eBay Listings

I just listed a couple of great deals on rug hooking / rug punch items on eBay. Clicking on the link under the picture will bring you right to the auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160380864537&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_1182

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160380865114&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_1182

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160380868577&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_1182

Have a great day!

I'm making myself soooo dang HUNGRY thinking about Thanksgiving day! LOL! When do you start your cooking?

Midnight Silhouette Progress 2

Funny thing about hooking... I put my radio on, grab a cup of tea, light a candle and start pulling loops... next thing you know 4 hours flies by in what feels like 20 minutes?!?!?! 

Wishing everyone a splendid weekend!

Reverse Psychology

Every person I speak with seems to always explain in detail the ever growing list of

"Things To Do"

that they have. Whether it's stuff that needs to be done... job, laundry, food shopping, cooking, painting the house, cleaning the gutters, Holiday preparations, etc... or stuff they want to do... cross stitch, read a book, take a quilting class, go for a long walk on a sunny day... the list just keeps growing and growing!

Here's what I was doing... I would wake up every morning and look at my list of Things To Do, then plan my day accordingly. Then something would happen that changed those plans, and my list would be forgotten.

At the end of each day, I would look at my list. Cross off maybe 2 or 3 things... and sigh. Geeeeeez, I'm never going to get caught up! I then started to rewrite the list of things I "Did Not Do", and proceed to add some more "Things To Do". Yah... I did those 3 things... and then added 6 more.

Well, this got to feeling like a burden of heavy weight that was just zapping all energy and enthusiasm right out of my being. So, yesterday I tried something completely different!

I started a list of

"Things I Accomplished Today"

S*M*I*L*E

Yep... I took a deep breath and off I went to find something to do! After I completed each task, I wrote that task down on my "Things I Accomplished Today" list! When the end of the day came, I sat down and read that list and a big sense of relief and happiness overwhelmed me! Yah...

"I Did ALL Of That Stuff Today"

S*M*I*L*E

So, I put on my pajamas and had a most restful night sleep! This morning, I awoke energized and ready for a new day of accomplishments!

Try it, you just might like it!

Midnight Silhouette Progress

The next few postings are going to be progress pics on my Midnight Silhouette hooked rug! Since I missed my Halloween deadline... I'm promising myself a Thanksgiving finish! Yah... what a turkey I am, right? LOL! 

As you may remember, I had two options... one was to purchase an already drawn out rug hooking pattern on linen... and the other was to purchase the Blackbird Designs quilt pattern... And, that I decided to purchase the quilt pattern? *giggle* As quilters will know, quilt patterns come with elements drawn out that need to be pieced together.

I was familiar with this process as I have done plenty of penny rugs/wool applique pieces. But now to bring the cat, leaves, berries, fence and moon into a rug design? Let's take a deep breath and pull out that red dot tracer and a pencil and see where I can go with this! *grin*

After I laid out the elements on the red dot (in pencil), I then secured the red dot to my linen with quilters pins to help prevent any shifting during the transfer process. Then it was time to pull out the Sharpee permanent marker and carefully trace over the pencil lines on the red dot, so the marker ink would bleed into the backing. *deep breath* There's something about the word permanent that just scares me to death! LOL!

Then, I was ready to color plan... this is the part that I always think and think and think and think about... to the point that I felt I was never going to actually start hooking for fear of choosing the wrong color?!?!? *sigh* So, I picked a strip of wool and just started pulling loops! Had quite a bit of fun doing that actually! Had even more fun pulling out what wasn't "workin' for me" and then rehooking another color in there! Yes, it's a process... but it's FUN! 

So here's the first sneak peak preview...

Be sure and check back in a couple of days for more progress... *smile*

Brandywine Hook-In!!!!

After 5 years of hooking rugs, this was the FIRST official hook-in I was lucky enough to attend... and it really was worth the wait! So many great people, gorgeous rugs on display, gorgeous rugs being hooked... then there were vendors with awesome WOOL and great patterns, handmade baskets and bowls, hooks, backings and some cute novelties.... so much talent packed into one room... it was totally DREAMY! I sat at a table with Joanne, Kathy, Linda and Sherry... we also had a visit from Pam and her friend Peachie... I will let the following pictures show the day... maybe add in a word or two here and there...

The next 6 pics look like real old antiques, don't they? Nope... recently hooked... amazing, right?

And then I did some shopping...

I did buy one more VERY LARGE rug pattern... but, since that will be my next hooking project... I'll save the reveal as progress is made...

