I always say that November through February are the hardest months to create...well if you live on the banks of Lake Erie that is. All we have is grey, wet/snowy weather for days. This week it looks like we're sliding right into that time with 2 (going on 3) straight days of rain.
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| The Box of a UFO Project |
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| Rug Hooking Retreat at the Heritage Inn |
When I was in college, I belonged to the Newman Center group on campus. The priest who was the moderator would take us on a spiritual retreat to a monastery outside of Elmira, NY. My time there made a big impression on me. I loved the fact that we were getting away from campus. I would catch up on homework, get up early (5 am!) to hear morning vespers, take long walks on the farm and explore the monastery. It would center me.
That's why when I heard that Sauder Village offered ...
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| Fall, 2013 Cotton dyed by Artist, Rough Edge Applique, machine quilted |
I know it's a bit old fashion, but I love this country. I'm not sure if it's because I was brought up in a military household (both my dads were veterans) or that I can be a true political history geek (since my teens!), but I never take living in the US for granted. Even with the current climate of division, I revel in our differences. What most people don't realize (unless you're a political history geek) is this type of polarization within the ...
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I've had a week.
I did finally carve out a little creative energy to ...
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| Heritage Medallion, 60" by 60 Nina-Marie Sayre, 1996 |
Well, you can imagine what I thought, when my rug hooking teacher, Cindi Gay announced the next big topic was designing with geometrics. I mean as a 35-year quilter, geometrics is kinda like our bread and butter, right? Apparently, some rug hookers shy away from geometrics because the rug police said your lines must be straight, edges perfect (hard to do with fluffy wool!). That totally reminds me of the quilt police judging if your points match and your seams are press properly. (huge eye roll)
Her design directions were very loose ...
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| The calm before the storm |
After going through the Covid plague of 2020, I made myself one promise...I would make sure I wasn't blowing off chances to socialize just because it seemed like "too much bother". What that awful time made me realize was not to take socializing with my community for granted. To that end, I took a leap of faith and went to my first Hook-in.
Is anybody out there just a glutton for cool stationary supplies? Maybe it's because it's back to school time and the shelves are full of the coolest ones. Or maybe it's because Cindi Gay has a whole series of lessons about journaling, but it got me in the mood to give journaling another try.
I have had several failed attempts. Once I set one up for quilting. Barely used it. I mean really, blogging about my quilting journey was plenty, I did have pretty good success with the The Happy Planner series, mostly because it was a ...
read moreIs anybody out there just a glutton for cool stationary supplies? Maybe it's because it's back to school time and the shelves are full of the coolest ones. Or maybe it's because Cindi Gay has a whole series of lessons about journaling, but it got me in the mood to give journaling another try.
I have had several failed attempts. Once I set one up for quilting. Barely used it. I mean really, blogging about my quilting journey was plenty, I did have pretty good success with the The Happy Planner series, mostly because it was a ...
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| Ain't THAT the truth! |
It's an odd place to be.. .a 35 year veteran of one craft .... quilting and a rank amateur of another... rug hooking. After doing something for 30 years, you get to know most of the answers. Diving in deep on rug hooking, the more I know, the more I realize I don't know. Luckily, I've found a circle of ladies that are happy to share their opinions on things (and let me tell you, rug hookers are strong in their opinions). One of my favorite 90 minutes of the week is the ...
read moreThank you all for so enthusiastically joining the We Do Not Care Club, Quilter's Edition. I'm making a list for the next meeting. Feel free to email me any additions you would like to make.
It's been a busy few weeks with my deep dive into rug hooking continuing. I managed to finish the little flower project:
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| Little Flower, Nina-Marie Sayre 8" by 8" Hooked Wool |
I'm all happy with this. The wool was super suspect, but it taught me that really you can hook anything that will make loops. Also, it solidifies in my mind ...
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We interrupt your regular scheduled programming to bring you the Off the Wall Friday's
We Do Not Care Club
Quilter's Edition
Founded by Melani Sanders for perimenopausal, menopausal and post-menopausal women
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| Our Founder, Melani Sanders |
Today's Announcements:
As quilters, we do not care if you feel we already have enough fabric; we will buy as much as we like, with no particular purpose in mind. It's our money. We will spend it anyway we want. (That goes for thread and notions as well.)
We do not care if you don't want the quilt we made ...
read moreAs I hook my way through the grapes, I've been watching video lessons at Cindi Gray's "Rug Hooking Journey". One of the chapters was this Little Flower pattern. Cindi designed this little project for those who wanted to do more than just a square as their first project. Originally, I skipped it - since I'm kinda of a "go big or go home" type of girl. Now though, it looked like a nice palette cleanser to the grapes.
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| The Little Flower, Cindi Gay |
Oh this looked fun! First, I pulled out the sampler pack of backings I had ...
read moreOkay, I'm not one to complain, but who ever thought putting 4 values of wool strips in one little thumb print size circle sounded like a fun, needs to take a long look at their definition of fun! I spent my rug hooking time this week doing gradated grapes. In 4 different gradations. In two different purples. Not only is it a lot of work trying to get your loops somewhat smooth in little circles but also it's a lot of, "so where is the light source for this grape? Is that dark enough? Is this one of ...
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| Shirley, hooked by Kyoko Okamura, 40" by 37" |
So, I'm onto my 2nd big project- Autumn Fruit designed by Pearl McGown & Jane McGown Flynn. I'm still pretty shocked that I got this lovely pattern on linen with all the wool kitted out and class instructions all for $20 on eBay. The more I looked at the project, the more I realized what an amazing deal it was. Not to mention, it's a perfect 2nd project. First it will teach me to follow a pattern and also shows me how to gradate the pattern to give it depth ...
read moreRUG DONE! And yes, my first real rug hook in the books. Now when I say "done", I mean done hooking. Hopefully, I'll get the edges finished up soon enough. But to tell you the truth, there are so many ways to finish them, I haven't figured out which one I'm going to do yet.
That all said, I thought I would continue on with my habit of doing a self critique when I finish project.
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| Rug #1, Nina-Marie Sayre, July 2025 22" by 12", Hand dyed Wool on Linen, #6, #3 strips |
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| Erie Art Museum Spring Show |
Taking a break from my gushing over my new love of rug hooking, I want to share how great this year's Spring show was. Every spring, the Erie Art Muesum hosts an art show that is open to artists who live within a 250 mile radius of Erie. With no entry fee, it's very popular to enter and a great honor to get accepted. That said, depending on who the guest jurist is really reflects how strong the show is.
I'm happy to say that this year's juror, Keliy Anderson-Staley, curated ...
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| This week's progress |
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| Wool with the Auction |
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| This week's progress |
To all my US readers, Happy 4th - I feel so blessed to be an American. Hope you get some time with ones you love.
WoW everyone, thank you for the warm welcome back. It's always nice to see the internet being used for actually bringing people together. It's funny, the minute I finally got myself writing and creating, all the normal ideas would pop in my head. My workflow the last 15 years have been that during my week, I'll get ideas on blog posts and then jot them down quick before they ...
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| The design so far |
So for the last month, I've said I'm going to write my blog on Sunday afternoons. For 15 years, I always managed to have Thursdays off for quilting and posting my blog. Then in the last year with a new job change, I'm working Monday - Friday. Go figure that now that I'm looking at 60, I'm so tired Thursday nights after work that it's become more of a chore to post rather than the pleasure it's always been. Plus somewhere along the line, I lost my creative mo-jo.
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| Frame ... |
