New Needle Felted Pillow

Just a little project that I finished today. The pillow is sewn from hand dyed wool and is needle felted with wool roving. I like the way the shading in the wool highlights the design. This particular piece of wool is from Lancaster. They no longer (as far as I know) sell hand dyed wool, which is very sad because they produced some of the most beautiful colors I have ever seen. This color was called Shaker Green, if I remember correctly. My very first hooked rug, the Willow Log Cabin, was one of their designs. I think they are now having their designs manufactured in China. The quality of the imported rugs is not great, but they are better than some imported hooked rugs that I have seen.

Today was picture perfect here. It was sunny and low 80's, but, as usual, was a little windy! My son was in a triathlon this morning, so we went to watch him (and about 600 others) torture themselves by swimming, biking and running non-stop for about 2 hours!! I admire the efforts put forth, but I can think of much easier ways to have fun! I also spent some time in the garden this afternoon trying to stay ahead of grass and weeds. Our garden is so late this year because of rain and late cold weather. In our area, the field corn is usually waist-high or higher by now, but it is just now peeking out of the soil! This spring has been challenging for farmers here in the Midwest, for sure!

I still have not settled on wool colors for my next rug. Too much going on. Our 3 grandchildren were here for about 5 hours yesterday afternoon and evening, so we had lots of fun. Olivia and Allison rode with Grandpa in the go-cart for about an hour. Kale is teething, we think, so he was a little cranky and wanted to be held (I gladly helped out there!). Olivia and her Aunt Rachel were scooping up tadpoles out of the backyard pond and watching them wriggle in their hands. They put them back in, of course. This is the same Olivia who used to scream when she saw a "bud" (aka bug...) anywhere! She asked her mother a few weeks ago if she wanted a worm. Ashley replied that she didn't think she wanted a worm just now and casually asked where Olivia would get a worm if she changed her mind. "In my pocket." was the answer. Yes, she did have earthworms in her jacket pocket! Anyway, back to the tadpoles...our pond is just FULL of tadpoles. Some of them are just starting to get their back legs, so they look kinda funny. Yesterday was a great day.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend and have a great week!