Ruggedy Rugs to Trade, Part Two

Meanwhile, cousin Kris started with a rectangle and some green circles. Which clearly needed a red border.

And then a golden frame.

And now the design hat is on me...and I'm pondering what comes next. 

Ruggedy Rugs to Trade, Part One

Remember the center of this rug? From my January post...this was the start of the Trade Rug project with my cousin Kris. I gave her flowers, she gave me peas. And a bunny. And a kitty. And some mossy rocks. 

And the mossy rocks inspired some pinecones and needles. And a spider, lady bug, and grasshopper... 

....who lived near a pond where they were friends with a froggy... 

...a cranky crawfish...and some other critters...

What will happen next?? Stay tuned - Kris is designing away!

Here we go again...

Basking in the completion of our Nigel Slater Quilt project, Kris and I embarked on our next joint project...this time with rugs.

Each of us created a design, and then passed our rug to the other one to take the next steps. Parameters: 

• Use yarn. That's about it. 

Here is my first round, using scraps from my prior veggie and leaves projects: 

And here is what I got back from Kris last week - Bunny! Kitty! Peas!

And in the "something completely different" department, here is Kris's trade rug...her green dots in the center, with my continuation of the theme in reds: 

Can't wait to see what comes next! 

Autumn's Underfoot

After 6 chair pads and a large rug of veggies, I decided that I was ready to design and hook my first original rug. I started with a photo taken by my mom:

I did a line drawing, and started color planning: 

Then I ordered the yarn. I used two suppliers: Violet Jane Yarns, and Seal Harbor Yarns. 

Here's the full palette:

Then, I enlarged the line drawing, and transferred it to monk's cloth, using a homemade light table hack: 

Once transferred, I started hooking: 

And here's the finished rug, 32" x 55":

The Nigel Slater Project, Blocks 3 & 4

Yes, so, back in the quilting arena...cousin Kris and I completed our blocks for our Nigel Slater project. Here are the two spring blocks. The challenge fabrics are the "moo, moo, moo" fabric on the white ground, and a chevron multi-colored fabric that both of us disguised by using in tiny amounts.

Tobi's spring garden block:

Kris's spring recipe block:

And here are the two summer blocks...challenge fabrics are the african batik and the christmas cranberry print.

Tobi's summer berry pie:

Kris's summer berry pie: 

Here are the final 8 blocks, 2 per season, laid out on my design wall. One of these days, I'll decide how to finish these and do the final assembly. 

Cabbage and Artichoke and Watermelons, Oh My!

The rug hooking, it calls like a siren of the sea...Here we are, a year later, and there has been much progress made on the rug front.

The beets from my prior post evolved into 6 chair pads:

Which evolved into a large veggie rug:

This led to my first original design project....see next post.

And Now, Something Completely Different

Uh oh, this looks like a new project. During our pre-Christmas visit with Chris and Kris, I got to see Kris' latest project: punch needle rug hooking. This is a type of rug hooking where you work from the back of the cloth, punching the yarn to the front using a special needle. Middlebury, VT, where C&K are currently living, is the home to the Amy Oxford School of Rug Hooking and between Kris taking classes there, and her affiliation with The Ruggery on Long Island, she is a wealth of knowledge about this craft. Here is my foray into this new art form: 

First Kits have arrived.

 Getting the pattern stretched onto the hooking frame. I had to build the frame, using stretcher bars and carpet tack strips. Then you pull the monks cloth taught, using the tack strips to hold the fabric in place. I stapled old quilt batting scraps over top of the tack strips to keep from lacerating myself as I work on the hooking. 

 Reading the directions. 

Ready to start hooking. 

Beets!

Stay tuned…more to come!

Ski Condo Gingerbread

For the past few years, our Christmas vacation has included a 6 person ski vacation which requires nothing short of a 12 month planning effort to pull off. The logistics involved in getting 6 people, 10 skis, 1 snowboard, 12 boots, 12 gloves, 6 pairs of snowpants, an entire case of handwarmers and enough carbohydrate laden groceries to fuel an entire naval battalion packed and transported from Connecticut to Vermont takes about all of the energy I have. One thing that the ski trip precluded, however, was our traditional gingerbread extravaganza. So last year, along with the winter clothes packing melee, I packed up all the gingerbread paraphanalia and took it along, too.

One thing we changed, however, is the substitution of graham crackers for real gingerbread. And this small change made a world of difference in my ability to pull this off! I highly recommed it.

Here's the set up:

Note the number of candies stored in tupperware. Doing this ahead of time made the packing and clean up much quicker. Also, key to clean up was the disposable plastic tablecloth that we just wrapped up and threw away at the end of the night. It conveniently kept the rainbos sprinkles out of the carpeting.

With the artistic freedom of graham crackers (which can be broken and cut on demand, rather than gingerbread which needs to be templated and baked ahead of time), creativity ran rampant. Yes, Bruce constructed a volcano...complete with red hot spewing lava (that was made of, well, red hots...you know,the cinnamon candies?). This may be the only graham cracker volcano ever constructed:

I also packed up our icing spatulas, not wanting to rely on whatever odd and assorted cutlery we may have found in the condo kitchen. Here you see Mary, hard at work on her one storey saltbox.

And finally, here is my storybook cottage, complete with christmas lights in the hedges, a pretzel picket fence, and coconut snow in the front yard.

Balance

I don’t remember the first time I ever heard a cello. I do know that my first musical exposure was listening to Aaron Copland’s “Billy the Kid” on the stereo as a newborn. Because my parents are musicians, I was immersed in music early and often, and by the time I was in 4th grade, my instrument of choice was the violin. The reason for this choice was youthfully simple. My next-door neighbor, 4 years older than me, played the violin. Somehow I missed the significance when in junior high he switched to the double bass. Regardless, the violin was the center of my life for 25 years.

And then I changed careers. Forgive me if I don’t recount the whole event here. It makes me tired. I will share a regret from my career change: the selling of my teaching cello when I moved to CT in 1995. It was a good, solid student cello and a pleasure to play. But when I moved to a studio apartment in Greenwich, I didn’t have space for it. In 2009, As Bruce’s birthday approached, I hatched a plan to get him a C-flute as the yang to his Celtic flute’s yin. He was overwhelmed with this gift and immediately wanted me to accompany him on my Celtic harp. I was not so enthusiastic about this idea. The harp is pretty, but hard to play and limited in range.


Somehow, in the wake of Bruce’s Flute Birthday, the idea of replacing my cello was surfaced. With some advice from Mary, the new cello arrived. I haven’t shared too much about it since, mostly because, well, I’ve been practicing it instead of writing about it.

In fact, there is quite a lot of practicing going on at our house. We’ve both found teachers, we’re both working on technique, and we’ve both slipped into a regular practice rhythm that makes our evenings quite pleasant. Jack has made his peace with the flute, and with the cello itself, although he is not too keen about the cello case…

It has been a long, long while since making music was something enjoyable. But now, the cello, along with the quilt projects, my riding lessons, the summer cooking and baking, the lampworking, my godkids, friends and family, are all serving as counterbalance to the stress and strain of work...it feels like achieving balance might, might just be a possibility.