My Rug Is Finished!

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

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

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

Ice Castles

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

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

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

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!