Thursday, August 23, 2007

Hooked Rugs and Hummingbirds

I took a rug hooking class recently at Little Quilts in Marietta, Georgia, and here is my first project. Isn't that cute? It's pretty small (7" x 8.5") but just a nice size to get you 'hooked' into rug hooking. I really enjoyed this new type of needlework. Little strips of cut wool where you just pull them through the backing which is monks cloth and line them up like little ears of corn. It is slow, methodical, easy and you don't need a magnifying glass to see the loops like with applique. Let's see, what will I hook next?? We put out hummingbird feeders in June and have the birds come all through the summer but when August arrives and they get ready to make their flight south across the Gulf, they begin calling all their friends and drinking the sugar water quite frequently. They also double in size during this period. They will leave about the middle of September. It's hard to see but there are five fighting over this feeder. Some days I have to fill this two cup feeder twice and we have two feeders.
Now here is one of my dainty friends just sitting on the feeder taking a "big gulp". Wayne and I love to watch them right outside our family room and eating area!
And yes, I'm still making quilts. This is just a partial picture but I named it "I've Got the Blues", as I used everything for the front of the quilt from my stash and used a new baptist fan template which makes a beautiful overall pattern. I'll show the full quilt after I get the binding sewn down by hand.

Here is the backing - isn't this a cool fabric? Targets is the name and it's a Kaffe Fassett fabric. I wanted a nice contrast to the front and mostly just saw this fabric and knew I needed to use it with something really fun!
Well, that's all for now! Maybe it won't be so long before I update again! Happy Quilting!