When we came back from Sydney last Monday my sights were set on finishing the binding off and sewing of the brown hooked rug. I'd been progressively gluing the edges of the backing where it was fraying over a few days in preparation for this. So last Tuesday I machine sewed the binding on the rug and hand-sewed it. Finished! Then I put it in the dryer with a wet towel mainly to try and fluff up the older hooked wool pieces which were flattened. There were also areas where the pieces went in different directions (where the new hooking met the old hooking) and I was hoping that a fluffing would fix this up. I also wanted to freshen the rug up and remove any dust as it had been in my Dad's attic for a few years. Well the fluffing certainly freshened the rug up and fluffed it up but there are still patches where the wool goes in different directions (although the hooking is in the same direction) and the backing shows. Anyway, I proudly gave this to Jarrah to put in his room and he has it beside his bed where he puts his feet out onto the floor in the morning.
My next finish was my daughter Jade's communion stole and this was becoming more urgent as she needs to wear this for her first communion on the 17th of July. I had already done preliminary work on this squaring off the stole fabric which was quite skewed and also cutting out the felt pieces to go on it. I sewed up the stole and pressed it and then using double-sided tape placed the felt pictures and her name on it. Done!
Then to the UFO. Jade wanted to learn to knit so I bought her some chunky velour-like yarn and showed her how to knit. While she was knitting I started working on a wool and possum scarf for myself from yarn I bought in Queenstown, New Zealand in 2007. (Hence another new project started.) I also had a hot pink, brown and gold scarf made in funny, bumpy yarn that I'd nearly finished but which had problems so had been put aside. I'd tried to unravel the end of it and because of the bumpy wool had been unable to. I'd dropped stitches so there were a couple of holes, the stitches were all off the needle and it was a mess. I spent a couple of hours on it trying to find all the dropped stitches and put them back on the needle and to crochet up the holes, etc. Anyway, I did as best I could, cast off and used spare wool to close up the holes and make it look nice. It's so fluffy and bumpy that you can't see that there was any problem anyway.
I have to confess that I didn't work on the Sydney cross-stitch when I was in Sydney but it did travel with me to its home city so I guess that's something.
So where am I now? I want to finish off a couple more projects. The lighthouse rug hooking is pinned and ready for sewing. I'm not using binding on this as it's going to be a wall-hanging. I want to frame the Life is a Journey Daydreams project I finished. I want to work on Jade's flannel quilt and I want to get back into whatever cross-stitch is this week's rotation.
But we have someone new in the family and he is getting a lot of attention. We have a new kitten! He is a silver tabby, about 4 months old and he came from the RSPCA. We got him last Saturday so he's only been with us for 3 days. His name is Nimbus. He is a beautiful kitty, very playful and cuddly and loving. But he needs supervision as he tends to claw the furniture and climb the curtains. This is actually a good week to have him home as the kids are off school and have the time to play with him and watch him. We haven't left him alone in a room with furniture yet because of the clawing. This will get better as he learns and as he gets older.
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