What our Sisterhood of the Traveling Goat is up to

Great job on your penny rug Fiona! I have enjoyed seeing your progress on your first rug.

Don't you just love the little lady bug? Thanks for sharing your progress Fiona. I can hardly wait to see what you do with your goat!

Here is Sue with her down under traveling goat. Udderly charming Sue, love it!

Thanks for sharing ladies. Very clever indeed! I hope you are enjoying the traveling show. Have a great day, Elaine

                                                                                          

Lets all play!

Can I play too. This sounds like fun. Maybe we could each start one and then it could go to everyone and then return to its "mommy" for safe keeping. Just a thought.


thanks

beebee
 
What a brilliant idea! I sent my goat off to Debbie this morning, she is going to be "tied up" later in the week so we wanted to get moving on it. Why don't you send me your goat and I'll do some embellishment on it and pass it off to someone else. I think this could be lots of fun, eh? Perhaps we could get 3-5 people to do something fun before it comes home to "mommy". Ladies....any potential goat embellishers out there? Don't be shy now!

This was my goat rug I did several years ago. Now, I ask, do you REALLY think he looks like a rabbit? Fine, but do bunnies have an udder? Thought so! This is just an idea that I had for him. I'm sure ya'll can come up with something much more imaginative. Reach inside yourself and grab that Martha Stewart and drag her out to play...

And as far as I am concerned, I am happy to post overseas. It really doesn't take all that long you know. It actually gets there before mail to Canada does...go figure!

I'm thinking this is the month of the goat...

                                                                                  

Something a bit different

I'm still looking at my wall hanging and thinking on it. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Debbie made the cutest little silver tray mat, check it out! I have been having a blast playing around in my sewing room, arranging my things...ok, fine, trying to trudge thru my mess, is more like it! I put my sewing machine back in there, out of the living room and peeking at my little mat...real soon...., real soon.

Debbie, Fiona , Kim and I are encouraging each other to work on our projects. I think it's so interesting that we have all met and are interested in the same thing. Debbie said that she enjoys the primitiveness of them. I guess I always thought of them as being American Folk Art. I wonder, Fiona, what do you liken them to? Debbie is awaiting a new project and I hope she likes this one!

So here's the deal Debbie: I am going to suggest a goat, because I love goats. Now, you Debbie, yes you, get to do something with it. Then after getting extremely creative and artsy....you can pass on the  next step to whomever wants to join along.

It does look a bit like an inebriated Kangaroo, eh? Well, just pretend it's really a goat. So, what do you think? Maybe you want the goat to pull a cart, or stand in  a flower patch? Or maybe be in the middle of pumpkins?  After you decide on one element, then you get to pass the torch to someone else. Then they get to add their element to it. Kind of a round robin of sorts. Are you interested?  If you want to join in, send a comment. Oh, and feel free to copy the goat. Who's next?                                                                                       

French knots are so much fun!

I used Valdani overdyed threads, perle cotton #8, and stitched a few French knots on my stitchery. I didn't want to overdo it, so stopped with a small grouping. Then I went a little different, shall we say, on some "x's" and blanket stitches. When I removed the staples, some of the wool was kind of mooshed down, so I ran my fingernail over it to make it stand up.

                                                                                                                                                            

I think I am going to put it up on my wall for a few days and just look at it. There is more to do but now I just want to think on it and see how crazy I can get! Have you ladies been stitching? Fiona is doing so well on hers, here is a little peek, isn't she doing great?

                                                                               

Anyone else have a pic to share or at least one I can steal from your blog...not really, just checking to see if you're really reading it! I'm going to go hang up my piece and stare at it. Maybe some cheap red wine would help my perspective...later~~               

I nearly forgot to mention my deal of the month...yard sales are fun, but a yard sale 2,400 miles long?
So we only made 3 stops. The first one, I picked up a goat cart

                                                                               It has some slats replaced with new wood and the hubs had to do some repairs on it, but hey, I love it...it is now home in my livingroom, screaming for a teddy bear. $10.

                                                                                                          The next goody is a 12 block sunbonnet sue quilt. The lady said it was very dirty, from hanging in her living room for years, in a hanger in a corner. I also found out that the quilt was made here, in Van Zandt county Texas several years ago. I hung it on my clothesline for a pic and also snapped the back. Did you ever wonder what would happen, if you didn't quilt 4-6 inches apart?

                                        This is the cotton batting shifted. No holes or tears in this quilt. I want to take it apart, remove the cotton clots and re-do it. On my bucket list. $5.00, if I promised to give it a good home, yep, I will.

