Marrying wool

I can't believe it's Wednesday already. I started this post earlier this week but it'll fit for today's WWW. I am a quilter at heart but I have started working with wool and I just love it. This is a long post so grab a cup of your favorite drink and enjoy the pictures.
I wanted to try my hand at dying some wool but I didn't have much cream colored wool to start the process. So I researched my options and decided to "marry" some. I started with a green tweed wool blazer,a dark hunter green skirt, and a couple of pieces of an old army blanket. Marrying wool is the process of using the dye that bleeds from one piece of fabric to another. It causes the wool to all be in the same color family so it is "married".

I had picked up some crochet thread this summer at a garage sale so I thought I would try to dye some of it also.
Here is my attempt at making shanks of the thread. I was home alone so I used the chair.


You must wet your wool before putting it in the pot to steep. I filled the sink with cold water and still could see the color starting to come out of the skirt mostly.

Then into the pot for boiling. I couldn't get a good picture of this stage cause there was too much steam but you get the idea.

The thread didn't take the color very well so I scrapped that for now but the wool is fabulous.
This the green tweed after. Compare to the small square of the before.

The army blanket was a gold/green before dying. Now it is a nice soft olivey (is that a word) green.

This is the hunter green skirt before and after. This is the wool that changed the most. It lent sooooo much color to the rest of the wool.

I can't wait to make a large penny rug with these greens they turned out really well for a first time and not knowing what I was doing.

I also tried over dyeing a piece of the green tweed with a bright red. The tweed turned a wonderful cranberry color. The red didn't change at all. I believe that was because the green didn't lose any dye and the red did.

I did buy a package of Brown Cushing's Dye at a sale and decided since I had the dye pots out I would try it. I dyed a couple pieces of cream and I think it turned out great. It will even blend with the greens.
Isn't it a luscious soft brown???
I'll close with a few pictures of penny rugs I've been working on.

My all purple penny rug. The smallest penny is a purple plaid.





The back picture is a little bright. It really is a nice prim looking rug.
Aren't these the cutest things??? They are penny rug mug mats. Of course you could use them under anything.....jar candles, candlesticks etc. I saw them on Penny Rugs and More.
Colleen does a fantastic job. Check out her blog for Penny rug inspiration.

I'll try and get a truer color picture. They are from the over dyed red and tweed in the center and the background is the olivey. They show too turquoise here.


I guess it's time to start working on Christmas. I guess I'll get some done for next week.Be sure and check out Leslie's blog and see what everyone is working on.

Rhonda
Happy Wednesday

Crafting and sewing

I had the pleasure of attending a weekend long quilting retreat with some of my friends. We had such a good time. I got a few things finished and for me that was worth going. Since I went back to work full time I just don't have as much time as I would like to work on my "fun" projects. So "finishing" was my theme for the weekend. Finishing in order to start more as DH would remind me.
First I finished a denim shirt I had started a few years ago and was just hanging there. It is from Home from the Harvest book by Nancy Smith and Linda Milligan. I have made so many things from this book that it was worth the cost. Nothing I hate more than buying a book for only one project.

Thanks Karen for modeling for me.
My daughter Tori picked out the pattern and fabrics for this quilt. It still needs the borders but it already is 72"x92" without borders. I had all but 3 of the blocks machine appliqued so most of the weekend work was sashing and cornerstones. It is so vibrant and fun. I just love it. The pictures don't even begin to show how bright it is.



I have been on a pillowcase kick. They are so fun and easy to make. There is some cute fabrics out there too. I made Christmas one for my DD and now am working on some for the other seasons. It's an easy way to change up a bedroom. I can't find the pictures of those but I'll keep looking for another post.

I started a table runner for a Christmas gift so I'll show that when it's done. All in all I got accomplished what I was hoping for so that to me was a "good thing".

Here's a pin cushion my friend received from her secret sister. It was so fun I had to take a picture. It is knitted.

These next pictures are of some pumpkins I have been working on for the last couple of weeks.I love how they turned out. Although I don't think I would grubby up the white one as much next time. It probably would stand on it's own without it.

I really love using the branches for stems and adding the bittersweet.

Have a great Autumn day
Blessings,
Rhonda

Whatca Working on Wednesday

I am really late posting this. I have had this metal tree for some time and have been looking for ornaments to hang on it for every season. I found these cute pumpkins on aprimitivegathering's blog. If you want to make your own she has all the instructions there.

Aren't they just the cutest? And you cn use so much of your own creativity after the basic recipe.


Fabric pumpkins are all over my crafting table. It is amazing to me the process of sewing,staining,and baking takes. A friend of mine(Hi Lisa) and I went to the Apple Festival in Franklin PA a couple of weeks ago. At one booth we were talking to the owner and an artist for the shop. One lady picked up a make do and wanted to know the price. She turned up her nose at the price. The owner said she wouldn't sell it to her anyway (after she had left) since she didn't appreciate all the work that went into making it. So of course we then had a conversation about how much time things actually takes to make a make-do. No pun intended. But we determined when you are good at what you do it really does look easy.

Here's my make do. I love it. It is sort of a mix of several I've seen.


Have a nice evening. Check out Leslie's blog for more WWW projects.

Rhonda

penny rugs

These are two of my fall penny rugs I completed last week while I was off. At least I can say I got something done.
The first one the pumpkins in the pattern were Jack o Lanterns but I left the faces off so I could get more use out of them.

It is a "Little Bits" pattern from Homespun Charm.

I love this penny rug too. It is so bright and colorful-definitely not too prim but I love the pattern. It does go so well with my other prim stuff though.

This pattern is from Lily Anna Stitches, There's a watermelon slice pattern too. I'll make that one for summer sometime over the winter. As soon as I find the right color pink for the melon.

