What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Week 2 of this weird stuffy cold I have.  I wouldn't doubt its some Covid variant...stuffy nose...tired as all get out.  But that's it.  For a cold it's not too bad.  But it doesn't leave me much energy to get much done besides work.  

That said....I did manage to start a texture sampler.  What is that?  Oh, I'm so glad you asked!  One thing rug hooking and quilting has in common is that with both of them, you take perfectly good fabric, cut them up to form something new.  With quilting the ...

Inspiration

 It's been a tough week.  Nothing like a crippling icy snowstorm to cramp your creative style.  The bright moment in the week was Cindi Gay's Rug Hooking class.  I really look forward to her classes.  They have just enough structure to make them productive but she doesn't mind going off on a tangent of everything rug hooking.  Because her background is originally painting, lots of times it comes with a fine arts bent.  

This week we finally summarized our Geometric Rug Journey.  What started off with how to do a geometric rug back in September ended ...

View from my window

Let's face it.  Saying you're going to reset and actually doing it are two different things.  This week, I set out to walk the walk to go along with all that talk last week.  To that extent I had to start digging ...

At least, I helped my husband design the pattern for Puzzle Santa....speaking of which...

Here's what you missed on Glee ...

But rug hooking and wool is much different.  This is what I've learned so far.  Here in the United States, there are just a ...

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.  

The Box of a UFO Project

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 ...

 I've had a week.

I did finally carve out a little creative energy to ...

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 ...

 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 ...

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 ...

Thank 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:

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 ...

 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 ...

 I signed up for a subscription to The Thread House Academy this year.  It is a series of online classes, one per month, led by Lynne Goldsworthy, Karen Lewis and Jo Avery.  One of the projects is a modern sampler quilt with three types of blocks released every four months.  The first three blocks were released at the beginning of August so I have pulled my fabrics--navy, aqua, and magenta prints and a light gray on white print for the background.  Everything came from my stash.  Here are my first two "blocks"--this is not a traditional 12.5" block ...

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 ...