This Week's Highlights

We had a great turnout for our First Tuesday rug hooking meeting this week. Tonia was whipping the edges of this small mat that she made - I like the squiggles - they add a lot of interest to a simple design.

Jennifer came to our group for the first time - I hope she can attend regularly now that her schooling is finished and her work schedule might permit it. She was working on a round mat with cute flowers on it.

Jeanette is making the cutest chickens from a Minick & Simpson design. I wish I had gotten a close-up of the middle chicken - she used a black & white fabric and it hooked up to look exactly like real feathers - perfect! That fabric was a little too thin for hooking so she cut the strips extra wide and folded them in half to beef it up more - I never would have thought of doing that! Good to know for future projects of my own!

Marliss has started an antique floral with a few animals in it. She decided she didn't like the light background, so will be pulling it out and redoing it with an antique black.

Marilyn is closing in on finishing the border of her sheep rug.

Angela is hooking this great floral - got her inspiration for the design & color from a quilt block.

Sandy is hooking a large rug that will be a reproduction of a stained glass window made by a local guy - she got permission from the artist to do this and it's going to be totally awesome! So far she has hooked a lot of the leading (outlines) and is using marbelized wool for the glass. After she cuts the wool, she keeps it in the exact same order so that when it's hooked, the marbelized effect is left intact. I look forward to watching this one progress.

Here's a close-up so you can see the marbelizing.

Kim is a brand new hooker who we all met for the first time - she's only actually pulled a couple dozen loops so far. But she had a hollyhocks design all drawn on linen - and borrowed a strip cutter while there so she could get her wool ready to work with. I love the colors she chose - it will have a dark background. She mentioned that she won top awards in high school (just a couple years ago - wink - wink!) for sewing a wool coat, so she's excited to be working with - and fondling - wool again.

On Wednesday at quilting, we got to visit with a friend we haven't seen for awhile - she showed us her newly remodeled kitchen that featured this great custom mosaic centered in the tile work above her stove. A lot of the broken dishes that she used have sentimental value for her and it was so fun to hear the stories behind each piece. I like the way the slivers of mirror really added sparkle to the piece.

She & her daughter started this mosaic on a birdhouse and incorporated some fun stuff into it also.

Janet's daughter is tyeing the knot next month so she's been making goodies for the wedding. These bride & groom dolls will be displayed next to the cake - their faces and other details were done with threadwork on her sewing machine - lots of detail! She said the groom doll actually ended up looking a bit like her future son-in-law!

And she's made all these darling wool flowers. The ruffley ones will have lots of company and be incorporated into the brides' bouquet. The turquoise zipper flowers will be the bridesmaid corsages, and the mustard ones will be boutineers for the groomsmen. (how the heck do you spell boutineers?)

I have the most talented group of friends - it's always so inspiring to see their new projects and learn new techniques from them!

Fiber & Art

My friend Kaye is a member of the Utah Surface Design Group. They recently had an exhibit hung at an art gallery in SLC that I was able to attend. Some of the items were quite interesting, and some of them made me scratch my head  I'll start with my favorites - the wooly ones.

This piece was needle felted roving onto a black background - the colors were bright and vibrant to look at - I snapped a couple close-ups too.....

These felted bowls were so soft and pliable -  they were knitted and felted, then embellished with needle felted polka dots and other shapes.

These little heads were a hoot - such funny expressions on their faces...... each was about the size of a softball.

This piece was tiny - probably 2" x 3" in a gilded frame to lend it an air of importance.

Painted and embellished shoes.

A piece of handwoven fabric that was manipulated and augmented with pieces of cut & painted wood.

Vintage white gloves - stuffed and climbing a pole......

And a dress - of sorts - displayed on a dress form - visitors were asked to add strips of fabric after writing a message on them.

 

Strips & bits of fabric that were dyed and coiled.

A very interesting visit.

Worm Storage

I have subscribed to the Wool Street Journal since it's first edition was published. In a recent issue, Bonnie (the editor) shared how she stores her leftover worms in clear glass jars - sorted by color - so she can always find what she needs - and she asked readers to share what they did with their worms. I snapped a couple pictures of my little chest and sent them off to her - and promptly forgot all about it. Last week I received my new issue of the magazine in the mail and was surprised to find those pictures near the centerfold! How fun! So I thought I'd share them here too. I bought this little chest at the thrift store several years ago for $15.

