NAUGHTY NOVEMBER

Well friends it's Thanksgiving Eve here in the US.  I am still sitting here at the office, it's quiet and I wanted to get this blog post done.  I figured if I didn't get it done today there wouldn't be a post for November.

Naughty November - what's that about ????  Well - it seems all I have been doing is buying stuff this month, yarn, new stitching projects, clothes.  I have to put the brakes on all this frivolous spending now that December is looming.

Well - I also refreshed my blog and got it ready for Christmas.  I have been working a lot on the Santa and Ewe rug that is pictured in the blog header.  All the backround around them is filled in now.  I will get an updated photo in December and show you the progress.

One of the things I am really excited about getting is the new DT Christmas Thoughts, my feeling is that it is like Random Thoughts only for Christmas.  I changed the linen and ordered a Lakeside color - vintage butter pecan and there are two of the Dinky Dyes and two of the NPI colors.  I am thinking I might change out some of the NPI to overdyed silks.  Can't wait to start this but I am resisting so far.
The silks just arrived yesterday so I might just treat myself and start it this weekend.

Yarn is such a weakness for me, especially when it starts getting the least bit cool.  I saw a great new scarf - one of those wide ones made out of bulky weight yarn so I ordered up this beautiful Blue Sky Alpaca bulky in GRAY.  I don't think I have ever bought gray yarn before but they say gray is the new black so we'll see.  I have the mag on order as I could not find it locally in 3 different places so I started to panic and ordered from an on-line yarn shop. 

 OK - I have NO idea why my Harvest Moon shawl is upside down - it was not when I imported the photo from my PC to blogger.  SHOOT - anyway - I think it looked a lot like angel wings.  For any knitters out there - it is made out of Lornas Laces Worsted in the Louisville colorway.  It is a gorgeous fall color but of course I'll wear it all winter long.  It was my 4th Quarter Challenge project with The Loopy Ewe.  So I finished well under the deadline - YEAH !!!!!!

Another new toy came yesterday - the new Liberty Hill Christmas carrier I think they are calling it.  Darling isn't it - I put those pretty read scissors in the box - a gift from Cathy at Inspired Needle for participating all year in the Santa's Village monthly.  Don't ask me where those are hehe - they are neatly tucked away waiting to be stitched but hey - I did finish one !  Speaking of Christmas stitching - I am having fun with the Lizzie Kate Christmas mystery however I am still on part 1.  I seem to have too much "obligation" knitting and stitching this time of the year not to mention all the SAL's, Challenges and so forth I have been participating in.  It really does seem to keep me focused and motivated which is a miracle in itself.  So I intend to do more of those in 2014.

Now this purchase was a complete impulse purchase.  This is a project from the Primitive Quilts and Projects mag.  I think it comes out quarterly - it is a great mag and I actually bought it to get the pattern for one of Polly Minick's rugs.  A gorgeous Christmas rug and then when I was paging thru the mag - OMGosh - I saw this afghan, it is like a cross between a patchwork quilt and a granny square afghan.  The pattern used Minick & Simpson wool from the Independence Trail line and boy was that hard to find.  However I did locate it way out in Utah and then I was on a mission to find the Ella Rae Worsted to crochet around the wool squares.  Found that in NM, so I am set to do some wooly projects this winter.  I am very excited about this one - so different.  Can't start just yet - the wool has to be washed and felted so it won't ravel when you cut it.

 

I also found another great project in that same mag that I want to start right away.  A wool applique mat with snowmen on it.  I plundered thru my rug wool stash and found something perfect.  I hope I can show you some progress on that next time.

 

Well friends - it's time to go.  There is cooking to do and maybe a little stitching too.  I hope that you are all spending time with family and friends.  I also hope you will take a little time for you on this holiday weekend and do something you really want to do, whether it's shopping till you drop or just relaxing at home with a big cuppa and some hand work - I wish you a great turkey day!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I hope all my blog friends are having a great Halloween doing whatever it is that makes you happy.

Today I thought I'd treat myself to a Starbucks and Happy Halloween to me - the Christmas favorites are already out so I had a Crème Brulee Frappuccino - SO BAD and SOOOOO good !

