M.I.A.

I've had a busy few weeks and that's my excuse for not blogging. One sewing project I started and finished is this little penny rug. I have several pieces of wool that are too thick for rug hooking, but they're perfect for making penny rugs - so I cut some circles and squares and stitched this up on a recent road trip.

I have always avoided stitching things with points because the stitches would always fall around the corner, but I think I finally figured out how to get them to stay in place and it wasn't as hard as I had expected! Yay! I like to use cotton crochet thread instead of the pricey perle cotton that so many others prefer - I buy it at thrift stores and it works great.

I took this little owl wall hanging to the Ogden Nature Center yesterday so they can auction it off at their annual fundraiser in October - hope someone buys it for a decent price!

I saw that my daughter-in-law had one of these fabric buntings on her Pinterest board for the baby's new room, so I made one for the shower last weekend.

My Clover binding clips helped immensely in holding things in place till they got stitched together. I sure love those things!

It's a big one - hope it isn't too long for the room!

I'm finally done with green beans from the garden - canned 24 pints and I'm calling it good - that should be plenty for hubby and I.

I recently found out that my grandmother read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn back in the 1930's as she traveled across the country from Massachusetts to California, so I thought it would be fun to read it myself. It was a good one! I guess it's been made into a theater production and a movie so I might try to find it to watch sometime.

I also read Orphan Train and enjoyed it a lot - had no idea that this story was part of our national history.

It's Been Awhile!

Sorry I've been MIA - just busy with life - you know how it gets sometimes, right? Anyway, I took pictures earlier this month when our rug group met - there was some great show & tell! Sandy showed us her finished rug which is a design by Vintage Heart Primitives - and it was just stunning!

She used some specialty yarn to hook the lady's hair - - -

- - - and finished the edge with a fancy herringbone stitch using yarn - wow! I love the fleur-de-lis that is hooked in each corner of the rug - one of my favorite motifs.

I grabbed a photo of Kim's rug that is nearing completion. She asked her son to draw this rug pattern for her - so it's a one-of-a-kind - and it features her home and other nearby landmarks that are important and special to her - especially Ben Lomond Peak which stands above her house.

Sharon was working on a small star rug - about the right size for a chair pad. Makes me think of a sheriff's badge! LOL

Leisa invited us to hook in her studio for the first time and we all brought goodies to have a nice lunch while we were there. A lot of the gals had never been there before and they couldn't get over all the goodies that she has!  Leisa left just a couple days later and is in on vacation in Italy. Her husband went to ride his bike in the Italian Alps and it's been fun seeing her posts on Instagram.

Jeanette finished up this fun sunflower on a bed spring - a kit that we all received at a Guild meeting a year or two ago - please notice the red floor in the background - it's painted plywood - awesome!

My little quilt group met at my house a couple days after this, and I had prepared a small project for each gal to make. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them all before they left so these two are mine. I sharpened bamboo skewers and we added polymer clay handles to them - they make a great stiletto to use when sewing - they hold seam allowances in place so your fingers don't get stitched by mistake. The colors are way too bright for my taste - I'd like to make another one or two and see if I'm happier with them....

When we returned home from Seattle I found this rusty flower in my yard - my son had welded it for me and left it as a surprise and I love it - it's rather dangerous looking so we've placed it in an out-of-the-way spot cuz we don't want any of the grandchildren to get hurt by it.  A couple of the kids really like balls so this might be a challenge - LOL!

And finally, a couple more really good books that I can recommend. I liked this one a lot:

And this one had me nearly sobbing at the end - luckily I was home alone and had no need to hide my tears from anyone - whew! I love books that make me cry - and Hallmark commercials can do it too! (smile)

The weather has turned really hot here after a long, cool, wet spring - whew - I'm not a fan!

Catching Up

I've been home for a couple weeks now - had a good time on our getaway to Southern Utah where the weather was lovely - then we came home to the first cold snap of the winter. Hubby & I found out there was a shooting range nearby so we took shotguns with us - he loved it - me, not so much. Ended up with a huge bruise on my shoulder that is just now fading away. But we also did some hiking, and rode our bikes - I got a lot of fun shopping in while he was in meetings - and I didn't have to cook any meals for nearly a week - WooHoo!

I finished sewing all my little hexies together and now this quilt is ready to be quilted. Can't decide whether to add a border or call it good. The finished size is 19" x 22".

Without even realizing it, I won a giveaway on Janet's blog last week and my prize arrived in the mail. A mini charm pack from French General, and two bars of her yummy homemade soap - I wish you could smell it through your computer screens!

When I was looking through the pictures on my camera recently, I realized that I had never shared this one. Early in the spring while on vacation, I saw a cool garden 'sculpture' in a shop but it was way too expensive for me to buy, so. I showed a picture to my son who is good at welding metal and he recreated it for me. I found the large metal ring at a yard sale during the summer for only $15 - it used to be the rim of a wooden wagon wheel and was exactly what we needed.  It looks great in my yard and is titled "Rolling Stone".

I had a great Thanksgiving on Thursday (except for the Roto-Rooter episode) and have a good start on my Christmas shopping. Now I need to get the tree up try to make the house feel festive. My mother-in-law recently went to Israel and brought us home this 8" Nativity hand carved from olive wood - the grain is so beautiful and it's the perfect beginning to the holiday season.

Friends

Kathy & I met at a quilt guild nearly twenty years ago. Her birthday was on Saturday. Yesterday I stopped by her house to deliver a late birthday present. She has a beautiful yard, with lots of fun & quirky 'furnishings', so I made her a dragonfly to hang on the fence - painted it bright lime green & turquoise. I think she really liked it. I asked her to send me some pictures when she figures out where it will go exactly and I'll share those pictures when I get them.

Jayme used to live on the corner of my culdesac years and years ago - we were good friends and our kids were good friends. Then they moved - her kids went to a different school - she started working - and we didn't see each other much. Fortunately, she found me on Facebook about a year ago and we've been able to reconnect and catch up on things. One day about two months ago when we went to lunch together, I took her to a quilt store and convinced her to giving quilting a try. She has a granddaughter and decided to make a quilt for her. Now her first project is finished and I think she's hooked - I knew she'd be a natural - and I was right. This is the cute owl themed quilt she made.

Nancy and I have been hooking friends for maybe ten years. She has finished her brightly colored rug. I think she calls this her 'True Religion' rug - because it was inspired by the artwork on a tote bag that she got for free when she bought a bottle of True Religion perfume at Macy's. It's so fun and whimsical - yes?

And now she's working on an Americana rug that she designed herself. 

Friends make life's experience so much sweeter - and I'm thankful for mine.......