UFO #14 finished and a new purchase!

Hi all;
I finished my UFO #14 last night :) I am really excited to have 14 out of my 33 UFOs finished and it is only the end of March. This is a Celtic table runner that I started in a course from Quilt University. It is a great way to do Celtic designs that is much easier than the usual way. I finished the hand quilting on it and got the binding on it last night. I love the way that the inserts look. They really add a great design element to it but since the runner is all batik fabric it was hard to hand quilt through since batik has a higher thread count. I really wanted to hand quilt this runner though, since it is all hand appliqued, so it was worth it. Now onto the next UFO.
This is my new purchase :) Yey! I finally got a rug hooking strip cutter. Yes I know that I can cut the strips with my rotary cutter but this is sooooo much easier. I got a great deal on this new Rigby cutter from a local quilt shop. I am building up a pretty large stash of recycled wools so it is a good idea to have something to cut them so that I can actually use them properly.

Speaking of rug hooking I got two GREAT DVDs by Gene Shepherd on learning to rug hook. If you are interested and can't find a class in your area this is a great resource. I took a class a couple of years ago and I learned so much from these DVDs. I also like that you can watch over and over again in case you forget something.
This is another rug hooking thrift store find if you can believe it :) This came in a kit with yarn and a small, and very flimsy looking, cutter. I got it for all of $1.00. I decided not to use the yarn, and since I have my new cutter, I cut some strips of a purple wool that I have and I am going to try it out with my own wool strips. It is just a small little pattern and I had to add leaders onto the sides so that it would fit into my Q-Snap; but, I think that it will be a nice little project to work on while I wait to get my new frame.

In the corner you can see where I was trying out some of my black and white plaid strips. They make a really cool effect I think.