Here is a shot of my Harvest Moon shawl - for the knitters - it is in Lornas Laces Shepherds Worsted in the Louisville colorway.  It is for the Loopy Ewe online shop's 4th Quarter Challenge.  I have done more - finished the lacy border you see here and advanced to the body shaping.  I am enjoying this one and what a great fall color to be working on in October.

A couple of weeks ago - we had a wonderful week in Gatlinburg - one of our favorite places to be.  It was a belated first anniversary trip for us.  We hunted for our wedding chapel to have a photo made 1 year later but dang - we couldn't find the little back road where the chapel was located.  Anyway - here is my DH standing in front of  a fall display.  It was funny to us but every business and lots of homes had these types of displays all thru GA, NC and Tenn.  We don't see them our NE FL - oh maybe a few fall things go out but not these scarecrow things with the mums galore and the pumpkins and hay bales - It was so "fall" and I loved it.

Unfortunately it was not that cool there - the fall leaves were just starting to turn and we went in the midst of the government shut down so the Smoky Mountain National Park was closed.  It took us 3 hours to do 30 miles because of dead stop traffic from picketers and traffic problems and no park rangers to resolve them.  Nevertheless - what a beautiful fall photo taken on the north side of the park not too far from Gatlinburg.  Yes it opened up the day before we left.

 Here is Jody taking photos on our way home.  I believe this was on the NC side of the parkway.

Look what wondered by our condo balcony - we were just up the hill from the main drag in downtown Gatlinburg.  I was sitting on the balcony stitching and almost fell out of the chair trying to get my ipad open and snap a few photos of this poor bear.  It looked gaunt to me or maybe it was just a teenager.  As you can see - he was meandering along by the pool area - our car is parked about 50 ft away from where he is walking.  Needless to say - after that - we always hurried from our car to the condo.

 

 

In my blog header is Miss Merrie Halloween - one of my most favorite hooked rug finishes.  Miss Merrie was designed by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm.  Miss Merrie and I wish you the spookiest of Halloweens, don't eat too much chocolate !

OPTIMISTIC OCTOBER

Happy Fall Ya'll !!!!!!

I am optimistic in October for many reasons.

For one - I have all new electronic devices in my little world.  A new Ipad, a new IPad mini, a new IPhone and a new PC on my desk at work.  SURELY to goodness - I can do a blog post now when and how I want to do it without having a bunch of trouble with blogger.  As you can see my blog posts  have been very sparse this summer.  I have almost given up because it has been so frustrating.

Anyway - enough lamenting about that subject.

I am also optimistic in October because I am coming very close to finishing 3 more projects, one of which is my BBD wedding sampler.  I have abstained from showing a photo until it is complete which will be very soon, hopefully this month.  Then I have another BIG and very old WIP - a 3ft X 5ft rug which I am getting very close to finishing and will be finished this year for sure.  Just depends on how much hooking time I have as to when it gets completed.

I have a beautiful butterfly shawl that will be finished this month.  It is an Artyarns KAL on the Ravelry board.  The yarn is Zara - TSC hand dyed by Art Yarns - lovely stuff - color is Z3 - Iris doesn't name her colorways.

 

 Next up is a beautiful gift from DF Starr.  Starr surprised me when she returned from a very long trip to Michigan with this gorgeous and very special quilt.  You can't imagine how well it fits in my house  This was a very special wedding gift from  a very special and dear friend.  Starr - I can't tell you how much I adore this quilt.  I'm sorry but I don't know anything about the pattern designer or the fabrics but all I can say it is everything I would pick if I was a quilter myself.

Look how sweet it looks on my little primitive red bench - it is happy with my wedding pillow from DF Dianne

Here is Mr Scarecrow in his temporary home on a glass top table.  He look nice in this little fall display with my pottery pumpkin and pewter tray. 

Here is my Autumn House - I've had it out a little in the past month.  I was agonizing over the sky - that is all that is left except the border and I already know what I'm doing with the border.  I tried various things for the stars and ended up liking tiny pearl seed beads.  If you look closely you can see I went with a bargello stitch for the sky.  I think it is going to be just what I wanted and I settled on Gloriana Florimell in Antique Black.  Perfect for the effect I wanted.  I am very proud of this needlepoint piece because I did the entire stitch guide myself.  I figured I had taken enough classes in my life to figure this out myself and so I did !!!!!!  I am very pleased with the effect, I used almost entirely threads from stash, silks, cottons, wools and there will even be some metallic in the border and beads also.

