The Amazing Crow! and Woolpets

Last week my Daughter and I went over to Seattle to a gallery where she had been showing some of her art. She does amazing things with wool roving and needles. She and her husband , the photographer , are just finishing their third book on various aspects of needle felting with an emphasis on needle felting birds. We had a great day which included finding a great shop that had fabric but lots of other good stuff. The store even had a ribbon room. Well, while getting some of her things this wonderful crow fell out of the package. As I have said on this blog, I love Halloween!!!! I took one look at the crow and fell in love!! She said I could have it but it represents lots of work and money so I said she should think about it. I didn't say any more. Last night they came over for dinner and there was the crow. I just love him. As fall progresses, you will be seeing lots more of her work!! The business is called "Woolpets" Our son-in-law is the business manager and photographer , while our daughter is the artist. At the present she is spending lots of time working on illustrations for children's books. She is great and we know she will be successful!!!! Along with Mr. Crow, I'll show some of her first two books.

Here's Mr. Crow! I'm not sure where he will end up but for sure, he'll be in my Halloween collection. The candle lantern is from Michael's, an idea from the blog "Octoberfarm."

Here is the first book my daughter and son-in-law wrote and photographed.

This is a gallery of projects from the first book.

Here's book number two. Lot's of great projects.

Here's the gallery of projects for book 2.

This is Laurie's," About the author," in the first book.

This is the blurb on the back of the second book.

We are so proud of them both. If you are kind enough to keep following this blog, you'll see more Woolpets as I decorate for fall and winter.

Fall Projects and a finish," Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow"

For the first time this summer, it feels like summer!!! We are going to have a week of days in the 80's. I prefer the 70's but many people do welcome a bit warmer temps. It's harder to get in the fall grove but I'm still in the mood! I'm working on the runner. Last night I actually got the strips sewn together. As I mentioned before , I used big squares so I could enjoy the Halloween fabric. Not much happened over the week-end. I did go with the SBA to see "Rise of the Planets of the Apes. " He loved it!! As for me, well..........

Here are the strips before I joined them together.

The vintage kids and witches became my main fabric . I did 8 of these. the other 16 were colors and designs that I thought supported the main design.

Well here it is finally done. Actually , I think I finished it late last winter. My design is very different from the main pattern. This will better fit in the space I have planned for the design. I am having a frame made at "Valley House Primitives." Those folks do wonderful frames!!!

The first three I chose introduce the fall. I plan to keep this up from Sept. through Nov.

Love the scarecrow and pumpkins.

This one reminds me of Kentucky, the place we lived before moving out to the Pacific NW.

The next three are about my favorite holiday and of course, I had to do the witch!!

Owls and spiders are sort of Halloween! Plus the colors in this were just beautiful!

Spooky!

This transitions from Halloween to Nov. and Thanksgiving.

Love the big turkey!

Finally we are at the end. I stitched this on 32 ct. linen antique ivory. I used the suggested colors on the pattern. The pattern was by Carriage House Samplings.
Thanks for taking a look at my efforts to get fall here!

The Ranger Cross Stitch

I haven't posted any cross stitch for quite awhile because I've been busy working on this Ranger cross stitch for my son. I was trying to find a good Father's Day gift and found this site that had military cross stitch patterns. The site is called Military X-Stitch.com. Becoming an Army Ranger was one of the most important achievements of his life. The SBA and I were very proud of him. The pictures of the Ranger graduation are from the late 90's. I will be adding his name and the date of the graduation to this cross stitch.

This took about 6 weeks. Now I know why I will never do needlepoint!!! I don't like all the filling. But well worth doing for him. We will be matting and framing it for his special room. He has other ranger memorabilia in this room. Sorry for the wrinkles!

We arrive at Fort Benning , home of the Ranger school.

This is the Ranger Memorial. It is very beautiful and a fitting tribute to many very brave men.

The Ranger Creed is part of the memorial. Rangers have been protecting our country since the American Revolution.

One of the many demonstrations that were part of the Graduation program.

These soldiers do amazing things.

Can you believe this?

The SBA got the honor of pinning on the Ranger tab.

A very proud moment.

This is one of my all time favorite photos of our son!

Graduation is over and Jeff is heading back to his responsibilities at 1st Battalion.

It's almost 16 years later and Jeff is being promoted to Major in the Army.

This is his great family, our wonderful daughter-in-law and adorable Grandson! We are still very proud of Jeff .

A Morning Walk In Poulsbo

Two days ago we went for a morning walk in Poulsbo. If you walk up the hill from the downtown, there is a street that runs along the water. We like to walk along this street. There are some pretty homes with great views.

This little bench was in front of a garage!

These are two small homes with super views!

I wouldn't call this a small house!

This wonderful Virginia Creeper has totally covered this fence. Great fall color!

I like this little old house. It looks like it may have new siding but the house is fairly old.

This door is full of Norwegian carvings.

This street faces Liberty Bay , a part of Puget sound. All of the homes have this view.

The Poulsbo yacht club.

This is my very favorite house!!!!! Looks like it could be on Nantucket.

Probably my second favorite house on this street. The SBA and I watched it being built.

This little park was our destination.

Yes, there really was an oyster plant on this site.

There are several purple martin houses on the water. Notice the babies!

Thanks for taking a tour of this little town with me.

Halloween fabric and a new project!

Well the first picture is a sure sign that fall is on its way!!! That means Halloween can't be far off. We have lots of very interesting spiders and webs in the fall. I love the foggy mornings when mist clings to the webs and you can see how they are constructed. This poor spider tried making a web across our doors that lead to the deck we use everyday. That was the end of his web,but not the end of my fall/Halloween mood! Now for several years, I have been collecting Halloween fabric with no project in mind. I just love the way they look. Well, I decided it was time to put some of the fabric to good use. I have used a small quilt across the island in our kitchen and thought that would be a good spot to put a Halloween runner. The first job was to wash and iron all the possible fabrics I might use. I did that and after all that ironing decided to wait till the next day to choose my fabrics for the runner. We did determine that an 8 by 3 runner would work if I used 8 inch squares. That size square would show off the fabrics.

Here's Mr. Spider!

This photo is way too dark but you get the idea. This will be what I use to make slip covers for my wicker chairs on the front porch. It's not really Halloween but I use them from Sept. to Nov.

Here are the possible choices.

I love witches and love this one!

What to choose!!!

Here is the island I will cover with the Halloween runner.

I love the look of white pumpkins. I always get a few real ones that I use outside.

I found these at Tues. Morning. They'll be great on my tree!

Thanks to anyone who has taken time to read my blog!