WEEKEND STUFF

Yesterday I did some mundane household chores and my wool arrived from The Wool Studio so washed up those two yards.  I miss having Heavens to Betsy wool, I know we still have Dorr, but Betsy had some great wool and it was a regular weave not the tight weave (TW) that Rebecca sells.

So now I've a question for you ~ do you like the tight weave wool?  And do you wash it or use it as is?  I find that after washing the TW it ends up feeling like coat weight wool.

Today I washed my vehicle which hadn't been washed in YEARS!  My vehicle lives in the garage so it is shielded from some elements.  But road grime during my limited traveling does get it dirty.  So it looks nice and clean for a change.

Then after doing that I washed the short side of my home and got rid of dirt and green mildew.  By then it was time for lunch and was too tired to do anymore house washing.  I've a haircut tomorrow and by the time I get home it will be lunchtime and too hot and humid to put my body thru house washing again.  Besides, that mildew will still be there waiting for me.

Gonna go play with my hook and wool with a glass of cab. 🍷 Cheers.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

GRANDE FINALE

We've all completed our Granny Donaldson projects which was started January 15th.  Denise sent her photo this afternoon and she had a whopping 24 critters to hook plus the people and tree.   Count them, I counted them probably 10 times and would come up often with 23 critters and sometimes 24.  So I wrote 24 and I'm sticking to it, lol.

Below is Betsy's adaptation where she moved around motifs, put the tree off to the side instead of the middle, added a cat and a heart.  Love it Betsy.

Elaine finished her version of a Granny Cow blanket a couple days ago and she drew hers free hand by looking at the photo on her tablet.

Kim chose to hook Karen Kahle's adaptation of a Granny cow blanket called Simple Gifts.

Below is Lauren's completed Granny rug and she enjoyed this more than the textile challenge we had last year, eh Lauren 😁

Sheila drew her own stylized version of a Granny design also, you rock gals.

And finally mine; the only creative thing I did to mine was change the camel to a horse and I still like Denise's horse better.

So there you have a grande finale show of rugs we've been working on during the hook-along.  So this door is officially closed and it was a fun project.

Rain to begin this afternoon and the March winds have arrived with a vengeance.  I already have a yard full of tree tops to clean up and may end up with some more before the end of tomorrow.  

I saw a tree which was hollowed out at the bottom and pray it doesn't fall across the driveway onto my house.  Am going to call and have it removed but suspect all tree companies are still cleaning up jobs from the two previous snow storms we had.

Happy Hooking and watch for tomorrow afternoon's blog post.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

Misc. Chit Chat

Found a few antique rugs on the internet which interested me, will share those, also a couple rugs I've hooked and a couple Granny updates too.  So it will be a diverse post.  

First with some antique rugs ~ Basket of Flowers was hooked early 20th century measuring 27 x 35.

I like the design and if I hooked it would make the hit and miss border at an angle like Vintage Hearts which I hooked below,  

or Posies and Stars antique adaptation I hooked except with a few less red wool strips in the border.

A Canadian hooked rug named Thistle measures 23 x 38.  This is the front and at first I thought the flower on the left was faded.

But when looking at the back it was obvious a different color than red was used.  Note also the rug was self-bound by folding over the burlap foundation and hooked thru all layers.

Hooked mid 20th century the Love Birds rug would make a great Valentine themed rug and even wedding rug for a family member.

A Boy and Girl playing with their dog.  Appears the boy is wearing a sailor suit, it measures 17 x 32.5 and was hooked early 20th century.

Now for a couple Granny Hook-along updates ~ Betsy (Heavens to Betsy) sent an update and cannot believe she has accomplished this much with having a business and hooking on another rug with friends each week.  Hers is so much more interesting than mine; she has added wings to the birds, different values in the dresses, cat and interesting choice of wool for the basket.  But guess I shouldn't be surprised at her talent as she IS a rug hooking teacher for goodness sake. 

Kim (My Field of Dreams) is making great progress on her background and will have the fun part of the border to do next.  By now she is probably already working on that border.

Betsy said she and a few other gals are hooking a Jane Stickle quilt design and told her I hooked one in 2011.  A group of us from Yahoo Rughookers bought the book "Dear Jane" to choose the quilt designs.  I chose patterns which I was sure could be hooked in no less than #8.

Below is how I designed my Jane Stickle rug.

Snow is almost all melted with the rain this evening and very mild temperatures it will probably be all gone tomorrow.  However just might end up with that recurring lake behind the house.

Better get to my hooking...ta ta.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

HOOK-ALONG UPDATE TIME

No update on mine this time as I've decided to pull a few more loops on Blue Bowl of Flowers to give participants' time to work on their Granny piece.   

Sheila decided to do a dark background and realized it would be too close in value with the purple dress so she reverse hooked it.  She said next time she'll choose her background color first.