 

I wonder how many of you are doing Paulette's Mary or Mary II Sunday SAL?  I 'd love to hear if you are.  I am and I have started, just waiting for a couple of threads I didn't have so I can finish up Part I.  I also started the Plum Street Yuletide Welcome - not enough progress to show on that one.

 

Well my friends - I hope you have all been having a great fall season so far.

 

Hope October is very optimistic for you as well.  BTW - I had a effortless time with this post and with downloading my photos. 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Dna8dffc4

Can it be a year since we were married on a mountaintop in Tennessee.  This is a rather sad ending on this Little River Band song but it epitomizes the era Jody and I grew up in - we love 70's & 80's music.  Take a listen if you have time.

I still love looking at the beautiful bouquet I had at my wedding reception.

I'm going to show you some of fun new projects and plans for the fall knitting season.  Meet Belladonna Took which is a beautiful new shawl I started with this awesome green wool by Shibui color Kiwi.

 Next up is more lovely GREEN yarn I found at Yarnhouse Studio last week on a business trip to AL.  Is Madeline Tosh Pashmina - color Jade - as you can see the pull of the wool is very strong once fall hits.

I'm still in love with Rowan - I could NOT wait to get the new bi-annual Rowan 54 Magazine.  I had not purchased the big mags for several years.  I thought the designs were getting too trendy for me but their photography makes their books worth getting even if there are only a few designs which would work for me.  I am starting a Rowan KAL as soon as I have time to cast on something wonderful with this lovely fine tweed yarn.

 Speaking of fine - Here is a skein of Rowan Fine Art sock yarn - quite new to Rowan - they have never released a specific sock yarn before but of course I don't knit socks and plan to use this for another shawl or scarf.  the color is Kingfisher and is quite out of the box for me color wise but I think that bright blue will be toned down by the black and green which isn't real obvious in this crummy photo.

Last but not least is my Camp Loopy #3 project - FINISHED - the curse is broken and the 3rd time was a charm for me.  I finished all 3 of my CL projects this year.  This is Greta - a vest and while it isn't exactly what I envisioned it would be it will be wearable for me by pinning up the fly-away fronts.  This yarn is quite heavy and the weight of the fly-away fronts drag the whole front of the vest almost down to my knees - EGADS - that just didn't work but by pinning the fronts up and stablizing them - I think it will work for me.  I am still having tons of trouble with posting to my blog.  most of the time I just give up really frustrated that it is not working with ease the way it used to and I can't quite figure out why.

NO I have not quit stitching - I have just been tied up for 3 mos doing those camp loopy projects.  I am itching to stitch and I hope to have some stitchy things to show you next post.

I hope you are all enjoying the "call of fall" in your own special way.  Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for leaving your comments for me. 

AGGRAVATED IN AUGUST !

Well - I have been having trouble with making a blog post for about 2 weeks now - I just get no cursor and "error on page" - I have tried everything I knew to make this work - so here I am - end of another week and STILL trying to show my exciting rug finish !

I have written this post and deleted it so many times - I forgot my original train of thought - however before I get side tracked - I wanted to announce my BIG rug finish.  My scarecrow is finished.  My trouble with getting this post done previously was when I downloaded my photos and then tried to add my notes to each photo - I was unable to do so - so an apology now in case my photos are just all in a row with no remarks on each as is my particular preference when posting.

The other big finish I had the end of July was the Camp Loopy 2 project for July.  And So Are You a beautiful green shawlette using Swan Lake 100% organic merino fingering yarn.  It was fun to knit and I finished just under the wire on 7/30

I am already embroiled in my final camp project for this year.  Greta a vest - the challenge for August was to use any yarn any pattern but it had to be 800 yards or more - whew !  what a challenge for me to do an 800+ yard project in a month but I'm giving my all.  I am using a new to me yarn - Lornas Laces Haymarket which is a lovely 100% Blue Faced Leiceister yarn in a very dark navy,hunter green with tinges of deep burgandy/purple. 

I also wanted to give a plug for my EGA chapter's blog - http://duclayega.blogspot.com/    Please pop by and take a look at our lovely exhibit that is mounted now at the Orange Park library.  Member and friend Jackie did a great blog post on the exhibit and she also documented our recent "taste of " workshop which focused on wool applique.  I finished my project in this mini workshop and I will show a photo of that also.

