What are friends for~~

Friends are something that I cherish.  We all have friends who come and go, but it's how you spend your time with them that's important.

I went to the hook in last Thursday (but have to admit) that I didn't want to go. I had a very rough morning with my mil, and when I left her, I just came home and sat in complete silence. My car was already packed and ready to go to the hook in. I thought I would just go to Kohl's and return a couple things and just walk around to try and relieve the stress that was built up.  I was even planning on buying something. But darn it, there was nothing that fit right, looked right, etc.  I just wasn't meant to buy anything. That is good though, because I know me. If I were to have bought something, I most likely would have taken it back. When I'm in that type of mood, nothing looks the same a day later....  But I did enjoy the silence. Well, until I got a couple texts and then a phone call. I teased them about it later.  When I felt it was time, then I headed on over to the shop. 

It just so happens that I did forget a couple things, so I decided to bind my quilt. Barb gave me some pointers, and Linda shared a few things the day prior.  I am so very pleased with how it turned out for being my first one. Doing it all by hand was so very relaxing for me. I can't wait to do another one~

It was just a small group when I got there. Barb, Doris and Linda. Linda said that a few others were there earlier.    Here is Barb doing some of her quilting. I don't think I'll ever do a quilt that size!!

Doris was working on her Santa. I wish you could see the sculpting in the beard and fur. It's just not showing up. But what a gorgeous rug!

Linda was working on a new rug. I just love the soft dusty shades!

After a while, I believe something blew in with the air.  Or something was in the pizza.  Because what happened next, made it all worth while being there.  Linda had put on some music. Tanya Tucker.  Well, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.  I never laughed so hard. I sure did need it. Tears were rolling down my face.  What a show :).

But that wasn't enough.  More accessories were needed lol.

Then she settled back down for a bit.....

Sherri came and finished the inside of her hit or miss horse rug. She just needs to do a border. Isn't it great?

I truly believe that if I didn't go to the hook in, I would have wallowed in my own sorrow, and would have missed the opportunity to be lifted in spirit by my dear friends. I can't thank you all enough for making me laugh till I cried :). 

On Friday, I went to my dye group over Joan's house. Our new project, we will be doing a scroll.  Always something new to learn in rug hooking, even if we never plan on doing it again.  I think it will be a great learning experience. We picked out our design and picked out our colors.  Again, lots of laughs with some dear friends. (I am truly blesssed to have so many, and each one is special in there own way.)

Ok, so we started to get things ready for the dyeing. Wire hangers, clothespins, ripping the wool into strips, etc. Here are some pic's of everyone doing there dipping!

Jewel is the shortest of us all, so Joan helped her out lol. 

Talk about a burn in your arms, dipping and dipping waiting for that water to clear..  They said the stool helped with that some.

Nancy

Joan

And here is the pattern we are doing and the wools after they were dyed.  We will be hooking them at the next meeting next month. 

Joan had us pick a paper and Nancy won a little gift. Joan said it was an over due Christmas gift that she had found. 

Lots of fun and lots of laughs!!  What a wonderful way to finish out the week. 

Yesterday, I spent the entire day cleaning. It's all done and I was able to take a small nap after church this morning.  Then I went up in the wool room and started to put some stuff away that was on the floor. Still needs a lot more picking up, but I'm just relaxing today.  Getting ready to make some dinner and then see what my mood afterwards will be. That will decide what or if I will do anything. It's so damp and dreary out there. Sprinkling on and off all day.  Just a good day to stay inside and do something... or.... nothing.

Enjoy the week ahead, and I hope you can be around friends who will lift you up if needed, or be the one to do the lifting :).   God Bless....

Blah

That's just what I'm feeling right now. Need to do this, and need to do that. But the fact is, I don't want to do any of it.  I was just in the mood to type tonight and not show any pictures, but then forced myself to get up and get the camera to get the pictures.

