New-to-Us Rug

I've had a saved search in craigslist for a hand-knotted rug for quite a while now. I was looking to replace the dining room rug which we had bought on Overstock back in late-2011. While I had liked the rug, it proved to not be very durable. Shasta started licking it nervously when we had a friend live with us for a month, and made holes in it.

The rug we're getting rid of

My craigslist search brought this up last Friday. 

I excitedly made arrangements to go out and see the rug. Now, I would quibble with the seller that the rug was in excellent condition; it has some non-trivial damage. But it was a hand-knotted rug made by Nature's Loom and the colors were perfect for our dining room and the price was right so we brought it home with us.

Dog approved.

Still Quilting

I spent two very long days this past weekend helping a friend work on quilt blocks for a quilt for her new retro travel trailer.  Denise arrived with all the fabric cut out, and all I had to do was sew. And sew I did. We got all of the blocks finished by Sunday night. We, sadly, didn't manage to get all the blocks sewn together.

She used some wonderful travel prints and the red and white sashing is designed to match the cushions in the trailer.

It was a fun project, but now my back is aching from crouching over the machine all weekend. I'm still plotting my next project. I'm debating between a lap blanket for my Dad and another quilt for the master bedroom that coordinates with the stenciling.

New Quilting Project

A friend of mine dragged me to JoAnn Fabrics last Thursday because she wanted help picking fabrics for a new quilt she was making. I hadn't been to JoAnn's for several years. There's a reason for it, it's like taking a junky to their dealer. Of course, I had to buy fabric. I almost resisted until I saw a cool space-theme fabric. I decided Jeff needed another lap quilt; three is not enough. LOL

I guess I had some pent up quilting energy because I've already finished the quilt top. It took two days including the cutting. This was a super easy pattern because there was so little seam matching. The pattern is called London Roads and I got it from Judy Hopkins' 101 Fabulous Rotary-Cut Quilts.

I haven't decided if I'll try machine quilting it myself. I really don't want to, but it can get pretty expensive getting quilts professionally machine quilted.

Not much else has happened on the home front. Our weekly cleaning day has been working out well. I did manage to unpack most of our movies down in the basement.

Jeff is still planning to add some additional shelves in the bottom portion.