A Busy Week

On Labor Day we had a small family picnic at Brad and Kami's.
Brad is the Grill Master! The ribs were delish! He made his own secret barbeque sauce.
There were only five of us but there was plenty of food and conversation.

My mother is the person you can barely see on the left. She made the deviled eggs and baked beans. I made the fried cabbage with spaetzle and the pineapple upside down cake for dessert.

On Wednesday I began designing my next rug which is based on
traditional Baltimore Album quilt blocks. In the picture I am transferring my rug from paper onto my transfer mesh.

I bought this mesh at the PA Fabric Outlet about a month ago, hoping that it would work better than the interfacing that I had been using. I like working with the new material and it's fine enough that I can see the design well and the marker goes through to the burlap easily.

Then I dyed some wool using one of the new dyebooks that I purchased. Surprise! The colors came out just right!

Maybe I should have been using dye formulas from a book all along??? Could have saved a lot of pain and suffering and wasted time, dye and wool. DUH!!!


These are the colors I plan to use in the rug. Not the most exciting, but then, album quilts are predominantly red and green.

I will be quilting my actual album quilt this winter so I am making this rug to go with it. Right now the quilt is with a friend who has a long arm quilting machine. She is basting the top to the batting and backing. Then during the cold months I will hand quilt it in a hoop.

Thursday was the hookin at Grant Street Woolworks. This is my official 'retirement' party. We no sooner arrived at the hookin when the Fedex truck arrived with my new floor stand for my hoop. I wonder if Linda planned that!??

Check the cake on the table. My favorite- chocolate with white icing!

Linda and Zip are chowing down on the pizza, snack mix and cake. Thank you sooo much, Linda, for the delightful party!

And here is Joanne hiding behind her latest project. She brought the most awesome bar cookies! She gave me a container of them to bring home. In fact I am sitting here typing with a few of them and a cup of tea. There aren't many left, Joanne!

Kathy is working on her project and ignoring the lure of the food.

Linda is doing the finishing.

And I bought !guess what! another dye book *with swatches*!!! LOL! Linda just got them in the shop a few days ago.

Here is a better view of the new floor stand. It has little wheels! And tote bags fit on the bottom so all your equipment can be rolled along.

Until the next time, enjoy your life to the fullest!

Happy Hooking!