Wools 'R Us

One thing the members of my group of stitchers have in common is that we all enjoy working with wool--especially our friend Irene. I'll have to remember to take a few photos of Irene's projects when our group gathers each month, because she's worked on some beautiful ones. She, like me, likes to buy wool garments from the thrift stores when she can find something interesting, and she's also probably dyed more wool than I have. In fact, when we went shopping for fabric for our Halloween "shakers," rather than make the heads from homespun or other fabric, we used wool, and Irene dyed the pumpkin orange wool for us at our vacation rental. Of course, we only had commercial Rit dye available at that time, so the color didn't turn out as deep as we would have liked, but we were happy with it.

When we organized this vacation "retreat," we agreed that each of us would bring a project for the rest to work on along with the necessary supplies. Oddly enough--or maybe not so odd when you consider our tastes--all but one of us brought a wool project for the others. I brought two wool Christmas ornaments that I'd found at Woolie Mammoth's blog designed by Woolie Robin. None of us got around to making those, so I can't show them to you--soon, maybe. In think we were all more in the mood for Halloween than anything else; Christmas seems a little remote still.

The first project was given to us by Irene--it's from an issue of Create and Decorate magazine about two years ago--I recall the magazine had the year 2010 on it, but I don't remember the month. Sorry my photo's a little dark.

Irene had the forethought to wash the dish towels ahead of time so they'd shrink and lose whatever sizing they may have had. Cute, isn' it?!

Next is a woolie sheep that Sandy brought us.

By the time I started on mine, I was deep into the Halloween mood, so mine came out a little differently.

I very much wanted to give the sheep a witch's hat, but then it would only fit into Halloween; I restrained myself, so now it's appropriate for any time in the fall.

Imelda gave us a project that wasn't fall or Halloween, so we didn't get around to making it. In fact, it also didn't have wool. It's a cute project of an appliqued house with cross-stitched trees on either side; I'm thinking it might look better as a haunted house. I just haven't gotten to that one yet!

Imelda won the contest for most projects completed. This also isn't a great photo, but you can see how much she did--a whole quilt top and a candle mat as well as some of the same projects the rest of us worked on. The small framed snowman was another project I brought; Imelda was the only person to make that one. (How she came up with the perfect frame is beyond me, but that's pretty typical of her. I think she and Irene made a secret stop at a thrift store when they were out buying what they needed to make dinner one night.) She was also the one who finished the Halloween "shaker" heads the quickest, so she was able to help the rest of us. No matter what we did, we couldn't seem to slow her down!

Finally, this was one of those last minute projects I decided to take along with me. I've had this Buttermilk Basin pattern (Witch Wilma) for a couple years and love the vintage look.

I want to put it in a frame and will hunt for something I like--probably at the thrift stores, I suspect. (Maybe I should just send Imelda out shopping?!)

I have more wool to talk about but this post has grown long enough. I'll be back to chat tomorrow. Thanks for stopping in to visit!