I attended the December meeting of my rug group a few weeks ago - we all brought goodies to share for a brunch - mmmm....... and we also exchanged white elephant gifts - why didn't I think to take pictures of those?
There was some great show & tell. Tonia enjoyed the spotlight by bringing this beautiful rug that she's finished hooking. She started the crocheted edge while we sat & visited. It's a Tree of Life design and is absolutely spectacular. The light outlining around the tree just makes it glow against the dark background - BEAUTIFUL!
And Sharon started the crocheted edge on this small floral mat she made - her colors are always so drab and primitive - she's got great taste!
Angela was working on a small chair mat with a house & some trees - it's so cute.
Sandy started this today - a little mat to put on her granddaughter's stool - she's just two years old and it'll be fun for her to learn her shapes by seeing this rug.
Maryann joined us for the very first time and was working on this kit with a bird & tree that she got from Angela - looks like we've got us a new member - yay!
As always, it was great to visit with all the gals!
I've had this little quilt done for a few days now, but haven't had time to post a picture of it until now. The binding is only 1/4" wide which is much narrower than I usually use because I didn't want to cut off any portion of the outside blocks.
I love the way it turned out - the quilting was done with mono-filament thread - both clear and smoke colored. The blocks are 4" and the finished size is 24" square.
After it was done I tried to find a good home. Tried it on the coffee table in front of the couch.
And then I thought I'd try to display it - along with some other quilts - by pinning it to the railing just inside the front door - as you go up the steps to the living room.
Added a few more - because more is always good - right?
Which do you like best?
And on another note - we have a mouse in the house for the first time in 33 years - YIKES! Have set a couple traps, but can still hear him rustling around when the house is still and quiet. Can any of you advise me on the best way to get rid of him? I sure don't want to worry about him all winter long! Yuck.
I've spent several hours this morning working on my little quilt - I think it's called Orange Peel - or maybe Robbing Peter to Pay Paul - and it's usually done with only two colors. But I always prefer scrappy quilts so that's how I'm making this one. Traditionally, it is made block by block - and the curves are machine pieced into place. But I didn't want to mess with that since these blocks are only 4" square. So I sewed all my square blocks together, and now I'm using invisible machine applique to sew the wedges on top of the seam lines - SO much easier for me. Of course, it could be appliqued by hand too.
So here it is with most of the wedges sewn in one direction.......
......and here it is with most of the wedges sewn in the opposite direction.
My back is getting kinda tired from sitting at the machine for so long, so I'm calling it a day and will finish it up tomorrow.
Yesterday I went to meet with the Salt Lake rug group there was only one new project being worked on. Nancy is hooking this floral with a wonderful dark blue background.
It's a pattern found in Pat Cross' book titled Purely Primitive - but Nancy tweaked it a little by super-sizing the flowers and the basket to make them have more of a presence - and she changed up the border a little bit. Here's a picture of the rug shown in the book so you can see how they're different.
We had a new gal with us yesterday - she was working on a small crow rug she bought as a kit - and she was doing a fine job. Turns out she's a rock star in the sock knitting community. She has written several books and travels all over the world teaching classes. If any of you are knitters you may have heard of Nancy Bush - author of Folk Socks. (have you Sharon?) You can see her books here. I think it will be really interesting to watch her progress in rug hooking and see what kind of rugs she designs when she's comfortable with a new medium!
Winter has arrived here in Utah and it's been snowing at my house for most of the day - YAY!
I'm working on so many different projects right now - I'm torn in every direction when I have time to work on something! While watching TV the last couple nights I've been doing prep work for a new small quilt that's been buzzing around in my head for months. Now I'm ready to sit down at the machine and start sewing. But I'm also working on a quiet book, and a hooked rug. Too bad I have to sleep at night - and cook dinner - and do laundry! (sigh)
At the Hook-O-Ween our rug guild had a few weeks ago, Tonia was wearing the cutest pumpkin man on top of her hat. She made it using a pattern from a magazine she bought last fall.