                                                                            A celery Singer Featherweight, from @1963-64. The belt was missing, but the nice man popped a wide rubber band on. OMG IT WORKED! The machine did too. We also discovered that the motor housing has a crack in it. But, the baby works. Hubs has self taught himself to FW CPR and has her cleaned, oiled and has discovered that he doesn't think she was ever used! Seriously, took her all apart and she is clean as a whistle. Runs like a 14 year old track star! I am not sure what to do with her yet. She is soooooo sweet.

That's it for my yard sale finds. Anyone else hit it luckier then most this past weekend?      

My progress

I am using Valdani perle cotton...don't you love the red?

Now I am just getting plain goofy with my stitches, and love it. I like to try different colors and textures. I also enjoy doing the plain stitches, like fill ins. See that little red moon on the right? Enlarge the pic and check out what I did on it using the red perle cotton. I see I still have room for some beads or maybe French knots...omg, I love doing those. I taught myself how to do them and enjoy the added dimension you get when you use them.

So how is your stitchery doing? I am looking for the appropriate hanging "item" to use to hang in my sewing room. How are you going to display yours?

                                                                        

How is your stitchery/penny rug/or? coming along?

Due to circumstances, beyond my control, I'll be back tomorrow. Back to it, cheers~~

                                                                                   

Starting to stitch

My new friend, Fiona, from Oz , has sent me a pic of the fabulous rose...very chic! I do love it girl, thank you so much for sharing.        

In the meantime,                                             

I grabbed some different fabrics, laces, ribbons, and ...nah, nothing really grabbed my attention.
                                                                   



              
                

Much better, threads and maybe buttons. I think I'll start the stitching. Then, think about buttons.

How is your design going? Are you going to use embroidery floss or perle cottons? No pic of my embroidery skills...yet. As soon as I find where the hubs hid the battery charger for the camera, well, you know. Later, moi

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Penny rug sew along, choosing the design

 I found a piece of felt to use for my rug. Since it's already been hacked into, I'll just cut a chunk off.

No measuring, just fold over and cut off the offending chunk!

I had a bag of scraps and dumped them out and started looking thru them, trying to find something that jumped out at me. My pennys are stapled and waiting for the rest of the rug to come together.

I tried some little pieces out, shaping a flower, nahhh...I don't think so.

This is kinda weird...I like it, but it needs some punch.

So far I like the colors and shapes. I'll grab the stapler and staple each piece to the background first. I can't wait to start the embellishing! How are your rugs coming along? Have you chosen traditional shapes or have you indulged into something fun and funky? I can't wait to see what you guys have come up with. I have some fun threads, buttons and beads and ribbons to add.

Come back tomorrow to see what's next...                                                                                                                                                                                         

penny rug sew along

I'm not sure how to re-post this , so if you go there, you can see how I cut my shapes out and used the stamp pad and butcher paper.

Tomorrow we are going to do the embroidery and attach the embellishments...wahoo!

How are your designs?

I had a question on "why are they called penny rugs", and found this from a post I did some time ago. I hope this answers your questions. The pen wipers are fun too.

There are several references, with pics, on my blog from previous posts, if you want to check them out, go to the search box and type in PENNY RUGS, have some tea and chocolate handy, I am rather chatty.

I am going to wait until tomorrow to post the next step, I had issues today and need to clean up that mess. Let's just say it may take more then 1 roll of paper towels, good quality furniture polish and my paper scissors.

Pop in tomorrow with your felt, butcher paper, stapler and scissors. Now would be a good time to check out your button box for some fun buttons, odd pieces of ribbon and jewelry, those little weird things you just couldn't throw away....Debbie, you keep crossing my mind, lol! Hmm, weird.

I received this in an email and smile every time I see it...thought I better share with ya'll, Elaine                                                                                

First things first

                                    

Is everyone ready to make a penny rug? Good. The first thing you want to do is determine what you want and how big you want it, so now grab your sketching paper and start doodling. This is something you want to be able to finish in a short period of time, so don't get too involved with the design...save that for wool! Working with felt wool is an old American folk art, not perfect, not real detailed.....but recognizable and fun!

I made this penny rug a few years ago and think my sister in law has it. She loves these things.

I am not a sketcher nor a planner, I just plunder along, hoping it turns out ok.

Pop out to your kitchen and find a platter, plate or serving bowl.  This little rug is the same dimensions of this cute little Corelle platter I used to own.

I traced around the platter, face down, on butcher paper, and cut it out on the lines. Lay the pattern aside and go on a cookie cutter hunt. (You quilt, therefore you eat and you probably have some stuck away somewhere. I found so many that I cannot freely admit how many I have, the HOARDER connection, lol.)

