-06:00

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!

2011-03-15T22:11:00.000-06:00

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

2011-03-14T16:51:00.000-06:00

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

2011-03-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

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

Ice Castles

2011-03-11T09:08:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

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!

All Done

2011-02-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

I finished my quilt yesterday and put it in the wash - pulled it out all soft and crinkly - love it! Finished size is 36" square.

I've Been Quilting

2011-02-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

In a recent issue of AP&Q I saw a quilt that I really, really liked, so I cut fabric to make a reduced size version and got the pieces up on my design wall almost immediately - . However, a few days later I realized that I had made an error when I did the math so I had to start over completely last weekend. I've been working on it for several days now and it's looking good.

However, this project is really labor intensive and now I'm wishing that I'd made it queen sized instead of miniaturized - I'd have more to show for all my work!

Stuff

2011-02-19T10:42:00.001-07:00

A couple days ago I pulled out my needle punch supplies and made a little name tag to wear when I attend hook-ins and other related events. Turned out kind of fun! And at the thrift store yesterday I found an older rug hook mixed in amongst the crochet hooks - paid 50 cents for it so thought it was a good deal. LOVE the red handle!

When I went to put the new/old hook away, I pulled out all of the others that are stored in the pouch I keep them in and snapped a picture. Didn't realize how many I actually owned! The one I use most of the time is my Hartman hook. And I like the bent hook I got from Gene Shepherd too, but the hook is quite sharp and kinda irritates the fingers on my underneath hand when I use it a lot. I really should switch out the hooks I use more often so my hand doesn't get so tired and distressed - don't ever want to have to deal with carpal tunnel!

I'd love to own a hook someday that is made using a piece of vintage silverware for the handle - I've seen a couple in person and they're spectacular - and have a spectacular price tag too! Would love to see other rug hookers share their collections on their blogs - hint, hint! LOL

On another note - I have been sewing for at least 40 years now and for the first time ever on Wednesday night I put a sewing machine needle through my finger! Can you say OUCH? I don't recommend it! My kids were all here when I came running into the kitchen dripping blood. They asked if I'd be needing stitches, and then they said "No, she already stitched herself!" ha-ha-ha!

Cheerful Spring Flowers

2011-02-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

The other day I shared a picture of a small pile of wooly scraps. Well, here's the finished product. A couple of wool balls covered with colorful wool flowers. They were so much fun to make because of all the different colors of wool fabric and threads that I used.

I made two of them - one for a friend - and one for myself.

This was my inspiration piece that my friend Jayna recently bought at a gift shop.

I think I actually like my version a little better!

Finishing another UFO

2011-02-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Last spring I went to rug camp and took a class from Susan Quicksall. I got quite a bit of my project done in class, but haven't touched it since - nearly seven months! I pulled it out and started working on it again last week. The pattern is called Crazy Horse, but I had Susan customize the design and substitue flowers for the assorted animals.

And I'm doing this all because of Amy. Amy's Dusty Trail is working on this same design - but a bigger version - and that got me all inspired to pull mine out and get started on it again. She is doing the runner - which makes mine look tiny in comparison. Amy's on vacation right now, but I know she'd love to have you visit her blog to look at her rug and leave a comment.

One of my local friends, Nancy, is hooking a rug slightly reminiscent of these - I guess because of the horse in it - and lots of other motifs. These are such fun rugs to hook because there's so much going on - they never get boring!

A Bit of Everything

2011-02-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Just sharing a bit of this and a bit of that today. Here's a sneak peek at a new project I'm working on. Making one for me and one for a friend.

At quilting last week we sat and stitched these cute little owls while we visited and ate some yummy strawberry trifle.

I love how Janet had these surplus sewing machine bobbins displayed in a wire basket in her entry way - you can definitely tell that a quilter lives at her home because of little touches like this scattered throughout the house.

I've recently discovered two relatively new rug hooking blogs who also have rug hooking businesses. Heavens-to-Betsy has some fun designs - I sent away for their wool swatches and they arrived in my mailbox yesterday - oh my goodness - they are absolutely beautiful! It's so interesting to read on their blog about the behind the scenes details of how the wool is designed and milled. I think it's so cool that this is a small family owned business and I think that must be why they can offer their wool at the low price of $19/yd!

Another new place is called Wicked Wool. They have wool, patterns and other supplies available on their website. Plus a free pattern for a darling spring design.

And one last picture of the footstool I hooked for my mother-in-law - here it is in it's new home.

I Hooked a Purse

2011-02-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

I hooked this brightly colored purse at least three years ago, and it's been languishing in the UFO pile ever since because I was intimidated by finishing it. After making the footstool for my mother-in-law, I realized I could use the same technique to sew the seams together by whipping with yarn, so I pulled it out and got it done in just a couple days.