This is a current photo with a new frock and a hooked chicken.

Lauren (Rugs and Pugs) decided Ole Jack needed some attention but did send me this photo to share.  

And am very pleased to have someone new join the group and am quite honored she would even consider playing in the wool with us.  Welcome Betsy (Heavens to Betsy).  She has been working steadily to have accomplished this much in just 2 days.  Her pattern measures 20 x 24 and did her own adaptation of a Granny Donaldson design.  Love the heart and that famous shaped antique cat.   Glad to have you Betsy.

Kim Is moving right along on her project too.  As I'd mentioned in my first post about starting this Granny hook-along, it was my belief that this was Karen's version of a Granny Donaldson design.

On the weather front thank goodness the weather folks called it wrong.  Had 8-10 inches rather than the 12-18 they predicted.  Now the sun is shining and melting the snow which will then freeze making driving unsafe at night.  Not to worry tho as I'll not be going anywhere.  

Happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

On the Frame

There is finally a pattern on my frame.  Even tho I began perusing antique rug photos before Winter Bloom was fully hooked I hadn't decided on what to hook next.  Matter of fact even after choosing the pattern and enlarging it changed my mind ~ so another pattern was enlarged.  But only one made it to linen ~ will get to that in a minute....

Decided against that beautiful sheep because I've already hooked at least 5 sheep that I can recall with two of them being E. S. Frost designs.

But haven't hooked a Panther or Whale.  After drawing out the Panther and enlarging it didn't care for the elongated dimensions.  It was too long and narrow (19 x 40).  To get a descent height it would have to be even longer OR, if I reduced the size to make it shorter would have been to narrow.  So decided that design wasn't doable for me.  

I live about 45 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean with the beaches of Lewes, Dewey, Bethany, and Rehoboth, Delaware;  Ocean City and Assateague, MD.  Last year there were sighting from Bethany Beach of a Humback Whale breaching water.  Even mentioned on my post there was a whale rug in my future.  At first I'd considered designing my own from the photo on that link, but am interested in antique adaptations so this is on my frame.

Now I'm a happy hooker with hook in hand.  Still have to finish binding 2 rugs but since that is not a pleasant task for me will work on it a little each day until they are done.  If only Betsy Reed was my mom and could pass on that chore to her like Erica does 😉.

Can't believe it will be December tomorrow.

Happy Saturday and happy hooking.

Saundra

Binding Almost done

Well..almost three-quarters done.  The yarn is variegated using all the same colors which are used in the rug.  So thought it would give a nice edge to pull the colors together since there was no border.  Will need another steaming after the whipping to smooth out the wave.

Since I took creative license to the rug design and cropped the tail from a 'Golden in the Garden' (by Nola Heidbreder) to make it a Rottweiler for my Ben, there is an empty space where the long tail would have curled.  Wish now I'd drawn in a padula flower.  I did hook a heart shape using the background wool but that doesn't show up.

Background wool is Irish Eyes from Heavens to Betsy.   The yarn I've had for a while and gave a skein to my gal pal Deb and she used it to bind the edge of this rug.

This is the yarn used.  

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the orb.  Wonder if that is the spirit of my boy Ben looking over me?  Yeah, I know many of you don't believe in orbs or have bad feelings about them.  But I believe they are good spirit guilds or spirits connected in some way to the person or area.

Had two dangerous dead trees cut and dropped yesterday.  They are still in the yard but am putting out feelers for people who may heat with wood as this is already seasoned and is NOT pine.  You can see how tall it was and my concern was that it would fall onto my neighbor's yard or on me during a windy day.  Now it is down.

Another in the back yard and not as tall but it was dead inside and dangerous since I like to use my clothes line.

That's all I got for today.  Hope everyone had a great weekend; weather is about to get more fall-like and I'm looking forward to it.  Even tho it's October the mosquitoes have been insatiable.  Am looking for the cold snap which gets rid of those and the pesky gnats.

Saundra

Maryland Shores Rug Show

I'll start with pieces hooked by Eric ~ Below is a design named Rick Rack and is for sale $1,700.  It was stunning looking at it up close.  I drew and hooked a rug similar, tho not this creative.  The shape is in at least one rug book on my shelf.

Eric, using the same concept but applying the design in a different way he did this smallish mat.  You can see the design in the four blocks, yet look at the artistic way he hooked the border and outlines of the blocks.  His mind is so creative.

Below is a huge rug hooked by Capri Boyle Jones which could be yours for $6,865. 

Another rug hooked by Eric is called Duncan and a Pearl McGowan design.  IF..IF I heard the conversation correctly, Pearl was asked to hook a 'log cabin' rug and this was her concept.  It is thought the circles in the middle was the chimney.  Remember, Pearl was NOT a primitive hooker.