I've been fighting fatigue and other symptoms for a while now. Finally went and had my thyroid checked and it's off. Was thrilled actually to find out it was, and that my symptoms weren't anything else to be concerned about. Now I just need to ride it out and wait for the new dosage to kick in.  It's just so hard.  And this weather isn't helping either. So dreary, and I hear there is rain in the forecast that will go into next week! Ugh! Double Ugh!  I was so tired today at work. I kept myself moving just about the entire day. I pooped out towards the end. I just had nothing left in me.  Stopped at the grocery store on my way home and did my mil's shopping since I had her list with me, and now that is done. Will visit with her tomorrow for a bit before heading out to Grantstreet.

So anyway, when I got the pictures off the camera, I realized last week before I headed to Grantstreet for their hook in, I stopped to take 2 pictures of the trees in my yard. I look forward to them blooming every Spring. I just love them, and it was such a nice sunny day that day. 

 

   

There was a good turnout at the hook in last week. Lots to look at. Joanne made that looong drive again. She must really like our company :).  We like hers too!!   She was sooo busy whipping that day. You can see all the balls of wool there just waiting for her!

And here are just a couple of the redware egg rugs she did. I love them!

Pat was working on her watermelon rug. I just love the color brown for the background. Really makes her colors pop out!

Joan came and shared with us her rug that she finished hooking. Just needs to finish it off. It is so soft in color, and it amazes us how the tumbling blocks just look like they are floating in the picture.  Joan was also working on transferring a fish pattern on to her foundation. She found a fish she liked and was tracing it.

Ann came and showed us her finished piece of a flower in a pot. She was working on transferring another pattern to do as a gift for her mom.  I didn't get a shot of that, but I hope she comes back and shares it with us again. The center of this rug was such a lovely color of butter yellow. Wish the camera would have captured it.

 

Tanya is just about finished with the center of her pomegranate rug. Love it!!

  

Jill is really moving along with her camp rug!!

Nancee is working on a new rug, her eagle rug. Looking great!!

 

Patty is also making a dent in her camp rug. Love her colors!

Genny is already finished with her daughters rug. I'm sure it is whipped by now too! Great job..

Of course Joanne took a little time out to play lol.  Camera's are always clicking when we are there. I got her!

Monday night, Linda and I took a ride out to East Berlin to another hook in. This time it was at Janice's house. You can see from some of the pictures, what a lovely house she has!!  Janice is in the blue....

And here is her husband Joe. He pops in every now and then lol. 

Here is Kim, and then a close up of her rug she is doing. Very nice work with the fine cut!

      

Here is her mother in law Katie. She is another fine hooker, and is making great progress on her rug as well.

Katie and Willa. Willa was making pennies for future projects.

Another group shot.  Beth, Louise, Becky and Brenda behind in the chair.

Becky was hooking her own pattern of  "Becky Mummerts Pottery".  Great redware color, and love that goat!  Becky makes redware pottery.

It was a great night. Linda and I had a nice time.  Now it's time to get ready to go to Grantstreet again tomorrow. Amazing at how the weeks are just flying by.  One more thing about this past weekend.  Our online group had their retreat again. This month it was "Little Quilts".  Well, I have always wanted to quilt. Something small, and by hand. I didn't want to use a machine.   This is what I came up with, and I'm just tickled pink! Nothing fancy at all.  I am hoping to finish binding it this week.  This time I used some fabrics that I won in Kelley's give away, a while back.  Glad to finally put some to use! I look forward to making another one, but with smaller blocks. These were 3"

 

I'm sure I'll have more to share with you over the weekend.  Wishing you all a wonderful rest of your week!

Long over due...

I know some of you have been waiting for a post from me about the Rug Camp last weekend with Norma Batstini.  I'm finally sitting down to do it. I have had one heck of a week and I had no energy nor desire to sit and do it.

For all who are just reading for the first time, Linda at Grantstreet Woolworks had a workshop last week with Norma Batastini as the teacher. There were 16 students! It was wonderful.  Linda went out of her way to make everyone feel at home (literally... she had 7 people staying at her house, 6 students plus the teacher). She planned the meals for lunches all 3 days. Lots of food to keep you satisfied and full of energy. Ok, some of us felt really fat by the 3rd day lol.  This was just a sampling....  food AND desserts... A never ending supply :). 