This fabric started the whole project and is the fabric I used for the lining of the purse. I added a couple pockets to the lining so I would have a place to tuck my camera & cell phone and not have to fish around for them in the bottom of the purse.

The purse was hooked in one piece.

I was afraid that some of the loops might pull out during normal use - and it would be impossible to access them for repairs after the lining was sewn it - so I coated the entire back surface with this glue stuff and I think it will hold up just fine now. (stinky stuff!)

A fun project - do you think it's bright enough? At least it will go with whatever I happen to be wearing! LOL

Hooking On Tuesday

2011-02-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

Our First Tuesday rug hooking group met this week and we had a great turnout of 10 people. This was in spite of the fact that it was the coldest day of the winter - by far! Brrrr...... We had a lovely time visiting and seeing what everyone was working on.

Cindy brought her second completed piece and we all just loved the sheep - the background - AND the foreground! So clever! She said she used a punch needle pattern for the sheep portion of the rug, and the rest of the design was her own idea.

Sandy brought her finished snowman pillow that she started at our meeting last month and he is adorable! The way she did the edges with whipped cording was meticulous workmanship!

Marilyn brought her snowflake pillow - I love how she gradually changed the color of the background with a couple different shades of blue. YUM!

Here are the two snow-themed pillows displayed next to each other - they make a great pair- but they'll be living in two different cities.

Marilyn was doing the handwork on some heart ornies that she had hooked - the plaid she used gives so much interest to the finished piece!

Tonia is working on the same design that Sharon did a few months ago - it was taken from a vintage embroidery book - I love how drab and faded the colors look on this rug.

Sandy & Tonia both brought some books that they had made. They're small photo albums that they carry in their purses so they can show people what hooked rugs look like when they ask. Tonia had decorated the cover of hers with a sheep - appropriately enough. Sandy went home and did something similar - I can't wait to see what hers looks like.

I think we all want to make one of these for ourselves now - a brag book of sorts - great idea!

We met at Marliss's house and she had done a little furniture rearranging since the last time we were there. In her living room - where she teaches piano lessons - she had moved the grand piano and hung one of her hooked rugs over it - it was mounted in a barn wood frame - and I love the way the floral arrangement reflects the colors in the rug.

Ta-DA!

2011-01-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

I have finished the hooked footstool for my mother-in-law and am very pleased with the final result. The hooking was not stressful, but I was a little worried about getting it to fit the footstool exactly. Turned out to be a little bit short on the sides so I ended up hooking four more background rows on the outside edges and that seemed to do the trick.

The bun feet just unscrewed so it was easy to staple the cover onto the bottom and then just screw them back on.

The seams on each corner turned out pretty well too - I just whipped the two edges together with yarn.

This is what it looked like when the hooking was finished, but before I started shaping it to fit the stool.

I'm anxious to give it to her and see if she likes it.

Hmm..... now I'm wondering what my next project will be......

Home Tour

2011-01-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

I usually record the Nate Berkus show on my DVR each day and then zip through it in about 10 minutes - watching the few things that interest me. Today he featured the home of a couple from Texas who have incorporated lots of salvage & primitive items in their design. I looked around a bit online and found some more pictures of their stuff - they have some really creative and original ideas that are fun to see. You can take a look around at their yard AND home here and here. (sorry I can't seem to post a picture here on my blog)

Making Progress

2011-01-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

I've been able to spend quite a bit of time hooking the cover for the footstool - it's so enjoyable to sit for hours and hook - I'm lovin' it! This is what it looks like as of tonight.

How Cute Are These Chairs?

2011-01-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, my friend Kaaren of The Painted Quilt talked about a rug hooking class she took. I checked out the store's website and saw the cutest chairs that were on display in the store - the chairs had been painted - and a coordinating hooked mat covered the seat portion of the chair. I think they are the cutest things I've seen in a long time!

Wouldn't it be fun to buy a sturdy chair from the local thrift store and do this to it? Maybe have several of them surrounding a dining room table!

You could personalize them to match the individual who sits there - if wild & crazy fits them, then so be it!

You can bet that if I'm ever in Canada, that I will be checking out this great store called Moose River Rug Hooking Studio!

You can see the workshop pictures of the chairs being painted here.