After everyone admired it and said they wanted on just like it, she consented to show us how to make one at a later gathering. When we met that day she had all the supplies we needed except for the orange wool to make his pumpkin head - so we each provided that for our projects. It was so fun to see each of these little guys progress and take shape - they each assumed their own personality when they were finished.
Here's my little guy displayed on a perch in my home.
And then Tonia showed us how she used the exact same pattern to make a snowman, so I'm pretty sure there will be some of these shared at our next show & tell! So cute! I'm even trying to figure out how to make him into a Santa - we'll see how that goes.
Here's some follow up information about the frog that attended our Hook-O-Ween. After doing some research it was decided that he was a Bullfrog and after the meeting he was released into the wild at a local golf course near a river - he should be happy with that outcome!
And here's a picture of my little 2-year-old grandson wearing the dragon costume DD#2 & I made for him last week. My daughter knew exactly how she wanted it to look - we bought a McCall's pattern (on sale for $.99) for a hooded sweat suit and then found a tutorial online for adding the spikes up the back and another tutorial for the tail. (the internet is so awesome!) She did all the cutting and designing and I just did the sewing. We were both very tickled with the way it turned out - thought he was adorable - and he had so much fun!
For the last few months I've been saving ideas on Pinterest for a Quiet Book. and I started working on it this week.The plan is to have it done and give it to him for Christmas. I'm having so much fun - but I haven't been doing much quilting or rug hooking because of that. Not sure if anyone will want to see it when I'm done, but I think he's going to love it!
I have three small quilts to share today. The first is called Mountain Trail and it was a QAL headed by Lori of Humble Quilts. It went together pretty quickly for me and I enjoyed every step the process. However - those two black logs stand out like sore thumbs to my eye - but it's too late to change it now!
I've wanted to make a spool quilt for years and years, so I finally did it after being inspired by a project in a recent issue of Primitive Quilts & Projects. I didn't use their pattern or instructions, but did it my own way. The blocks measure 3" square.
And here is a scrappy little one I made using lots of half square triangles. These blocks are 2" square.
I have another small quilt pieced and sandwiched, but haven't been able to get it quilted yet, so I hope to share that with you soon.
Yesterday I took a break from my own projects and helped DD#2 make a dragon costume for her little guy to wear on Halloween - it was fun to do and he looks so dang dute in it! Hope I can get some pictures of him to share later.
I'm a self taught rug hooker who started about ten years ago. After a couple of years I was able to find a group in Salt Lake City to hook with, and when they told me that Emma Lou Lais was coming to teach a three day class I jumped at the chance to attend. This is the rug I worked on during that workshop - I can't believe I've never gotten those chimneys finished! LOL
I was so sad to read a few days ago that Emma Lou died last week. The rug hooking community has lost a great teacher and inspired designer. You can read her obituary here, and leave a message in the guest book if you'd like. She had an amazing career as a singer before she ever began rug hooking.
Since I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, pumpkins and crows are my favorite motifs to decorate with for fall. Over the weekend I got the itch to do a couple needlepunch projects when I was looking through some old issues of Create & Decorate magazine.
This is the first one I did, and I turned it into a boxy little pillow by adding a fabric border and following the tutorial that Janet at Rogue Quilter shared awhile ago. The pattern had a checkerboard border around the pumpkin, but I added tongues instead.
I made this crow with the suggested border - using the same boxed pillow format.
After I got those two made, I pulled out my box of decorations and found this project that I had made a year or two ago - I like the needlepunched pumpkin mixed with wool applique crow.
And this appliqued pumpkin is sweet too, with a three dimensional leaf left floppy.
The Guild party on Saturday turned out to be so much fun! There were quite a few gals who wore hats so that made for a very festive atmosphere - plus the decorations were over the top too!
