I drove to SLC for a rug hooking meeting today - I missed it last month because of our trip to Santa Fe, so it was nice to visit with the ladies and catch up on all their news.
Yvonne has finished hooking her Halloween rug and she was busy stitching the binding down. It's pretty big - about 36" x 40" or so - and she says she won't ever make one this big for a holiday that will only have it displayed for a few weeks of the year - way too much work for that! There's so many fun details in this rug - the spider web - the checkerboard - the bright red fingernails - and all those fun pumpkin faces!
Myra is working on a long runner - I think it'll be about 48" when it's done. She's planned the colors to go in her front living room - very pretty! I love that there a little squiggles of color in each diamond that are slightly different to make it more interesting to look at.
Nancy is working on a geometric that I really like.
This is the last rug Nancy made after taking her inspiration from a woven Indian tapestry.
And here it is displayed in front of the couch in her sitting room - the colors are so perfect
together!
I'm headed to CA for a few days of visiting family. I plan on hosting a giveaway here on my blog when I get back so you rug hookers will have that to look forward to. (There will be WOOL involved!)
We met at Janet's house last week for our monthly get-together. She had all the supplies on hand and taught us how to make these fun wet felted acorns. I have seen them all over blogland so I was tickled to try my hand at doing it.
She showed us this beautiful vintage dresden plate quilt she recently purchased at the thrift store for $9 - can you believe that?
She showed us this cute necklace she had made from a thrift store t-shirt. It was v-neck to start with and she just cut off the ribbing around the top. Then she cut up the t-shirt itself to make the rosette flowers, and stitched them onto the ribbing all the way around. Finishing touch was the embellishment dangling in the center.
She's gotten into paper crafts a lot lately and shared these little books she made using manilla folders that had been folded and stitched and embellished - very cute!
Dawn Heese - of Linen Closet Quilts - posted a free quilt pattern called Folk Art Tribute on her blog awhile ago. I made all the blocks as she shared them month by month. I've finally gotten them all sewn together and now I need to get a border on it to finish it - then the quilting. I did all the applique using an invisible machine applique technique that I learned in a Kim Diehl class a few years ago. (BTW - I just visited Kim's website and learned that she has cancelled all her classes because of health issues - so sad!)
Yesterday we held our monthly meeting at Tonia's house. She showed us one of her newly finished rug projects that was hanging on one of the bedroom walls. This patriotic fish is a pattern in one of Polly Minick's books.
And this will be a three dimensional sheep when she finishes the hooking and sews the two parts together.
Appropriately enough there were two pumpkin rugs being worked on. Marliss is doing this one...
.....and this is Sharon's. Both are very cute, and even though they both have crows and pumpkins, they have a very different feel to them.
Michelle is making some big loopy flowers that she will eventually attach to sticks from her yard so she can arrange a bouquet of them in a vase.
A couple months ago I received an email from a gal who knew she would be visiting Utah in October, and she asked if there were any rug hooking meetings she could attend. Turns out her timing was perfect, so this is a picture of our special visitor Jane from Michigan who was able to spend the day with us.
She brought a very small project to work on and had a collapsible frame to make it easier to fit in her suitcase - such cute sheep!
And everyone LOVED the purse she was carrying that was made with a geometric design and fun bright colors. She bought the pattern from Perennial Blessings, and it's called Flapjacks - because of the round shapes used in it.
She crocheted the seams together with some green yarn she dyed to match - so I got a close-up picture of that, but I forgot to show the fun lining fabric that she used.
We had a delicious homemade minestrone soup for lunch and I think everyone really enjoyed the day!
When I found out we were going to Santa Fe for a week, I had to scramble to find a hand sewing project to take with me because I knew I'd have a lot of time to work on it while on the plane, and in my hotel room. I took a quick look through some of my quilting books and decided to make a small doll sized quilt from Kathleen Tracey's book The Civil War Sewing Circle. I chopped off a few pieces of fabric and stuffed them in a ziploc bag. Then I cut some hexagons from my junk mail to act as the foundation papers for the English paper piecing. I know most people cut their hexagons by hand - or buy die-cut papers, but I found a paper punch at a yard sale years ago that I knew would be perfect for a project like this. Yay for yard sales!
I got the hexagons all prepped, sewn together, and stitched to the background fabric during the week I was gone.
As soon as I got home I sewed the blocks together and added the border - then I machine quilted it and attached the binding.
Turns out I made two extra flowers, so I turned them into little pinkeeps for fun.
Hubby & I just spent a nice week in Santa Fe, NM. He was attending a conference for work there and I got to tag along. I've decided that this is a really good time of the year to travel - the temperatures are cooler and the crowds are smaller - a win/win situation!
Santa Fe has a very distinctive architecture as you can see by this home in a 'normal' neighborhood. I think home prices must be very high because we saw several homes for sale with a Sotheby's real estate sign in the front yard.
This is a photo of one of the big hotels we walked by every day.
We stayed right downtown near the Plaza - there was a Fiesta going on when we arrived - with streets closed off for a big parade - and street vendors setting up booths everywhere you looked. When that was over, things got a little quieter. There are a gazillion specialty shops geared for the tourists, and I got quickly tired of seeing expensive turquoise jewelry and fancy art galleries. I finally took the rental car and explored the Santa Fe that the locals live in - checked out a few thrift stores and consignment shopss where I found a couple treasures. This plate is about the size of a pie pan and with the sheep in the middle I had to buy it - might use it for my snippets bowl. And I found a quilt shop with some striped Brannock & Patek fabric on clearance - most of their fabrics have a southwest flavor that didn't appeal to me at all.
Awhile ago I shared some photos of a quilt I was making for DD#1. She chose the pattern and the brightly colored fabrics, and I made it just like she wanted. But after I got started on it, I decided that I wanted to do more than just give her the quilt - I gave her a new bedroom to go with it! I spent the last three months planning and buying and painting and fixing and imagining how to make this a success and I think it worked! She and her hubby went on vacation for the entire week following Labor Day, so hubby, DD#2 and I descended on her empty house and got to work. Hubby helped with the painting, removed and reinstalled the blinds, put up the curtain rod, hung the chandelier, and helped carry in furniture. Then we got busy with the fun stuff, making up the bed with new sheets, the new quilt, a bedskirt, and a bunch of new throw pillows I made. We hung stuff on the wall that included empty frames, dinner plates and professional art. It was an awesome experience!
You can read more about it and see lots more pictures on DD#2's blog HERE.
Here are just two photos to give you and idea of what we accomplished.
(edited to add: I have now corrected the mistake I made labelling the two photos - thanks to all of you for bringing it to my attention)
AFTER:
BEFORE:
