HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Done just in time for Valentine's Day I managed to get the other two hearts backed and stuffed with lavender buds. In the basket to the far right is the Heart my dear friend Lauren of Rugs and Pugs gifted me, along with a silver pendant/scissor fob with the letter "S".   Thanks again Lauren, you're very thoughtful and generous.

The little black dollie was made by my friend Frannie Meshorer, as were the dolls hanging on the wall in the background.  I put a little heart pin on her that was also a gift from Frannie.  And, if you let your eyes roam past the basket of hearts you will see a heart cut out on the back of my bench seat. 

I'm really enjoying the Lollipop Bouquet rug I hooked, you can see part of it on my harvest table.  It might be there for a while, unless it sells on e-bay which I doubt.  But if it were to sell I would hook this one up again in a heartbeat.  Even tho there were 66 circles (yup, I counted them) it was fun to go thru my woolie strips to find suitable colors to hook all of them.

Now that the hearts are hooked and 500 Mile Betts is off the frame think I'll try to endure hooking at least two blocks in that UFO geometric.  And then my plans are to start the Chicken Challenge Rug.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone and thank you for visiting.

Saundra

Back to Betts

It's getting closer and closer to the finish line.  And already I see some necessary changes.  I do like to add different wool in a motif as if...."the woman used what she had" but this time it has backfired on me I think.  Here is where I am right now.

All seemed fine until I started doing the bottom portion of the background.  There is a portion of Betts' back leg that needs to be replaced with the wool that my friend Evelyn refers to as 'pig wool' and the majority of Betts' color.  That short strip needs to be replaced so the leg doesn't look split.

Must admit that I worried about the brightness of the ducks too but lately people have told me to "plug along".  There's only a little more plugging and I'll be done.  But after deciding what needs changing I'll give you an update.

OH, yes, the GEO UFO is still looking at me.  And my hearts might maybe be done in time for Valentines day.

Horrendous snow storm headed here, the same one which was in Atlanta.  Happy to post while I have power.  Be safe, be warm, and God bless.

OH, Lauren, HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saundra

500 Mile Betts Update

Happily I've been busy drawing patterns or there would have been more hooked on the Betts piece.  My plans were to hook the ducks before showing a photo but didn't happen.

So far I'm pleased but must admit being anxious about the values since throwing caution to the wind and hooking my motifs first.  Usually I know sorta what I want in my rug and pick the background color first.  Normally it is primitive black, my favorite background.   But since Harriet Powers (the woman who made this quilt in the 1800's) was black and that is how I wanted my people to be, primitive black background would not have worked. 

Oh my, and I also had a vision of what the man and woman of the house would have worn back then..... he in his farm clothes and she in what she made.  So now I've got both dark and light in my motifs...DUH, so what is the background going to be????  Your guess was/is as good as mine. 

My plans were to make it primitive and have embraced the idea that my color choices would indicate that motifs and Betts the pig would have faded out over the years.

Oh, scroll back up.  There is a story about the clock.  In the original quilt piece it was a pendulum clock which I changed.  Where the log cabin is was where pendulum clock was.   So........ if you want to see what happened before, then visit my previous posts so you can catch up.

Have a great evening everyone; and Lauren I hope you are relaxed, had fun and ready to tackle work tomorrow.  Hopefully there's no more snow so the transition is easy.

Saundra

Overdue Updates on Projects

It's been a while since you've seen updates on 500 Mile Betts and the vintage adaptation of Santa and Deer since I got hooked on hooking hearts.  Several times during the hooking of this was tempted to pull out the background and find something else.  Normally I have a vision of a rug and know the background color I want, which is usually primitive black.  But this time I wanted to hook my motifs first and thought the light texture would work okay. 

The problem ~ the values are so darn close between the background and some of the motifs that it would not get good marks if I was being graded by a teacher, that's for sure.  I can remember Bev Conway telling the class that, "....the color gets all the credit but the value did the work".  Yet when I look at this picture think I'll continue doing what I am doing anyway since I've reached the point of no return.  This may go down as the worst color selection of any rug I've hooked so far.

Finally the antique adaptation of Santa and Deer is done.  Well the hooking that is.  But the binding can wait since there is no rush as it won't be needed until about 10 months from now.

So tonight I think that I'll start hooking the third Heart that was drawn.  At least I'll be on time for one holiday since Santa didn't make it for Christmas.  I know the poll indicates that more people like hooking following the heart shape but think I'll hook this next one in golds going horizontal.  Guess that's the rebel in me but was very interested in seeing what the majority likes. 

OH, by the way, have no clue how two polls ended up on my blog and by the time I discovered it there were too many votes on each for me to remove one. 

Hope you have a great evening and staying warm.

Saundra

More of Harriet Powers Hooked Adaptation

This is as far as I've gotten with my adaptation of a quilt section made by Harriet Powers.  For the border I've chosen a dark row and was considering having no border but rather all background.....then changed my mind and decided to frame it .

In this piece my main focus has been on Betts, the hog who travelled 500 miles from Georgia to Virginia (according to Powers' recorded descriptions).  And I've chosen to shorten the nose on Betts from the original quilt block.

This is the original quilt block and you can see I tried to shorten the hogs nose a little but still wanted to keep it naive and primitive.

Normally I choose my background color first, which makes it easier to find suitable wool colors for the motifs.  Sadly this time I decided to hook the motifs the way I envisioned them and to heck with background.  Well now it seems I've painted myself into a corner.

 

My intentions are to put a row or two of different values around the motifs and ease a neutral background.  Well, to do a background sorta like the one I did in Big Dog Hollow (shown below).  You might remember that  Kathy (Briarwood Folk Art) and I traded patterns; I chose this one of hers and she picked my Frost Sheep w/Birds and Flowers rug which she is presently hooking.  Hmmmm, she called it something else.  Anyway, she is doing a magnificent job hooking it and I like her rendition better than mine.

Hope you are staying inside and warm.  It is frigid here in Delaware and it is very uncomfortable walking a dog in these temperatures.  Sure wish I could litter box train my Rottweiler Ben.

 

Happy Saturday.

 

Saundra