RUG HOOKING CHIT CHAT

The last loops on 1911 Horse were pulled and out of necessity with no new rug to hook (yet) have started the binding process.

The rug will be bound using cotton rug binding tape as I don't want an extra row of any color at the edge.  I want the thin dark areas to show as they are since that is how the antique was.  

Below is a fun rug I found on an auction site in 2022.  The info was that it measures 17 x 19 and said to be hooked between 1920-1949.  Am finally posting it now because of an article in the latest ATHA  June/July issue of ATHA Magazine. 

In that issue there is another cat rug Amy hooked with Nola Heidbreder adapted from a famous St. Louis artist Charles Houska.  So perhaps this rug below is an adaptation of his work as well. 

If you received the latest issue of ATHA check out page 59.

This is a preview of the articles in the issue.

I enjoy this magazine as much if not more than RHM.  If you'd like to subscribe and see what other folks in your area are doing you can subscribe to ATHA HERE.

Nancy asked how I hid my ends.  Actually I've done 3 different ways and intended to do those on a piece of linen to show you.  But decided to take the easy way and provide you with a video by Cindy Gay, enjoy.

Hook on folks.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

RUG HOOKING 102

If you are pulling loops and have a comfortable rhythm, you have already graduated from rug hooking 101.  Many of the seasoned hookers will know this already but for you newbies here are a couple things you may not realize.  

There are no real hard/fast rules in rug hooking but rather guidelines like, pull loops up as high as the width of your wool strip, it is okay to use different size strips in the same rug but if you use #8.5 for most of the rug and use #4 for inside the flower, you need to pull that #4 strip up as high as the #8.  Other than that it is follow your heart.

Someone asked me if I would be offended should someone make changes to one of my patterns.   My answer was an honest "no I wouldn't be offended" as I've made my own creative changes to others' patterns.  There is a caveat with that choice tho ~ you still cannot claim it is your design even after making the changes.

Case in point, 2007 I hooked Kindred Spirits' Crow Sampler, her design shown below.

After buying the pattern and ready for my frame, I felt it needed a border framing all the way around.  It took a little time but I moved the border over and re-drew the pennies all the way around.  This is my hooked version and I cannot claim it my design, it is still an Ali Strebel design.

Another example is Bev Conway's whimsical pattern Speckled Hens.

Although her design is cute with huge eggs laid by the hens, I envisioned the design for them to be sitting on a straw nest, thus my finished rug  ~ it is still Bev Conway's design.

Yet another rug I made changes to is by Bill Laraway named Gossip.  This is his original pattern with some of my early redrawing of the design to suit me. 

And here is the finished rug.  Am so proud of the feathers and my birds.  When I posted the finished rug photo on Facebook I gave credit to Bill, of course, for the design and mentioned I took creative license.  He saw that post and gave me a 'like'.

Although I drew a modern day image of clock, added a cabin and chicks in the mat below, I cannot lay claim it is my original design.  For it was inspired from the antique quilt of Harriet Powers, therefore, you guessed it, it is an antique adaptation.  You can read a little about it HERE and see what I'm referring to.

Evelyn gave me a Nola Heidbreder pattern named Golden in the Garden.  Naturally it beckoned me to change that Golden into a Rottweiler. 

Perhaps one day I will take the rug off the wall and change Ben's head and nose as it doesn't look proportionate to the body.

This is how my boy Ben looked and I hooked it in mostly #8 and #8.5.

There have been a few other patterns I've had to change but won't go into the lengthy detail of the purchased botched antique adaptation of the Mary Comstock rug but you can read a segment about that HERE.

More for you newbies to know...and something I notice often even with rug teachers and people to sell patterns which irks me.  There are those folks who put their web site 'watermark' on antique rugs as if it is their brand.  An antique rug in public domain and dated 1927 or older is free for anyone to draw and cannot be copywritten.  Sometimes people put that watermark on a rug to make people believe they own the rights to draw it and only them.  

Not true.  Perhaps it would be a friendly thing to do, but that would be a monopoly with a lack of healthy competition.  Another thing I've noticed is where a pattern seller will make changes to an antique adaptation (changing a deer to a sheep), (changing a Magdalena animal into something else) and calling it their design.  

Nope, again not true, it is still an antique adaptation.  It would behoove them to change the wording to something like: inspired by Magdalena Briner Eby, or antique adaptation of Magdalena Briner Eby or if the designer is unknown, that word would do too ~ but it is still an antique adaptation.

