ON THE FRAME

Right out of the gate my reverse hooking started.  Working on the first chicken thought a dark red vs. bright red would be a better choice for the comb and wattle since it is an antique adaptation.  Then hooked a row of background around to see if the comb and wattle were visible.  Well heck, I can't even see any red in the photo below but can see it in person.

So went to the slightly brighter red which you can't see in this photo below either.  At this moment I don't plan to hook an even brighter red.  But who knows what I'll do later as the rug progresses.

Days of rain has forced me to face the facts .... I need a new roof.  Thankfully there's no rain inside the house but noticed some evidence of leaking at the section between the back of the house and onto the back porch.  And the rest of the roof is beyond time to replace.

I'll start contacting companies for estimates but know it will be costly.  Neighbor down the street had their roof put on about 5 years ago and cost them $18,000.  Prices have increased a LOT since then as have salaries.  I should have bitten the bullet a few years ago when it would have cost less.  Oh well, oh hell.

Guess it's a good thing I opted to not attend Cape May in September so that will be about $1,000 toward the cost, lol.  Happy homeownership.  

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

THIS and THAT

The Golden Eagle, AKA Pat's Eagle, is all hooked and I started binding it while waiting for my son's CT scan (or was it an MRI?) of his shoulder.  I'm using cotton binding because I don't want to extend the border by another row or color.  I wanted just a one row border and didn't want either the red or dark brown because that may have pulled the eye away from the central focus ~ the eagle.  So I used a softer and more neutral color.

Yesterday when my son and DIL dropped by to see me for Mother's Day my son noticed this 1776 Eagle I hooked and fell in love.  Well of course what does a mother do but give to her son.  Truth be told, my dear DIL probably told my son to say he loved it to ensure it would go home with them 😄.

I'm considering the 1776 Eagle my design inspired by an antique rug.  Actually, the shape of the eagle was used from the antique rug below but reshaped the tail and hooked it differently.  So believe there are enough differences to call the 1776 eagle my design.  They are going to hang the eagle but haven't decided which room.  Will it go in my son's 'man cave' or somewhere in their house ... an inquiring nosey mind will find out when I visit them again.

Before starting my new project thought I'd pull a few loops on the patiently waiting plus one, Ezra's Farm, just to make a tad more headway.  Previously I'd just hooked the horse and got bored.  So decided to hook around the horse until I decide what color and where I want to attack next.  Now I can see that blob color doesn't look right.  So will reverse hook and replace with another color when returning to the pattern.

That's it for this post.  Blogger is giving me fits because the text style and color keeps changing.  At first it wouldn't allow me to post the pictures.  Happy Monday and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

SIT A SPELL FOR THE RUG SHOW

Have found a few new offerings, one of which is an antique rug from Charlevoix, Canada.  No date was provided but the auction house did say "antique" and gave dimensions of 21 x 35.

You can check out the fabrics used from this close up.  Wonder if that is a bell hanging from the collar?  

Probably a Frost lion, again no date but measures 32 x 57.  I love the blotchy background but the rest is just too ornate for me to want to hook it.  But others with a fancy toward narrow cut would love to hook it.

A Schooner, and yes a Bluenose design, measures 28.5 x 40.5.  Perhaps one day I'll venture to hook a sailboat as I do love the rug with the word AMERICA at the bottom.  This Bluenose is great but not something I'd hook.

A reclining dog with a hit and miss background and a date of 1902 hooked in the corner.

Someone wanted to create a rug so they drew a geometric with 6 point stars in a semi-circle.

A scrappy looking toy soldiers rug, hooked early 1900's.  Bet the boy it was hooked for was quite happy with his gift.

Perhaps someone wanted to memorialize their prize fish.  Auction house said it was hooked with silk and hails from the UK.  

A simple floral hooked between 1920-30.

Just blue birds but with a quite complex border combination.  

You can see the horse and initials GWMc and a date of 1787 clearly.  But if you strain your eyes you can see a faded house and something else on the right side.

Let's have another horse rug, hooked 1920's.  I believe this one is still up for sale.  Not crazy about the pink horseshoes but perhaps that's all she had to use.

Oxen hooked late 20th century so not old enough to be considered copyright safe.

There ya have it, an even dozen this time.   

I'll be busy tomorrow as I just pulled the last loops on the Eagle rug so it needs steaming, the hooking area needs to be cleaned up, room vacuumed and dusted.  Well, you know the routine.  Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

WHAT TO HOOK NEXT

Although I'm not quite done hooking the golden eagle adaptation, it's time for me to choose another as the main project.  Ezra's Farm is handy as a 'plus one' in a pinch.  As of today there are two on my radar and one of them I passed up previously.  That would be this antique chicken pair but now am giving it another look.

The other in the running is this antique Garrett Bluenose design below.  Garrett Bluenose started designing and selling rug patterns in 1892 and probably most known for his 3 Bears and Schooner designs.

In other news...yesterday afternoon it appeared to be okay to cut grass after all the rain of the previous day.  All went well for a while and then the riding mower just stopped.  Then discovered that particular section of yard was quite wet so a clump of yard debris had collected under and around the blades.  Whew, easy fix and I continued on with my task.  Today is to be sunny and 76 with more rain predicted the next couple days.  Glad the grass chore is done.

Have a couple errands to run and then home for lunch and hook more on my present project.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

WISTERIA WOES

Since the predicted rain didn't happen yesterday, I ventured outside to continue chopping away at the wisteria vine.  While I have made a dent in the visual above ground, underground is another issue.  From the first photo of the tree which fell with vine, I can see the accomplishments my hand saw and lopper have made.  Here is the first photo taken in February of the mess.  Notice all those vines hanging from a tree limb on the left side and running along the tree trunk on the ground to the right.