Happily Hooking

2011-01-20T16:42:00.001-07:00

I was so tickled to wake up this morning and realize that I had no errands to run, no laundry to wash, no groceries to buy and nothing pressing was on my agenda. I ended up being able to hook for nearly six hours and got a good start on the cover for the footstool - WooHoo! I think I mentioned that I am making this for my mother-in-law. I've always noticed that when I make a gift for someone, one of the best parts of the experience is that I think about that person almost the whole time I'm working on it, and that was the case today. Last week my MIL had hip replacement surgery and everything went really well - she's had both knees done so she had an idea of what was in store for her. Yesterday I spent several hours visiting with her at the rehab center where she's staying for a week or so - we played a couple card games and just talked, so it was really nice. I hope I can get this stool done quickly so she can use it when she gets back home. She's quite short, and wants to use this when she sits on the couch so her feet don't dangle above the floor.

I listened to a book on tape for most of the time I was hooking which made it more enjoyable. A couple months ago I happened to be at the library when they were having a sale of old materials, and I picked up six different book on tape stories for just 25 cents each! Good deal, huh? I've actually read several books by this author and enjoyed them all.

When I went out to get the mail after lunch I found that my prize package had arrived - last week I won a giveaway from Mercy at The Stone Cottage. She sent a darling scarf and included some handmade pomegranate soap and some raspberry truffles. YUM! In the world of blogging we're practically neighbors since we actually live in the same state! LOL Thanks for all the goodies Mercy!

Kitchen Facelift

2011-01-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hubby & I have lived in our home for 30 years now. It's met all our needs wonderfully, but just recently the kitchen was starting to show it's age with cabinets looking dated & worn. We decided it was time for a facelift! We like doing things like this ourselves because the cost is so much less, and because we enjoy it. This project stretched on much longer than we had anticipated, but in the end we got it finished and are really, really pleased with the result which you can see here.

Here a picture of the (messy) kitchen before we started - I snapped this photo just before we removed the cabinet doors. The hinges were worn out and the door in the corner wouldn't even close anymore.

Some of the walls had grasscloth on them, and after being there 25+ years it was a real chore to remove it.

Hubby had to do a lot of repairs to the sheetrock before we could start painting the walls because in removing the wallpaper there was a lot of damage that occured.

The cabinet doors after 30 years of use:

The cabinet doors after the beadboard was added to the center panels and moulding was added around the edge:

The cabinet doors after being painted:

The cabinet doors after the glaze was applied:

New drawer pulls cuz we've never had any before....

......and new hinges and door knobs. The oil rubbed bronze is a nice contrast to the light colored paint.

The kitchen seems really monochromatic now so we're looking at new countertops (pricey!) and would love to replace the current appliances with new black ones (not for awhile). I haven't decided what accent color to put in there yet, but I'm leaning towards some kind of red.

So anyway, there ya have it - a quick tour from start to nearly-finished. We're loving it and sometimes it doesn't even seem like the same space!

Hooking A Footstool

2011-01-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law asked me to hook a cover for a small footstool she has in her living room. She has a pair of LazyBoy recliners covered in a lovely tapestry-type fabric that she wanted me to use as inspiration for both the color and the design. I've had to simplify it a bit and take out some of the details to make it easier to hook, but I think the design will be okay.

I've got the colors and fabrics all picked out and I think they'll be okay.

This is a picture of the chair.

The only thing I'm not sure about, is what kind of backing to use. I have burlap linen, monks cloth, and some of Michelle Micarelli's soft linen. I don't know which would be the best choice, so I'm hoping some of you might help me decide - if you've ever hooked a footstool before - can you share your experience with me please? And if you have any thoughts or advise about this project feel free to share!

A Quilt For My Mom

2011-01-10T12:21:00.001-07:00

I finally finished the quilt I started back in October - it's a gift for my mom so she can snuggle under it while watching TV on cold winter nights. It's lap sized - so just right to drape over the back of the couch during the day without taking up too much room or being in the way.

I quilted it on my sewing machine and just did an allover stippling design, which might be kinda boring, but gets the job done. I put it in the washer & dryer before sending it to her - I love the way the cotton batting shrinks up and makes it all scrunchy on the surface of the quilt.

I sent it Priority Mail on Thursday and it arrived on Saturday - she sent me an email to thank me for it and I could tell she was really touched. In fact, she thinks she might like to be buried with this when the time comes - can you imagine? It was just a smallish project for me to make, but how wonderful that it means so much to her as the receiver. I love that handmade gifts carry so much meaning, don't you?

Her birthday is the end of February, and I thought about saving it until then before sending it to her, but then I decided that there are a lot of cold nights between now and then - so I ended up sending it to her as a 'just because' gift - - - -

Birthday Gifts

2011-01-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

I recently had a birthday and both of my girls gave me the nicest gifts. DD#1 had this protective 'skin' made for my iPod - it was customized with a design she knew I would love - can you see the little sheep that were made with french knots? Front - - - - -

- - - - and back. So cute!

