When you're having fun!! It's not that I've been having so much fun but I sure haven't taken the time to blog! The year end reports and tax forms took precedence and since I have those things all in the mail, I can get back to the fun stuff!I do want to show you another of the purses from the November class that I taught here in my home studio. Susan stopped by to pick up a stand for her frame, week before last and brought her finished project along!! She did a great job and uses hers as a tote bag! I love to see their end results!
This is a close-up of Susan's work ~ you can see her needle felted flowers and proddy sunflower and her very nice appliqued pumpkin. Take notice of the hill that we used to ground the pumpkin ~ the little orange circles are quilling or what I call 'cats' paws'. It's interesting that in Maria Barton's blog and Kris Miller's latest blog post, they both are doing the cats' paws as part of a sheep's body! I learned it in a Kindred Spirits class a couple of years ago. It's just a little different way to use your wool strips to give some interest to a particular spot that could use a little jazzing up ~ like this hill ~ it would have been kind of dead but the cats' paws give your eye a place to land.
Many of you know how to do them, I'm sure, but for those who want a little tutorial, I ran downstairs and put one together quickly. You can use all one color, two contrasting colors or several, if you choose. Put the strips together and wind into a circle ~ when you get the desired size, run thread back and forth across the circle to hold it together, making sure to fasten the strip ends and then tack it to your foundation fabric at the place where you want it. You can also shape your circle into a diamond shape or a square or even a heart shape. Hook right up around your cats' paw and voila! Something new to try! On one of rug hooking forums, on the photo page, there were pins made out of cats' paws. 
A shot of frozen Lake Erie, for all of you who are somewhere warm where the sun shines!! This was last weekend and nothing much has changed. It's been REALLY cold this week ~ 18 degrees right now at 3 in the afternoon! Stay warm wherever you are!!Alice
