Catching Up

Last summer when hubby & I were vacationing in Montana, I found this set of sewing machine drawers at an antique store in a small town - I think I paid $25 for them. There was no top, because they used to be attached to a sewing cabinet, so I knew I would have to do something about that.

I could have added a piece of wood  to cover the opening- cut to size and stained to match.

But I decided to hook a little rug for the top. The hooking has been done for months, and my mom helped me put it all together while she was here last week. Those two extra hands were very helpful.

The wood was a little worn, so I sanded it lightly and brushed fresh stain on it - very pleased with the way it turned out.

I made another heart quilt for Valentine's Day, but didn't get it finished till today. So now it'll be ready for NEXT year! It's kind stiff cuz it's heavily quilted. I'd like to soften it up by washing it, but I'm kinda nervous about the red bleeding.  Not sure what to do.

My grandson's birthday quilt is all finished. We'll be taking it to him next Saturday.

The back is kind of fun with his name appliqued on there - and I embroidered my name and a message on the letter 'O'.

I was very lucky that a friend let me use her longarm machine to quilt this on. It was a lot of fun and only took me about three hours from start to finish.

I received a Quick Curve Ruler for Christmas, and although I won't be able to make a quilt with it for quite awhile, I wanted to stitch up one block just for fun so I could see what it's like. The gal who designed this is here in Utah and most of the quilts made using her method are Modern Quilts,  but I think it's going to work just fine in my dark & dirty scrappy style. Her company is Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Ugly Ducklings to Swans

Over a year ago, I was shopping the clearance area at my local JCP and I found these hideous Christmas ornaments (orange - really?). They were originally priced at $16 each, marked down to $.97 - the day I was there they were an additional 60% off, so I bought five of them for 40 cents each. Because they were made of wool I knew they had potential -  how could I resist at that price?

I removed the embellishments and already they looked better.......

Six months ago, my small quilt group decided to do pass around projects. Each of us assembled parts & pieces for a fiber related item and each month we worked on someone else's project. I put my orange balls into a shoe box and added some pretty colors of embroidery thread - asking each person to add stitching to one wool ball. The finished pieces exceeded my expectations when I received them back about a month ago. I just finished stitching MY contribution to the project so they're all done now and I wanted to share with you. I suppose I could have dyed the wool balls a different - more desirable color - or kept the orange and gone with a fall/autumn theme using gold/green/brown/red threads, but I'm so very pleased with they way they turned out!

The gals in my group spent several evenings each stitching while watching TV and their efforts are SO appreciated! They look lovely displayed in a wooden bowl now - and can be used year round! Thanks ladies!

Now, the appliqued hearts that I removed in the beginning, I stitched down onto a piece of soft yellow wool to make a small quilt. I will add red borders and maybe add a green vine around the outside with leaves added.

Much better than they started out, yes? I'm sure glad I bought those ugly Christmas ornaments!

Treasured

Remember awhile ago I shared pictures of the wood carving that my hubby made of the clasped arms? Well, today he finished another wood carving, and this was something special he made especially for me. A heart! It stands about 12" tall and is made of black walnut - the pedestal and heart are carved as one single piece. He stained the heart with a red stain and the stand with darker wood stain - then it was waxed and now it is as smooth as silk. It immediately became my most treasured possession! Love it!

Here are a few photos of it in progress - wish I'd been home when he started it so you could have seen it when he rough cut it with a chain saw!

I'm still working on my 'problem' hooked rug - I added another border to the name portion of the rug - this part measures 11 x 48. The finished rug will be 48 x 56 - it's a big one!

One of the things I didn't like about the rug was the house that I had hooked - I drew the whole rug freehand because I wanted it to be naive and funky, but this wobbly house was really bothering me.

So I pulled it all out - except the roof - and redrew it with straight lines by following a thread. It's still not perfect, but I think it's better than before. 

In two weeks Maggie Bonanomi will be here in Utah to teach a three day workshop for our Guild so we're getting very excited about it. I need to get a pattern on linen and pull some wool so I'll be ready for class! WooHoo! Unfortunately, that means this big rug of mine will get put on the back burner again - sigh!

Just finished up this book by an author I hadn't read before. I liked it a lot - great setting (Wales England) - great characters - and a great story.