And DD#2 gave me a Scentsy candle warmer with some yummy smelling tarts. I like that it doesn't take up any counter space - just plugs right into an outlet in the kitchen and there ya go! The design fits my taste perfectly!

My girls are great because they always put a lot of thought into my gifts and usually hit it right on the head - thanks girls!

Hooking & Quilting

2011-01-06T15:30:00.001-07:00

I've had a fun and busy week so far - two of my monthly meetings fell on consecutive days and they were both held at my house.

Wednesday night my Little by Little quilt group came and I had a small penny rug project ready for them to stitch up - everyone made one and took it home finished.

Tuesday morning the rug hookers were here and we enjoyed our visit. I love talking with these gals because they always tell me about good books that they've read, good recipes they've made and other important stuff! Sharon is nearly finished with this great rug - the design is from one of Maggie Bonanomi's books.

Jeanette was working the whipping the edges of this rug she has finished - she did it the way Gene Shepherd promotes and it looked really good.

Sandy started a cute snowman rug - we really liked the way his scarf hooked up when she used this striped wool - gave it a cool effect!

I have another rug hooking group to go to next week and I'm looking forward to that too!

Bartering Is GOOD!

2011-01-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Early last spring I was going through some of my quilting UFO's and found a quilt that I had started hand quilting and it was about 25% finished. It had been sitting at that point of completion for at least 7-8 years. I knew the chances of finishing it myself were pretty slim, and it just didn't seem right to take it to a machine quilter to get the job finished after it had been started by hand. I was thinking out loud at one of my rug hooking meetings - saying how perfect it would be if I could find someone to finish the hand quilting for me - and in return I could hook them a rug. Michelle piped up and said she thought she knew just the person to do exactly that for me! I was excited! She introduced me to Sharon and we made the arrangements - I told her there was absolutely no hurry - it had been waiting for years so what did more time matter in the long run? I received my finished quilt in early December - beautifully quilted! I got the binding on and washed it right up and I love it!

I know it's not the most spectacular quilt that I've ever pieced, but it's a simple graphic design. And scrappy of course - my favorite kind. If I made this quilt today I would have thrown in several more colors to make it more interesting, but all-in-all it's still a nice one. It's a smallish queen sized quilt - I wish now that I'd added borders when I was piecing it.

I made this lighthouse rug in return - a pattern that Sharon found on the cover of an old issue of Create & Decorate. The rug measures about 24" square. I put lots of swirls in the background of this rug to make it more interesting while hooking it, and also more interesting to look at when it was finished.

I think we're both very pleased with our new projects.

Painted Floorcloth

2010-12-31T16:26:00.000-07:00

I got the bug to make something yesterday - you know how that is, right? I had seen a hooked rug in a magazine that was a simple geometric design - a rectangle with concentric stripes going around the outside edges - and I decided to do something similar for my coffee table - except I made it a floor cloth instead of a hooked rug.

Have you ever made one of these? Traditionally they're made of heavy primed canvas fabric, but I make them out of linoleum scraps that I find at the thrift store. Works for me!

Amazingly, I took a couple pictures as I went along, so I'll post those as a tutorial in a day or two if anyone is interested.

Hubby & I went to see Secretariat last night at the dollar theater - it was a good one!

Christmas Gifts

2010-12-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

After reading a few blogs the last couple of days, it sounds like most everyone had a really nice Christmas - myself included! We had all of our children here for most of the day on Saturday - it's been three years since that happened and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Thought I'd share some of the great gifts that were exchanged that you might be interested in seeing. My son made this great bench for me out of an old rusty twin sized bed. He's really good at welding and I was so tickled to see it when he brought it up the stairs to show me! Can't wait till summer comes and I can find the perfect place for it in the yard! I need to try and distress the new wood on the seat so if any of you have any ideas of how to do that, please leave me a comment or email me!

My mom sent me eight yummy fat quarters - they're all Civil War prints that I will add to my collection. I had told her about them when she was here visiting in September, but she thought the fabric would have cannons or soldiers printed on them because of the Civil War name - so she got a bit of an education from the quilt store where she went to buy them.

DD#1 had seen a big pillow shaped like a flower when we went shopping together last summer and thought she'd like one for her living room. I tried my hand at making one for her - along with three other coordinating pillows - and I think she was really pleased with the result.

Gift Wrap

2010-12-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

One of our son-in-laws wants a fancy new tool for Christmas. We decided to give him a gift card to Home Depot so he could use it to help towards the bigger purchase price. Now I think gift cards are a terribly boring thing to give, but hubby insisted he would be happy with it. However, after seeing a simple tutorial on Kindra's blog (At Home with K), I decided to dress it up a bit so the presentation would be a little nicer. This is what I came up with.

