Pssst, it's me

Yep, another week has gone by. Ok, I'm done apologizing lol. This is my blog and I can post whenever I want too, right? Lol, I still feel guilty, but I'll just get to it when I get to it. Enough said on that.

Well, being it's been so long, it will take a couple posts at least to catch up on what's been going on. So I'll start with last Thursday lol and I'll pick a spot to stop. So you'll just have to keep checking back until I'm all caught up!

At the hook-in last Thursday, we had a great turnout. Linda's sister Veronica came from Pittsburgh on Wednesday. She came to learn how to hook, and Linda took her to Doris' for a lesson and some wool. Veronica is doing the same pattern as Linda. Love how they are doing different color schemes. So on Thursday she was ready to sit and hook with us all. Here's Veronica. What a lovely lady, inside and out..
Just look how organized she is.

Linda got some hooking done also on her pomegranate rug. You can see how organized she is with her strips too. lol At least she knows what is in EACH bag!
It's looking wonderful. So different than mine.

Barb came in the morning and was busily ripping apart a quilt so she could make curtains out of it. What a job she had because the thread was metallic. But she worked and worked at it. She came back in the evening and worked on some quilting. Sorry that the picture didn't come out.
Doris was helping Tracie with her rug.
It's such a cute pattern and she's moving along on it nicely!

Pat is hooking the Baltimore quilt pattern, and I'm sure by this Thursday, soo much more will be done. She hooks fast. It's looking just beautiful!


Beth and Jill came also and although they look real serious here, I can guarantee you that we were howling with laughter with these two. Sisters.... gotta love em!
Beth is so close to finishing her snowman. Just a little bit left on the border! Way to go Beth!
And Jill is working on a pattern that has many different blocks with different pictures in it. Pat and I were helping her with some color planning. Can't wait to see how some of the other blocks turn out.

And I finished hooking my pineapple while I was there. See, I do work! I will whip it right along the edge and make a wall hanging out of it. It's a Buttermilk Basin pattern.

And this is the other piece that I promised to show you. Pat was showing me the needleturn applique. This is what I picked out to work on. Hope to get back to it soon!
Friday was a busy day too. I had my dye group at Joan's. We were busily working on more of our spot dye projects. Joan was going through our previous samples so Jewel could catch up with us. Nancy is in the background. Looks like she is timing when she put hers in the oven.

Louise was getting hers ready .

We haven't seen Jewel for such a long time. What a joy it was to see her! She had a lot of cutting to get her samples. Hope she comes again next month!

Today was also the day that Joan decided to dye with the Lichen solution she has been brewing for the last 8 weeks I believe. Or close to that. I wish I would have wrote it down what she did. It is a mixture of ammonia and water. She would swoosh the jar around to add oxygen to the solution. Did this several times a day.

So here is Joan and I outside and we had a piece of muslin over a pot to strain the solution so she could use it for the dye.
I have my head tilted a bit because the smell was quite strong!

Well, the way we were holding it, didn't quite work. So Nancy suggested that we use clothespins, and that did help..
I was trying to stir the stuff, so it would drain faster.

You can see all the lichen still in the bottom of the jar.

We went to eat our lunch while it drained. But it was taking a really long time. So Nancy and Joan came out to stir it some more. We think the weave of the fabric was just too tight. It was all a learning lesson.
Joan was getting every last bit of it out.

I had to leave early that day to do my mil's grocery shopping, so I didn't get a chance to see how it turned out. I did see the material while it was wet. It didn't look too bad. But today at Joan's hook-in (more on that tomorrow), I asked her how it turned out. She brought it out, and I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of it. It wasn't very pretty at all. Very dull and boring. Like a dull purple/brown grey. It is not usable wool to hook with. It tears really easily. Most likely from the ammonia. Not good on wool. And the wool itself had a very crisp feel. So even though the wool was a bust, the whole experience of trying it, was educational. So thank you Joan for allowing us to take part in that! On Friday evening after dinner, I went back to Linda's shop to help gather up things to take to a show on Saturday. And her sister was getting her stuff together to take back to Pittsburgh with her. I believe she'll be coming out again in the near future. I look forward to seeing how far she has come on her rug. So Linda's car got packed with everything, and then she made up fliers to take with us to promote her shop. After that, it was home to cut up some wool for demonstrating, and then to bed for about 4 1/2 hours sleep before I had to get up again.... I'm going to stop here, and hopefully pick up again tomorrow night to talk about the show and then Joan's hook-in that I went to today. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Rainy or not!