Margaret and Her Magic Tricks

Peconic Ruggers guild member Margaret Tripp-Zenk brought three newly finished rugs to our meeting last week.  Margaret is a remarkably fast rug maker -- faster than me, and I am pretty fast and do this for a living. And she has a full time job and kids in school and all that stuff.  I'm beginning to think she never sleeps . . .  or  maybe she has a magic wand, or a band of elves held captive in her closet.

Margaret is not only fast, she is also very creative, trying new stuff all the time.  Take the bird rug pictured above. (My apologies for the burry and bad photos.)  She dyed the background with pennies!  The wool has this great mottled green patina color that gives a lot of movement to her background.  She set a jar of pennies (older pennies that have a high copper content) and water outside and let them sit for awhile, then dyed the wool in the water.  Pretty neat idea, I think.  She also used the wool in the flowers of this little floral.

In the chicken rug above, Margaret mixed several red plaids together to create her border, which makes this rather simple rug sparkle (although you can't tell from the terrible photograph.) She is an inveterate thrift store shopper, finding all sorts of interesting wools to use in her rugs.  I imagine that's where she found all the plaids in her border.

Margaret really is fast --she will probably have six more rugs hooked by our next meeting, lol.  I'll take better photos next time . . .

I'm still dealing with a sick dog -- poor Cairo not only has pancreatitis, but he also has a collapsed trachea.  He was coughing endlessly, sounding like a goose with a cold.  It's awful.  The poor little guy was miserable.  He had a shot of steroids and is on antibiotics and prescription cough medicine.  That has helped, but he is just about through the medicine and I don't know what will happen when he's finished.  Sometimes the trachea will repair itself, but sometimes it doesn't.  At 12 and half years old, we are not sure surgery is the right course for Cairo.  It is a great weight on my shoulders right now.  We return to the vet yet again tomorrow and we'll take a new look at the situation.

Despite Cairo's health issues, I've been enjoying the week of wonderful summer weather.  I've been working a bit in the garden and getting some house projects finished.  I've been a little neglectful with blogging and answering emails, but I'm planning on being better.  Hope you are all enjoying summer.