What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 As 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.  

The Little Flower, Cindi Gay

Oh this looked fun! First, I pulled out the sampler pack of backings I had ...

Okay, 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 ...

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 ...

 RUG 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.

Rug #1, Nina-Marie Sayre, July 2025 22" by 12", Hand dyed Wool on Linen, #6, #3 strips

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 ...

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 ...

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.  

Frame ...