I’m getting the finishing touches done on my back-tack project. I’m putting together a little rug-hooking kit, so I’m decorating my bag with little rug-hooked flowers using this fabric.

These are so fun and fast. I think I’ll make some for myself to salvage my clogs.

And here’s some real flower inspiration. My crowning flower gardening acheivement this summer were these prolific blanket flowers (ghalardia)– because they are drought resistent and handle complete neglect.

Dish towel aprons–I just couldn’t resist. My kids needed some art aprons, I needed something to keep dinner off my pants (even though my shirt is usually covered in baby snot), and Martha dish towels were on super clearance at K-mart, so the price was right. Aprons for all! (Well, 3 aprons and a bib.)

Amy has a monthly party at her blog dedicated to aprons

and this month’s assignment was so easy I had to join.

It has been a busy week. Well, it has seemed busy, I guess, but come to think of it, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to do. I just felt busy. I think because I was sick. I had a fever on Wednesday, felt yucky all day yesterday and had to go grocery shopping anyway, didn’t sleep a wink until about 4:00 this morning, and I’m trying to wean Logan–once a day would be good. That’s why I didn’t sleep last night. My teeth hurt, my nose was stuffy (so I had to breath with my mouth open which made the metal/ rubberband contraptions in my mouth that much more uncomfortable), my throat hurt, my ears ached, I had horrible menstrual cramps, AND I hadn’t nursed a baby since nap time early that afternoon and consequently couldn’t lay on either side or move my arms. Blissful? 800 mg of ibuprofen helped once I reached the point of desperation.

Funny things:

We had a “Girl’s Night Out” craft night at church last night–just bring something to do and sit and gab. I got home a little after ten and as I was heaping my load onto the counter I looked in Ellie’s food bowl right there under the counter. It was FULL of rabbit food. Was there a reason for this? I went and nudge Barry to ask about it and he just grunted. I was grinning so hard that I just broke out laughing. Silly, silly.

Barry did the obstacle course with his group yesterday for PT–you know, climbing walls, jumping logs, balance beams and ropes. Well, he was very proud of his monkey bar performance. I guess he was the only one to make it all the way across–and he even did a “skin the cat” to get off at the end. Now, you know who’s been practicing at the playground!

I’ve been working on my Back Tack II project. My buddy has expressed some interest in rug hooking, so I’m making her a bag of rug hooking goodies. I went to buy some wool fabric so that I could hook a little rug-patch to decorate the outside of her bag, but fabric is just way too expensive! I decided I’d buy some unwashed, undyed wool and give kool-aid dying it a try. After all, it works great on my handspun yarn and handmade felt.

And it worked great here too! I wanted a good pink to match some of the flowers on the lining of the bag (to be unveiled as soon as my little rug decoration is done), so a mix of strawberry, orange, and a little graped did the job beautifully! I also overdyed some green wool to give it a little more depth and it turned out great too.

Kool-aid is great for penny pinchers like me!

Well, my Denyse Schmidt book came last week. Yippee!! I’ve been studying and dreaming about what I want to make. Barry really wants one just like the orange “Drunk Love in a Log Cabin” one, but orange generally isn’t my thing. My dad calls me an ‘Earth child’ which totally describes the colors I’m drawn to. Brown, green, gray, yellowish-brown, grayish-green… you know–brown and green.

I’ve been playing with color combos:

brown and green– with the color of dried wispy grass thrown in

dried wispy grass with live green grass, then some green and orange to spruce it up

now, I think this is my favorite– rust and light rust with green, grey, and muslin.

So, all you Denyse Schmidt quilt alongers, I’m declaring my decision. I’m doing “Drunk Love 2 Tone” in rusty-orangy for Barry, with a back pieced like “A Day at the Beach” in calming green, brown and muslin for me.

Now to find SOLID fabric. I’ve been looking… Any suggenstions?

Here it is. It’s 108″x 108″, all cotton with Warm ‘n’ Natural cotton batting. My mom came in May and helped me pick fabric, buy fabric and piece it together. Ty wanted red and khaki, so we picked two reds and two creams and pieced the top like one HUGE log cabin block.

The back is my favorite though.

It’s a bunch of 10 inch log cabin blocks strung together with the blue I used for the binding on a field of red. Mom made the pillow shams with scraps and extra blocks. I think they’re cool.

Here’s a detail of the back.

The quilting took me forever. I had to bring the unfinished quilt in its own suitcase with me to Boise and finish it after the wedding. I spent about 6 hours last Monday finishing up the quilting. My first estimate of how long it took me quilt it was about 12 hours, but now that I’m sitting here thinking it out more, I think it took more like 20. I bound it on Tuesday, and gave it to Tyler and Katie on Friday after we got back from our camping trip and helped them move in to their apartment.

