Star Chair Pad

I'm playing hooky from my SJ challenge piece to hook a chair pad.  This week I purchased a cool old stool for in front of the computer which holds my web site...long story on that. 

So since I've some hooker pals coming here for a friendly hook-in for a few days I wanted my antique stool to have a new dress.  The stool was perfect because my computer table (for that computer) has metal legs as does the stool.  Here is my newly adopted and functional stool.

The pattern was inspired by a Karen Kahle design which was in a former issue of Rug Hooking magazine.  I'm making mine just a bit smaller because I want some of the beautiful old wood patena to show around the perimiter of the pad.  Yeah I know, everything needs to be dusted and waxed but hooking is number one on my list for now but the cleaning will happen before my hooker pals arrive.

Hit and miss is not as easy for me as I'd like it to be.  One thing that is nice is that I'm using worms from my basket, ya gotta love that!  As you can see I've hooked some in and ripped it out; that is how it has been thru the entire short project so far. 

I've tried to get a few light but mostly medium value.  Then I look tru the value finder and see too many lights near one another or too many mediums.  And, I'm trying to put a variety of colors in the piece yet don't want a chair pad that is made up of only golds, reds, blues and greens. 

Sometimes I think the hard part is working on it because I've noticed that even when I over-thought hooking a piece I always loved it in the end anyway, even with it's flaws.  I always excuse it away with the thought that..... "that is all she (perhaps Magdalena) had, so that is what she used".