It's been a cold rainy day in Pa today. It's starting to be the perfect weather for curling up with all my hand work. The gardens are being put to rest for the winter so I have more time for inside things.

Blessings,
Rhonda

WWW ......Dining room reno and bittersweet

These are the pictures of the ongoing dining room reno that began with the start of my vacation.
This is a before picture. I had removed the baseboards and painted the walls a soft olivey green.

Next DH put up 6" wide pine wainscoting about 1/2 way up the walls.


All this was done prior to my vacation. Now day 1 was priming all the wainscoting and the chair rail,corner moldings and base boards.


Day 2 Today I added the color. It is a putty color about the color of Pella doors in Putty. It's my new favorite color.



DH finished the second coat of the putty. Now all we have to do is put on the chair rail,baseboards and corner moldings. But I'm changing my mind. I painted all the wood work the same putty color. Now I'm thinking the chair rail need to be something else. I'm not liking the green anymore either. He's not going to be happy but I don't want to do it again anytime soon. The wall is so easily changed since it's only 1/2 the wall. I'm going shopping at some prim stores today so I have the day off. When I get home tonight I'll ponder some more about color.
I want to stencil in this room too and I'm afraid it'll get lost on the green even though it's a subtle color. .......................Big sigh ..........................too many decisions.

I learned a lesson about bittersweet this week. I found some in our church parking lot while the girls were at youth group last week. I cut it and put it in my car. I forgot about it till I was parking the car at work the next day. Never do it. It must have been the heat that caused it all to open. I was so disappointed. I can still use it but it lost all of the yellow seed coverings as I was taking the leaves off.
It was harder to work with this way too.I couldn't get it to bend the way it usually does. It was probaly dried out. I'll look for more this week and try it again. I did get some on the chandlier in the dining room. You can see it hanging in the top of some of the pictures.

Be sure and check out Leslie's blog for others and their Wed projects

Off to shop.
Rhonda

Catching up

Since I am on vacation this coming week I will be catching up on many things. One of them is my blog. This post should have been done 2 weeks ago but alas time has slipped away again.



We had the pleasure of spending the day at Kennywood with 2 of my nephews we don't see as often as I'd like. My girls are the same ages as the boys. By the look of their faces in the pictures I'd say they had a good time.



I am blessed to have a close family. These are 2 of my brothers' 5 boys. They live 1 1/2 hours from us but we really only see them for holidays since their parents are divorced. We all had a good time that day. It was a new experience for me to drop them off by themselves for a few hours and return after my DH got home from work. I'm not sure I'm liking this letting go thing much.
Here are my 2 clowning for the camera.

Since they were little we've taken their pictures on the merry go round and I change them in the frame each summer. It's a neat progression of time.
Here's this years.
Tori 14

Emily 13


My how time does fly.

I'll post again tomorrow with some finished projects and some buys from summer.

Rhonda

Colonial Williamsburg

It seems like just yesterday we were on our way home from vacation. I wanted to post these pictures right away but "life happens".. And of course I didn't get all the pictures I wanted because My camera was acting up. This is a kitchen. I loved this one because we got to participate. Well the kids did but it was good for them it kept them interested. They had to fetch this wood and deliver the food that was prepared to the house. The kitchens were outside as to not heat up the house in the summer.





Cellar for storage






Some garden pictures

You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge. As I was looking at my pictures I realized I took more of objects that I wanted to reproduce here at home than I did of scenery or buildings. I have some shutter and fencing pictures as well as colors I liked. Oh well...... guess I had a mission and didn't know it. I'll post pictures of what I bought while I was there and some projects I finished on the ride tomorrow.

Vacation

Yep we are packing for vacation. We leave in the morning for...............

















One of a prim lover's favorite places...................................

We are going to Colonial Williamsburg!!!!!! Of course I will have to bear with the water park, Busch gardens and the beach just to see what I want. But the girls are getting older now so it'll be easier to do different things hopefully. We are taking along our niece and nephew too. It is forecasting 90's and 100's and if any of you know me know that I hate to be hot. But all will be well as I am with my family whom I love dearly. Say a prayer for me and the heat though. Will take lots of pictures. Maybe even get a piece of pewter or 2.

Rhonda

Supper anyone

I spent my day not as I had originally planned but worth while none the less.

I picked fresh veggies from my garden and decided I had to do something with them.

I planned stuffed peppers for dinner and figured while I was at it I made up 12 more for the freezer.

What else to do with green peppers?????????

I cut some up and put them in the freezer for use over the winter.

But what else??

I chopped some up and made spaghetti sauce. We'll have lasagna some time this week and the rest I'll put in the freezer.

I moved on to hot peppers next. I stuffed those with a sausage stuffing and par baked them to go into the freezer. When I get them out to eat later I just add sauce to warm them. DH and I like those as a side dish with spaghetti.
Sorry no pics. I got busy.

I've got some zucchini and squash baking right now in the oven. It was a recipe my SIL made we loved it so I'm trying it tonight to use up some more zucchini. Tori wants to make some bread tomorrow so it'll use up the rest of the zucchini that's been shredded.

The jalapeno peppers are already for stuffing too. Salsa was on the menu but none of my tomatoes are ripening because of the lousy summer we are having here in PA. So stuff them I will.

I try to use the bounty that God provides to me. I love taking things out of the freezer through the winter and knowing they came from our garden.

Anyone hungry???



Now for the big reveal. I finished painting the chimney cupboard...........

Not too bad even if I do say so myself. I'm not sure is I would take more off next time. I think I'll look for a piece at the TS to see if I can tweak my technique a bit.

Now it's off to sew. What I really wanted to relax and spend my day doing.

Rhonda