HAPPY WEDDING TY AND KATIE!! I hope you like it:)

I was hoping that I would have a finished quilt to post today, but alas, it didn’t happen. Here it is on paper:

My mom helped me pick fabric and pay for the fabric and cut the fabric and piece it together, and for the last month I have been quilting it. E V E R Y S Q U A R E I N C H. What was I thinking? I just can’t do anything the easy way. I’m swirly stippling this baby in its 108″x108″ enormity. My aching wrists are sure jealous of Amy’s mom’s quilting machine. Rolling and scrunching this king size beast into my Brother is doable– just barely.

It’s a wedding present for my brother. I hope he likes it. We’re on our way to Boise for the festivities, and to finish the quilt, and to see some real mountains, and to camp in those real mountains.

Oh, and the good news out in crafty bolg land is that Denyse Schmidt is coming out with a new book this fall! I’ve been dreaming of this since I bought my first issue of Martha Stewart Living that featured her back in like 1999. I’ve been studying her quilts (well, the tiny pictures of them I find on her website and in magazine articles) for years. It is a book that I simply must have.

Felting is fun for everyone! Felt beads are the absolute easiest felt project to make, so I enlisted my kids to help show you how.

First, you need some roving. Roving is processed wool that is ready to spin into yarn or make into felt. Get MERINO roving– especially if you’ve never made felt before. It’s not too picky about water temperature and felts really fast. I think e-bay is a great place to find roving for cheap and in big quantities.

I just do this on my kitchen counter, but you could do it outside just as well. I set out a towell, get my roving, and fill up a bowl with warm water with a little drop of soap.

Now, pull off a little piece of fluff

and dunk it in the water.

Now, rub it round and round in your hands like you would if you were making a ball of play-dough.

It will seem like wet hair at first, then a soft, squishy ball, and after a little while it will be a firm piece of felt. The harder and faster you rub it, the quicker it will matt up and become felt. Brenna’s (5) beads were pretty round, Jonah’s (3) were oblong because he just rubbed back and forth.

I must admit that most of the time the kids were playing with their little “eels” who would swim in the water and then go potty all over the towell.

White beads are okay,

but we wanted a prettier necklace, so we broke out the Kool-Aid. The only flavors I had left were Blue Raspberry Lemonade, Berry Blue, Pink Lemonade, and Cherry, so that’s what we used.

I put about 1/4 cup of water in each bowl and dumped in a whole packet of Kool-Aid. I’m sure it would work just as well with less powder, but I wasn’t to concerned about having leftovers. Then I put all the bowls in the microwave together for 5 or 6 minutes and let it sit for a little bit. Once it wasn’t scorching hot I scooped the beads out, one color at a time, and put the in a colander and rinsed them with cold water.

Now, let them dry. Then, string them on a string (You can’t use a thick tapestry needle though, you have to use a skinny sewing needle, so my kids need my help to do this.)

We used a piece of skinny handspun yarn that we dyed with the beads so it would match, but you can just use whatever you want.

ALL DONE!! Brenna loves her necklace and Jonah played with his little eels all day.

If you try this with your kids, send me a picture!

Now, go get felting!

to be continuted…

I’ve still got this one. I realy like the shiny shell button.

This was the first one I finished. I still have it.

This was my favorite. I made the flower with angora/ lambswool blend felt that April and I made together. It sold, so I’ll have to make another one.

Even though I didn’t put a button closure on it the felt lies open when you want it too, but the book stays shut too.

More little angora/ lambswool felt flowers.

This one will be a birthday gift for April (tomorrow!).
(She has dial-up, so I know she won’t be reading this.)

Today was the Mid-Ohio Fiber Gathering in DeGraff, Ohio. April and I were packed up and on the road around 7:30. It started out cold and rainy, then became cold and snowy… and we stayed cold the whole day long. Ohio cold is different than Idaho or Utah or New Mexico cold. This cold soaks into your skin and settles in your bones and stays there. It is damp and clammy and bitter.

But enough with the cold (even though I am bitter with this trick Mother Nature has subjected us to after a couple of weeks of short wearing- playing outside weather). We had fun. I had my usual “Learn to Spin” drop spindle kits and Niddy-Noddy-Nostepinnes. Even more exciting for me were my felt books.

Barry just updated my WordPress and now I can’t figure out how to post images. I’m pretty bummed out about that because I want someone out there to see my cute new books and April’s awesome knit bunnies. But, alas, Barry is bowling with the Elder’s Quorom tonight. Maybe Monday. Bummer.

Today the kids helped me make my biggest piece of felt ever. Then I cut it up and we broke out the Kool-Aid. I’m pleased with the colors we got. These are going to make some cute little journals, don’t ya think?