Tuesday I got the itch to stitch up something quick, so I made this little quilt - don't even know if there's a name for this block. Measures about 14" x 20" finished.
I finally finished hooking my row rug - now I need to finish the edges. I usually whip with yarn, but this time I'm going to try a crocheted edge. Wish me luck while I try to figure it out!
My little grandson moved from his crib to a twin sized bed a few months ago. I've been collecting fabrics to make him a new quilt and I think I finally have what I need. This should work up quickly and it'll be fun to work with these bright colors that are not part of my normal palette. The background will be a plain white, and the grey polka dot at the bottom of this pile will be the back of the quilt.
I made my new header months and months ago, and then couldn't get it to load. I found the picture and tried again the other day - voila!
Years ago when my kids were small I used to pull out all the stops when it came to decorating for the holidays - I've slowed W-A-Y down since then. This is the extent of my attempts at Easter this year - a small tablescape. About five years ago I switched from using Easter bunnies and now enjoy making and collecting little yellow chicks. I have a hooked rug and several chicks made in different mediums on display on my kitchen table - fun stuff. I did make a couple of chocolate rabbits out of painted muslin that I included in an old wooden bowl of mossy rocks.
Last week was my meeting with the Salt Lake rug group - Nancy has finished her little rug showing a house on a hill.
This is the cross stitch she made 20+ years ago that inspired the piece - can you see the similarities between them?
And now she's working on a fun little horse rug that was a free pattern in a recent issue of Rug Hooking Magazine that she has personalized with some of her own touches to make her own. Everyone else was working on the same projects that I shared last month so I didn't snap any pictures of them.
A couple weeks ago I won a giveaway on Anne's blog for a lighthouse ornament and I realized that I hadn't shared a picture of it yet - so here it is - it's hooked with yarn that she gets from her own sheep that graze right near the ocean - so the lighthouse has extra special significance. Thanks again Anne! I love it!
Lauren has received the little quilt that I made her so I can share a picture of it now. She's passionate about her pugs - and she's so generous - always giving away hooked rugs that she makes - so I decided she needed to be on the receiving end of a gift for once. This was a fun little project - I printed the picture on muslin and pieced a small border of squares to frame it. I think the finished size was about 10" x 12" or so.
A couple weeks ago I met with a group of friends and we had a tea party at Janet's house. She asked everyone to bring a vintage hat if they had one - and to wear a string of pearls. Each of us also brought some kind of finger food. We had cucumber sandwiches, eclairs, dipped strawberries, tiny muffins and apple tarts - all of it was delicious. We also had our choice of 6-8 different kinds of herbal tea to drink.
The table was set with some pretty dishes and a small square tablecloth that she bought on a recent trip to Sweden.
Here's a picture of us wearing our hats behind a display of all her vintage goodies.
After eating, we used the supplies on this tray - - - -
- - - to make these cute little wool felt charms. She had kits made up for each of us and we hand stitched them together - stuffed them - and embellished with beads. Each one measures about 1" tall.
She had this vintage baby quilt on display for the evening - one of many great ones she's purchased through the years.
I've been fighting a bad head cold for the last couple of weeks - the only good thing about being sick is realizing how healthy I usually am. Hope it's gone soon!
Yesterday was my First Tuesday Rug Group - we met at Kim's house for the first time and enjoyed visiting and eating potato soup (in honor of St. Patrick's Day) while we worked. There was some nice show & tell.
Jeanette brought this darling child's chair that she had painted to coordinate with the little mat she hooked for the seat.
And she was working on a bird rug that is one of Sharon's designs.
Sandy has made progress on her rabbit rug - she named this bunny after a neighbor who is a generous gardener (Gerald?) - I like the different layers of brown that she hooked for the ground and the triangles on the sides.
Kim is also working on a small bird mat.
Victoria's half circle rug is coming right along.
Tonia brought two great rugs - this first one is totally finished with a crocheted edge and is a design called Three Hares. She got the inspiration for it from an antique butter mold - but after doing some research she discovered that the Three Hares are a common folk art motif found in several different mediums and cultures - if you do a Google search for it you can find out more - interesting. The three rabbits share three ears in the center of the rug - and yet each of them look like they have two ears of their own - very clever. I love the polka dots in the background.
This rooster rug was also inspired by a butter mold - a fox playing the bagpipes while riding on a rooster - crazy fun!
I didn't bring a rug to work on, although I do have another finished row to show you.
Instead I was working on a hexagon quilt project that I'm making in conjunction with Pam Buda's Prairie Women's Sewing Circle class that I'm taking at my LQS - I think it's Journey 3. These are 1" hexagons and I'm making good progress - I always enjoy hexies because they're so portable.
I've made another project for this class - little 2" blocks set on point in rows. I'm hoping today I can choose the sashing and border fabrics for this and have it ready to take to class on Saturday.
I also have all my blocks made for the Temecula sew along - I need to add the sashing and borders to this one too. So much fun pulling from my collection of Civil War Repro fabrics.
Strangely enough, I caught a very rare bug recently, and spent two whole days tidying a small corner of my studio. Now it looks presentable enough to share with the world, so I snapped a few pictures.