Sorry if this was a boring blogpost or seems redundant, but I wanted to write about something and this subject popped in my head.  Happy weekend and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

P.S.  Colleen, I cannot respond to you since you are a no-reply blogger.  Please introduce yourself thru the E MAIL ME section of my blog so I can add you to my contacts.

                                    

THIS and THAT

I switched out a rug from the computer room to my bedroom.  This is Shadow's Memorial which previously hung to the left of me as I face the computer.

Now she is in the bedroom along with the memorials of my other beloved pets.  Her collar is placed closer to her as are her ashes.  Each time I walk past her ashes I'm reminded to get a piece of that matching wool and hook a top for the ash box to make it less offensive to my eyes.  I love having her ashes but the crematory name triggers a memory of her passing.

I had a great teacher for Shadow's piece at camp but it was stressful for me to hook in a class setting.  Only regret is following her suggestion for this periwinkle color background; wish I'd used the soft green as in the Shumba and Panzer Memorial as well as Ben.  At least it would have been a better companion to the rug I placed her against which is actually similar in color to the other memorial rugs.

Most of you have seen these over and over but I do have a couple new followers and maybe they haven't.  Here is the Shadow and Panzer Memorial; they were hooked with #3 strips and the background with #5 or #6 cut cant remember which.

And here is Ben hooked at home without a teacher and hooked in #8 except for a few thin strips for detail ~ and yes I used the same background wool it just looks washed out as the photo was taken with a different camera.

In the same room I also hung a pattern by Nola Heidbreder named Golden in the Garden but I changed the dog to look like a Rottie named Ben.  Did a bad drawing job on Ben's profile but made up for it when drawing the real Memorial above.  This was never intended to be his memorial rug so the above piece was hooked after.  

Another view of the two on adjacent walls.  So now you can see this picture of Ben's profile is the same green as Shumba and Panzer.  The jointed fur bear I made for my mother from her mother's (my grandmother) mink coat and it has a Coast Guard charm as both grandparents were in the Coast Guard.  I inherited it after mother passed.

Remember last week when I filled my car up with gas and I paid $3.17 per gallon and that's the cheapest in town.  When I went to the grocery store during the weekend it was $3.27 so went up another 10 cents in just a few days.  Thanks to Joe Biden for shutting down the pipeline.

That's it for me tonight and I feel like a slug with nothing much accomplished, not much even on my horse rug.  Yesterday a lot got done in the yard and even made a big bowl of vegetable soup.   Matter of fact when I go outside and come back in it still smells like vegetable soup in the house.  So won't even be cooking tonight, just scoop out a bowl full of vegetable healthy goodness.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

Rug Hooking Detour (Edited Edition)

...edited edition will begin with the iPad Pencil further down.

Am taking a brief break away from Glazer Antique Hearts and make changes to a rug I hooked last year at Rugs by the Sea in Cape May.  Seems like that rug camp has taken complete control over my mind lately.  

That rug getting my attention again is a pattern named Golden in the Garden which you can read about by clicking on that link.  This is how it looked after finishing it October 2018.  I wasn't completely pleased with how my boy Ben turned out (I changed it from a Golden Retriever to a Rottweiler).  He was supposed to be a wide cut primitive but wasn't pleased with the head.  But before that challenge decided to work on the snail and make it a little more prominent.  Below is the before.

Above was the snail before and below is how the snail looks now.  Hmm the new photo looks a little washed out.  Next to tackle my boy Ben.

Rather than just ripping out any wool on Ben thought I'd use my Apple Pencil for the first time since purchasing the new iPad last year.  Am hoping this exercise will give me better direction on how to proceed.  Remember, I'm a novice at this and is my first try.

Unfortunately there isn't an exact color choice for the background.  Since Ben's head is too big for the body it is the dark wool which needs to be removed and replaced with background wool.  Thankfully I've more of that wool.  Will also have to tweak what black wool is there.

Here is the edited version.....  Here is my first experience with the Apple Pencil to see how to make changes to my boy Ben.  At first thought using the black line might help me decide what colors to pull to make the head/muzzle better.  BTW, this was before changing the snail.  This first try I felt his muzzle would be too short, too boxy and didn't represent my boy.

Second attempt at using a black line drawing on the photo thought I'd shave off a little under the muzzle.  But with the black lines on black hooking couldn't see what the results would be.

That is when I decided to use a close color to the background, alleviate the black on black to see what the face would look like with those sections removed.  

Guess if you don't have or know about the Apple iPad pencil then you don't can't grasp what I've tried to demonstrate.  There is no lead or ink in the pencil, it is a program in the newer iPads and the pencil is purchased separately.