You can see Kindra's tutorial here.

A New Sheep

2010-12-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Last summer at one of our rug hooking meetings, Marilyn brought a darling sheep for show & tell that her daughter had made and give to her as a gift. I really liked it and arranged to borrow the pattern to make one for myself. I got it made several months ago, but just now finished making a 'saddle blanket' to drape over his back - I ended up making a penny rug - the original pattern showed a needle punched blanket - which I really liked too - but I just wanted to put my own slant on it so it wouldn't be exactly like Marilyn's. So here it is - all done!

Stitching and Painting

2010-12-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

I did a little stitching today - - - - - -

- - - - - while I was waiting for paint to dry. Got the primer on the kitchen cabinet doors. Now for paint, and glaze. Hoping to get it done by Christmas.

A Wee Bit of Christmas

2010-12-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share a wee bit of the Christmas decorating I've done at my house. I put all the Santas in one location this year after realizing just how many I actually had! They're on a shelf above the couch in the living room. My favorite two are front and center. This first one is an attempt I made at woodcarving about eight years ago and I was pretty pleased with the way he turned out.

This Santa is also hand carved from wood - I found him at a thrift store two years ago and paid $3 for him. The artists name is on the bottom of the stand - what a shame that no one valued him enough to treasure him the way I do!

I put a small tree on the coffee table in front of the couch and hung all the small santa ornies on that.

This is a rug hooked pillow cover that I pull out every year for the holidays.

We always take a walk down memory lane when we decorate the big tree. When my kids were little they'd receive hand made ornaments from their cousins and friends, plus make some at school. We've purchased Christmas ornaments while on vacation for the last 15 years so it's always fun to see them again and remember where we bought them.

Last Christmas DD#1 was in Arizona and brought me home a dozen of these leaded glass stars from Mexico and I just love them - they're new to the tree this year along with an ornament we bought in Alaska when we went on our cruise in July.

In the dining room I have my prim tree that's covered in ornies that I received from online swaps through the years - some amazingly creative women have made really special ones for me!

Downstairs in the family room is the tree decorated with white angels, birds and stars. We made the Moravian stars several years ago and they're holding up really well.

A rug hooked angel attached to a wooden backing.

There are a couple trees that I didn't put up this year because the kitchen is still torn up. I have enough Nativity ornaments to decorate a whole tree that I love - and a tree full of gingerbread men that I love because it smells so good. OH! And I almost forgot about the little table top tree I put on the kitchen counter - it's got miniature toys surrounding it and a little train on a wooden track that encircles it - that's a fun one too! I think next year will be a banner year where I'll have the entire house decked out liked I used to do when the kids were small.

A Gathering of Friends

2010-12-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

Our First Tuesday Rug Group met at Tonia's house for our December meeting and it was such a treat to see her beautiful home all decked out for Christmas! Here are some vignettes I snapped in various rooms.

I think she's as obsessed with sheep as I am - here are pictures of some of her collection.

Her wool stash is neatly displayed on great shelves and racks.

Her bedroom is a calm and uncluttered oasis with a great rug hanging above the pencil post bed.

And this is the rug she's working on right now - looks like a scene from an old English countryside - something you might see in a movie. She said nearly all the wool she used was as-is - only the blue sky was dyed.

The cobblestone cottage really caught my attention - here's the wool she used to hook it with - and by hooking this way and that way - instead of in straight rows - it really gives the effect of stone walls.

The red flowers in the foreground are hooked with a soft red yarn - and some of the green grass is hooked with yarn that changes from thick to thin - giving a great texture.

Tonia fed us some yummy chicken & rice soup - plus toasted pita bread for lunch. We also did a cookie exchange (the first time ever for me) which was really fun. Besides providing us with lunch and a lovely place to meet, Tonia also gave each of us a darling sheep pendant that she made - what a TREAT! I'm going to love wearing this - thanks so much for your hospitality Tonia! We all had a great time!

Quilt Meeting

2010-12-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

My quilt group had our annual Christmas meeting at Kaye's house where we enjoyed a delicious potluck dinner - some show & tell - and an ornament exchange. Kaye had recently remodeled her basement to include a dye kitchen so we got to take a look around down there. Her collection of quilting books is phenomenal!

And some of her pincushions look great grouped together on a shelf.

Her fabric stash is stacked on shelves in closets built expecially for that purpose - the doors will soon be covered with colored burlap and they'll become her design walls for ongoing projects. I think she has four closets this size. Her son did all the work for her so her every want, need and desire was accomodated.

