This is just neat

Braided rug

One of the fun things about going to families homes is I get to see things I made years ago long before I had a blog to keep track of everything.  This is a rug I made for my older sister.  Her house is pretty contemporary and minimalistic very nice and classy.  She and I grew up with handmade rugs so it was a way of adding a little of our past to her home.  The colors in the rug are mostly hand dyed by a friend of mine, Karen.  I special ordered the colors for this project.  So in the process of making a rug for her we didn't want it to have much color change in it.  Sort of monochromatic with a few hints of color.  The colors I was asked to use were eggplant, mustard and neutral with a little bit of a sage or olive green.  This is what I came up with back then. It had to be able to fit in her suitcase to go home with so this is a smallish rug just right for in front of a door way or in front of a chair.  This is what greeted us as we entered her front door of her home.

 

I wish my sisters and I lived closer together it would be fun to do projects with them.  I know my older sister has a great eye for style and colors.  She was very much an artist growing up life has pulled her away from it.  These days she is so busy with work there there isn't much time to have creative fun,  but it is still very much apart of her.

My younger sister is so much younger than me that I didn't get to be with her much after she was the age 9 as I had moved away and went to collage and got married and had kids.  She would be fun to get to know better.  Life goes forward and we change but roots are roots and they tend to draw people back together. Sorry just thinking aloud in type ( if that is possible).

Beaded Egg

Over Easter while at my sisters she had out an egg I made for her years ago.  At one time I had planned on making a ton of these eggs.  But alas all I made was the one and I am very glad I gave it to my big sister.  Someday I will make a few more just haven't yet.  This one has a  two  "Star of David" on it.  My sister's family celebrates Easter and Passover a mixed family religion wise so this sort of covered both but not really.  The egg is covered with lace bead-work and the egg itself is made out of dyed alabaster (stone)  so it is a very heavy egg.  For the stand a napkin ring in employed I use them for temari stands too.

New Yoyo tool

Over Easter break we had a road trip.  My sister wanted to pick up making yoyos so I took a yoyo tool ( the jumbo blue one) and some other stuff so she could see how to do it by hand  with just a needle and thread and with the tool.  She liked by hand better as do I.

 

During which time I tried to entertain my children with having them work with the  jumbo blue clover yoyo tool.  It is always amazing to me how big the tool is and how the size of the yoyo compares to it.  I have wanted a tone on tone yoyo coverlet for a while so this just may be the start of that project.

Also yesterday while running errands I purchased the newest clover yoyo tool the one for making ovals.  I have yet to play with it but my 12 year old did and she said it was easy to work with.  Once again the size difference but it seemed much more obvious with the oval tool as opposed to the round tool.

 

These would work well with the round smaller size yoyos to make a sort of cathedral windows look.  I may have to make a sample of that to explain what I mean.  It wouldn't look exactly like a cathedral windows quilt but similar in feel with the shapes used arches in other words.