Here is a close up of a bears claw that was amdist the most delicious assortment of donuts brought on the last day.  Oh my, were they fantastic. Home made (and I'm sorry I forget by who or where.... That was a week ago. Now I know why it's so important to update shortly after taking pictures lol). Tracie brought them in for everyone. Or it was Tracie and Doris.  See, I forget. So I apologize in advance. Will be doing that a lot this post.

                                      

Norma started out by helping each person individually with color planning their rugs. Here is a sampling of her doing that. Here she is with :

Beth
                                      

                                                                            

Adrienne

                                      

                                                                                 

Jill

                                       

                                                                           

Connie

                                             

                                                                              

Toni

                                                  

Norma was helping Beth do some tweaking on a rug she brought with her to camp. She took a picture of the rug and showed her where the values were too close, and helped her in picking out some wool that would help.

                                           

Norma helping Brenda.

                                         

 Group standing around watching Norma give advice on color..

                                         

Norma gave a talk about some of her antique rugs that she has purchased over the years.  I couldn't be in the room for everything. I was busy getting food ready, cleaning up, etc. 

                                           

                                                   

This is a rug that Norma's mom hooked. Great isn't it?

                                        

She also gave a talk on backgrounds.  That was really interesting for me.

                                       

                                         

                                          

                                                  

 

                                        

Some shots of everyone working so hard on their rugs. 

                               

                                        

                                        

                                        

                                        

                                         

Norma also gave a demonstration on some dyeing.

                                       

                                        

And talked about Mola's.  Here is a definition I found of them.

"Molas are hand made using a reverse appliqué technique. Several layers (usually two to seven) of different-coloured cloth (usually cotton) are sewn together; the design is then formed by cutting away parts of each layer. The edges of the layers are then turned under and sewn down. Often, the stitches are nearly invisible. This is achieved by using a thread the same color as the layer being sewn, sewing blind stitches, and sewing tiny stitches. The finest molas have extremely fine stitching, made using tiny needles."

A hooked version..

And one that Norma is hooking now

And here are shots of everyone's rug in the class with the exception of Beth Donmoyer. I felt so horrible. End of the workshop and one photo to go and the battery on my camera died!!  So sorry Beth. But will promise to share a picture of it with you the next time she comes to Grantstreet to work on it!

 Brenda's                                                                      

    Judith's                                                                        

Becky's

Nancy's

Adrienne's

Eileen's

Doris'

Jill's

Lina's

Tracie's

Beth's

Patty's

Pat's

This is a rug that Connie is working on for a present for her daughter. The rug she brought with her for camp is up above. She got help with the color planning, but wanted to finish this one first. Hope she shares a picture of  her camp rug with Linda when it's finished so we can see it!

                                                

Toni's

Talk about an enjoyable 3 days!!!  I don't think anyone walked away from this workshop with any disappointments.  And I'm sure we are all saying we are on a diet this week LOL.  

Thank you Linda for having Norma. You did an awesome job!!!  Can't wait for the next teacher~~~

I will try and post this weekend a few pic's of the hook in from  last night. It is already 3:30 in the afternoon, and I got up very, very late today. Need to do something around here to make myself feel like the day wasn't wasted.

This weekend is another retreat (already!) for the online group. This month's theme is Little Quilts.  I'm not a quilter, but have been itching to try it for soooooo long.  I was hoping to participate, but like I said, it has been a very hectic week for me. So I will have to see how things work out this weekend.

My mil is having some difficulties, and has taken up a lot of my time. Emotionally, I am very worn out. Tomorrow George will be going over to sit with her and discuss some things. She is needing more help than I can give her right now.  Please keep her in your prayers. I know God will provide whatever is needed for her. It is just going to take some working together to get it. Taking care of an elderly person is just too much for one person to handle. I just wish I could do it all, but I know I can't. For my own health's sake, I need to find a balance in it all. 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend ~~~~