See this dead-looking trunk with decayed holes below?  Ya think it is dead?

Nope.  Just a few inches up is a thriving specimen of the wisteria nightmare that keeps on growing.

Even lopped limbs are getting new growth.  This first one resting on a rock has new shoots and the vine continues underground.

And another example below with a tiny new growth.

Yet I can see some headway has been made when compared to an earlier  March photo, below. 

And today (below) a photo of the end of the main vein (vine) above ground, resting on that 4x4 piece of wood.

There's still more to trim away and I'll stay vigilant working toward eradicating this plant from my yard.  You can read how to kill Wisteria HERE.  Next shopping trip I'll purchase more Roundup as my container is  empty.

Ahhh, just heard the first drops of rain beginning as I'm typing this.  During my quick stroll thru Facebook noticed it poured at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  Hope it doesn't dampen the vendors' earnings.  I used to attend that event every year.  

Now to get some loops pulled, happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

RUG SHOW

A 19th century hooked rug with deer, bunnies and birds, the dimensions are 31 x 40.  Love that blotchy background.

Perhaps a pet duck?  Wouldn't be my choice of subject but someone cared for it enough to hook it.  Said to be hooked between 1850-1900.

Colorful rug of fern leaves; no date or dimensions.

A horse in pasture hooked early 20th century per the auction house.  Size is 30 x 42.5.

While no date was provided, I feel confident this dog rug is old.  It measures 19 x 40.

This little lamb was hooked on burlap between 1900-1949.  Measures 11 x 19.5 and only the motifs were hooked, not a background.

A Canadian chair pad.  Wonder if it was hooked with nylons.

A perfectly stitched cat and tongue applique mat.  I wouldn't want to do it, too much detail work, but it is lovely.  Look at that wonderful hand work.

Primitive birds and flowers on burlap dated early 20th century (24 x 39).

A lovely Frost Sheep with scrolls.  I love it despite and because of it's blotchy and different colored scrolls, border and background.

I love the one I hooked at class with Barb Carroll doing the color planning.  Once I was petrified to do scrolls and now I love them.  Here's mine below.

There ya have it, another rug show put to bed.  Have a lovely weekend.  According to local forecast I'll be hunkered down with a few days of rain.  And you know what I'll be doing ...happily hooking on something.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MAKING A LITTLE HEADWAY

You'd think the hit and miss background would be a piece of cake, right?  All you need to do is pick a color from the worm bag.  Nope, I don't find it easier as you need to be sure of keeping (or trying to keep) light, medium and dark values apart from one another.  Frankly replicating a Magdalena hit and miss background I find far easier.  And yeah, for a few seconds I contemplated doing that background in something other than the hit and miss but would be straying from the antique.

I didn't use the same colors as the antique, nor did I do the higgly piggly hooking in the eagle.  But did try to stay close to the values.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  

Here is a photo of the original antique Patriotic Triptych rug from which a section was adapted.  

Mild temps and rain on the way in a couple days.  At least I don't require heat or A/C yet!!!  Happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

A 19th CENTURY TECHNIQUE

Recently I found a beautiful rug which was advertised as "folded wool" a rug from early 19th century and hails from Canada.

At first glance I thought it was a braided rug until I enlarged the photo.  Below is a closeup of the center.

I mentioned it was advertised as a folded wool technique.  However, in a hardback book (below) on antique rug styles that technique is called "fabric-bundle shirring".  It went on to describe how to perform the technique ~ it uses small pieces of fabric which have been folded and sewn together at the center.  Then the pieces are sewn to a foundation for support.  In  looking at the above photos, it seems to me the maker cut circles and sewed at the tiny point and stitched to the foundation.

So decided to cut a couple examples ~ depending on thickness of fabric it could have been a full round piece of fabric or perhaps even half round if it was a nice fulled piece of wool.  See the samples below and how many folds are in them.

From the top, the rug almost gives the appearance of being proddy, until you see the back of the foundation.

While the rug is wonderful I don't think I'll give up my hook and do that technique.

In other boring personal news ~ my dentist called to ask if I could go in today instead of next Monday as my permanent crown had arrived.  And I did.  So that reduces the anxiety of my next appointment a week away ...yay!  All done and $1,695 less in my checking account.

Happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

OLDIES RUG SHOW

Some of these rugs still have a day left on the auction site, some have bids on them.  Other rugs may  have been found weeks before and have sold already.  This first rug was said to be 'bear paws' by the listing agent.  But they didn't provided date or dimensions.

A seemingly quite faded reclining dog with corner scrolls.  Wish they had shown the backside to see the true colors.  But do like the primitive design.

A little early for Halloween is this rug hooked by Nancy Gertrude Scott, daughter of Barbara E. Merry.  It has bids on it and will sell soon.

Another a little too early for the season is this Christmas rug for sale, also hooked by NGS.  They happen to be on the auction site now.  You can see them HERE.

Below is a rug with birds in flight with scrolls (23 x 36) no date provided. 

The auction house advertised this as a 1920's deco folk art rug.  This doesn't seem to fit in that category of 'deco art' to me.  Measures 29 x 51 and I like those earthy colors.

A sizeable Barbara E. Merry rug she named "Billings Hill" measures 31 x 48 and sold for $425.

A geometric found somewhere in my searches and have no date or dimensions.  Again, nice earthy colors.

I've had this next double stag rug in my photos since January this year and want to finally post it.  Hooked between 1890-1920 with dimensions of 84 x 96.  I like the deer but that's about it.

A black and white cat hooked early 20th century (25.5 x 40.5).  Cat's expression seems to be saying, "I love you too".  Except the cat's I've had were far too independent to emit that emotion. 

That's an even 10 so am wishing you all a great weekend and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com