New Project: Hand Hooked Rug

I have found myself missing rug hooking and thinking of finishing one I was making for my bedroom, when a surprise box arrived the other day. My good friend Cyndi was cleaning out her stash and gifted me with some new rug patterns, as well as some cross stitch patterns from Primitive Betty.

Not only did she send the patterns, but two were kits and one has all the wool cut for it. Now I could not resist that, no hassle rug making, just hook and enjoy the process. It is also one of my favorite subject matters, Noah's ark, so that is what I started this weekend. The pattern is by Mad Hen Primitives and comes with all the wool I need. They are all quality, hand dyed wools, so it is a pleasure to hook with them. I think I might have messed up with the tree colors and used the bird's pieces, so I will hook the bottom ones last, when I see what I have left from the tree area. The birds are dark browns with a mix of other colors, so I can always pull out some dark pieces from the tree and replace them with the lighter shades. The wool is marked for each piece, but the tree had the bird bundle mixed in with it. Now I am thinking I might go with a folk art biblical theme in my bedroom and hang this on the wall, now I need to come up with a quilt that will match it all.

Moki and the Moon!

I have been working on a secret project, so I can't show you anything;)
And here is why I have no fun pictures of Moki lately. He has taken over the tower, he is king of the hill and lets poor Izzy know it. If he is zonked out, she can usually sneak into the bottom bed.

I love the sky in winter, we had a beautiful sunset and the moon was out early. I love to go out at night and just stare up at the stars, a nice way to relax and center ourselves.

Valentine Heart!

I decided I should make something for valentines, and this is what I decided to do. The embroidery pattern is a free pattern from Andrea Zuill of Badbirds. She has some wonderful designs if you go back in her archives. I have another to make and then one with just birds, great for winter/spring decorating. I shaped mine into a heart pillow, and used jute to hang it. Something fun to sew, while you watch tv;)

The stitchery pieces I do are always by hand, using dmc floss. My machine does embroidery, but I haven't figured it out yet and I would use that for home decor, prims and gifts, I like to do by hand. Also, if you have a question and you are a no reply, I cannot answer you.

Soar Pincushions!

I decided it was time to make this pattern, since I won it over a year ago. It was from a Blackbird Designs contest and this was in my prize package. It really was fun to do and I actually did chain and stem stitches, the right way, for once;)

The pattern is by Kathy Schmitz, I just love her designs and would love to do more of hers. I started these yesterday and finished today, so they work up fast and great idea for gift giving. You can follow her blog for new designs or visit her etsy shop.

I used tea stained muslim and the floss is a dark shade, 2021, so not as light and glossy as it looks in the photo.

Happy New Years!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and have a Happy New Year.
For me, this year is the year to finish projects, I have started and create with all of the wonderful prizes I have won and gifts given by friends. I am truly blessed and plan to make time to make time for myself and for charity quilts this year.

One of the things I started last year was a wool quilt. I have all the blocks sewn, except one, so it is just a matter of finishing that and embellishing the ones I made. The blocks are all different sizes, so I will be putting them on a background wool, that I have made to size and then filling in the empty spaces with scrap wool pieces. Sort of a crazy quilt, and a scrap quilt, so we shall see how it comes out;)

I looked in my old files and only saw one photo of a couple of blocks, so I will share a few more tonight and later when they are all embellished, I will do a group shot and progress. I have no idea what I am doing, just making them, sewing them and seeing what becomes of it.

I hope that all of you and your families  have a wonderful New Year that is filled with blessings.

The blocks are made from various patterns in books and a bit of my own, no one designer, I just used what I like.

Giveaway Winners and a freebie for all!

I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments and suggestions. I do love to create and it will give me ideas to play with and maybe some new patterns in the coming year. One of my gifts this year was an ipad 2, and I got an app called Sketchbook pro. You can get it as a free app with basics, or this week it is only 1.99, well worth buying, it is a wonderful drawing and painting program. My son and DIL got me a nice stylus, so now I can practice drawing with it.

I used the random number generator and the winning number for the Valentine prize package was number 15, Robin of Bird In The Hand Primitives! Be sure to visit Robin's blog, she has wonderful free patterns.
And for the second winner, a choice of two epatterns or booklets, is number 13, Dorothy of Dorothy's Threads of Life! Robin, please send me your address so I can mail you goodies to you and Dorothy, you can go to my ecrater site and pick out any two epatterns, congratulations!

And for everyone else, a gift for you to enjoy. This is a pattern that I made and was planning on making an epattern from but never had a chance, so today I am sharing the cross stitch pattern with you. I hope you enjoy making it and I always enjoy seeing your finished pieces. For the horse on my piece, I used dmc linen, #4145. For the mouth, I used a line of floss.

Merry Christmas!

Giveaway ends at midnight tonight, see posting below!