The day started by working on a make & take project - there were kits to make wool lapel pins in the shape of a cat or a pumpkin and these were some of the finished items.
We also made luminarias using canning jars and printed pictures that were then embellished with cut outs, glitter, stickers and whatever else people could think of to use.
Tonia won the best hat contest with this top hat embellished with tulle netting and a pumpkin guy sitting on top.
These were party favors that each attendee took home - The cats were hand sculpted from clay and attached to the top of a decorated paper mache box that was filled with candy.
This was my favorite of the rugs that were displayed.
And here is a picture to show you some of the decorations.
The most excitement of the day was caused by these three gals who regaled us with the story of their trip to the event. They drove 1-1/2 hours to get there and on the way they had to stop for gas. One of them noticed a rock in the road so they went to move it and realized that it wasn't a rock - it was a huge frog. Now all three of these ladies were dressed as witches so they knew they just HAD to bring this frog to the Hookoween. They picked up the frog and went into the convenience store/gas station to see if they could find something to transport him in - I guess people were just rolling on the floor seeing these witches with a frog. And they had our group rolling on the floor as the recounted their adventure - too funny!
The frog was really big and strong and slippery so that's why they were holding him with the help of a paper towel.
More pictures of the Hookoween event will be added to the Guild's blog later today, so if you'd like to see more you can stop for a visit here.
This morning I'm heading to an event hosted by our Rug Hooking Guild that they're calling HOOKOWEEN. I'm not much of a Halloween fan, but everyone is encouraged to wear a hat of some sort (witch preferably), so to make it more fun for me I decided to participate in the hat competition. I bought a hat at the Dollar Tree and embellished it by making a ruffle and flower out of newspaper. Then I added words by cutting letters out of the paper also and spelling out Spooky, Eek!, and Boo. Found a black spider and VOILA! Here's what I'm wearing today for a grand total cost of $1.35! It will be fun to see what the other ladies come up with.
It's a potluck lunch, so for my contribution I made some witch hats using Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies and some Hershey Kisses attached with orange icing - Yum!
I'll post about the day's activities as soon as I can. There will be a rug display showing fall & Halloween themed rugs, so that will be fun to see!
Yesterday I met with the Salt Lake Rug Group and got a few pictures of rugs there. Our numbers were few, but the conversation was good and so were the rugs.
Myra finished hooking the center of this woodsy rug she is making as a gift for her cousin. She thinks the border will be hooked to look like a wood picture frame. I absolutely LOVE the way she hooked the ground, and the trees, and the sky on this piece - it's awesome!
Last month at our Hook-In, we learned how to do a crocheted edge on our rugs, and Myra used that technique to finish off an Easter rug that was ready and waiting to be bound. She did it hit & miss using all the same colors that were used in the rug itself - Great job!
And Nancy's crow rug will be done in plenty of time for Halloween. The green and purple that she added to this really make it spark!
I haven't shared pictures of the project I'm working yet on because I need to learn how to crop my photos before I show bits and pieces of it as it progresses - stay tuned!
At rug group last week I think nearly eveRyone was working on new rugs - here are pictures of what was there - quite a variety!
This is the second time Sharon has hooked this design - first one was for her - this one is for her daughter.
Jeanette bought a penny rug pattern that had three designs for Christmas stockings - she combined all of them and is hooking it as a single mat. She'll be moved into her new home for the holidays so this will be a nice addition.
Sandy just started a wonderful witch - she's hooking lightning bolts on the witch's dress and she'll have a green face!
Kim drew this design herself and is hooking all around the love birds cuz she's having a hard time deciding on what color to make the birds.
Tonia started a tree skirt for one of the wool feather trees that she has made - the mat measures about 15" across and shows a village of houses on snowy hills with a dark night sky in the middle. I really need .make a little skirt for my feather tree too! If I started now I could have it done for Christmas, right?
Marliss is hooking a fish that is a Polly Minick design - but her colors are much, much different than the ones Polly hooked.
