It seems Spring is scarce as hen's teeth around here.  It comes and then goes just as quickly.  Fortunately last Saturday we had one glorious spring day, coinciding with our rug hooking meeting in Connecticut at Ann's farmhouse.  The weather and sun smiled upon us; all of us were able to attend, and we had a blast. 

I have only a few pictures (since many of us have been working on the same projects for quite a long time) but they'll be worth seeing.

Well, of course--those of you who've been reading the rug hooking category of this blog will recognize Cheryl the Rug Rescuer's name and title.  Yes, this is ANOTHER rug rescue by our intrepid colleague.  I believe the designer's name is Denise Mitchell...see this close-up below:

Apparently Denise (if I have her name correct) was a rug hooking teacher who died recently.  Before her death she designed and hooked most of this rug, but was unable to finish it.  Another rug hooker who didn't feel able to tackle the job approached Cheryl, asking her to do complete it, and gave her the remaining wool for the rug.  Cheryl accepted the challenge and is basically done with the hooking now.  Someone else will take care of the binding, and then the rug will go to the woman who asked Cheryl to finish it.  Denise, wherever she's currently existing, would be proud to see her rug completed.  A better photo is below.

Elizabeth was punching away on this beauty:

And Kathleen had brought along this pattern to work on for the day (K is in the middle of two other very complicated gorgeous rugs, too large to carry around):

That's it for the rug photos, but wait until you see what is coming next.  Ann, our hostess, brought out a hand-embroidered tablecloth that had us all drooling down our shirts.  One of her relatives (grandmother?  uh-oh, I can't remember) had begun this, and I think Ann prevailed upon an aunt to complete it.  It is just stunning.  I took lots of photos.  Here it is:

Here are more photos of various motifs, and some close-ups.  What a labor of love.

You may be wondering (but you probably aren't!!!), "Where's your rug?"  My rug is so close to done that I've decided to wait until it is done to show the photo.  Since I am moving at a snail's pace--too busy to work on it much--that could be another month, but I hope not.  I'll try to get it done and on here sooner.

Instead, since Ann had been asking me about punchneedle, I did bring my latest punchneedle project.  I finished it this morning.  Still debating how to frame it.  Below you can see the original tee-shirt I've had for at least ten years, if not more, with this design on the front.  And next to it, my punchneedle version.  The tee-shirt is fading, and I've loved this redwing blackbird image for so long that I cannot bear to lose it, so I wanted to immortalize it in punchneedle.

The one problem:  I cannot find any contact information for the original artist, Rob McClellan.  I believe I've traced him to Ohio, and have even found a gallery there that sells some of his work.  But the most recent work they have is decades old.  I wrote to the gallery to see if they could help me locate him, but they wrote back to say they have no idea how to do that.  If anyone--anyone!--knows how to locate him (I suspect he may be long dead--I've found some photos of someone with that name on the internet but they too are decades old), PLEASE let me know.  Clearly I did this for myself only and will not be selling or profiting in any way from the piece, but I would love to find him and thank him and credit him even more than I can by doing this.

I know we've had winter this late before.  Four years ago to the day, in fact, I'm pretty certain we also had snow.  Today we had snow plus drizzle ("snizzle," says our local forecaster), plus now rain.  It's grim out there, and of course, in Boston, the Marathon goes on.  Admiration for those runners! 

Much as I dislike heat, I'm ready for spring and even--gulp--summer.

Spent part of the morning coloring this tile.  It has a story attached (see below).

So here's the story.  A few days ago, Cris Strovilas Letourneau--a CZT and author I admire--found out that while she & daughter Alexa were visiting her sister for an overnight, their house burned to the ground.  Unfortunately, their husband/father was inside and didn't make it out.  He died in the fire.  I cannot imagine the grief and shock and loss. 

To make bad matters even worse, it now appears the fire was started by a burglar who was in the house.  Of course, HE got out just fine.

There's a GoFundMe page set up and I've contributed, but I've been feeling so badly for Cris and Alexa.  Other than sending prayers, there's not much I can do (I don't know her, have just met her once), and then Sonya Yencer, another CZT, created a tangle named SoulStar with Cris and Alexa and Cris's husband in mind.  So last night and this morning I did the tile above.

While working on the tile, it came to me that the front "star" (lower right) is for Cris, the star tucked behind that one is for Alexa, and the "lead star" that appears to be a comet in the upper right is her husband, on his way through transition, leaving that golden trail behind as he sets out on his journey.  The fact that his circle is smaller seemed to me to be about the fact that he's given up a physical life and is now on his way in soul-form.

My heart goes out to them each day.  May their loss lessen, even though I know it will never go away, and may he travel safely into the Light.

"Body at rest, spirit free."

 This is the reason I have not been getting any tangling done at all.  It's a punchneedle embroidery, and measures about 9 & 3/4" square.  I have always loved doing this type of embroidery and have Linda Repasky to thank for teaching me; she was kind enough to show me how to punch while we were having breakfast near the Shelburne Museum, probably about 15 years ago.  I've been doing this form of needlework ever since.

I spotted the pattern for this piece at The Old Tattered Flag a couple of years ago and knew immediately that I wanted to make it.  Julie, the designer, is just great.  I also recommend the spinner frame she uses and sells.

Below are photos of the piece in progress.  I began punching the coverlet about 3 weeks ago, with plenty of days where little or nothing got done because of other commitments.  It was such fun to make.

A lovely ride with new friends this morning to a rug hooking event at a church about an hour away.  Very well organized, and 165 people in attendance.  I only photographed a few rugs, but aren't these wonderful?

Good people, good food, good vendors.  What's not to love?  I even won a prize, and I never win stuff at these events.  All in all a very satisfying day.  We started out early in very cold weather and saw plenty of snow on the ground and gorgeous snow-laden trees.  Driving home, all the snow was gone.  Spring is on the way...if we can only hold out long enough!