Halfway June

Hard to believe that June is half over already. DD#1 & her hubby have gone to Cancun so I have their little boy for the week. Yep, feels a little like deja vu since I did the same thing for DD#2 a month ago! Sure do love those little ones, but I know why we have kids when we're young ourselves. Whew!

I met with one of my rug groups last week and there was some good show & tell. Kim hadn't done any hooking, but showed us her beautiful blocks for a square-in-a-square quilt she's making. She'd planned to make it for herself, but her younger son is making wedding plans so she decided it would be made for the newlyweds instead. Beautiful fabrics!

Sandy's husband designed and hand drew this awesome rug for her entry way. It's at least 4' x 6' - maybe a bit bigger. She plans to hook is using only brown & cream wool - very classic and totally awesome! I have several friends who's husbands are interested in their rug hooking and it always amazes me to hear of their support, since my hubby isn't like that. Lucky gals!

Yesterday I met with the Salt Lake Group - our newest member had finished her very first rug hooking project - a floral pillow inspired by a piece of fabric. The back and piping were black velvet - very rich looking.

I love the way she added bits of purple fabric to the black background when she hooked it.

Yvonne is making progress on her bright floral rug - plans to put it in the guest room where her grand daughters sleep when they come to visit. Isn't it happy looking?

Nancy is nearing a finish on her rug - she often includes clever and/or inspiring sayings in her projects and this one is a goody.

Myra has been very busy and brought two sewing buckets that are spectacular. She designed several of the motifs on the outer pockets to reflect the owner - this one is her's......

....and this is for one of her daughters. She has plans to make many more. What lucky family members she has! Makes me wish she would adopt me! LOL Over the weekend our guild had a workshop and made Nuno felted scarves. Sadly, I was too busy helping put in a sprinkler system and couldn't attend, but Myra brought her scarf and it was just beautiful. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that. I'm hoping to try this technique myself some day!

Mary Jane featured one of my rugs on her blog yesterday - I was honored that she asked to do so - she did a great job on it! You can read her entry here.

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!

Talented Friends

I have such amazing friends, both in rug hooking and quilting, and I'm so thankful that they allow me to share their beautiful work here on my blog each month. Otherwise, I would be sorely lacking in the show & tell department! (smile) Yesterday the First Tuesday group met and I was able to see Sandy's stained glass rug completed. She had it stretched at mounted at a frame shop and it literally took my breath away when I first saw it on display in her entryway.

This represents The Sacred Grove in Upstate New York that holds a lot of significance for those of us who are members of the LDS Church. You can read about the history HERE.

She had permission from the artist to  recreate his work and she told us about taking the finished rug to show him in his studio as he had requested. His name is Tom Holdman and you can visit his website HERE. Below is a print of his original piece of art.

Sandy was busily working on her newest rug which she is making for her grandson who spent two years as a missionary in Mexico. The lime green background is fabulous - in fact all the bright colors are spectacular. She said there wasn't a single boring part in hooking this design.

Jeanette is hooking a Polly Minick design of a happy bicycle - I love the tassels on the handle bars! You might not be able to tell from the photo, but she used standing wool circles in the center of the wheel and thinks she will use proddy for the flowers in the basket.

Sharon is hooking a Porche insignia for a grandson using quite a narrow size of strip. I'm not sure if he actually owns a Porche, or if he's just a fan. Either way, he's a lucky guy to be getting this from her.

Victoria has knit dozens of pairs of socks and that's what she was working on yesterday. She was using the completed sock to gauge the length of the rib on the new one she's making. That striped yarn is so awesome - like magic!

I recently completed this scrappy rug and it was fun to do. I'm sure I drew squares on my backing, but every single one of them turned out looking more like a rectangle to me! Oh well.

And yes Saundra - it was me who wanted to copy your UFO rug - I got a start on it and I'm hoping to make a dent in my collection of 8.5 cut worms. Funny how I started in the middle and you started on the outside!

A couple weeks ago I tried my hand at solar dyeing after reading Lauren's tutorial a month ago. I was pleased with the outcome and you can see before & after pictures of the wools below. The weather has turned cooler here in Utah and I'm not sure I'll get another batch done before winter. I think these mottled blues will look awesome when they get hooked in to a rug.