Wish me luck on getting this thing posted - I would love to hear if any of you have had similiar issues with posting and can tell me how you resolved things.  Thanks as always for dropping by my blog and for leaving your comments. 

 WOW  - looks like I am actually successful this time in posting and going back and editing and commenting on my photos - YIPPEE !!!!!!!!!!  - so a word about my scarecrow - he has been a WIP and sometimes a UFO since 2007 - Now wait - I have to mention that with seasonal designs like this scarecrow - most years - he was only worked on for a month or two during the fall/pumpkin season and he was always taking a back seat to my beloved Merrie Halloween.  Once Merrie was finished - I started bringing him out more often.

 This rug is a commerical canvas by Bev Conway - 90% of the wool was dyed by Bev.  purchased during a weekend color workshop she did in St Augustine FL in 2007.  The brown in the fence is from my stash but I'm pretty positive it was dyed by Diane Stoffel. 

 I really really love how this rug came out - now the actual binding of the edges needs to occur.  That is definitely NOT the fun part.  I'm just happy to have a rug finish - YIPPEE!!!!!!!!  This is a fairly large rug - probably 30 x 24 and is hooked primarly in a 6 cut for any interested rug hookers out there.

 Here is my Camp Loopy 2 finish - I loved working with the Swan Lake merino fingering.  They use all natural dyes which is interesting and gives the yarn a subtle coloring.  this was a well written fun and easy but interesting pattern.  I would definitely make this one again.


Here is my first attempt at wool applique using a blanket stitch and Valdani perle - it's not perfect but it was SO much fun to do.  It fits my Dovo 6" scissors very nicely.  Everything was provided by our duClay EGA chapter to finish the project and for only $5 - what a deal !!!!!!  We are very proud of the "mini taste of " workshops our chapter has been able to provide to members and guests to introduce them to new techniques and adventures in needlework.     So friends - I am going to let this post stand as it and quit trying to clean things up - I am so scared I am going to lose what I have done and be back to square one.  I've been trying to make this happy post since July - it's not often that I have a rug finish and I have been anxious to share that news with my blog friends.  Hope you all have a great coming weekend ~ ~ ~

JOVIAL JULY

July is flashing by.  We had our annual vacation in the Smokie mountains early this year.  We usually go in September but this year we left the end of June and had about 10 days in the cool but WET Tenn. mountains.  Here is the view from our condo balcony where we spent a lot of time this year watching the rain clouds by pass.

Here is a photo of my sweet folks - standing amidst some beautiful flowers outside a cafe in the Old Mill area of Pigeon Forge.

Jody and I ate several time at Bullfish - it's a chain but still a nice restaurant and they had an outside patio which was nice when it wasn't raining.  That bull is huge.

My dad and Jody outside JT Hannah - apparently a chain that started in Knoxville - it was a fun place with lots of old signs and old things on display.

 Wiley (my dad) is a very prolific stitcher - much more so than I am.  Here is his almost completed Long Dog Sonne Spotte.  It is being worked on the sparkly belfast linen with the called for DMC.  It is just stunning in person.  I'm calling dibs on this one but we'll see if my mom wins out LOL.

 Here is a yarn shop I visited in Gatlinburg - it is called Smokey Mountain Spinnery and I didn't take any pictures inside the shop.  It was very crowded and the shop owner was a bit hovery.  She is mainly into spinning and weaving and I didn't buy much in her shop.  It's worth a visit if you ever go there.

 What I did get was this lovely yarn bowl which was made locally by the Smokey Mountain Pottery which is also in Gatlinburg.  Below it is my Camp Loopy 2 project which I was able to start on July 1st.  I'm sure I will be showing a better photo of it later this month since it has to be completed before July 31st.  WHEW - I better keep those needles clicking.

 As vacation tradition would have it - I almost always start a new stitching project on vacation.  This is Land of the Free.  It was a Sampler of the Month from the Attic Needlework last summer but I never was in the mood to start it.  See my cute little colonial people - I was happy to get this far along with it.  It's a fun design.