Check in during the week... as I will have some pics to share of "Midnight Silhouette"

Have a cozy autumn evening enjoying what you love!

Rag Quilt

Here's a few pics of my first rag quilt! *yay*

Outdoors on the patio...

A close up of the corners, binding and the matching back...

And a quick shot of the entire piece on the living room floor. I had to use a flash, so some of the colors look a little washed out...

I had purchased this as a kit from eBay. The kit consisted of all the homespun squares already cut and sandwiched with flannel! I am very new at quilting, and at the time I did not have my trusty rotary cutter and mat. So, this looked like a great opportunity to try a forgiving quilt style while getting reacquainted with my sewing machine... Another feature of this kit that I liked was that it included the strips and instructions for sewing binding around the edge of the quilt. Binding is not something generally customary for a rag quilt... but I really like the clean edge! Plus, being a newbie to the quilt world, this was a great opportunity to learn how to sew binding on a quilt. So, I quilted my X's on the squares, machine sewed all the squares together, machine stitched the binding on the edge, and then folded back the binding and hand stitched the blind stitching, then snipped, snipped and snipped some more *grin*... next was the washing in the washer and finalizing the whole fluff of it all in the dryer! The finished size is about 46" x 60". Just the right size for napping under on a cool autumn day!

The Great Pumpkin Pie Experiment

So yah... I started this last Wednesday and reached a point of success Friday night! LOL! I learned a bunch! For instance, there was some "behind the scenes" steps that I did not know Grandma was taking care of when I was back home asleep! *wink*. Therefore, my first two batches of filling were way wonky... more liquid than water itself actually! LOL! By the time I mixed up the third batch and it seemed "sorta-kinda-like-maybe-it-miiiiiiiiiight" work... I threw it in a store bought pie shell and tossed that one in the oven.

Smelled good...

How did it taste? Well, the ingredients did a separation dance! Ha! I had pumpkin all on the bottom, and all the spices rose to the top and it almost made like a streusel topping... Hmmmmm... what could be the problem? Well, after a quick consultation with youtube *giggle* I learned that after cooking the pumpkin and scooping out the pulp, I needed to puree it in a food processor! (Who knew?) THEN, I had to strain it for a few hours to get the excess water out of it! Then it all mixed up good and made for a great pumpkin pie!

So here goes...


One thing I definitely remembered, was that I needed to get a "Cheese Pumpkin" or a "Sugar Pumpkin"... some folks even call it a Cinderella Pumpkin... They are sort of pale in color and kinda flat. Grandma said these were very sweet and had a nice thick wall so there would be plenty of good pumpkin in them. When I cut this pumpkin open... it was HEAVEN! The aroma was so sweet and fresh!


After you scoop out all the seeds and stringy stuff, you cut the pumpkin into manageable sections, place face down in a roasting pan or cookie sheet, cover real good with foil, and bake at 350* for about an hour, or until a butter knife can easily pierce the pumpkin.


When the pumpkin has cooled enough to handle, grab a spoon and scrape off all that moist and wonderful pumpkin!

Now, by this time it was already Friday morning, so I did not get pictures of this part. Add pumpkin to your food processor and process until consistency of baby food. I did a little bit less than that as I like the larger pieces for better texture. Then, place a colander in a pot and line the collander with cheesecloth. Place your pureed pumpkin in the cheesecloth. When all your pumpkin has been processed, pull up the ends of the cheesecloth and knot. Then, take a few heavy bowls and place it on top of that. The weight of the bowls will help keep pressure on the puree so that more water will be able to be squeezed out. Leave in refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

After your puree has drained some, it is now all prepared and ready to be made into a pie filling. I used most of the recipe that is on the Libby's label, but tweaked it here and there...

Whisk 2 eggs in a small bowl. In another bowl, place 2 cups pumpkin puree. Add (to the puree) 3/4 c sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. salt. Mix all the spices in good with the puree. Next, stir the eggs into the puree mixture until well blended. Next, add your 1 cup of evaporated milk in small amounts at a time. Blend well after each addition. Pour all your completed mixture into your pie shell. I always place my pies on a cookie sheet for even browning of the crust, and also to catch drips. Bake at 450* for about 15 minutes. Then turn oven down to 350* and continue baking for about another hour. Pie is done when a butter knife inserted in center comes out clean.


So, this is Friday's pie success... and, since it's Monday... and almost gone... I'd say it tastes pretty durn GOOD! LOL!

Happy pie making!