Maggie B.

Last weekend was our Guild's 3-day workshop with Maggie Bonanomi. It was a lot of fun to spend so much quality time with my rug hooking friends. Each of the attendees received kits to make the velveteen strawberries and puzzle balls that are included in one of Maggie's books. I got the strawberry stitched up this weekend - I added beads instead of using dyed pins like she suggested.

And I'm well on my way to finishing the puzzle ball - just need to get the fancy stitching done along each of  the seam lines and attach each section to each other. 

Maggie suggests using cotton stuffing for these small projects - I believe she uses the kind of cotton balls for removing makeup - but I went to my local upholstery shop and bought a bunch of cotton for $2 - I think it's used to pad arms on chairs and couches - and it worked perfectly for these. I stuffed it in there really tightly and it gives a nice heft to the project. 

This is the small heart mat I made when she taught us her Wonky Technique. I had never realized it before, but she never uses a wool cutter for her strips. Instead, she tears a piece of fabric that's between 3/4" & 1" wide - then she uses scissors to cut that strip up the middle. It ends up imperfect and wide - gives a really nice effect.

And here is the main project I worked on for the class - made a little bit of progress on it and hope to get it done kinda quickly - using that wide cut helps it move right along.  

The highlight of the workshop came on the last day when we got to see the projects from her new book in person. If you'd like to see them you can click on this link to view the Guild's blog - there are lots of photos there.

This photo below shows my favorite item from her new book - she showed us how she cuts her letters freehand for her applique projects so I think I might like to try and make one similar to this using a bit more color. Fun weekend!

Exciting Times!

It's been a very eventful week at my house. Today was my daughter's baby shower - and she definitely got showed with gifts from family & friends. Her baby boy is due to arrive in about eight weeks and we can hardly wait. One of my contributions was the baby quilt I made for her and I can finally show it to you now that she's received it.  A simple design of nothing but half square triangles set every which way - no rhyme or reason to the arrangement. I used 10 different Kona solids and a stripe for the back and binding that tied them all together.

And on Monday my son proposed to his sweetheart - in her classroom - with the help of her students (and the principal & office staff) Our whole family was there for the occasion and it was really special. The wedding will be held in December during winter break from his college classes.

Life is GOOD!

One Thing Leads to Another

I have finished appliqueing the colored wool leaves onto my Kim Diehl quilt - now it's layered and pin basted and waiting to be machine quilted. 

I had a few of the wool leaves leftover and started playing with them - found out that they make a nice design all by themselves. So I cut out a few more and started stitching them down onto another piece of wool - this will make a small table topper eventally.

Just finished this book about four sisters of a certain age - enjoyed it!

Rug Group

Last Tuesday was one of my monthly rug meetings so I'm kinda slow getting pictures posted - but better late than never, right? First of all - the group 'scolded' me for sharing only snippets of the rug I'm currently working on - so I decided to show you the whole thing - such as it is. You can see the house that I re-hooked. The problem that's always held me back on this is trying to figure out how to mesh the background areas - if anyone has a brilliant idea on how I can do this, please share any suggestions. For now I'll be working on the borders until inspiration strikes. I guess I should explain that this is my memory rug. You can see my little family and the Dalmation we had - a quilt hanging outside - and the mountains that edge our valley. We have trains that run right behind our house and we also live close to an Air Force Base so there are always planes flying overhead. The Great Salt Lake is pictured and the Salt Lake temple with it's beautiful flower beds. Lots of shade trees in our yard and we have always grown a garden. I drew all of this freehand so nothing is to scale.

There was lots of nice show & tell - the gals have been busy! Jeanette pulled the very last loops on this rug while we were all there. This pattern originally was for three different Christmas stockings that would be hung on the mantle and be stuffed with goodies. But she chose to combine them all into a single rug and then added a border of her own design.

A couple posts back I shared pictures of Jeanette's new house. Before her old home was demolished she salvaged the wooden door of the medicine chest from the bathroom and she hooked a piece to insert in the center panel. It's attached with velcro and she plans to make several more little rugs so she can switch it out with the seasons. This way she was able to preserved a small bit of the home that she loved so much.