Okay - I'm off to do some housework today - I've let things go longer than they should have....

Quilting Up a Storm

It's too hot outside to go anywhere, so I've been holed up in my studio for the last couple of weeks doing a lot of quilting - and I'm accomplishing quite a bit! I've had this small Kim Diehl quilt pieced and layered for a couple of years and I finally quilted it and got the binding on. Measures about 36" square.

Not sure why the edges turned out kinda ruffly - especially since I basted the perimeter before adding the binding. I usually like to wash my quilts when they're all finished, but I'm hesitant to do that with this one because of the wool applique - I'm afraid the colors might bleed out and ruin the whole quilt. Does any have any suggestions or experience doing this? Help would be appreciated!

I worked more on my Now & Later quilt - when I start sewing the blocks together I usually do it this way - I think it's called spider webbing? Anyway, makes it so the rows don't get out of order - easy peasy.

I had extra blocks left over so pieced them together and added them to the back which makes it interesting and more fun.

I love this Jan Patek print I found for the back - it was on clearance at my LQS for $4.99 yd. Yay!

When I work on a quilt this big (60" x 80") I like to take it over to the church and lay it out on the carpeted floor in a classroom to do the pin basting since I don't have that much free space in my house. Sure makes it easier!

Years ago I bought some grapefruit spoons at the dollar store that work perfectly for this job. I know there are special quilt tools designed to do the same thing, but they cost a lot more than $1!

I quilted it with a cinnamon roll swirl that is kinda fun to do - and used a variegated thread.

I'll share one more picture of this quilt when I finish stitching down the binding in a few days - that's a nighttime TV watching job -  and put it through the wash. Sure do love that cozy crinkly look it gets afterwards. Meanwhile, a few Delectable Mountain quilts caught my eye one day on Pinterest, so I pulled out a bunch of blue and tan fabrics from my stash and started making one. It's kinda strange to make quilt blocks that aren't square - doesn't happen too often!

Sure wish I was brave enough to quilt feathers in a zig zag pattern, but will probably settle for something much, much easier. Anyway, I'm really liking this color combo! I'd like to think of a clever name for this quilt that pertains to the Wasatch Mountains that I live near.

Sure feels good to be spending some quality time in my studio!

Whew!

I'm back! I've been SO busy the past few weeks - first with out of state company - then a vacation - then a holiday weekend - and then childcare. It's probably been close to a month since I even held a hook in my hand, so today when I attended my monthly rug hooking meeting in SLC I was very happy.  Nancy's home was dressed for the holiday with this flag rug on her coffee table - perfect to display at this time of year.

Since I always forget to share my own project, I'll begin with it this time. I am hooking a geometric design from Barb Carroll's book called Hannah's Star. It's usually made as a runner, but I reduced the block size a bit and set them 2x3. I hooked the block in the lower right corner today, and when I pulled it off the frame realized that I had made a mistake, so I'll have to pull out that first ring of orange wool and replace it with a teal like I used in all the others. Other than that, I was happy with my progress. Each block will have similar colors in it, but the wools I use in each one will be totally different pieces.

Myra is making some 6" wool applique blocks that will be pockets for a cute basket - and each one reflects her own interests in watercolor painting, gardening, beehives, sewing and nature. She'll also be doing a sheep and one other square.

Yvonne was also doing some wool applique in anticipation of cooler fall weather that will soon be here (hopefully!)

We meet at Nancy's house and she has been working on a landscape rug loosely based on an original painting her daughter owns. I love the wonky little houses.

The other Nancy who meets with us showed us her recently finished rug. She did a great job whipping the edges on this one. I love the beading around the edge.

A couple years ago she visited Heather Richie in Reeth England and made these two small mats - about 6" square. The landscape represents the scene she saw outside the window of Heather's home.

Our newest member, Susan, had done some shopping at a local quilt store and is well on her way to accumulating a stash. She recently traveled to Pendleton Oregon and was able to stop in the factory outlet there for some shopping therapy too!

While on vacation we rented kayaks for a day and spent a lot of time on the water at Swan Lake in Montana - pretty close to heaven on earth!

I think tomorrow I will be able to spend more time working on my rug and listening to a book that has been waiting for me. Sounds perfect!