I had started work a bit before I remembered to document my process, so this picture has a few empty spots on the fabric shelf that I had already cleared off.
I weeded out a LOT of fabrics - some were poor quality - and some were terribly sun faded because I'd had them for years and years. This is the pile of discards that I sent to the thrift store. I know I could have found a better place to donate them to, but I was on a roll and just wanted them out of the house.
Here is the shelf unit AFTER I had sorted and refolded every single piece there. Now I have room to buy lots more new fabric - smart, huh? LOL Actually - on the back side of these shelves there is another unit exactly the same that is already pretty full too - I need to do the same thing there and refold & organize all of those.
Some of the pieces I kept were quite small, so I cut them into strips and now they are sorted into labeled baskets - will be very handy for finding just what I need. And since scrap quilts are my favorite kind, I can just reach in and grab a piece.
Above the bookshelf with the baskets I have a quilt hanging on the wall that I made years and years ago - it's even hand quilted and it's been a long, long time since I've done that to any of my quilts!
And just to the left of these baskets I arranged a fun little vignette with a small quilt and some other goodies I like to display.
It sure feels good to have this done - don't know when I'll ever get to the rest of the room. There are stacks of wool for my rug hooking that could use the same treatment - but I'll just take baby steps and call it good! Hope you enjoyed the tour.
I went to visit my friend Kay a few weeks ago - it's always fun to see her small historic home that is filled to the brim with primitive goodies. This time she wanted to show me a rug that she had just finished. Her firstborn son died in 1960 when he was just a few days old - he never even made the trip home from the hospital. In spite of that, she still thinks of him often - and her four sons know that they have an older brother they'll get to meet someday. Because of this experience, she has always been drawn to antique mourning samplers done in cross stitch or needlepoint that commemorate the loss of a loved one. Her husband is a wonderful artist - so she showed him pictures of what she had in mind - and he drew this rug design for her. I think it turned out really nice - and her rugs are always special because they have meaning and significance to her life. I just wanted to share this special project.
My Mom's birthday is next week, so on Saturday I stitched up a really small quilt to send to her using the smallest Twister template - the finished quilt measures just under 9" square. I figured with a quilt this small she could find a place to display it without too much trouble.
I've had fun with wrapping gifts a little differently lately - here is the quilt wrapped in brown paper with a doily to embellish it - along with a necklace I bought her at an antique show over the weekend that I wrapped in some old book pages. Makes receiving it more fun I think!
My son gave his girlfriend a gift certificate for Valentine's Day, so I made a spiffy envelope for him to put it in - it's all about the presentation when you're dating! LOL
Last Thursday I attended my monthly rug hooking meeting in SLC and these are some of the rugs that I saw there. Kathryn had just finished this darling Edyth O'Neill design with two hearts - I absolutely LOVE the way she added interest to the background by hooking in some small heart shapes using slightly different colored wool.
Nancy has made a LOT of progress on this rug she's making - next month I'll try to remember to snap a picture of the cross stitch design that inspired it. It seems she often adds a little saying or verse to her rugs and I think it makes them very special.
Yvonne started the last border on this beautiful floral rug - it's a big one and the colors are so rich and yummy!
Here is another peek at my row rug.
I finally got all my scrappy Trip Around the World blocks made - now I have to decide how to set them. Remember, these are half size blocks so they each measure 6" square.
I hemmed two pair of jeans for my son-in-law - not my favorite kind of sewing - but it was the very least I could do after he worked on my rug hooking frame last week!
So that's a little bit of what I've been up to lately!
When I first started rug hooking I bought a Puritan frame and it served me well for a long time. Then I started seeing frames that you could sit on - and they swiveled and tilted so I thought that would be a good feature to have so it would be easier to hook in every direction. I bought a new frame from a seller on ebay - The Purple Crow - and I've been happy with it for years. Two years ago at the thrift store I found a nice floor model needlework frame for $15 and bought it - hoping it could be adapted to work with my rug hooking frame. Over the weekend my son-in-law took it home and made it happen for me - I think it's going to be great! I can adjust the angle of the surface, and it can collapse it down to be a more compact size for traveling. I look forward to giving this a try and seeing how it works - and it will be easy to move the frame back to the old base whenever I want/need to.
And now I have a quick question for all you bloggers. I try really hard to respond to comments left on my blog posts. I usually receive an email that contains the comment so it's easy to just hit reply and answer back. But just lately I've realized that I don't get an email for EVERY SINGLE comment that is left - for instance - a quilting friend in Holland often leaves a comment and I don't know about it unless I actually pull up all the comments on my blog. I think it happens to a few other gals too - and I'm sure they think I'm rude if I don't acknowledge their interest. Do any of you know if I need to change my settings to a certain way? Or is it something about the other blogger that causes this glitch? Just thought I'd ask....... TIA!
And last, but certainly not least, I was the lucky winner of another blog giveaway! I received this adorable angel in the mail from Jean, who blogs at Prim Crafts. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, cuz she gave twelve of these cuties away to the first twelve gals who left comments on her blog last week. Yay! Thanks so much Jean - I love this sweetie!
