Wooly Bundles

Holiday Medley Wooly Bundle

I will be listing bundles in the next week. These are assortments of hand dyed wools and AS IS wool off the bolt. They are unique bundles in that I do not repeat the colours, so they are one of a kind. These are available on my website Fully Wooly Primitives.


Tomorrow is Cyber Monday - for me it is a day where I realize " Oh Boy better get stuff ordered so that it gets here for THE DAY". As I am having sales all month on my website, tomorrow will be another week of sales but these will be at 25% off for Cyber Monday. I'll announce tomorrow what they will be. So drop in and see if there is something you would like to have. It will be for one week only. Then a new sale starts December 5th on other items.


Off to gather more wools for bundles...g'nite Joni

Getting Ready...

Hubby has gone up north into the mountains this weekend for the annual men's get together. So the first thing I did was flip through cookbooks and checked my list not once but twice for cookie recipes for the annual seasonal bake-a-thon. I used to make about 20 different baked things each Christmas but in recent years that number has dropped significantly. Now we are down to about six! So I cleaned out the baking pantry, inventoried what I had and I am all set for next week's start.


This year I will be making the annual cream cheese pastries. They are a favourite of the family and I usually do 4 different flavours - chocolate, pistachio, hazelnut and almond. So rich and buttery! The others will be: 
- shortbread made with tiny cookie cutters and then dipped in dark chocolate
- shortbread peppermint chocolate cookie with vanilla creme icing and candy cane sprinkles
- white snowballs with walnuts
- and a gingerbread cookie or square with some lemon icing and gingerbread men sprinkles. 
I found this great site "Sweet Estelle Baking Supplies" on Etsy that sells these cool sprinkles and I am going to give them a whirl.


Hopefully I will get these recipes onto my website as I complete them. It seems that all I have there are "sweeties"..love my sweets!


So what are you baking this Christmas? Any family traditions?

Snowflake

This is what I am working on right now. It will be a pillow with a prodded fringe. I'm almost done and then I will be working on a rug that will be the companion piece. I love snowmen! I rarely do Santa Claus as a theme. I guess snowmen can stay out all winter. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving dinner and now with tummies full are enjoying happy times with family. So who is going shopping tomorrow?  LOL
Those who are - have fun....g'nite Joni

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! Have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends!
Cheers...Joni

Creativity

I thought I would share this with you. Sometimes you just get stuck! This said it all very simply. 29 Ways to stay creative. Thanks Susan!

Dyeing the Season

I am off to the Vermont Rug Hooking show at Shelburne today, but had to put together something to work on while there. So a quick sketch and a selection of wool and I am ready to be inspired! No snow here - YET!!! So had to design something with a snowman to get me in the mood. This one will be a pillow with a prodded edge - more on that in a later post.

Also got the dye pots out yesterday and dyed up some seasonal colours. Hard to tell but each colour has four different textures to the dye run. I think I may have to go darker with the patterns. The picture really does not show the subtle change in textures. To me  it is always an exercise in experimentation. Sometimes you never know what you may get from the dye pot. That is the adventure in the whole process! Off to pack....Have a great weekend. Joni 

Dye Heaven

What a perfect start to the day when I went to mailbox and this wonderful sampling of beautiful dyed wools was there. I saw a couple of pieces of wool fabric that was dyed using this one colour that I fell in love with -  Verdigris Wash. A beautiful soft green/blue that will make a perfect background for a rug I am planning. Needless to say I had to find out where this colour came from. Susan Quicksall from Holly Hill Designs was the creator of this hue. I ordered her dye book and the samples and now I am ready to dye. 

Well first I have to get the dyes as these formulas use Pro-Chem which I have never used before. Lucky for me I am off to the Vermont rug hooking show this weekend and I am sure I will find my dyes there. I know what I will be doing next week when I get back home. The pots will be simmering and a rainbow of colours will be hanging from my portable clothesline and the neighbours will be wondering - "What is that woman up to now?". I will stand by my kitchen window gazing at this display of  luscious colour and drink it all in - one of the best parts of dyeing wool.


