Keepsakes

I collect old cardboard suitcases and use them for storing various items in my studio - I like them SO much more than a plastic tote! One day I found an old metal suitcase that was pretty beat up and had several dents in it. I brought it home and decided to give it a little love - so I went through some old quilt magazines and cut out pictures of various quilts that appealed to me. Then I coated the surface with some Mod Podge and started attaching the pictures all willy nilly - followed that with another coat of Mod Podge. Inside of it I keep a lot of the birthday cards, Mother's Day cards and other little mementos that I have received through the years from my family and friends.

One of my favorite items in there is a pair of teeny tiny socks that DD#2 gave me to announce her pregnancy. I enjoy sifting through these tokens of love from time to time and thinking about the people who gave them to me.

Pillow Project

There are so many wonderful projects in the premier issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects that it was hard for me to choose which one to work on first. I finally decided to do Maggie B's wool runner, but I altered it a bit to make a pillow instead. Although I used all the pattern pieces at the same size they were printed, I scrunched them closer together to make a smaller version. I really like the striped fabric I used for the background (Maggie used a solid black wool), but the yellow sunflowers don't seem to show up quite as good as they should have - I guess I could re-do them, but that's probably not going to happen!

A little close-up of the wool fabrics and the stitching. Now that I think about it, I wish I had embroidered my initials on there somewhere too - oh well!

Flowers!

My back yard looks SO pretty this spring! I had forgotten how many new tulip bulbs I planted last fall - now they're all blooming and making a riot of color with the blue forget-me-nots and the purple money plant that has joined them.

A friend allowed me to dig up some of her forget-me-nots last year, so now I think of her everytime I see them and their tiny little blossoms!

It was so fun over the weekend to read blog entries from well known quilt designers who  were here in Utah for the International Quilt Market - they said really nice things about the beauty of our state, and about Salt Lake City and the mountains behind it that set it off so wonderfully. Living here I sometimes forget that people come from all over the world to see the sights that are practically in my back yard.

I'm way overdue for posting pictures from my rug hooking meeting a couple weeks ago, so without further adieu, here they are.

Sharon hooked up this antique rug design, and added the little mouse in the corner to put her own special touch on it. I'm always amazed at how the colors she uses in her rugs makes them look like instant antiques - beautiful!

Sandy made this cute little round sheep pad.

Marliss is pleased with how her floral rug looks now that she's switched the background from a light to a dark wool.

Kim's very first project is coming along nicely.  The vibrant colors of her hollyhocks are so pretty!

Jeanette got the whole border on her rug hooked, and made huge progress in getting the background in.

Victoria has hooked most of the animal motifs on her rug in a dark color and is planning on hooking the background in a red wool, which will be a great contrast.

Cindy finished her rabbit rug and I feel so badly that my photo of it doesn't do it justice because the flash didn't work or something on my camera. She was disappointed that she didn't have enough of the same white wool to hook the rabbit in it's entirety and she had to use a couple different pieces for it. I think that it made the rabbit MUCH more interesting to look at with the slight variations in color.

Marilyn brought a doll and a rabbit that she had made and they're just adorable!

All Caught Up

Dawn Heese, of Linen Closet Quilts, started a free monthly quilt project quite awhile ago she calls Folk Art Tribute. I stitched up the first block very quickly when she posted it on her blog. After that, I printed out the pattern each month and cut out the applique pieces, but rarely had time to stitch things together. That changed this week because I made the time to get things done. There is one remaining block that she will be sharing, and when that's finished I'll get the blocks all sewn together and quilted. It's a fun project using some classic motifs.

New Project and Exciting News!

I started a new rug hooking project last week. I'm making it for a specific reason so wait till you see what I do with it!

I'm sure you've all heard about the wonderful new primitve magazine that's out? I subscribed as soon as I heard about it last October.

On their blog, they asked folks to send them pictures of some of the favorite projects that they had made so I sent them photos of my stair rugs. I received my copy of the magazine in the mail on Saturday and they included my rugs! Now I'm doing the happy dance!

Hubby recovered from his surgery well enough to go ahead with a hiking trip he planned for the weekend with some of our kids and two of his brothers - they went into the red rock country of So. Utah and were going to explore Dark Canyon. I was invited, but they took tents to sleep in because the terrain is too rough for our 5th wheel to navigate, so I politely declined and have been home alone all weekend - they'll return Tuesday night. I've enjoyed every minute of my solitude and have gotten a lot done.

Woe Is Me!

This weekend a bunch of my rug hooking friends are attending the Utah Rug & Fiber Guild's retreat and I'm sure they're all having a wonderful time. I had planned on attending also - I helped with the planning of the event and was going to organize the rug show. Unfortunately, things turned out quite differently for me. Hubby had his gall bladder removed unexpectedly on Thursday and it just wasn't a good idea to leave him home alone yet - so I've been tending to his needs.

To console myself, I started a small hooked mat and got it all finished up. Ages ago I bought a bunch of wooden fur stretchers on ebay and finally used one for this project. Attached the mat to it and that's why it's an unusual shape.

I made the name tags for the retreat using my Cricut and a great cartridge I borrowed from a neighbor for the sheep.

and put together some little sheep-themed refrigerator magnets for the goody bags.

Here they are in the little packages I made for them - sometimes the presentation makes a small simple gift more fun to receive!

Can't wait to see pictures from the event. I was excited a couple days ago when the library called to tell me that my name had come up on the waiting list for a new book by my favorite author - I look forward to reading it!