 It is always fun to visit a real cross stitch shop and there is a good shop about 10 min from our condo - Dixie Darlin has been around for a good many years.  Cindy the owner is now doing some designing.  Sadly she doesn't carry any silk threads or any repro samplers but she does carry a few things I like and a full collection of all 3 overdyers of cotton , WDW, GAST, CC so I was able to buy some threads.  She also has a nice selection of lower count linens and of course aida which pleases my mom.  Here is the newest PS Halloween chart and a piece of PTP mello linen.

 Here is a neat wooden piece that someone local makes for the shop.  It was a great price compared to other treenware I've seen online.  Hopefully this smaller PS chart will look good on this wooden piece.  She also has a ton of hand made by Betty things in her shop.  I think Betty's stuff has been expanded since I was there in September last year.  I did a good job restraining myself and only bought this little patriotic flag pin.  My mom bought a beautiful patriotic quilted table runner.  Too bad I didn't get a snap.

Well my friends - I hope July is really good for you.  I know there has been a ton of rain in a lot of areas.  Here too but it keeps us from having to run the sprinkler system and our yard looks the best it has looked in 5 years.  Hope you all have a jovial july !

WHALE WATCHING

A finish YEAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have mentioned previously that I am participating in the annual Camp Loopy event with The Loopy Ewe.  Each month in the summer - Sheri the owner gives us a different challenge and criteria  - For June I chose Blue Whale by Stephen West - I used a "new to me" yarn - Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in a beautiful colorway called Water Sprite.  Last night I finished with 5 days to spare.  YIPPEE!

Not a glamorous photo but shows the interesting shape of Blue Whale.  It was an enjoyable pattern to knit.  Easy but not boring.

You can see the colorway here a bit better - it has a seed stitch border around the whole edge of the shawl and the body is broken up into sections of stockinette, reverse stockinette and seed stitch.  The yarn was nice but in typical fashion - I wanted to move on in the Camp Loopy 2 challenge and try a yarn I have always wanted to try.

I'm  back to a typical "mel" color as my friends would say.  This is Swans Island 100% organic merino fingering.  Swans Island is in Maine - they have a very interesting story and concept - I would encourage you to read about their company.  This is early thyme and is a lovely bright crisp green.  The challenge on this CL project was that you choose a project that is "popular" on Ravelry - had to have at least 1000 projects or 1000 que'd projects and it also had to be a minimum of 500 yards.  I chose a Rose Beck pattern called And So Are You from her Roses are Red Violets are Blue series of shawls.  I can't wait to get started on this beauty.  I think a pattern like this needs a solid or semi solid yarn - not every pattern is suited to the beautiful overdyed yarns.

So last post I told you all about the wonderful workshop with Polly Minick - promised to show you one of the lovely kits I got from Polly.  Here is a minaturized version of her huge mermaid.  I love the canvas.

Here is a close up of the beautiful blues for the mermaid which just captured me from first glance.  I plan to make a few subtle changes but I'll let them be a surprise.  Who knows when I will ever get around to starting this sea creature but I have her stashed and that is most important.  I have another much bigger rug kit stashed from the workshop.  It is a much bigger sea creature therefore a much bigger canvas.  There is not a photo of it in the kit so I decided to make you wait a while longer to see that one.

Two posts in a week - what's the world coming to !  Just had to share my Whale with you and my excitement to have completed the first Camp Loopy with days to spare.  Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer so far.  June is drifting away - I might not be back to wish you all a Happy 4th of July - hope you have your patriotic stitching/hooking/knitting/quilting all lined up for the patriotic season. 

PERFECTLY POLLY

Can't believe that we had Polly Minick of MinickandSimpson fame for a workshop right in my little town of Orange Park last weekend.  WOW is all I can say - Polly was awesome - the workshop, trunk show and lecture was amazing.  I've had Polly before down in Sebring for a rug camp but this time she really went all out for Calico Station our LQS who put on the workshop.  Her sister Laurie shipped down quilt after gorgeous quilt, quilt kits and inspiration to last a lifetime.  Polly even took rugs off her walls and brought them.  They are a dynamic design team for Moda and there was even a co-worker of theirs from Moda in attendance at the lecture on Sunday.  I apologize but I think maybe her name was Cheryl and she was a designer herself when she was recruited to work for Moda.  Her colorful comments really added to the lecture and trunk show.  I think Polly said M&S had done 35 collections for Moda - can you believe ?? I just can't say enough about the wonderful works of fiber art these two sisters create.  I have some of their books but there is nothing like seeing those huge quilts in person - most of which have been hand pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted by Laurie.