I actually had the cat and the moon cutters. The pumpkins and stems are just scrappy little pieces I free cut. If you don't have those, don't get too worried. You can get lots of free shapes  on the web, in kids coloring books...lots of places. Leaves, acorns, crows, squash, corn, etc.

If you're using the cookie cutters, just set them on the pattern you cut earlier, to see how it looks together. If  you're using something else, then trace them on butcher paper, cut them out and place on the pattern.

When you're happy with how everything fits together, take a digital pic, for yourself. Don't be afraid to change it up or scrap it and start over.

Play around with this tonight and do go online to etsy or ebay and check out penny rugs. Since you are a budding artist and wouldn't dream of copying any of the work displayed, do check it out to see how others do their penny rugs, mug mats and/or candle mats. And if you truly want inspiration, you have GOT to see what this lady can do! A wool Goddess, that Sue Spargo!

I want you to also check out your cupboards and bathroom for circles. I used a shot glass for the pink pennys!

Get your butcher paper ready and if you have a very inexpensive stamp pad, any color will do, along with a stapler....now, if you have any questions, please, please ask! Do you want to get to it tomorrow or wait a few days? Let me know your consensus...

Working with wool

If you have never worked with wool, do give it a try.  You really can't hurt it. I have been buying woolens for several years and felting them at home. I would only buy 100% wools and some mixed fibers, if they were the right colors! I could buy wool off the bolt...but how often do you see "that" orange or green? I really love the tweeds, plaids and nubby textures some of the woolens have.

So this is how I have amassed the tonnage of woolens. IF YOU ARE MS.LOTTIE, STOP READING NOW!! I buy the wool blankets, coats, skirts, etc. that I usually pick up for $2. or less and cut them up! Remove all the buttons~~~fodder for the button jar~~take the clothing apart at the seams and remove as much as the facing as you can. Now wash the pieces in very hot water with detergent (I use my homemade laundry soap), rinse in cold water. Then dry in a hot dryer. You will need to clean the lint trap often. Now if you're weird like me, you'll save that wooly lint for your next pin cushion!

I use a steam iron and press the wool very well. Pour on the water, and if you find a piece of wool that doesn't hold up to this process, toss it! Not worth keeping, it's best to just use the better pieces.

I'm sure everyone has their own way of creating their own woolens for felted wool applique, this is just mine. I have talked about this before but some of you are new. Don't be afraid to experiment.

I have tried to add pics tonight but blogger is acting like my ex-husband, AGAIN! Take my word for it, they are very professional pics, tasteful, perfect lighting.....losing you, aren't I?

So today I have found some pale cantalope ovals...perfect for a fall rug! I am adding one of these to the circles...who knows what I will add to the booty tomorrow. Off to my baby boys for his birthday celebration....will be an all day affair. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes...kind of a celebration of his birth. I can't wait...this is the earthdaddy.

Now, if I can figure out what blogger is doing with the pics and adding them! I have tried to add some pics to no avail...so sorry.

In the meantime, I have had a few inquiries into the scraps I am knee deep in. If you would like some of the funky scraps, I would be happy to send some to you for the postage only. The flat rate envelopes are $4.90 and I can stuff alot in them! Let me know and I'll start stuffing some of them for you quilters. For overseas, if you want to pay the postage, I would be happy to send some to you as well. Just let me know how much postage you want to pay and I can prepare some scraps to equal that amount.

If you're new, please go to the 200th post giveaway, to enter for the circles, etc. Thank you and good evening, Elaine
                                                                           

Penny Rug Tutorial

On to the pennies for a penny rug. I am not an expert nor do I profess to know everything about wool applique. The tutorial is for those of you that have avoided felted wool applique thinking it too hard or tedious. The opinions here are simply my perspective. (always find the laziest girl you know to find the easy way out, lol). I don't like tracing around round objects...always manage to get the lines off a bit. So I tried running a circular object on the ink pad and stamping on the wool. Huge disaster, ink runs with steam, a duhhhhhhh moment.




Hmm, how about stamping the object, stamping on the freezer paper dull side and ironing on to the wool.



OMG, it works! Ta dahhhhhh!!!
I started searching around the kitchen, bathroom and "junk" drawer and found lots of goodies. I used a shot glass, rocks glass, lid for a pill bottle, etc. I have been known to hit the thrift store for the "right" circular object. I use cookie cutters too. Just remember if you use those, turn them over and use the non-sharp side as it will give a better line to see.




The freezer paper also has advantages of being used more then a few times. I have also found that the circular object, when inked up, will stamp from 2-5 times between stamping. Very cool!







I Cut the circles out and staple them in place ready for embroidery. I hope this makes your life easier and encourages you to give felted wool applique a try. I enjoy it and welcome any and all questions.