Dear Zekes Mom and rx2Massey, thank you for your comments but because you are a NO-REPLY Blogger I was unable to respond to you personally.  There is an easy way for you to fix this, all you have to do is a search for "fix no-reply blogger".

Today I still didn't get to work on Ben and tomorrow the stitches are removed from my gum.  Sure hope I'm healed enough for those to be removed just 6 days after surgery.  

Saundra

Both Finished

Am happy the last two pieces are all hooked, steamed and bound.  I think Lady the Donkey has the sweetest face, she is an antique adaptation.  Her bridle is hooked with antique paisley.  

Below is the original antique, I hooked Lady in brown instead of the grey to remind me of my grandfather's mini-donkey.

Previously shown when only partly bound, is Nola Heidbreder's Golden in the Garden pattern which I took creative license to make it look like my boy Ben.

Last Saturday there were two dead trees cut and dropped.  Here is what one of them looked like last Saturday.  It doesn't look that bad at this angle but believe me there were a lot of big and small limbs removed from that area.

Before any presence of Michael and expected rains it took several trips to haul as much of the brittle limbs deep into the back of the woods as possible.  Uh, yeah, by myself.  Today this is what it looks like. 

Sorry for anyone hit with the initial surge of the hurricane.  For this area of Delaware Michael is to bring anywhere from 2" to 7" of rain.  Depending on the direction of the wind/rain will determine how much I get.  But since I live in a flood zone can imagine it won't be pretty .....AGAIN.

Saundra

You've All Been Waiting & Important Message

Many have inquired about my Cape May project and wanting to see it.  There is a story to tell about this camp choice.  First, the pattern was given to me last year at Cape May by my friend Evelyn.  It is a pattern from Nola Heidbreder named "Golden in the Garden".  This is a pic of the rug pattern on Nola's web site.

Close to time for camp thought I'd let Evelyn know I was going to hook her generous gift but letting her know I was changing the dog from a Golden to a Rottweiler, in honor of my boy Ben.  She approved.  It wouldn't be realistic but primitive in keeping with the pattern theme.  

So this is what my version of the design looks like ~ it still needs to be steamed and bound.  OMG, it looks so different in the photo and is so washed out.  The shell on the snail isn't pink at all ~ I hate camera flashes.

Anyway, my boy Ben is in place of the Golden to suit me.  He isn't drawn in perspective as there was only so much space allotted where the Golden was drawn.  I started hooking the face which appears larger than the body.  But ya know what, it was his face and heart which was most important anyway.  So the smallish of the rest of him doesn't matter in this rug.

The rug will lay on the floor beside me where I hook and where he would lay looking thru the window.  This was a very fun rug to hook at Cape May.  Lucille did a great job guiding me to make it more my colors.  Uh, although she did say my reds were too bright.  

**IMPORTANT MESSAGE** 

Some people (newbie hookers and uninformed) think because I changed the major focus of the design I could say it was my design.  Not so.  It is a pattern design by Nola Heidbreder which I took "creative license" to make the dog my boy Ben.  

I CANNOT sell patterns calling it Rottweiler in the Garden.  BUT, if I use my boy's image and make the background totally different, then could call it my design.  Just a little 'heads up' to keep everyone straight.

Enjoy hooking everyone and THANK YOU Lucille.

Saundra

Getting Ready

The 'gathering' has begun and it is being collected in my office near the garage door.

Haven't packed my suitcase yet as I wanted to print out the 10-Day Weather Forecast  for Cape May to see what will be needed.  It looks to be a good week.  I almost feel guilty for being thankful Florence didn't come upwards along the east coast.  Poor folks and animals in North and South Carolina are being battered, some deaths, and will take a while for them to recover.

Okay, moving on to lighter topics.....

I weighed myself this morning before breakfast and am 125 pounds.  Always want to see how much weight I gain at camp and then upon coming home work at getting back to that weight again.  I do love the food there but choose to not eat the red meat or pork.  My favorites are fish (particularly the salmon) and chicken if it is baked ~ no fried chicken even tho I hear it is delicious.  Also yummy is their corn pudding and delicious homemade yogurt.  

In the photo above you can see 9 rugs rolled up, that is the number of rugs completed since last year's Cape May camp.  I'm not done with Lady the Donkey yet so she isn't among the rolled up rugs.  But will take her to work on until Lucille gets to me.

Last year at Cape May I started On the Loose with Cammie Bruce, a design by Bev Conway.