She covered this cute little lamp shade with selvedge edges and filled the clear glass base with vintage buttons.

Her walk-in closet stores many of her completed quilts because there just aren't enough beds in the house to hold them all!

Her Charlie Brown Christmas tree really caught our attention because of it's size.

We had a lovely evening visiting with each other and catching up on what everyone has been doing - always one of the best parts of our meetings!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2010-12-08T09:27:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended the yearly event in SLC called Festival of Trees - trees of all sizes - and wreaths - are decorated and donated - then auctioned off - with the proceeds going to Primary Childrens Hospital. There are literally thousands of things to see so the day can be pretty exhausting - but it's always an outing I enjoy. Here are a few pictures I snapped while I was there - the first one was my very favorite - the only one that had a slightly prim theme going on.

Here's a close up of the above - wreaths made from old bicycle tires and recycled water bottles that had been painted and cut to look like flowers:

There were also some quilts donated and auctioned:

The next day I went to Midway with a new friend Jan, and we got to experience what they call Swiss Christmas. There was a small craft show with only about 30 vendors - one booth was full of wooly goodness, but unfortunately the gal who makes the stuff doesn't have a website or blog that I can share with you. Here are a few of her things.

We saw lots of decorated gingerbread houses and some of them were over the top in the creativity department:

My favorite part of the day was walking through the creche exhibit - hundreds of nativity sets on display that were on loan from their owners for the weekend - they came from all over the world and were made from every material you can possibly imagine. The setting was so lovely - with live Christmas music playing - and lots of artwork and lit trees adding to the ambience of the event.

Made from dried orange peels!

One of the displays had some wonderful sheep as part of their display - I would have LOVED adding one of these to my collection!

I have more to share with you, but they'll have to wait another day. I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas holiday - sharing traditions with your family - and getting all your shopping and decorating done!

Various, Assorted, & Sundry

2010-11-27T19:41:00.001-07:00

My post today is about a little of this - and a little of that - hence my title.

In a couple weeks my little quilt group will have our annual Christmas gathering. Normally we each make a small ornament and swap them around - each person going home with one treasure that someone else has made. Our numbers have dwindled to only six this year, so we decided to make ornies for each person in the group and we'll go home with one from everyone. I got my ornies made a couple days ago, but couldn't decide how to wrap them up - after all - presentation is half the fun sometimes! I ended up making my own little gift bags by cutting up paper grocery sacks and stitching, stamping & stapling them till they were just the right size to fit snugly.

I made the ornies using old wooden thread spools, scrapbooking paper, and a few glass beads from the craft store. I'm pleased with the way they turned out and sure hope the other gals like them too!

A few days ago I received the newest issue of BH&G American Patchwork & Quilting in the mail and I devoured it - I think it's the best issue they've ever done! There was tons of stuff inside that really caught my attention. First, the incredibly beautiful & unique work of a gal named Odile Gova from Toronto Canada. She creates wonderful stuff using recycled wool sweaters & metal teeth zippers, and sells them in her Etsy shop. You can visit her shop here, and check out her Flickr album here - lots of eye candy to look at!

I especially like the paisley brooches that she makes

You can buy her instructions on how to make little wool felt beads

There are instructions in the magazine on how to make this delightful bracelet, so you'll have to check it out for yourself!

On the cover of the magazine is a cute quilt that I decided to tackle using all my favorite colors. Here is a bit of it that I have hanging on my design wall so far - can't wait to get more pieces cut and start stitching it up.

The magazine has 30 suggestions from quilt designers for getting organized - the picture of Polly Minick's wool stacked neatly in an antique cupboard is yummy.

I have promised to teach a couple neighbor girls how to sew recently, and I had planned to help them make little quilts. Then, I read about the 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge that the magazine is sponsoring, and I decided that a pillowcase would be the perfect project for a sewing novice to tackle, so I'm going to sort through my stash and find some fun fabrics that they can use to stitch up a few - THEN we'll tackle a quilt after they get some practice at sewing straight seams. I know their mom will like having them do a service project while learning a new skill, and I think they'll have fun doing it.

Today hubby & I bought supplies to start updating our 30 year old kitchen cabinets and I'm so excited to get it done! I'm taking pictures as we go and I will share them eventually.

Wooly Goodness

2010-11-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just want to sit down and make a project and have immediate results - that was the case yesterday when I stitched up this little wool pincushion similar to one I saw at the quilt store. Easy peasy!

I recently watched a new episode of Sewing With Nancy and she had two gals on there who have a business selling scarves that they make out of recycled wool sweaters - the polka dots make me smile and the colors are just yummy! Their home parties sound like fun evenings! I even like the name of their business: Go Dotty Go!