Sandy brought a darling little step stool that Tonia designed - she painted it and chose wool to match the color - a very useful addition to her kitchen will make it easy to reach the top shelf - and her grandchildren love sitting on it!

This is what Sandy is working on now - a special order for a granddaughter. It's a Sharon Smith design and the colors she's using are so pretty - soft & muted but not pastel. 

Tonia brought her finished Red Riding Hood rug - her own design. The colors in this project are so rich and beautiful! She blogs at BaaRamEwe and I'm sure the pattern will be available for purchase if you are interested in hooking one for yourself.

Kim wasn't able to make it to our meeting last month, so she had a lot of show & tell to share with us. At a Guild meeting earlier this summer we learned how to make these cute proddy flowers on sticks, so she made up a bunch of them and had them all finished.

She also finished her little purse that was started at a Guild meeting - here are photos of both sides. She used a few different techniques to make it interesting.

                   

Treasured

Remember awhile ago I shared pictures of the wood carving that my hubby made of the clasped arms? Well, today he finished another wood carving, and this was something special he made especially for me. A heart! It stands about 12" tall and is made of black walnut - the pedestal and heart are carved as one single piece. He stained the heart with a red stain and the stand with darker wood stain - then it was waxed and now it is as smooth as silk. It immediately became my most treasured possession! Love it!

Here are a few photos of it in progress - wish I'd been home when he started it so you could have seen it when he rough cut it with a chain saw!

I'm still working on my 'problem' hooked rug - I added another border to the name portion of the rug - this part measures 11 x 48. The finished rug will be 48 x 56 - it's a big one!

One of the things I didn't like about the rug was the house that I had hooked - I drew the whole rug freehand because I wanted it to be naive and funky, but this wobbly house was really bothering me.

So I pulled it all out - except the roof - and redrew it with straight lines by following a thread. It's still not perfect, but I think it's better than before. 

In two weeks Maggie Bonanomi will be here in Utah to teach a three day workshop for our Guild so we're getting very excited about it. I need to get a pattern on linen and pull some wool so I'll be ready for class! WooHoo! Unfortunately, that means this big rug of mine will get put on the back burner again - sigh!

Just finished up this book by an author I hadn't read before. I liked it a lot - great setting (Wales England) - great characters - and a great story.

Glimpses

I've been working on several projects the last few days and thought I'd share just a little snippet of each. I amazed myself by pulling out a very large rug that I haven't worked on for years and years - and I actually added a narrow salmon colored border to one section of it. I would really love to finish this some day so I've put my thinking cap on to see if I can figure out solutions to some of the problems that made me put it away in the first place.

I've made progress on my Kim Diehl quilt - here is is arranged on my design wall.

Since there is quite a bit of wool applique to be done around the edges I was worried about having the cotton background fabric fray from all the handling it would be receiving. I took a class from Kim many years ago and remembered that she always ran a bead of Fray Check around the outside of her blocks for just that reason. So that's what I did and I hope it will help.

Have started working on a brightly colored baby quilt for DD#1. The baby is due in November and the baby shower is about a month away so I have plenty of time to get this made for her.

And my son's girlfriend will be a brand new 5th grade teacher next week. She's been busy organizing her classroom and fixing it up with fun bright colors. She has one window that I made some simple valance curtains for.

Jeanette's House

Last week our rug group met at Jeanette's new home for our monthly get together. Standing on the sidewalk I admired front porch and those gorgeous hanging baskets of fibrous begonias. Wanted to sit down on a rocking chair and never leave!

There is a play house in the back yard for the grandkids - 

And a wonderful vegetable garden -

A putting green -

And a river - (if you look closely you can see some ducks)

This neatly stacked firewood makes me long for a roaring winter fire -

And in the house her laundry room has a bird theme going on - love the two hooked rugs - 

Her sewing room/wool room is awesome - she had cubbies built-in on either side of the window - 

I love how she has the wool neatly stacked by color - and little decorations and trinkets displayed amongst the wool -

Smaller bits of wool are in this little box on a table -

Thanks so much for a great day and the delicious lunch Jeanette!