When it was finished I drew and hooked an adaptation of a dog who I named Spike.  I'm hoping my friend Evelyn will take hers as she started hooking it at Cape May last year.

Also hooked a smaller version of Magdalena's Goat.  The first larger one true to the original size was hooked similar to Magdalena's.  But the second smaller one thought I'd show folks a different color palate.

At Cape May last year I was lucky enough to purchase 1909 Horse pattern (by Emma Lou Lais) at a great price.  It seemed to hook fast since it takes no time to finish a block and before you realize it the whole rug is hooked.

At Ocean City, MD last November I started Primitive Horse which is a pattern by Lib Callaway that I'd had for some time. That pattern seems to be the rage now so decided to pull mine out and hook it.

In an April class with Eric Sandberg I hooked this Nola Heidbreder's Flower Power design. 

Next, itching to replicate an antique chose a design from the Kopp book which I named Radiant Flower.

With Cape May looming closer, was feeling the pressure to hook the "Sheep at the Beach".  It was a pattern so generously given to each student at last year's Cape May rug camp.  This is the design drawn on Monk's cloth, except there were no exterior lines.  I drew those to not exceed beyond that to ensure room for binding.

This what I designed.  It will be fun to see how others hooked their pieces and will take pictures of all of them to share with you.

And the last rug completed since last September is Stars and Diamonds antique adaptation.  I hooked the sheep in short spurts while concentrating on the adaptation.

Will have my iPad with me so I'm only an email away.  Not sure how successful I will be posting newly created blog posts while I'm gone but will try.

Saundra

Something I've Never Done Before

In all the years of attending rug camps never once have I started a pattern before class.  Nor have I ever taken a rug to work on which was started in someone else's class.  But this year at Cape May I decided to start "Golden in the Garden" before camp.  This is what the original design looks like by Nola Heidbreder.

Since I wanted to change the golden retriever into a rottweiler image of my dear boy Ben thought it best to start that transition at home.  The shape of the body and face needed to re-configured.  This is what it looks like now.  I used #8.5 and #9 wool strips.

Did not have intentions to make this a realistic looking image of my boy but did want it recognized as a Rottweiler.  You can see where the belly, neck/back and legs have been changed.  The head and body are out of proportion but when I glance at this rug it will definitely remind me of my boy Ben.

In case you are wondering...... I drafted this blog post on my PC at home, saved it and plan to 'publish' it one day after arriving at Cape May.

Happy hooking and hope all your loops look perfect.

Saundra

Making Rug Labels again

There is a lull between rug label making as several pieces need to be hooked before a label is made to fill a page.  This is what I printed out today then realized I'd missed a rug.  Will save that for next time.  

These still need to be attached to the rugs but placed the labels on top of black felt to show up better.

It had been so long between label making I'd forgotten to print it in 'normal' instead of 'draft' format.  So the color on the labels isn't really crisp.  

If you are checking out the rug names you may wonder why there is a light background on that 2nd left side Flower Power label since I hooked mine with a black background.  That is the pattern shown on Nola's web site. 

I've attached the printed labels differently ~ in the beginning I just attached the cotton printed label directly onto the back of the rug like below.

Then decided to sew the label on black felt first and then attach like below.

Since the second choice takes two steps, albeit neater and more sturdy, am considering forgetting the second step.  Out of curiosity, which would you do?

Also, I've previously posted a tutorial on how I make labels.  If you would like to visit please click HERE.   Well crap!!!!  While copying and pasting that link was reminded that I have put EIGHT (8) labels on one sheet.  No wonder there was so much excess waste cut away today.  Oh well......

Another rainy day today and another tomorrow.  My pond is back and will be lake before the rain ends.

Saundra

Flower Power is Finished

Yippee, Flower Power is hooked and whipped.  I really need to steam it again to tame the whipped edges but was too anxious to post a picture of it.  This was the design hooked with Eric Sandberg in April.

The finished size, after adding the border and whipped edge, is 19.5 x 32.  I purchased the pattern at a very good price from Maria Barton several months ago and the original drawing didn't have a border.  There was adequate space for me to give it a 1.5" border and still have the inch to roll forward for the whipping.  Of course I had to sew a piece of fabric on two sides to make it work on my frame but that was fine as I wanted that border.

You can see the pattern is a design by Cactus Needle and sold by Nola Heidbreder.  Now I can get ready to put another pattern on my frame and start all over again.  Thank goodness there aren't any rugs on the sidelines waiting for binding tho.

Happy Tuesday.

Saundra