A Simple & Fun Rug...Completed

This rug was a delight to hook at a time when simple was needed. Hooked mostly in a #8.5 cut with a little #6 cut for detail, it was quick and, most of all, fun. Most of the wools came out of my leftovers bins and it was interesting to see how the great variety of red-oranges, oranges and maples mixed together.
The blue was a big surprise. When I first pulled it out to consider using it, I thought no way was it going to work. But, in the end, I think it's what makes the rug lively rather than ho-hum....

The 20" X 40" design is by Maggie Bonanomi and can be found here:
Out in the Garden

Sewing Tools...

Happy day... I was able to set aside some quiet time to finish my first little Maggie project from the book, A Day at Sunny Brook.
 With the exception of the hand dyed cotton velvet, everything used to make the chatelaine was either repurposed or scrapes of wool left over from hooked rug projects. The cotton face for the scissors holder is a piece of hand printed Fortuny (Yes, that Fortuny!) left over from my days as a custom curtain maker. It's a wonderful example of fine fabric work.
I was especially happy with the berry pin cushion....hand dyed red cotton velvet, a good wool plaid over-dyed with green and black glass chop beads put together & stuffed with pine shavings and wool. It was not hard to make but I did learn a few things like take it outside to stuff it with the pine shavings because it makes a big mess. This design, Strawberry Fields, is one of several new pin cushion designs that I've just added to my website.

Using Old Treasures...

It seems that textiles, and their accompanying paraphernalia, have always been a part of my life. As a result, I've accumulated a few "collections".  As you can imagine, my wool collection is significant but I have a couple of other collections that I don't write about very often....fabric that's not wool and buttons.
Some of the buttons are antiques and really too valuable to be used but others are just pretties that couldn't possibly be tossed out. And the fabrics, most from my many years of constructing custom soft furnishings, are wonderful and, in this era of cheaply produced Asian fabrics, almost irreplaceable. And really, ask my friends... I've given a lot of it away! But I'm selfish and just can't give up some of it.
Well, recently I decided to add books and patterns from the delightfully creative Maggie Bonanomi to the offerings on my website. And in exploring her latest book, A Day at Sunny Brook, I found the most enchanting use for a jar full of mostly Mother of Pearl buttons...all vintage, a few antique and none terribly valuable. But all just waiting for the opportunity to be useful once again...

Here's a photo of my work-in-progress (And I'll post the completed piece soon, I promise!):

And here are a few of the other buttons: