I love all the rugs I've hook but often said camp rugs hold a special meaning in my heart. Since I'm presently hooking Oh Glorious Day will share some of the reasons why this one is special.
On the last day of camp, which is always a bitter sweet day, Lois Filingeri spoke to those of us still packing up in the hooking room. She said Deb Burcin had given her a piece of wool to put in her rug so it had a fond memory from someone else in the room. Lois put the idea in the room to the rest of us. I happened to be working with a piece of green wool which I offered her and it was also a green strip she offered in return ~ great!
If you look on the picture below you will see Lois' wool hooked into my rug. There is an arrow showing the one. Thank you Lois, you were such a great addition to the room and lots of fun. Hope to be in a class with you again when we will share stories and lots of laughs again.
As I was pondering what color to hook the windows on the house I had a light bulb moment.....literally. Decided that room was my hooking room ~ therefore a light would be on! It's subtle but will make me think of my happy hooking place.
Okay, newbie hints.... the yellow and grey tones are the same value so while there is no contrast there is still that hint of light in the room.
Also, Kris says when she hooks leaves she uses 3 values of green. This is a primitive rug vs. realistic, but that makes sense since the top leaves would be closer to the sun and newer growth. The leaves would be older and get darker near the root. So I used 3 different values of green. Great lesson Kris.
She also shared the information about how "color gets all the credit while value does all the work". It was a reminder of what my third ever teacher Bev Conway said in her color lesson. Am hoping to get Bev next year at Cape May, it's been a long time since I've had a class with her and miss her contagious laugh.
Below you will see close values in the bulbs growing in the grass below the chicken. But I didn't want bright colors distracting from the other wonderful colors going on in the rug. Purple is what was needed as there is purple elsewhere in the rug. There was a dark grey purple and an over-dyed texture alternating, which I like.
But what adds to the memories of camp are incidents which happen and which one remembers when they look at the rug once it is done.
You see those two slightly darker value dots below the chicken? Hmm, while I was away from my frame someone pulled a prank on me. Am not quite sure who did it but loved it so much decided to keep it in the rug. Each time I look at the rug it will make me smile and remind me of a delightful camp. Kris, you wouldn't happen to know who did that.... would you?
Newbie hookers, just remember I was a newbie too. Heck ALL of us were, none of us were born hookers. So save your pennies and plan to attend a rug camp or find a quilting shop who also offers rug hooking nights or a guild near you.
Oh, and while I'm not a newbie I'm still learning things from all my teachers. The green wool leaf was a lesson from Kris I'll remember along with all the other things she has taught.... uh, and done, 😂😂
Saundra
A few posts ago I told you of my losing a few rug labels I'd printed out. I know they were printed and cut out but have no idea what happened to them. And, nope, they never surfaced. So with enough labels to fill a page I printed out more.
The three labels on the left are for rugs already hooked or in the progress. Oh Glorious Day design will be hooked at Cape May, the bottom design Friendship Bells will be hooked November. Because I needed another planned piece for a label I chose the small Tonya Robey pattern I've had for eons. I figure that could easily be finished in 2019 too.
When hooking an antique adaptation I like to put the original picture on the label as with the hearts and Great Granddaughter's rug. Otherwise usually print a picture of the design by the maker of the pattern to show another version other than what I've hooked.
A tutorial of making rug labels can be seen on my blog by clicking HERE. If you wanted to know my thoughts on cutters, rug frames, etc. all you need to do is type those key words in the space at the top left side of my blog.
On my grocery list today is Glad Press and Seal. For what you ask? I've heard that if you press that on the bottom of the rug you're working on, when pulling the rug off the frame it helps prevent loops from being pulled out. Also, I'm such a slob at meal time there's always salad dressing which doesn't make it to my mouth but makes it to my top. Now I'll be prepared by pressing some of that on the front of my linen top.
Happy Saturday everyone.
Saundra
Oh my but what happened to the last several months which seemed to fly by? And, all too soon it will be the winter holidays. Not sure I'm ready for that yet, but am ready for the cool nights and sunny days of fall.
Okay, I had several fall related pictures to share which were on my flash drive, but the folder which held "Saundra's Stuff " just disappeared last night which may have been due to operator error. So since I still own this rug just did take a picture of an old rug hooked way back in 2003. You can see the Indian Corn that the magnificent crow is picking away at. I LOVE Crows (yeah Te're you do too since you ARE a Crow by name).
This was a pattern that was offered by Rittermer-Hurst in Canada and is a design by Ann Hallet. I just love this rug. This was the pattern taken to Cape May the very first year attending there and it was in a class with the wonderful Patsy Becker. I couldn't wait to take a class with that rug hooking legend. She was not in good health at the time but she was ever vigilant in keeping to her task as a hooking teacher. I recall that was also the first year that I met Dick and George and what fun they were. George is the most wonderful story teller!!!!! He used to post on Rughookers and I miss those elaborate and funny stories.
Dick was also in Patsy's class and remember him as being helpful with the difficulty of language translations with a brand new Japanese visitor and new hooker. He and she were Communicating with hands, and what it takes to make communication with others. I've been in the same situation with other people from different countries and while it is a challenge it is a beautiful way to connect.
The Crow rug has been in front of my kitchen sink on the floor since it was completed in 2003. YES folks, these wool rugs are resilient. Yes, I've spilled things on it and have immediately taken it to the laundry room and washed it with mild soap and water, let it dry and you see how it is after all these years.
Well, I have yet another picture of one of my rugs to add to the NEW folder of 'Saundra's Stuff' which I lost the other day.
