A HAPPY SURPISE

Regular readers know I love homemade soup and make a lot of it during cool weather.  I normally make a big pot as I enjoy leftovers and don't mind  having soup for lunch then again that night for dinner.  There's usually enough for me to freeze 2 meals for later.  This afternoon I pulled a container of soup out of the freezer and checked to see what my dinner would be.  OH BOY!  It is Moroccan Sweet Potato Soup with all the tasty and healthy detox spices.  If you are interested in seeing the recipe you can check it out HERE.  BTW, I didn't use a crock pot, just cooked it on my range top.

When this house was built I made some very bad plant choices, one of which was vinca minor (periwinkle).  For the longest time it seemed it would never grow and now it is out of control.  Weeks ago I started digging it out of the ground along the driveway and worked a little more today but have a lot more to do in order to get it under control.

And because a blog post should have a photo or three, here are a few rugs to show you.  Said to be hooked early 20th century is blocks of images of ships, spinning wheels, flora, etc. 

For feline lovers is a rug with 13 cats hooked on burlap and dated between 1920-40.

The canine folks will enjoy the dog and pup rug and no other information was provided, just the picture from an auction.

And for horse lovers like me, one which seems like a free range mustang; again, no other info provided.

Happy hooking and pray those in North Carolina, Georgia and others devastated by Helene will get major help soon.  I feel guilty sitting here talking about the frozen soup which will be my dinner tonight when those folks don't even have a bed to sleep in or know where their meal or water will come from ~ God less them all.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MISC. CHIT CHAT

I'll start with my displeasure of having to replace an appliance.  Frankly I should be happy the electric range has survived this long.  We built the house in 1997 so it lasted 27 years.  Meanwhile in that time I've had to buy a new refrigerator, washer and dryer, water heater twice, furnace once, heat pump twice so understand I should be grateful this is the first range.  And am thankful my order was placed and delivery scheduled already since there is a longshoreman strike and who knows when I'd get one otherwise.

I've always had coil electric stoves and decided to go for the 'flexible' flat top range this time.  Don't know the difference or survivability between glass and flexible but nothing built these days lasts very long anyway.  But hope I made the correct decision on the range.  Heck, my 2003 van still runs like a top so I'm definitely not getting rid of that.

Anyway, onto the good stuff ~ the dog with basket was started on 9/16 and pulled the last loop this afternoon.  Just 17 days so that might be a record for me; and yes Lauren, it is SMALL at 17.5 x 30 but still a record for moi.  Still needs steaming and binding tho.

Am thankful to Lucille for color planning the rug and she even made suggestions on the directional hooking in areas.  It was fun to not have to make decisions on color choices so was an easy and fun hooking project.

Already I've thrown the giant flower 'plus one' on the frame and will c continue to work on that.  There's a way to go on that one so it will be several days/weeks before I'll be searching for a new project.

NOTE:  Just before leaving for Cape May I received an email from someone who was also leaving for a rug camp.  She said she wanted the pattern when we each returned from camp.  However, I've managed to delete her message and cannot remember her name.  So if you are reading this post and still interested in the pattern send me another email.  Sorry I accidently deleted your message and hope you had a great time at your camp and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

NEW OLD RUGS

I always find time to search for old rugs on auction sites and found a few I hadn't seen before.  Not saying they weren't around, I just didn't see them.

This rug of bold flowers is quite nice and could be hooked with hand torn.  Given a date of early to mid 19th century.

A deer dated 1900 and measures 23 x 35.5.

Kittens playing, 22 x 34 given a date of early 20th century.

Wish there had been a full frontal photo of this Canadian floral.  Nice mellow colors and dated 1930.

What a cute whimsical rug of a child and chicken.  Hooked early 20th century and the rug measures 21 x 34.

Being sold along with the above rug is Woolie and Tammy, two dogs.

I didn't know the name of the dark dog until seeing the reverse side of the rug.

The rug below cracked me up.  Perhaps the name of this rug should be Lady long-legs or Long Tall Sally.  She may be riding side-saddle but those are some mighty long legs she has.  This would be a fun hook just because of the humor.  And I kinda like the design.

Recently found two Hutchinson style hooked rugs.  In case you can't read it, the script says, "When the Sea is Dark & Drear The Mariner Sees yon Light Appear".  

The other Hutchinson is The Sailors Return.  Neither of which were given dates they were hooked.

Now back to pulling loops on my camp rug.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MORE from CAPE MAY

As you know I was in Lucille Festa's class and had never met Donna Hrkman until Cape May.   I found Donna to be very approachable and happy to share her knowledge.  While I have seen some of Donna's works of art via the internet, there's no comparison to seeing them in person.

All of her rugs have an emotional connection and for me some were more intense than others.  The Painted Lady was an interesting rug.  Years before color photographs some people chose to have them tinted vs. the generic black and white.  So her plan was to replicate that old style photo.  Donna is holding the rug so I could take a photo of the back.  The white wool ends you see tied at the eyes is to keep the loop for the spark in the eyes from coming undone.

The front of that wonderful Painted Lady was painstakingly done as it required her to paint a small section at a time so the dye didn't run into the other color.

The real Helen Keller had no sight or sound but she did still have her sense of smell and touch.  Donna wanted to bring attention to those facts in her hooked piece.  Notice the wording at the top of the rug "Knowledge is love and light and vision".  Donna googled the braille translation for that and hooked it at the bottom.

Christopher Robin and Pooh.

