Catching Up!

I've been busy hooking & quilting my little heart out. Let's see if I can remember all the things I've made recently. This rug is my newest finish - I completed whipping the edge with yarn this week. It measures 36" square and is hooked with an 8.5 cut. Controlled scrappy makes me just as happy as scrappy with abandon! LOL

I finished this one a month ago or so. I saw a black & white photo of a rug similar to this in an old rug hooking book. It was interesting to hook because I wasn't influenced by the color choices in the original rug.

This was a Christmas gift for my daughter-in-law and was so fun to hook.

I love all the different black & white wools I used and the linear hooking.

There is a store in SLC that sells overstock and salvage items. A friend of mine goes every single week to see what treasures she can find.  She knew what this was as soon as she saw it, and since she knows I'm a rug hooker she bought it for me. There was a name on the back, so I got online and tracked down the gal who made it - asked her if she had any idea of how it ended up in Utah. She was totally shocked - said she made it for her sister's birthday and UPS claimed it was lost in shipping. I asked her if she wanted it back and she declined - saying she had already moved on and gotten over the loss. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was sold for $1.00 - can you even imagine? It's a desert quail and she used a mixture of wool strips and wool yarn.

My friends have been busy too. It's been awesome to watch Nancy's rug progress over the last few months. She hooked the flower basket first and has been working on some really wide borders - at least 10"-12" I think.

Sharon has completed four chair pads - they're each unique and old looking. I love them!

She also hooked this rug that looks like a penny rug. Not sure if she drew the circles freehand or traced around a cup or bowl, but each one has it's own personality and they all play well together.

Sandy made these two cute little runners for holidays and she says they worked up quickly. The bunnies have the cutest little pom-poms for tails!

She also spent a day in her dye pots resulting in these beautiful wools. I can't even remember the last time I dyed - maybe I'll get to play a bit when warm weather arrives and I can work outside.

Kathy's son was married on March 17th and she made this doll to mark the occasion - it was displayed at the wedding reception. You probably can't tell from this photo, but her attention to detail is amazing! She uses sculpey clay for the head & hands, then makes the clothes without a pattern. She's made witches, fairies, and all kinds of other characters.

Several months ago Jeanette brought this old rug that someone had given to her. It's only partway done and was so interesting. I think it used yarn and was sculpted. Beautiful work!

Coralee has worked on some fun projects lately. (sorry about the wonky photos!)

Help Me Decide!

I have a dilemma!  I have made a quilt top for my newest grand baby. It was super easy and it's super cute using only black & white solids.  My DIL saw a picture of it somewhere and I went from there. Made entirely of HSTs.

I found a white/black print for the back, and the aqua will be used for the binding. I plan to applique the baby's name on the back with the aqua also.

SO - I have no idea of what color of thread to quilt it with! Black? White? Gray? Clear? Maybe change colors to match the fabric in each section? I just can't decide, so I'm hoping someone will give me a solution and steer me in the right direction! And any suggestions on a quilting design would be greatly appreciated too!

Last weekend I had an itch to make a quick small project, so this is what I ended up doing.

Allover meandering turned out pretty well the very first time I used my new sewing machine.

It's a Juki and I'm really liking it so far.

End of Year!

It's hard to believe the year is almost over, isn't it? It's been a busy month for me with LOTS of gift making and party/luncheon attending - but SO much fun!  One of the funnest things I made was this cute little Dresden Plate that measures only 2" across!

I call it a fashion accessory for a vintage sewing machine and I sent it to my mom to use on her old Singer 301. Blue is her favorite color. I forgot to put a note in the box explaining to her what it's for, so it'll be interesting to see if she can figure it out before I call her! LOL  I really, really want to make a little quilt with these blocks now, but I need to find a 30* ruler to make cutting the blades easier - anyone know who makes one? You can find the tutorial for making your own HERE and you can see more color combinations and step by step instructions.

I made a few other gifts for my rug groups - a set of quilted zipper bags - - - -

- - - - and some quilted key fobs. (tutorial HERE)

I made myself a different version by paper piecing a long string of flying geese.

One of my groups had a wooly ornament exchange and these were all the wonderful items that were made for that.

Janet's son works for a company that makes high end messenger bags and journals using very dense 1/4" felt that costs $144/yd. He saves all the tiny scraps for her and she made this four-sided ornament using some of them.

My local quilt store has been doing a weekly giveaway on their Facebook page and I was lucky enough to be one of their winners. I received a yard of this lovely Jo Morton fabric - they even mailed it right to my house!

Some of the rugs projects I've seen this month include a couple of finished rugs by Sandy and Coralee.

Sandy started a new Santa rug.

Myra is replicating a photograph to make this wonderful landscape rug as a gift for her aunt. The moose were added from her imagination!

Nancy finished up this cute pillow using mostly leftover worms from her stash.

And she has begun a new floral.

I do a lot of string piecing when I quilt, and I usually just use thread snips to cut apart the sections as they come out of the machine. But when I saw this new gizmo I could see how helpful it would be, so I ordered one for myself.

It works great!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! That's what I plan on doing!

Dibs & Dabs

I have finished appliqueing the wool pennies onto these blocks, and I've got them all sewn together. Now I need to add more pennies at the corners where the blocks meet, and find a good fabric for the border - I don't seem to have a piece that will work in my stash - imagine that! Guess I'll have to go shopping! LOL

I met a gal who makes and donates small quilts to her local Ronald McDonald House in Texas. I have sent her blocks before, but last week I made a couple of scrappy tops to send. I found wonderful fabrics on clearance for the backing & binding to accompany them - she will layer them and quilt them and deliver them. Such a good project! If any of you are interested in sending orphan blocks or tops or supplies, I can send you her address. She prefers 10" blocks so the backing doesn't need to be pieced.

I have discovered a new author that I like thanks to the suggestion of my friend Terri. These are murder mysteries and feature London police officers who are married to each other, as well as their friends, family & co-workers. I haven't read them in order, but that would be the best way to do it. Maybe you'll like them too!

On occasion I've been working on a new denim quilt. I'm in love with hexies, and this is a version of one that's new to me. I put the word out to my kids asking for old denim jeans, so as I receive them, I cut the hexagons and then cut larger hexies from homespun plaids. There is no batting in this - the edges are folded over and stitched. Then the hexies are butted up next to each other and joined by a decorative machine stitch. Not sure how large this will end up, depends on how quickly I tire of it!

I'm getting close to a finish on my 20" hit & miss mat. Only about 2" left to go on one side.

On Tuesday I met with my group of hooking friends and there was some great show & tell! Sharon had finished this small mat - she will back it with a nice piece of wool.

Sandy is filling in the background on this Susan Quicksall floral design - lovely colors!

Coralee is also working on the background of her Cranberry Gobbler.

Tonia has made arrangements with an antique dealer to make this rug for him in exchange for some nice antiques - it's looking great! It depicts the Kirkland Temple.

And the two bicycles below are SO fun to see side by side! This is a Polly Minick pattern. Jeanette is staying true to the original with an Americana color scheme.......

.....while Kim is switching it up by omitting the star border and doing her own color planning.

It was decided that at our December meeting we will exchange wooly ornaments - either hooked, or appliqued, or even needle punched. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! Hope you all had a nice Halloween - our trick-or-treaters were nearly non-existent this year - only 4 small groups came to our door - much different than it was when our children were small and we handed out hundreds of pieces of  candy!