I could gush on and on but I am going to get going with the photos because that's why you are all here right !

Here is a photo of Polly and I standing in front of a lovely shop quilt made from their wildly popular blue and white Indigo Crossing fabric collection.  There was tons of that stuff flying out the door that weekend.  I'm thankful I don't quilt - I was sorely tempted but resisted because the wool fumes were overwhelming and I was already drooling over the available wool kits.

Here is a rug I started with Polly prior to this workshop at another camp.  I was having a hard time jump starting my new project so I just kept hooking on this one.  I do love it so much - for anyone who wants to know - this rug is on the cover of the Americana Collection book.  A little later I will show the cover rug which lives on Polly's wall at home.

This was not a kit from Polly - however the majority of the wool is from Polly.  I added the yellow greens and did the backround in Polly's signature style of combining 3 similar backround wools together.  LOVE IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Here is my new endeavor - the Folk Art Star rug which appears in the Folk Art Friends book.  The stars in this version are all antique black - again in Polly's unsinkable style with 3 different wools in antique black blended to give a lovely patina.  There are 20 fair sized stars in the body - 4 smallers stars in each corner and I will use my favorite "colonial" type colors behind the stars and in the scrappy border.  It is quite a large rug - roughly 2' X 4' I would say and you may see it finished in the next decade but who cares - I love it and it will be a blast to hook.

In the backround is Polly's gameboard rug next to DF Karen who has head down and is working away.  Over to the left is DF Donna who was working on Polly's amazing Lady Liberty rug - can't believe I failed to get a photo of Donna's beautiful Semper Fi flag she finished on Memorial Day weekend.

 Here is Polly's Uncle Sam's hat rug which is mounted for hanging.  Same size as mine - slightly different coloration - so beautiful !!

 OMGosh - can you believe how gorgeous this quilt is.  I'm not sure what book it was from - DF Karen is assisting in the trunk show presentation.

 I "think" Polly said this quilt didn't make the book but a beauty indeed.

 I think this is from the newest book Quilts and Rugs by Quiltmania - I think it was called Snow Days.

 Another of Polly's amazing rugs mounted for hanging in her home.  I'm pretty sure this is from the Americana book.

 Don't remember too much about this quilt - but another signature blue and white beauty.

 Probably my favorite quilt in the show - Spirit of Sacajawea - Stunning is an understatement to be sure.  All that applique - apparently some shops have offered as a block of the month. 

I can't remember if this was from the American Summer book but I think so.  I think Polly said this quilt and a rug was going to a new home in Australia.  So yes - Polly does sell her rugs in galleries and she has collectors of her work all over the world as does Laurie.  So if you see something you can't live without - give them a shout and see what work of art can come to live at your house.

This is the wonderful vintage bicycle rug from the American Summer book.  Don't you love the streamers from the handlebars - that brings back memories doesn't it !

Another exquisitely appliqued quilt - not sure of the book but the colors look like Spirit of Sacajawea - pardon me on any of these if I am wrong.

 The really unique muted flag - again mounted to be hung in Polly's home

 LOVE LOVE this one - if Polly had brought this kit it would have come home with me.  Let's don't talk about the TWO kits that *DID* come home with me - they are even more my style - a hint - nautical/sea creatures - some of my favorite subjects to hook.

Another great Christmas themed rug - Behind the pillow is Pam one of the owners of Calico and seated beside her is Martha - Their shop has been in business for 30 years and is a great shop -  Even though I don't quilt I go to their once a month Friday night "dinner with Vern" event ( Vern is the shop cat) 

All the rug hookers who attended felt very welcome at Calico and we really appreciate their generosity in opening their shop to Polly and her band of groupies.

I had a bunch more photos that just didn't come out because I was jiggling too much or someone stepped in front of the shot.  The workshop was so inspiring - Polly is an amazing folk artist who has coined a look that is sought after and collected by both rug hookers and fans of fiber art.  Her work has graced many magazines, galleries, art shows and we were just overwhelmed by her wit and wisdom in regards to her storied career that spans 30 + years and over 400 rugs.  If you ever get a chance to meet or take a workshop with either or both of the dream team of Polly and Laurie - don't pass it by - it will be an experience you will remember always.  Cheers !