So happy you stopped by.
Saundra
It seems like a decade since I worked on this rug, but it has only been a couple months. Meanwhile there were quite a few projects I got completed while it was resting. I'd completed a couple swap mats, hooked a snowman gift for a Christmas gift, also the E.S. Frost Sheep rug with birds and flowers, hooked and assembled the eyeglass cases and most recently was the completion of the Jane Stickle quilt rug more commonly known on Rughookers Yahoo as the Sincerely Jane Challenge rug. (whew, gasp for breath).
When working on the log cabin rug previously I'd mentioned it was a pattern offered in a book by Barbara Carroll titled American Folk Art Rug Hooking.
The pattern design is July Cabin but I took some creative license and tweaked it to suit me. I changed the direction of the smoke, made my trees a little differently and made big folky leaves instead of flags and think I added more stars in different locations.
So I'm a little anxious to finish this one up but there is something else lingering in the wings that remains unfinished, so it isn't as though I'm completely caught up. But it sure is a good feeling to get this close.
However, the madness will begin again starting May when I go to the wonderful Barb Carroll at Woolley Fox, then in September it will be back to beautiful Cape May, NJ, then in November will sign up for Lucille Festa once again in Ocean City, MD.
In November I'll be attending Maryland Shores rug camp and taking my second class with Lucille Festa. She is best known for her primitive designs and wide cuts. Previously I had a class with Lucille at Cape May (Rugs by the Sea) when she taught the first week. Since that time Lucille has had class the second week which isn't good for me since my show would be just one week after getting home and wouldn't be enough time for me to recover from the fun, and finish things for my show. So I jumped at the chance to take a class with her in November when the class is only 1 hour from my home.
The year me and my friend Deb had a class with her at Cape May, this is the rug that Deb hooked ~ The Tree of Life. As is usually the case, the picture does not do the rug justice. Frankly I'd not had an interest in hooking the Tree of Life until Deb's came to life and the colors were really rich and nice.
The rug I did in her class was a design which was in a publication by Needl'love called "Falloween", pictured below.
Interesting to take note that I must have finished my rug the same year as the class was taken since it says '07'. Whereas Deb, who works full time, didn't get hers completed until after January the next year of 08.
Happily I'll have to start getting ready pulling woolens and design together as time gets closer to camp. But before I do that will have to finish the Belindy I've started.
I don't think this brain or body could have stood one more day of fun. It really is exhausting having fun at rug camp. Rugs by the Sea camp is held at the Victorian hotel Chalfonte where the food is excellent and the organizers Norma and Linda are professionals who have this camp running like a well oiled machine.
They bring in fantastic teachers; this first week was Kris Miller, Bev Conway, Judy Quitman and Cindi Gay. I've had Bev Conway numerous times but last year and this year had Kris Miller. Kris has a great color palate and prefers to teach nothing smaller than #6 and considers the #8.5 to be the new #8. She is interesting, fun to be with, upbeat, very great at color planning rugs and tells great goat stories and soon will have great Alpaca stories to share I'm sure.
Since there are no TVs in each room (it's a Victorian hotel of course), there is a small TV room where guests can decide which show to watch from that room. However, my roomie brings a flat-screen TV with DVD capabilities and three of us pals watch movies, eat snacks and sip on wine in the evenings in our room. And of course we stay up too late, eat too much and drink more than we should (UH, I drink more than I should). Unfortunately I put on 1 1/2 pounds in just 5 days since I ate much differently (indulging in things I normally don't eat at home) and my ways have changed since being home and will get that weight off within the week (uh.... I hope). But the food there is so delicious who can pass up that cuisine?
For years I've wanted to hook a log cabin rug and I FINALLY put it on linen and started a project. As mentioned in a previous blog, it is an adaptation of a rug titled "July Cabin" by Barb Carroll and offered in her book "American Folk Art Rug Hooking". There are 18 patterns in the book which may be enlarged to hook. I took some liberties with the design to make it mine but the essentials came from the book.
A lot more progress could have been made on the rug if I wouldn't talk as much as I do or if I'd hook and not look at the person I'm talking to. I should talk and keep my head down and look at my project and keep pulling loops. So, suffice it to say that I could have had a lot more to show for my 4 1/2 days of hooking had I done that.
Here is an overview of my project and the right side will be quite similar to the left side but not a mirror image. However, I'll have the same multi-colored leaves on the tree (don'tcha just luv it??). The only thing I told Kris was that I wanted to do different colors for the leaves and showed her my selection of colors (the same ones which were in my Woodland Deer rug).
So, preparing for this rug, as soon as I saw Betsy Reed's MR ED wool it just shouted log cabin and I ordered it immediately. Funny thing is, that when I opened up my container to show Kris the wool selection I brought (and many different browns for a cabin) she immediately picked up Mr. Ed as the log colors. AH HA!!!!!!! Maybe I really am capable of picking colors for a rug after all.
And the roof is Jinx by Heavens to Betsy. However, I cannot remember which names the colors of the leaves are and the background is a piece of wool I purchased at a manufacturer in Baltimore.
The sheep is hooked using Icelandic Lopi and the ear is a piece of wool which was prodded in. So this rug will be hung somewhere in the house so the ear doesn't get squashed.
Kris picked her choice for the border wool I took to camp but haven't started hooking that in yet. So my project will just have to wait for me as I've got to catch up here on yard work, laundry, and getting ready for my art/craft show October 1. I've got 3 dolls to finish, one remaining pumpkin on a candlestick to finish and hopefully finish hooking the NFF cat in the shoe before the show.