They also have fingerless gloves using the same ideas.....

Toy Sewing Machines

2010-11-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

I have a small collection of vintage toy sewing machines displayed in my living room on a shelf above the windows up near the ceiling. Because they're up so high, they're kinda hard to see and appreciate - I need to find a better place to put them. I'm always on the look out for more to add to the collection. My mom has a wonderful tiny Singer that I hope to have some day - she remembers my grandma using it to sew heavy wool coats for the children when she was just a little girl.

A couple years ago my friend Eileen told me about a quilt shop in the tiny little town of Urie Wyoming that has a collection of these little treasures decorating their store. I've been meaning to go see them ever since and Friday turned out to be the day. After a 1-1/2 hour drive to get there, I arrived and got to look around. I was surprised at how large the shop was and how up-to-date their fabric selection was.

This display case had quite a variety of old machines.

And here are a few more.

The plastic machines made in the 60's, 70's and 80's were displayed on a long shelf on the back wall of the store. It was hard to get pictures of them without standing on a chair so I just held my camera high above my head and hoped for the best.

The next day I was looking through magazines at the grocery store and saw that the newest issue of Quilter's Home has an article about toy sewing machines with lots of pictures too, so I thought that was very serendipitous!

What about you? Do you have any vintage toy sewing machines? I'd love to see you share pictures of them on your blog too!

Marigold Dyeing

2010-11-04T09:10:00.003-06:00

I spent a little time outside in my yard yesterday enjoying a beautiful fall day - next week winter is supposed to arrive here in Utah! I noticed that the marigolds were still blooming like crazy and I rememberd that they can be used as a natural dye for wool, so I picked a bunch of the flower heads and went inside to give it a whirl. It actually turned out pretty good - I got a bright golden orangy color - the book I used says this dye is very stable and won't fade out like a lot of the other natural dyes are prone to do.

After treating the wet wool with alum and cream of tarter to mordant it, I layered it in my glass cassarole dish (used only for dyeing), sprinkling flower heads between each layer of fabric. Then I poured some boiling water to fill the dish halfway - covered it with foil - and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.

After letting it cool slowly for several hours, I pulled it out, washed it up and started oohing and aahing...... Now don't laugh at the shape of the finished product - I've mentioned before that all my wool comes from recycled clothing, so you can tell that I used the wool from a pair of thrift store pants! LOL Kinda pretty, huh? One interesting thing that I noticed is that it smelled like artichokes in the kitchen while this was cooking - yum! Much better than the normal smell of wet wool mixed with vinegar.

Last night was my quilt meeting. Jayna makes and sells her jewelry at a great local shop called Just a Bed of Roses. She taught us how to embellish an old skeleton key using wire & burlap & lace & ribbon & charms to wear as a necklace - so that was a fun activity.

Besides being a quilter, Jackie is an avid knitter also. In fact she has knitted over 100 pair of socks through the years. She recently found a pattern for an afghan that she's now knitting using all the little leftover bits and pieces of the socks she's knitted. The finished size will be 60" x 60" - the perfect size for snuggling under on the couch! It's just beautiful and all the yarn she used is wool, so it's going to be really warm. Each square is about 4".

Hooray - I'm Back!

2010-11-02T14:57:00.003-06:00

I made it to one of my monthly rug hooking meetings today and actually pulled a few loops! My arm & shoulder seem to have healed up enough to manage this a little bit and it sure did feel good! The physical therapist I've been going to has worked wonders and I'm so happy! Anyway, we had only a few gals there today, but the conversation was great - the food was yummy - and the show & tell was awesome! Here are pictures of what people were working on:

Marliss is hooking a fall-themed rug which was a free design she found on Bird In The Hand Primitives' website. That yummy golden yellow background is so pretty! It's the first time she's ever hooked lettering and she did a great job on it!

And here is another pumpkin rug that she's got half finished - we all urged her to get it done so she could enjoy it for the fall season. I love that she used so many different colors to hook the pumpkin. I really like this one because I'm partial to pumpkins & crows together.

Jeanette is almost done with a darling sheep rug - the red wool she used for the house automatically hooks up to look like bricks - just wonderful!

Tonia is on the home stretch of hooking a great floral - she just has mostly background left to do and doesn't plan on adding a border.

And Sandy has made huge progress on this fun Halloween rug - it's big & round and she's hooking it with a #10 cut wool - such a great design. Probaby measures 36" across.

I worked on a lighthouse rug that I'm hooking for someone else. I need to get started on the background soon so I don't have to do it all at the end of the project cuz that gets kinda boring to me. This was a design in a recent issue of Create & Decorate magazine.

