The Chocolate Puppy!

I started a new blog...a place to sell my rug hooking stuff!  'The Chocolate Puppy'...see the picture there in my sidebar?  Just click on that to hop over and see what is needing to move out of my house.

Oh. My. Gosh!  This is going to be a huge task...to weed through all of my rug hooking stuff!  Almost overwhelming.  Methinks I'll need to devise a really good plan before starting to sort through it.  

For now, I'm going to put some rug hooking books up for sale.  If you're interested, please hop over to 'The Chocolate Puppy'.  My goal is to get this (mostly) done by this time next week.  So, please be sure to stop back often to see what else is being sold.  And, be sure to tell your friends.

Hope you're having a good weekend.  I'll be sorting, photographing, and measuring woolens.

Later on today, I'll have a photo of what I got accomplished this week.

 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. - Ecclesiastes 9:10

Sunday Sundries...

It's Sunday night...back to work tomorrow.

The days of the weekend seem to go by

so much faster than the days of
the week, don't they?

Kaylynn left mid-morning.

I enjoy having her so much.

Oh!  I didn't show you this...

she told her Mom that I like to get stuff.

I've never gotten 'stuff' from her before, 

so I was especially overjoyed to receive this.

I don't know if you can see that 

the 2 middle fingers are bent over.

It is this...

Sign language for 'i love you'.

She treats it as a secret code

that we can share across the room.

I love that little girl!

After the house showing, 

it started raining.

oh.  yeah.
Claire called yesterday morning

to tell me the realtor wanted to 

show the house this morning.

That meant some cleaning needed to be done.

While Kaylynn was here.

oh joy.

Actually, it wasn't so bad.

She helped me.

Truly.

{grin}

Anyway.
It's been raining on and off all
afternoon...making for a damp & dreary day.
But, it's supposed to be in the
high 70's this week!

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I finished reading a great book this afternoon.

The Mailbox by Marybeth Whalen.

You can find her here.

The book is a Christian-based romance novel.

A simple read.

A delightful read.

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I sewed 2 more blocks for Paul/Rachel's quilt.

That makes 16 done!

woohoo!

block 15

block 16

Now I am down to deciding

where to go from here with it.

Time will tell!

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Since Kaylynn was the only grandchild

here this weekend, I did not sort any woolens.

I'll get to that this week.

It's my 'from now til the end of September' project.

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I've been thinking quite a bit about my big a** star rug.

I looked at the last photo I took of it...

25 months ago was the last I hooked on it! 

Wow.

Hard to believe!

Here it is.

Though, I think I might have taken all 

of the brown background strips out.

Not going to go and look.

Just sayin'.

Everything that's hooked was done in 12 days.

And, just so ya know...

that star is 22" across.

Hence, BIG a** Star rug!

That's all I have for now.

Have a great week!

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. - Ecclesiastes 9:10

The Wool Gatherer...

I will be sorting through my woolens this weekend and will be putting them up for sale.  

See these 9 totes?

They're not all completely full, but there is a lot of wool in them!  My grandkids may be coming this weekend, so I'm going to enlist their help in sorting through it all.

I'm not sure how I'll sell the woolens...in lots or bundles or fat quarters or what.  My goal is to empty these totes and get the wool out of the house.   I have put aside the woolens I'll be needing to finish the two rugs I really would like to finish.  Those two being 'Fruit of the Spirit' and my big a** star rug.  

If I get really ambitious, I'll go through patterns and books and rugs and put them up for sale, too.  Oh, and how about some of my dyeing stuff, too!  huh.  I guess I'll be spending a lot of time on this project, but it really needs to get done.  

I plan to give you, my faithful blog readers, first dibs by posting everything here.  If no takers, I'll move it over to my etsy shop.    


I'll let you know how it's going.  

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. - Ecclesiastes 9:10

Kashmir

Yup, the name of a song (need I say whose song it is?)...but also, the name of my favorite background dye recipe. My 2sheep background is hooked with this!

With this recipe, one makes a solution, and then takes whatever amount one desires per 1/2 yard wool. I threw a bunch of woolens into the pot last night with varying amounts of the dye solution...here is what I ended up with...