Have a great evening...Joni

Buttonwood Farm Kits

Hi, I just received the Buttonwood Book by Maggie Bonanomi. There are some amazing wool projects in this one. She always provides a project for hooking, wool applique and lots of needlework. I have a few on my Wool Bucket List. You can find the book on my website with an option to open it up for a peek of the great projects! Along with this I received two wool applique kits to make two of the projects - a wonderful prim wool bird pillow and a gorgeous floral hearth rug.

Kit for the wool applique hearth rug.

Kit for the wool applique bird pillow.

Have a wonderful afternoon. Enjoying a cup of tea (David's tea for the day - O Christmas Tree - dark chocolate, zesty orange peel and pu'erh tea) on this cold rainy fall day. Happy Hooking, Joni

Catch the Wind

In the chilly hours and minutes,

Of uncertainty, I want to be,
In the warm hold of your loving mind.

To feel you all around me,
And to take your hand, along the sand,
Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

When sundown pales the sky,
I wanna hide a while, behind your smile,
And everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find.

For me to love you now,
Would be the sweetest thing, 'twould make me sing,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.

When rain has hung the leaves with tears,
I want you near, to kill my fears
To help me to leave all my blues behind.

For standin' in your heart,
Is where I want to be, and I long to be,
Ah, but I may as well, try and catch the wind.

   ---------------------Donovan
Heard this song tonight and remembered what a great song it was and still is. So glad I am part of that generation!

Morning Tea with David

The air is crisp, the light is different, there is a smoky woodstove fragrance to the air and it's time to break out the tea. Of course I have to have my little mini shortbread cookies - very addictive. I usually only drink teas during the fall/winter on a daily basis. The rest of the year, it is how the mood strikes me. Last year I discovered this great tea place called DAVID"S TEA and yes they are Canadian. They do ship all over NA for cheap though.They have the best loose leaf teas. They smell wonderful and are so tantalizing. It's hard not to stop at trying one or two. They just came out with their seasonal teas for the winter so I am going to skip away there and place my order for the new ones! They also have this really great infuser called THE STEEPER. I love it!

This one is the LONG LIFE OOLONG - Organic Shui Xian oolong tea, peach pieces, apricot pieces, almond slices, orange peel, safflower petals, with natural flavouring*. This morning I had the CRANBERRY & PEAR - so sweetly fragrant - Cranberry slices, black tea, pear pieces, apple pieces, flavouring.


OK I could not resist I had to put this picture in of Noogs having his fair share of the cheese pizza. Since Roby's passing the cats have run amok. There is no one to herd them anymore, so they are all over the place. It's not like we have a lot only two and they are oh so cute with their antics!

Oh Dear. I just remembered the apple pie in the oven.
Yikes burnt edges! We'll work around those edges. LOL. Have a great fall day. Happy stitchin' Joni

Fibers in Rug Hooking

 

Malabrigo - Aigua 8

When I was in Ottawa last weeked at the fiber fest I bought some beautiful handpainted wool yarns. Today I decided to hook them up along with some others I had on hand. Sometimes I find it helps to see how you can use them in a project if you actually hook them up on canvas. It was a fun exercise. I am seeing more and more different fibers being used in hooking and I think it adds another dimension to the piece. It is nothing new as ladies of long ago who hooked used what they had on hand. So explore outside the box and see what you come up with - challenge yourselves!



Malabrigo - hooked up - beautiful for sky or sea




Misti Alpaca - Alpaca, merino and bamboo




MIsti Alpaca - doubled up. It has a lovely sheen to it. A little slippery to hook though.

Noro - wool and silk

Noro hooked- This was doubled. A lot of variety in this yarn to pick and choose from



Sari hand dyed - Silk cut into strips

Sari Green - so vivid hooked up

Sari hand dyed Blue silk cut into strips

Beautiful blue to add to my sky or sea