First Day in a New Month

Hard to believe it is August 1st already.  I'm looking forward to more cooler temps like we had a day or so ago.  Then the leaves will be changing and before you know it Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here.  Yeah, hard to believe when we have heat and humidity outside and grass growing like weeds.

As a member of Yahoo Rughookers group we sometimes have challenges or swaps that you may participate in if you wish.  We did the four seasons of Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring  once (at my age the thought of the Princess by that name on the Kukla Fran and Ollie show came to mind..... sorry for the flashback.

Anyway, my partner sent me her lovely hooked 8" mat of a turning fall leaf.

And my fall swap to her was a Lori Brechlin design from one of Lori's booklets.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get lucky and find a suitable field grown red, ripe, juicy tomato.  So far this year I've been very disappointed in every tomato I've purchased from the local farmer's markets.  I heard the season started too late with cooler temps when it is normally warmer.  Then later I find out they were either shipped in from NC, or maybe they were hot house tomatoes, I've even asked the vendors if the tomatoes had been refrigerated before I buy because that also changes the texture and flavor of a tomato. 

So several times this summer I've paid $4.50 per quart which has maybe 5 tomatoes in it.  After cutting into one after the other if they are mealy or tasteless I end up cooking them down and freezing for spaghetti or soup.  Let me tell you I can buy a can of tomatoes for 59 cents in a store locally and that is an expensive 2 cans of tomatoes I just cooked down. 

Anyway, here's hoping I can find some GOOD field garden tomatoes tomorrow.  Have a great evening everyone.

Saundra

Back to Sincerely Jane

It's that time to post an updated picture of our Sincerely Jane Challenge rugs on Rughookers Yahoo group so yanked my out to work on a couple trials in the border.  One of the gals has completed her huge rug already.  I drew mine with fewer squares and I'm glad because this size suits me much better, plus I can work on other hooking projects  also.  Here is what mine looks like now.

My plans were to just have one row of the light hooked around the border but might try another row to see if it pulls the rug together better.  The challenge ends in April 2012 so there is plenty of time for me to work on other projects and still get this one done in time. 

For those of you who did not read my previous post a few months ago, the Sincerely Jane challenge was a result of someone posting a picture of a quilt made based on the one made by Jane Stickle in 1863.  Brenda Papadakis kept a record of her journey making a quilt and developing the patterns for the quilt.  The book was aptly named   "Dear Jane" and since the book is copyrighted we could not name our challenge the same so call it Sincerely Jane. 

Also on Yahoo Rughookers group I've joined the Sensational Seasonal Swap and have started working on that one since we have to ship to our swap mate no later than the middle of November.  It is not necessary to commit to hooking all four seasons but think that I'd like to do that since the size is only 8" x 8" square.  We are to work on the winter season for this first swap and the next would be a spring theme.  The designs can be anything we choose and we know our swap mate's names so have an opportunity to get to know them during the process as we e-mail back and forth.

The dimensions are required to be an exact 8x8 in case a recipient of all 4 mats would like to attach them four in a row or two on top and two on the bottom.  So we don't have to bind but rather have an 1" excess which we turn under and base.  That way the recipient can decide if they want to bind them individually or as I described earlier.  And our swap mates will change with each season just in case someone decides to not continue with the next seasonal swap.  But I'm in for all 4 seasons.