Oh! And one more thing I forgot to mention!!!!!

My girlfriend and I (the one who encouraged me to take a class with Sally Van Nuys) started what was supposed to be a rug hooking group on Monday's from 7:00 - 9:00 at her house (I have no parking where I live and you can't park on the street).  There are five of us who meet.  We've been doing it for a month.  The first two Monday's I worked on the quilt while my friend worked on her rug and another woman crocheted.  The following week I taught Locker rug hooking and we all worked on that.  The third week I crocheted, my friend worked on her rug, the other woman crocheted as well.  Two of our members weren't there.  But seeing the way my friend has displayed all her rugs, mats, runners has made me want to hook more rugs and I've been chomping at the bit to get the quilts done so I can turn my attention to rug hooking.  It has also inspired the other women to want to learn more about rug hooking as some of them don't particularly care for primitives.  We have a good time, eat, relax, laugh and joke.  It's great!  Maybe some day we'll have more people at our group and will have to find another location to do our crafting!

I've been lax!

I've been so focused on finishing the quilts for my two granddaughters that I haven't been able to think of much else!  I come to work and all I can think about is keeping my energy up so I can quilt when I get home.  I'm in the home stretch now and will most likely be machine sewing the binding on both of them this weekend.  Then I can hand stitch them to the back and get my label put on them, then washed by next weeked.  Then I'll bring to work for show and tell - then in the mail they go!  I can hardly wait to finish my cardinal mat.  I have a couple of smaller projects I'd like to work on after them.  They're both circular - one is a bee and bee hive.  The other is a Santa.  While I'm working on those I'll set up my bigger rug on my bigger rug frame - the sunflower penny rug.  Oh!  I almost forgot!!!!  I ordered a Fraser 500 cutter!  DUH!  How could I have almost forgotten that handy bit of info!!!!  Can hardly wait to get it and start cutting my own wool whenever I want!

This coming Thursday my hubby has to have a needle biopsy of a growth on his thryoid.  It was a fluke that it was even found - no symptoms that we know of - went to his cardiologist who ordered some routine lab work (thyroid blood test was one of them).  It came back slightly abnormal - cardiologist told him to follow up with family doctor.  Which he did.  Family doc ordered more blood work as well as a cat scan of his thryoid and found nodules on both sides - left significantly worse than the right.  Sent us to a surgeon who ordered the needle biopsy.  Next Monday, Feb 5 we'll find out results.

We're very tired of snow here in Northern Ohio - (Amherst).  Yet we're to get a good snow storm starting tonight, all day Tuesday, and ending some time Wednesday.  I don't think we will get snow that long...  We're supposed to have snow tonight and tomorrow morning, then in the afternoon it will warm up which will cause freezing rain, then back to snow in the evening.  Luckily it only takes me about 15-20 minutes to get to work so I don't anticipate it taking me much longer than an hour if the roads are really bad.  I'm trying to stay optimistic about it all and my mind is going down the path that this will be our big snow hurrah and then we'll start seeing improvements in our weather and just get a flake or two every now and then.

Stay warm everyone!

Rug Hooking Daily

Is anyone else having problems viewing Rug Hooking Daily - the Main page?  I can get into my page but when I click on Main Page I get the info on the sides, but not the forums or pictures or groups...

Quilting and rug hooking!

I've been steadily working on my granddaughter's quilt.  I really hoping I get it done by February 11 so I can put the binding on both granddaughter's quilts. 

Monday night we're getting together again and I'm going to teach the group how to locker rug hook!  GULP!    I'm sure they'll have an easy time learning it and it will be fun in the process!

It feels so cold out there today!  My poor hubby has to work outside in all of this!  He works for the phone company as a cable splicer.  COLD!  Hopefully he'll get to retire this summer!

Stay warm everyone!

Ok, I'm officially done!

I'm so tired of  winter!  The snow, the cold, the gloominess!  People here at work are crabby which is making me crabby and I usually have a really good disposition!  The skin around my fingernail cracked so it's making it painful to type, to quilt, to write, etc.  Sigh...  CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!!!

My little grandson (7 months old) is crawling now and sitting up by himself.  He's got five older brothers and sisters so I guess he felt he needed to move to keep up with all of them!  They live in Kentucky which is about a 5 1/2 hour drive from us so we don't get to see them a lot. 

Hope everyone else is having a good day/week!

Addendum to my earlier post - more crafts...

Christmas stockings I have made (quilted).  My hubby's is the "Bah Humbug" one.  I think it would be cool to make one rug hooked!

Some of the snowmen I have made for Christmas gifts.

This year's (2010) Christmas ornament made for my staff, friend's and family.

The other Christmas gift made for staff and family.

Close-up of the ornament with the other snowmen I've made.  I also made this one.

Two more snowmen I've made.  Do you sense a theme with my Christmas gifts!  LOL!

Quilted Christmas ornament I received as a gift this year.  I will be making it for 2011 Christmas!

A necklace I crocheted with wire and beads.

Some of the first bracelets I made.

An afghan I'm crocheting for my brother.

That's it so far!  I'll post pics of the other two granddaughter's quilts when they're done.  I'll also be posting pictures of my craft room - mid way through organizing and cleaning!  :)





Some of my quilts and purses I made for the granddaughters one Christmas

My very first ever quilt - wall hanging.  I did this way, way before I did the log cabin quilt.

My granddaughter's, Karley, quilt.  She loves horses!  She'll be graduating 2011 in June!

My granddaughter's, Brooke, quilt.  She lives in Florida. 

This is a closer view to show the butterfly fabric.

I made these purses out of placemats and iron on designs.

These are some of the things I've made over the years.  I finished hand quilting my granddaughter, Felicia's quilt - just need to add the border and it will be done.  I've started my granddaughter, Toni's quilt (hand quilting) and hope to have it finished by the middle of February.  I have taken pictures of other crafts but haven't put them on my computer yet.  I will post them soon.

This coming Monday a group of us are going to start to get together to work on rugs or whatever craft is our craft of choice.  We'll meet every month until at least April.  I'm hoping to get a lot of quilting done initially, then I can go back to my rug hooking.  I have found as I've been cleaning and reorganizing my craft room that a) I had more wool than I realized and b) I have some rug hooking kits that I have purchased that I like to get started and finished.  They're small projects so I'll feel a sense of accomplisment when I start them.  Then I'll move on to my big penny sunflower rug.  It will be the biggest thing I've hooked!



Best laid plans... :(

Happy New Year!  We didn't make it up until midnight...  we were in bed by 10:00.  Today we had our pork and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes, corn, and biscuits.  I hope everyone has a great year!

I had all these plans for the four days I'd be off to get my craft room cleaned and organized.  Thursday morning I took the car for an oil change.  While I was there I started feeling nauseated and crampy.  I went home, did a few things around the house, then laid down hoping that would make my stomach feel better, which it did.  When my hubby got home we went to dinner, then the grocery store - while at the grocery store - nausea and cramping.  I went to bed at 9:00 and slept until 8:30 the next morning.  Hoped that that would help me feel better.  It didn't.  Never actually got sick, but just felt lousy and drained.  So, today I was like a woman posessed working in that room (should have taken a picture of it before).  I went through a lot of stuff - threw away what I didn't need or want.  Put some of the things in my containers, but still want to reorganize it to make room for my wool and rug hooking patterns, kits, supplies, etc.  Tomorrow we'll take the decorations down, wash clothes and I'll work on my granddaughter's quilt.  Then Monday it's back to work.  I suppose I'll work on the room a little each night until I get it the way I want it.