I'm Alive!

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

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

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

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

Sandy was doing an architectural piece.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Merry Christmas All!

Hook-In

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

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

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

2nd Wednesday Group

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1st Tuesday Rug Group

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Halfway June

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

37 Years!

I'm very late at getting this post written, but today is my 37th wedding anniversary!  Hubby hand drew a picture for the front of our wedding invitation all those years ago - it was very unconventional to say the least - showing a frog marrying a princess! About 15 years ago I found a Willie Rae figurine that reminded me SO much of his drawing that I had to buy it. I dug out one of our invitations and framed it in a thrift store frame. Now they are displayed side by side on my bedside table.

Yesterday my friends Kay and Sue came to see the new house. Kay is a rug hooker and brought some show & tell. Several months ago I dyed some wool for her to use as stained glass windows and hoped it would work for her. Well, here's how it turned out.

Pretty perfect, I think!

This depicts the Kaysville LDS Tabernacle which is right next door to her house......

....and here is an old photo of the pioneer era building.

(the stained glass windows from the inside)

She also showed me her newest rug which includes one of the things she always tells her sons and grandchildren - very good advice for all of us - BE NICE! As always, her hubby drew the design for her.

She had this darling little piece of embellished stitchery that a friend had gifted her with - so sweet! I love the smushed thimble being used for a flower pot!

Rug Hooking Workshop (Picture Heavy)

Over the weekend I was fortunate to attend a three day rug hooking workshop sponsored by the Utah Rug & Fiber Guild. This year our national teacher was Donna Hrkman from Dayton Ohio - what a delightful lady! We met at a local quilt store.

I chose to work on a landscape rug of a red rock slot canyon in Southern Utah - an area that my husband absolutely adores. I'm hoping that my project will turn out well enough that I can have it mounted on stretcher bars and he will want to hang it in his office at work. If not, oh well! I worked from a photograph so you can see what it's supposed to look like when finished. It's only 18" square, so not a huge rug.

The Guild has always done a great job on prizes & treats for the attendees. This time all 20 people in the class received one of these adorable sheep! He's quite large - can you imagine how much work it was to make so many of these? Love him!

This rich, chocolate cupcake was sooooo delicious to eat - and cute to look at with that little face!

I recently visited my friend Kay who is hooking a rug depicting a church that is right next door to her home. She mentioned that she thought she'd like to make it have stained glass in the windows, so this morning I got out my electric frying pan and attempted to make dye some wool for her that would work as a surprise.

I used only three colors of dye - red, blue & yellow - hoping that they would run together to create orange, purple and green.Turned out kinda dark and muddy, but she might like it anyway. I'm crossing my fingers...... maybe I should have done rows of color instead?

Donna is well known for her portrait rugs, and that is what most of the gals chose to hook during the workshop. After three days solid of working on their projects, most of them had two eyes hooked - which is why I wasn't terribly interested in doing faces - too time intensive for my tastes - plus they had to use very, very narrow cuts of wool to get the details right - a #3 cut.  Jill is doing Marie Antoinette - a long term project I imagine.

Judy was hooking Freida......

Mary worked from a photograph of her granddaughter......

Leah is hooking her hubby & herself......

Brynne recently moved here from CA where she was active with a rug group there. She started an angel rug - might be a weathervane? It's a big one.

Brenda is hooking a sheep that will eventually become a small handbag.

Stacie is hooking a beloved pet dog.....

Tonia worked on one of Donna's patterns of a steam punk pumpkin......

Cheryl also bought a pattern from Donna, but she loves to make sculpted rugs, so this dog has a muzzle sticking out a couple inches from the surface of the rug - he also has a steam punk vibe....

Terri was hooking a rooster in varied colors - one of Donna's patterns also.

Marianne drew her own pattern of her sister with a cat and a computer - her two favorite things!

Coralee is doing a picture of a town on the Oregon coast she visited - great weathered wood.

Jeanette is hooking a rug to go on a window seat near where her grandchildren play when they come to visit - such fun bright colors for the three elephants!

Sandy got a whale hooked, but there is much much more to the pattern she's doing - she works quickly so I'm looking forward to seeing this when we meet again next week - it might even be done by then! LOL

Pat is making a footstool - she's started with these coiled circles and will hook around them until the surface is finished. Can't wait to see this one!

There was a small rug show at the end of the class where I snapped the pictures below - lots of talent in our group!

Over President's Day weekend we spent some time in St. George Utah - usually we escape there for the warmer temperatures, but not this time. We still had a good time - drove out to Glitter Mountain and collected these shards of rock that look like clear glass - very cool! I like them displayed in this small rope bowl that I recently made.

Hubby & I have had a new home built and it's nearly finished now - maybe two weeks till we close. After living in our current home for 37 years it's going to be quite an adjustment for us - and the physical move will be quite an ordeal - especially my studio with it's supplies. But we're looking forward to it. Thankfully, we can take as long as we need since we won't be selling our old home until the move is complete - no pressure to hurry, hurry, hurry. It's only three miles away so that helps too. I haven't had a lot of time for reading blogs lately, so I'll go catch up with everyone now!