Painting, dyeing, etc....

These past few days have been full.  Want to start by showing you a little lapel pin I made.  I based it on an applique pattern I saw in a Maggie Bonanomi book, adapting it to make a lightly stuffed pin.

I pinned it on this denim shirt to give you an idea of how he looks ...

I've been hooking, too, and finally finished a rug (I don't know what to call it but it's a woman watering her cats) that I've been working on for about a year at least.  Now I can start hooking something new!  Also, thrown in there, I've been painting.  Painted the garage door on the house and the man door on the garage.  Gotta still do the big garage door over there.  We are painting the doors a dark red/brown.  AND I cleaned my work room ... YEAH!  And Wendell is cleaning some at the garage, too.  I guess we're getting ready for autumn.

I also spent a little time dyeing wool with marigolds.  Will add a "page" at right on "how to dye with marigolds" as I have time to pour the pix in here ...  It is fun to dye this way but takes time (waiting, waiting, waiting).  I think I'll try dyeing with tomato leaves and vines, too; supposed to make a nice green even though it's sort of fugitive.  But I really needed the yellows.  The greens?  Not so much ... we'll see.


We finally got over to Madison.  It was just a beautiful day and I gotta say this is my time of year!  I love the blue, blue skies and the clear air.  We walked the whole downtown and stopped at a few interesting shops.  Wendell did spend a little time sitting on benches, waiting for me, at some places.  But all in all he did good!  (LOL!)  My favorite place was the Galena Garlic Company where I got some interesting olive oil, smoked paprika, and a Greek meat rub.  Also found a cute little enamel saucer (it's shown in the Uncle Sam picture below) at a antique store I could only describe as a jumble!

Of course you gotta go see the Lanier Mansion when you're in Madison.  They have refurbished it since we were there last.  I should have taken a picture from the porch, facing the river, which is to my back in this picture ...

Here's an Uncle Sam whirligig Neil White made.  I LOVE it!  (the little enamelware saucer I mentioned is holding the candle)

This weekend I think we'll go to the Made in Greene County event at the WRV High School.  Second year for it and we didn't make it last year.  But we gotta get up early for the best things so I'll set the alarm.  Hope you have a good weekend, too.  And let's all pray for rain here in Indiana!