A Sheep For My Collection?

I saw a wonderful sheep while shopping yesterday that I would love to add to my collection. It was very creative and original, plus it had a sweet black face that all my sheep must have. And it was very hefty - standing about 24" tall. Unfortunately, the price tag was WAY out of my price range at $580! I love going to Anthropologie to window shop and get inspiration, but I have never bought anything there and doubt I ever will.

Local Quilt Store

Last week I went to a great quilt store and asked for permission to snap pictures of their wonderful wooly projects to share on my blog. Enjoy the eye candy!

Hit & Miss

As a quilter, scrap quilts have always been my favorite kind to make. And so, I also have a fondness for hit & miss rugs because of the huge variety of wools that are used in them. I hooked most of these rugs quite awhile ago and just recently got around to finishing them.

This one I turned into a pillow for my couch. I like the way I finished the edges - I sewed the hooked piece to the backing right sides together about a quarter inch from the hooked edge - then turned it right side out and stuffed it. I whipped the edge with yarn - covering the foundation that was still exposed. The four layers of 1/4" seam allowance made it look like a piped edge.

This little star runner just got the edges whipped with yarn and it will look really nice displayed on the coffee table in front of the couch.

This piece was hooked to fill the opening of a clock that I picked up at the thrift store ages ago. Not sure if I like those two really light pieces of wool......

This is a rug that I made quite awhile ago - can you guess when? I just added the picture here because it's also a hit & miss.

Surprised!

Hubby surprised the heck out of me on Sunday by presenting me with this awesome new bicycle for Valentine's Day!  I can't wait till the weather warms up a bit (it's snowing today) so I can ride it on the paved trail that runs near our home. The seat is big and comfortable, and the handlebars are quite close to the seat so I don't have to stress out my arms and shoulders like you do on a regular bike. This is a hybrid - designed for women by women.

Fun flowers

Yesterday on our local TV station these gals did a Studio 5 segment on how to make some really fun flowers - I'd use wool, of course, instead of the felt they recommended - both will work great! I actually made one of the other flowers they demonstrated a couple weeks ago using the lining fabric from a wool skirt that I dismantled for my rug hooking. While the pillows that they have displayed are definitely not primitive, they could easily be made to look that way through fabric choices. Hope you'll try some too after watching the video!

Bookish

DD#1 has always been a bookworm. I could never read her enough stories when she was a small child. As a pre-schooler, storytime at the library was the highlight of her week. She taught herself to read before she started kindergarten. She's 28 now and the passion still hasn't let up. Last year she started keeping a book list to keep track of her literary accomplishments and the grand total was 112 books - can you imagine? This year she as already read 8 - just in the month of January! I made this vase using a book I bought at the thrift store - thought it was appropriate for her - all things considered. Hope she likes it!

Vintage Rug

We had two new ladies at our rug hooking meeting today - they had both seen the TV segment I did a few weeks ago and were interested enough to come and see what exactly we were doing. One of the gals brought a half-finished rug that she had found when she went through her mom's things. She knows nothing about it - did her mom make it? Did her grandma make it? No idea! But it's just beautiful - and she thinks she would like to learn how to hook and try to finish it herself. It will be quite a job because there was no wool found with the rug - she'lll have to dye it all to match what has already been used. Arline in our group is the perfect resource for her because she's done exactly the same thing in the past. It's a beautiful scroll done in a #3 & #4 cut.

The other gal brought a large bag of wool clothing she'd bought at the thrift stores - she wanted to ask us if she was buying the right kind of stuff. She was very enthusiastic about everything and I know she's going to be a great rug hooker. They both found out what kind of cutters, and hooks and frames they would need to get started. I think they might be hooked!

We meet each month at Myra's house and she was getting the border hooked on this cute pumpkin rug that is her own design.