You  may be interested to see the real Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh photo circa 1927.  Look how detailed Donna hooked the sweater.  Well heck, everything!!!  But you can get that detail when you're hooking with dental floss thin wool, lol.

I would love to know more about Red Bird as I'm sure there was a powerful message in this piece too.  But I couldn't monopolize Donna's time forever.

Women's Voices, below, speaks for itself.  We have the right and privilege to vote and that time is coming up again soon.  

Running out of space to display rugs, these three were placed on the wicker seating.  The WWII Soldier is the rug which tugs at Lauren's heart strings.

The Semper Fi rug is the one which does that for me.  I cannot talk about or look at the rug without getting choked up or teary eyed.  Donna hooked it in the shape of a dog tag complete with hole on the right side for the neck chain.

Donna had a few of her steampunk rugs but there was no room for all of them.  This one did make the show, Steampunk Polly.

Years past I would walk the halls of the entire Chalfonte Hotel taking random photos in hopes of capturing a ghost (which didn't happen) or at least a few orbs.  While I didn't roam the halls last year or this year I did notice a few small orbs.  They are hard to see and I've circled them so you will have to tap on the photo and strain your eyes to see them.

Years past they have been much more prominent.  One such great year was 2016 and you can see that blog post HERE.

Hope you enjoyed Donna's rugs as I did.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MY CAMP RUG

Lucille Festa was my teacher and don't know how she managed to have it 'all together' when she arrived.  She had just attended ATHA, then 400 miles away from home her vehicle broke down with transmission problems.  Yet she managed to eventually get home, restock her supply of wool, turn around and drive from Vermont to our class in Cape May, NJ.  Heck, I was feeling like a zombie after just 5 days of fun so she must be a superwoman.

What surprised me was the various wool Lucille chose for the dog from my stash ~ colors I'd never be brave enough to mix together, but she did and I like it.    Here's what the rug looks like and I'm quite happy. 

For those of you who read my blog, you saw this photo of odd and narrow pieces of wool pinned to a ring.  For the basket she picked that stripe piece which I think was a part of a poncho or some clothing I'd picked up somewhere.

The bottom plaid was another appearing in the dog which was surprising also since it has specks of shiny threads, also a piece of clothing which appears in the underbelly and part of a leg.  Below is another shot of the dog wool, basket and the ugly.  The other wool  missing in the photo is Rebecca Erb's Black Jack (Reversible Black).

And you will see a block of that 'ugly' wool (as I call it) with the green in it which I used in a tree HERE.  So when you attend a rug class don't be afraid to take those unusual pieces of wool, ya never know how it will look in your rug.  Lucille didn't recommend any of her wool for my project.  I had to just look and buy what appealed to me in order to bring home some of her lovely overdyed pieces.

As you can see from this photo below (the original antique), Lucille drew her own sections for me to hook since my chat with her was that I wanted to hook the rug how she envisioned it.  They aren't too far from the original lines tho.

I'd hoped to get this post published earlier in the day but I did a bit of reverse hooking on and around the basket.  Plus did a bit of yard work since that was neglected last week.  And now it's almost bed time.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MORE CAPE MAY RUG SHOW and THROWDOWN

Will start by showing you three rugs hooked by Jane Sittnick which were hooked using a very hand-friendly polyester knit.   Although hard to see, the attached strips of the knits used she attached to the top right corner.  When visitors attended the show during her time in the room she sat, Jane used those to show how thrift shop purchases can be used to start hooking.  Click on the photos to enlarge.

Another fish rug is Mackerel and she has those fibers attached as well.  Amazing, and gives the appearance of having fish scales; great job Jane.

Another rug designed and hooked by Jane is this Moose where she also used alternative textiles.

Mary Glossner hooked the Hutchinson style mermaid rug below.

The Welcome rug is a Patsy Becker design hooked by June Madden.

Minnie the cat was hooked by Connie Tate.

Sue Menges hooked the pumpkin and crow rug and is ready for fall y'all.

Miss America hooked by Elinor Lundy.

Roberta Olah hooked the dog rug with geometric background.

The Run for the Roses runner was too long for me to get a complete photo.  It was hooked by Shelley.

HO  HO HO, yup, guess it will soon be time to think about the Christmas season.  Look at the tiny ornaments hanging at the bottom.  It was designed and hooked by Chance Allen.

Eastern Native American Frog was hooked by Leslie Stroble.

Below are a few of the rugs being hooked in Lucille's class.  Guess I missed a couple photos as there were 14 of us in her class and I don't have that many photos.  Oh well, here's what I do have....

Happy Home Happy heart by Lori Brechlin being hooked by Cindy Dillow.

Magdalena's Eagle hooked by Shari Vanart in #9.

Pearl and Earl, a Lucille design but can't remember who is hooking it.

Laura McElroy is hooking the pattern below; think she and Lucille decided to forgo the leaves on the trees and give it a willow tree appearance .. me thinks that was the decision.

The rug below is HUMONGOUS and being hooked by Deborah Curry in #8 cut.  It is a Keith Kemmer antique adaptation.

Sorry but don't recall or don't remember who is hooking any of these great primitives.  The first rug below must have been started prior to camp because there's no way someone could have hooked that much in 3 days ~ or at least I couldn't.

Another Minnie being hooked by someone.

Another Lucille designed rug below.

And yet another Lucille designed rug being worked on. 

Yes, I did start a rug at camp but I'm holding out showing it to you until I get more hooked.  Besides, I want to show you some of the wool being used in the rug.

Happy hooking, happy heart, lol.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com