Below, the edge of the rug and hit and miss scallop is gorgeous.  This was also hooked by Eric and he commented that primitive hookers love the edge but taken back by the orange and purple.   

Pat McDonnell hooked the rug below.  The design is called Gettysburg and was a pattern offered by Marion Hamm.

Dorset Flowers, below, hooked by Ingrid Heironimus is a design by Lucille Festa.  After seeing this rug hooked by Ingrid am now confident she could handle me in her class if I was hooking a primitive design.  Love her 'tile' squares for the background.

OMG, you should have seen this huge runner named Prudence, yet another Pearl McGowan design.  Eric said he had hooked about a third of the rug, found himself needing money.  So rather than finishing the project he sold it to Kathy Moyers who finished it.  You cannot tell where Eric's hooking stopped and hers began.  Awesome!

Here is the label on the back to document the story.  Eric asked if he could borrow it for his "Encore" to teaching this class.  And what a hell of a wonderful class it was Eric.

Pam Johnson hooked the proddy sheep design below from Heavens to Betsy. 

Pam Brune hooked Pumpkin Patch, a design by Betsy Reed.

There are more finished rugs in the show but since I hadn't gotten permission to post the photos didn't want to get in a battle with anyone.  

There are some in-progress photos from camp yet to come.  And then I'll show you mine.  Happy Tuesday.

Feeling so guilty and such a slug.  I have a rug pattern to design, still have laundry to do, yet enjoying the ambiance of slowly hooking on the camp rug.  Well, that is between doing yard work, grocery shopping and mom car pool for my neighbor's 3 kids.  I'm 76 and thought those car pool duties were over years ago.

Saundra

The Background Wool

Julia, my northern neighbor in Canada, asked me how I did the background on the Birthday Lion.  Actually, Julia, I didn't do anything special; it was mostly the different wool chosen that did the work.  I prefer to use more than one color wool in my backgrounds and borders.

As you can see there is a difference in color between the border and the inside around the lion.  I wanted a difference and have a big bag of primitive black wool for backgrounds which has a mixture of all dark wool.  So those strips from any dark textured wool adds to my primitive black background source.

The inside background is a combination of the three wool pieces you see above the rug.  From the left is Gemstone, then Whales Tail, and on the right a wool I've forgotten the name of but all three come from Heavens to Betsy.

The only other thing I did was hook areas in puzzle pieces where I could.  on the far right and between the lion's legs there wasn't much room to hook in blocks.  

So now the binding begins tonight and have resigned myself to the fact it needs to be done before starting anything else.  I've 3 days to completely finish the last two rugs within the confines of 2017.

Hope everyone is warm.

Saundra

Happier Times at Rug Camp

Time to turn my mood to something more positive and remember the fun of rug camp before having to leave.  But first would like to thank all those gals (and Eric) who helped gather my class equipment while I checked out of the hotel room.  Also, thank you all for the condolence emails.  I personally responded to those who I could reach, but thanks to the No-Reply bloggers who also sent warm messages.  Okay, now to the fun part.

This was a class with Betsy Reed who is standing in the back making her rounds.

Below is a picture with Cathy and Donna chatting.   This was Donna's very first rug camp and first experience hooking.  Her sister Pat is in the grey hoodie.  Sometimes other hotel guests would hear all the laughter and venture into the room.  Whereupon Donna proudly said it was her first time rug hooking and..."if she could do it anybody can".  Donna did a fantastic job and completed her first piece.  She started her second and even purchased some patterns and wool from Betsy to have something to do during the winter.  You go Donna!!!!! 

Betsy had some new items which I  hadn't seen at her last camp I attended; love this chicken pillow.

And here is a view of the patchwork back with wool applique eggs and embroidered patch EGGS. 

A house pillow, and wouldn't that make a great housewarming gift to someone or even for you?

If you think the front was cool, just look at the patchwork back.

The Scardy Cat pattern had to come home with me and added to the pattern stash.  Think I'll hook it as a mat for Halloween decoration instead of a pillow.

An elephant pillow....uh, think this pattern is already in my my stash too.

Look how well defined this basket and flowers pattern is hooked.  Wonderful on my blog but even better in person.

Cute Halloween Hat pillow by Betsy.

A pumpkin pillow with a proddy edge.

A Tree of Life rug design.

Another primitve and cute pattern of Betsy's with a braided edge.  I have never taken the time to do a braided edge but think the time is getting near.

I love the primitive dull colors in this star mat Betsy hooked.  It is a rather sizable mat and could be a small floor rug.  Sorry the carpet in the room is so distracting

And the back of the star mat below....me believes those were the wools used to hook the star too.

Since Blogger is doing strange things I  must have used up all the space for photos on this post.  There's more to share so will be sure to do another post soon.

Saundra