THE GIFT OF FRIENDS.

Not only am I blessed with many friends, but all my friends are gifted in some way. 

And certainly they are gifts to me.

Today we had another small meeting of the Wooly Bullies (my rug hooking group) at K's house.  We had several members who couldn't come and they were much missed, but we had a great time as usual.  Here are the pictures to prove it.

BASED ON AN OLD PEARL MCGOWN PATTERN. Please respect copyright law and do not re-pin or re-post.

This is Cynthia's current rug-in-progress.  The last time I saw this rug was about 5-7 years ago; Cynthia thinks she began it about 15 years ago and then put it aside to work on her very large Kokopelli Rug, which is now finished.  I highlighted that rug in my last blog post on the Bullies.  Because she had put it away to work on Kokopelli, Cynthia hadn't seen this floral rug herself for a few years--now she has fallen in love with it again and is thrilled to be so close to finishing.  She did all the dyeing for this rug.  The background is a wonderful onion skin dye.  (This made me want to delve back into onion skin dyeing myself--I so love her background) 

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In the "How-adorable-is-this?" category, the winner today was Maria's small bunny-board, above.   This is probably less than 12" long from head to toe.

I mean, seriously, people--doesn't this have "THINK SPRING!" written all over it?  Here is the back of the piece, in case you have never seen a rug-on-a-board before (really, a "ruglet-on-a-board").

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Cheryl just completed binding her Parrot Tulip chairpad, another Pearl McGown design.  She was working on this in February when we last met, and you can see the progress she has made since then.  I love these colors!

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Kathleen is nearly finished with the interior of her fabulous fish rug, titled "The Last Cod."  You can see the small unhooked area at the very top.  She will then have to decide what to do for a border and was taking suggestions today.  (The Wooly Bullies are never bashful about giving suggestions!)  This is an amazing rug, very large and complex.  And a sobering theme.  Designed by Kathleen, with most of the wool hand-dyed by her--a few pieces were dyed by Michele Micarelli as well.  I have watermarked this picture because it's Kathleen's original work, all of it, and I don't want to take any chances (she has given me permission to post it).

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And last but by no means least, Maria was working on finishing the background for her stunning apple tree rug.  Whose pattern is this, I wonder?   Another McGown?  Someone else?

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I am working on my red & black scrappy rug and did not take a photo of it.  But you can see it here in recent previous blog posts, as well as the punched rug I am working on (see a photo of that in progress in yesterday's post).

Kathleen made a delicious soup, Cheryl brought cupcakes, and I brought two types of cheese (one was a really unusual honey-lavender goat cheese) and crackers from the local gourmet cheese place, so we certainly didn't starve as we worked.

We worried about, and missed, members who couldn't come today and hope all is well.  I spent quite some time just listening quietly and thinking about how fond I am of all the women in this group, and how lucky I am to have you in my life.  You each inspire me in different ways.

As the saying goes, "Good friends are like stars; you don't always see them, but you know they are there." 

Thank you for being there.  All of you.