What I've been up to today...

I've been rug hooking a bit today. This is a rug that I have been wanting to hook for a long time. It is a design by Blackbird Designs and is in their 'Samples of the Past' booklet series. I bought the series for the quilt pattern that is in it and when I got them, I saw this rug on the cover. I had never heard of rug hooking before, and after that, I set out to find out how. I couldn't find any classes in my area, so I bought a beginners kit on ebay and set out to learn on my own. I've done a couple of small rugs and finally decided it was time to tackle this large rug. Above is my progress for today.

Country Sampler Grouping

Country sampler grouping
Originally uploaded by WoolieChelle

Since I don't have any other progress pics to share yet, I thought I'd share another of my decorating with quilts. This is a grouping that I did many years ago in my dining room. The quilt is from one of the Little Quilts books. When we were stationed at Ramstein AFB, Germany, some friends and I did this pattern together. We divided up some of the blocks and each of us made enough for the rest in the group. We then swapped our blocks and put our own quilt together. It was such fun to see them come together and how each of them looked different. I hand quilted mine and love it!

I'm hoping this post goes through, as I'm trying something a bit different. Rather than uploading the pic through Blogger, I'm trying it from my Flickr album. I'm still learning how to blog and I'm sure there are lots of other features that I still have to learn.

Amazing, What the Sun can do.....

We've had some nice sunny days the past few days and it has definitely had an affect on me. That is for the better. I feel like I am finally back to myself and enjoying the process again. I just finished putting the borders on my Churn Dash Quilt this morning. I usually use darker/primitive colors, so this was sort of out of the box for me, but I think I needed a little change to get me jump started again. I've already been playing around with ideas for my next quilting project. I also have some kits waiting for me to start and other UFO's that I would like to get back to. Not to mention a hooked rug that I put in a few loops yesterday. I will share pics of it when I get more done on it.

Old and New

I am making some progress on the Churn Dash Quilt. I have all of the blocks completed and started sewing the rows together. My back is getting better, but I still have to take it easy on it. I keep doing a few household chores and then I get the pressure on my back again, so DH has told me to STOP! I was so anxious to get back to my sewing, that I snuck down and did a little here and there today. Don't want to push it, but when the quilting bug has hit me after so long, I don't want to lose it!

Since I don't have any progress pics yet of my Churn Dash, I thought I'd share an old pic of my Entry Way at our previous home. So this is Old to me, but New to you.
The mini quilt is a Jo Morton Little Women's club piece. The applique quilt is a pattern by Jan Patek. I will post a close up pic next time of the 'Basket & Blooms' by Jan Patek, as I did 'big stitch' quilting on it. I've tried to add it this time, but blogger isn't co-operating with me. Until next time......

A Little Sewing Time

After having a flare up of Fibromyalgia the past couple of weeks, I finally got a few days of feeling better. So hopped down to my sewing room and got my machine out. Poor thing had to be dusted off, as I haven't sewn on her in awhile. It felt really good to do some basic piecing again. I stepped out of my box a bit and went for some springy, light, romantic colors. I've done prim for so long and we've had such dreary grey days here, that I really needed a pick me up. I also chose something simple. Another thing that I haven't done in a long time. For years, I've done applique quilts and felt the need for some simplicity in my life. So I chose a simple block, the Churn Dash. Right now I have about 12 blocks done, but have cut out 11 more to make this quilt a 5 x 5 block quilt. The pick above is the border fabric that I am planning to use for it. The inner border fabric, might not be able to work, as I only have a fat 1/4. So depending on if I have enough of it or not, it might not be used. I'm hoping I can, even if it's just a 1/2" wide inner border.

We had plans for today. We were going to go to Cologne and walk around. Well, I ruined it. I went down to my sewing room and was putting some fabric away and turned the wrong way. Pulled my back and hip, so now I am laying in bed on a heating pad with laptop to post to my blog. Go figure! I was so looking forward to today. Gotta have DH bring me some stitching up to work on. Until next time!