We recently organized a guild called the Utah Rug & Fiber Arts and we have a meeting on Saturday that I'm looking forward to attending. There will be a make & take project, and we'll have a hands-on color theory class that I know will be SO helpful in planning rugs in the future.

Lucky Me!

2010-10-15T19:11:00.000-06:00

I won a giveaway and my prize arrived in the mail yesterday. The drawing was held at the blog By Your Hands and the hand carved crow stamp was made by Kristal from Rags-n-Tags. She has a lot of cool stuff on her blog and website - including a couple free patterns that you should check out. She's really talented and I look forward to having fun with this. I'd like to try carving myself someday - maybe this will be the inspiration I need to get started.

This & That

2010-10-12T15:11:00.001-06:00

My mom was here for a visit recently. She mentioned that she always uses a polyester fleece blanket to snuggle under when she watches TV or reads a book in the evenings. I convinced her that a quilt is so much nicer, so she chose a blue color pallette from my fabric stash and we worked out a design - simple appliqued hearts. I got this much done before she left to go home, and I will finish it up and send it to her at a future date - maybe for Christmas, or for her birthday in February.

She turned 81 on her last birthday and has never been to Yellowstone before, so a trip to that National Park was at the top of the list of reasons for her visit. We got to see lots of these big guys,

and of course Old Faithful performed as always, right on schedule.

This was a great time of year to go because there were absolutely no crowds or traffic jams. The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed ourselves.

I was at Sam's Club the other day and picked up a new issue of Country Home magazine, and what a surprise it was! Beautiful homes and not one single advertisement! Shocking, huh? If you haven't seen it yet, you should check it out for yourself - it's really nice.

My daughter took the new baby to have his pictures taken a few days ago and they turned out so cute I just have to share. Click here for the link to the photographer's blog where she has them posted. I can't wait to get some prints made. DD#2 had a dentist appointment last Friday so I got to spend some quality one-on-one time with the little guy while she was gone - YUM!

It's been a month since I injured my arm & shoulder stripping wallpaper and it's still giving me fits. I've started physical therapy and the therapist told me I had done damage to my rotator cuff and have a case of tennis elbow. He assures me that no surgery will be necessary, but I sure wish there was a magic wand I could wave to have me back to normal quickly!

Utah Hook-In

2010-09-26T19:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was the 5th Utah Hook-in and this rug was the star of the entire day. Marianne hooked this enormous 5' x 7-1/2' rug in about three months and it's her original design. I helped her carry it in and it is very, very heavy as you might expect. It won first place in the viewer's choice voting and I wish you could all see it in person - it's spectacular! Very graphic - hooked in a #8 cut - and the colors are wonderful!

This is the new rug that Marianne brought to work on for the day - she drew it up and hooked a little earlier that morning before making the one hour drive to the hook-in.......

........and these are the colors that will be included in it when it's finished. Love the brights!

We met at the historic Rio Grande train station in SLC - it's a beautiful old building with lots of good light and an airy lobby.

Here are some of the other rugs that were shared in the rug show.

And here are some of the rugs that we were able to enjoy 'in progress' during the day.

We organized a formal guild during the hook-in and are looking forward to more planned meetings and events, and eventually to bringing in national teachers. Our rug hooking community has grown a lot in the last few years and we'll only get bigger from here...... It was a really good day!

Name Tags

2010-09-24T14:29:00.000-06:00

Saturday is our 5th Utah Hook-In and I offered to make name tags again. I'm not sure why I enjoy these projects so much, but I do - even though they the design changes several times from beginning to end! LOL This year I went with a fall theme and put wool pumpkins on each one. In the past I have used some vintage rubber stamps I have to do the names, but this year I just printed them out from my computer - if I had stylin' penmanship I'd hand write them! There are 33 gals signed up to attend - perhaps when we have 100 attendees (wishful thinking) it will be too much to tackle, but for now it's fun. So, without further ado, here they are.

We have some fun things planned for the hook-in and I think everyone will have a good time. One of my quilting friends will be doing a presentation about needle felting and show us some of the items she has made from thrift store wool sweaters - it's all fiber related and will perhaps increase the wooly love among our rug hooking members.

On a side note, I seem to have done some major damage to my arm from the three days I spent striping wallpaper in my kitchen. For two weeks I tried everything I could think of to get some relief from the pain, but nothing seemed to help. Finally yesterday I went to the doctor and got prescriptions for three different medications - today I am finally able to function and I almost feel like myself again. Whew! Nothing like that kind of experience to make me appreciate my normal good health!

I'm a Gramma!

2010-09-18T09:02:00.000-06:00

My daughter had a beautiful baby boy on Thursday night - life is good!