The two pieces on the far left were previously overdyed with something like dirty snow, only not grays but tans, and seemed to have a bit of pink undertone (still do, I think). The next one, 3rd from the left, is a dirty white texture from Rebecca Erb. Cannot for the life of me think of what she called it, but I am going to see if she has more! The 4th and 5th pieces were Fraser natural wool. I used more solution on these 3 middle pieces than I usually do and I am very happy with how they look. The end two on the right were pieces I already had overdyed...so they sat on the cupboard and waited for their mates. The piece across the bottom had been overdyed with Kashmir at some other time and, for some reason, which I find hard to believe, had almost no mottling. I threw that piece into one of the pots after the vinegar had been added and almost all of the color was taken up...it has mottling now!

Did some hooking Saturday night and yesterday, but am not happy with all of it, so am in the process of reverse hooking.

Dancing With the Stars is on soon...YAY!!!

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Now that the flowers are turning a bit more rusty colored, I lopped a flower head off a Sedum plant. As I said in a previous post, this color reminded me of a piece of wool I had dyed. Took photos...see? I LOVE this color and will definitely name it "autumn joy". Watch for it to be used in my next project!

Look What I Found!

This is a gorgeous plant!! I saw a few in Claire's garden today...when I asked about them, she told me that I had one in my back flower garden. I went and looked...sure enough, there it was! Course, it's on the backside of the garden, so I might not have ever seen it! This is the Sedum (say-dum) 'Autumn Joy'...what a perfect name! Here's the plant (don't look at the tall grasses growing...apparently, I am a poor tender of my flower gardens).




These flowers start to color up in August, turning pink. Slowly the flowers turn red, and later in fall they turn a deeper rusty-red. Claire's bushes look a bit deeper red...more rusty than mine. In fact, her plants look very similar to a piece of wool I have that I'll be using in my next project. Here's a flower head...

Decisions, Decisions...

I've been working hard at organizing and setting up my rug hooking business in the basement of my house...which has made me do a bit of thinking. WOW! I have WAY too much stuff! Now that I am living in a house (which is huge) and have a yard and all the upkeep that goes with all of that, I just don't have enough time to keep my eBay Store stocked at the level I desire. So, I am going to close my eBay Store before the end of August. Besides the house, yard, 3 dogs and my job, I have several large hooking related projects that demand my attention. At least one of them is a long-term project (more on that as it happens). I will have some of my most popular colors available on my website and will list at auction special colors, bundles, etc. from time to time. So, that said, do be sure to check out what I have left in my store. I thank you for your patronage. Please continue to check on my website's "what's new" page from time to time to see what I am coming up with!

Here are the woolens that I have listed on eBay right now:

This n' That...

I took a bunch of photos today. I've been busy getting a lot done, but I am also spending time just hangin' outside...enjoying the glorious summer day.

These first two photos...just taking my daily walk around the yard, looking at what's blooming and checking on the pears, which are about 2 1/2 inches now.



After lunch, I took my scooter out and washed it off...it got very dusty sitting in the basement at the apartment building. I wrecked my knee shortly after I bought it, so I really didn't have much of a chance to try it out or to train any of the dogs. Want to know what in the heck I'm talking about? Click on this link and you'll see... http://www.dogscooter.com/

Anyway, here is a photo of the scooter...it has 20" wheels and the handlebars are set about 48" off the ground, I think. I hooked Allegra up with her x-back harness and she looked at me as if to say, "I believe you have me mistaken for someone else...I am THE Princess!"...and "You want me to do what?" Doesn't she look cute sitting there, though?

I relented and took her off the gangline. Then, I got Tag hooked up with his brand new hybrid harness...custom made...even has his name embroidered on the harness! Course, he hadn't a clue what 'line out' meant, so he kept following me as I tried to take a photo. Apparently, he doesn't know what 'stay' means, either. Doesn't he have the sloppiest sit you've ever seen? Cripes! Curt came over to see what we were doing...apparently he is a much braver person than I am...he jumped on the scooter and Tag took him for a little ride around the property (with a lot of help from Curt). YAY, Tag! LOTS of training ahead for me, for sure.

After we finished with that, Tango and I sat outside and hung out together...he's such a good ole boy.

I had dyed some woolens the other night...first time since I moved here. I was havin' fun! Here are some photos of them...I need to get them listed in my eBay store.

All in all, it's been a very good day...and it's not over yet!