I think it was designed to store CDs, but the little compartments work perfectly for my color-sorted worms. It sits right near my hooking chair, so I can just lean over and see if there's anything in there that will work for my projects.

A couple months ago I visited my friend Sharon and finally got to see the antique set of drawers that she purchased last summer - she uses this to store her worms - and other supplies. Her's is SO much bigger - and nicer - than mine. I wish I could talk her into a swap! Can you say E-N-V-Y-? LOL
 

How do YOU store your worms?

From a Shopping Trip

Saw these hand towels when I was shopping a couple weeks ago - thought they would make such cute aprons to wear to a hook-in. But the price was $10 each and I decided that was just too much to fork out, so they stayed at the store - and besides - I already have one - why would I 'need' another?

I also saw this print - thought it would be fun to make a penny rug with a similar design.

I wonder if I'll ever have enough sheep to satisfy my cravings! LOL

Another Finish!

I got the 'I Spy' quilt all finished today and threw it in the washer & dryer so they could work their magic. I'm pleased with the end result - finished size is about 48" square.

After looking through all the fabrics that I had received in my internet swap, I decided to use only fabrics that had a motif centered in the middle. There were lots of other pieces that had an allover design that I saved - perhaps I'll make another I Spy quilt using a different pattern in the future.

This is the backing fabric I chose - pencils all over the place.

I used a rainbow striped fabric for the binding to bring a bit of color to the outside edge of the quilt.

Can't wait till our little guy is big enough to identify all the different pictures - it'll be so much fun!

NOT My Favorite Thing!

My son is 21 years old and for the last four years he's been having a love affair with the beat-up truck that he drives (Big Blue). You would not believe all the stuff he's done to 'fix it up'! Last week he was on Spring Break from college and decided it was time to tackle the upholstery in the cab. Of course, I was recruited to 'help' with the project. I refused at first, but he wore me down and I finally said I'd 'help' - just to make him stop nagging me! LOL So, he pulled the entire seat out of the truck and brought it in the house. Then he dismantled it and removed the fabric. Instead of replacing the entire piece, he decided to just sew some new fabric over the sections that had received the most wear & tear from use. We call him our 'redneck' - and he lived up to his name by choosing some hunting camoflauge fabric to use. I slipped a pattern off of the seat and edged it in some contrasting piping (as instructed). He wanted to have our family crest incorporated into the project, so I directed him to a neighbor who has an embroidery business and she did a great job on that for him. My home sewing machine proved much too small and inadequate to manipulate this massive piece of fabric under the needle, so I sent him to another neighbor who has a long arm quilting machine - where he spent 3 hours with her doing that part. He came home and had to finish some of the edges by hand. It's not perfect, but he was totally thrilled with the way it all turned out. I was SO happy to have it done and out of my house cuz there was grit and grime falling onto every surface it came in contact with - like the living room floor, dining room table, and kitchen counter. UGH! He finally promised me that the next time he needs to have this done, he will pay a professional lots of money to do it!

A few weeks previous, he replaced the fabric on the headliner of the truck and added a Browning logo that he covered with the same camo fabric.

 I'll leave you with a couple pictures of the finished seat - and ask a question: What's the most unusual thing that YOU'VE ever sewn?

I Spy.....With My Little Eye

Years, and years, and years ago - I participated in an internet fabric swap so I could accumulate a large variety of novelty prints appropriate for making an I Spy quilt. Now that I'm a grandma, I decided it was time to get started on this fun project. I received 4" squares in the swap, and yesterday I started cutting them into hexagons using my acrylic template - centering the motif of each piece. I chose a cheerful yellow fabric to use for the setting triangles. Today I got the first bit of sewing done and it's been so fun to see all the different pictures! It's really quite amazing how many different things there are. Everything from flowers, bugs, animals and people to cars, space ships, trains and holidays. FUN! I plan on making it lap sized and I'll keep here at my house so that when the grandkids come for a visit we can pull it out, lay it down on the floor and see what we can find.

Today was the semi-annual surplus book sale at my local library, so I stopped by first thing and stocked up on books on tape - I like to listen to them while I'm hooking and sewing. The price for these is 25 cents each, so I got ALL of these for a mere $5.50! That's pretty cheap entertainment! It'll take me months to get through all of them! I just hope I like them all - it was really, really crowded and I didn't read the synopsis of every single one that I purchased.