Hooking in KC

It was wonderful to get a chance to travel and spend time with friends last week!  Our gathering was small - only 8 instead of the usual crowd - but Janice treated us like royalty as always and we had a fantastic time!  I started a new rug and am loving it so far.  The colors are based on a bouquet of hydrangeas that Janice cut right before the birthday bash last November.  Originally blue, they had started drying out and had turned gorgeous shades of lavender, white, soft green, and gold with deep burgundy leaves.  We had pulled wools to match the colors at that time and they’ve been stashed away waiting for this camp.

I forced myself to put it away when I got home and have gone back to work on Old Maine House. I would love to have it finished by the time I go to Janice’s again next month.

There were some great projects in progress in our little group.  Joan was working on a huge critter runner she designed for her lake house.

Betsy started This Vine, an older pattern Janice designed.  I am planning to get started on it next month.

And Leah was working on a design she asked Janice to draw that is based on an antique rug she found.

Lynn was working on an incredible project she designed herself and was incorporating standing wool shapes into her hooking.  It was amazing!

The camp went by way too quickly as usual and tomorrow I’m back to work with a very busy week ahead.  It was nice to get the time away to recharge!

I did manage to do a tiny bit of sewing on the weekends.  I have been keeping up with the prep work on the first three weeks of the Primitive Gatherings wool SBOW and have been starching the fabrics for the pieced version.  I did get one of the pieces blacks finished and pieced the centers for the other four blocks for week one.

And I managed to add two more quilts to my collection.  The one below was found by my friend Cindy in Amana, Iowa.  It has a couple of damaged spots but is a great design and has beautiful quilting.  It’s hard to see in the picture but there are blue leaves on the border motifs.  It’s hard to tell if it was a green fabric that lost its yellow or if it started out blue, but it clearly wasn’t the same fabric as used in the blocks.  The baskets look to have been red initially but have faded to various degrees of pink.

The only nice thing about returning to work tomorrow is that it’s a short week.  I am already looking forward to a long weekend in my sewing room!

May Update

In spite of having more weekends at home as a result of most events being cancelled, I just don’t seem to be getting much sewing or rug hiking accomplished. It’s partly due to the very nice weather we’ve been having - I think it was the longest spring ever - but also because I have been trying to force myself to spend time finishing up the move to my new sewing space. Sadly the move has been in progress for 17 months now....but I finally received my new dresser that will provide additional drawer space so I have no more excuses. My goal is to have it completely organized by the end of June.  I will share pictures when I succeed.

I did manage to get a few things accomplished in May.  I added a few more houses to my Village...


And I was thrilled to be able to join a very small get together at Janice’s and get started on my Old Maine House rug. I saw the original when visiting the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum in Williamsburg in early 2019.  Unfortunately the rugs were displayed under glass so the photo isn’t great.

Janice drew up the pattern and we had planned to get a big group together to get started on it at the end of March, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. A few of us were able to meet in May to get it started.


I’m a little farther along than this now, and hope to get the rest of the sky and both trees completed before I head back to Janice’s to start another new rug later this month.

I finally managed to assemble the center of Frolic! and I have the borders pieced and ready to attach. I may try to tackle that this weekend.

And last, but not least, I started on a relatively new BOM from Homestead Hearth called Subtle Shades. It’s a nice mindless project - a welcome break from Frolic!

I am looking forward to participating in the Retreat From Home - Sew in your Jammies 2020 event this weekend. I am hoping I will have plenty of progress to show at the end of the 2.5 days!