Last Day of the Year

This morning I decided to use up some Cushing dyes and dyed some rather dull medium blue wool. I threw in some American Beauty and Violet. Here's a pic of the results - nothing outstanding but definitely better than the original. I'll be able to use this wool for the punch needle rughooking workshop on the 7th with Amy Oxford. She's going to teach my rug hooking group punch needle with everything from rug wool to wool strips to exotic yarns. What a great way to start the new year!
I also did another little embroidery punch needle. This one's done with 2 strands DMC cotton embroidery floss. I like the colors and the cotton flows more smoothly than the linen strands. Oh, I did rip out that ugly background from the first project.

Something New

The other day I decided to try some punch needle embroidery (also called Russian punch needle embroidery or Igolochkoy ). Last year I found a set of needles at a yard sale. This is done with 2 strands DMC linen embroidery floss. It's about 1.5 by 3 inches. The colors are brighter than in the photo but I don't really like the background color. This is a practice piece so I'll leave it be. A nicer needle would be worthwhile and then the pile could be shorter. I'll have to practice alot more. A woman I rug hook with does unbelievably beautiful pn embroidery.
I'm still working on the second Johnny Cash rug and will post an update soon. I changed the blue and green stripes stool to vines and flowers. And I decided to start it over. I purchased a different type of linen to try out and found I really dislike working with it. I keep avoiding working on this piece because of the linen so it looks like it's time to go back to my preferred linens.

Almost Blue

Came home from work today, saw the light flashing on my answering machine, and learned that the indigo class was cancelled due to low enrollment. How disappointing! Jenny, I guess I will have to take you up on your offer to visit Missouri to do some indigo dying!