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

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

A Couple Updates and Confession

Just before noon today (Sunday) Kim sent me an update on her rug as she was going to be busy the rest of the day on the house remodel.  Am sure it was hard to walk away from the Granny project but the reward of a newly remodeled home far outweighs the tug of pulling loops.  This is Simple Gifts a design by Primitive Spirit which I'm sure was Karen's Granny adaptation.  

Then later in the day Sheila sent me an update on her mat.  She said purple wasn't her favorite color but her mother loved it.  Sheila also mentioned that she might change some colors, and I know all about pulling out loops as I've done that myself many times.  So perhaps when Sheila's mat update appears again it might look a tad different.

Before hooking on mine I grabbed several worm baggies (some call them noodles) I refer to them as worms since worms seem to multiply whereas noodles don't, lol.   

Okay, now to the elephant in the room.....I have a confession.  If I don't say it Robin (Cranky Crow) or her 'joined at the hip' sista Lauren (Rugs and Pugs) will blab all over the comment section and even post it on their own blogs that I'm a cheater.  So here goes:  I couldn't wait until Saturday to start this project because if you've read my blog you saw I'd wanted to hook it for weeks.  But I patiently waited until early Friday evening to start and this is how far I got.  Not that much, right?

Wasn't sure I wanted to use that wool for the tree but before bed decided to wait until morning to pull out the loops to see how I felt.  I'd used that same wool for other tree trunks and it was introduced to me by Barb Carroll for a rug and I've used it many times since.  But still was unsure.

Saturday morning with new eyes and new attitude decided to continue with that wool and this is how the rug looks now.  Am not crazy about that orange leaf to the right but will wait until more loops are pulled to decide if it needs a replacement.

The bird on top was hooked only with worms and had a vision for the tail with the directional weave and think my vision turned out well.  Below is a photo with the red wool which was purchased years ago from The Wool Studio and the tree trunk wool came from Heavens To Betsy and is called "Turkey Feathers".  Don't think either of them have carried the wool for several years and thankfully I've more left of each.  

When the other gals send me a photo of their work I'll share a photo of theirs.  And remember, don't believe a word that Lauren says about me...I've told the truth the whole truth and nutt'n but the truth.  And it was Robin who started that whole mess 😁.

Happy Sunday and happy hooking.  Can't wait to get back to Granny....TA TA.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

WOOLLY SANTA

Woolly Santa is all hooked and once Old Tom is bound I will begin binding this as December is just around the corner.  I did try to 'fix' Santa's stink eye situation, a couple times actually, and will settle with this look.  He does look a little softer.

Below is the photo before tweaking the eyes; I wanted his eyes to be blue but shows too dark and too close together.  I also trimmed his eyebrows.  

Photographing a rug is challenging for me.  The picture above was taken on my chilly breezy back porch with indirect sunlight but the flash still went off.  The photo below was taken inside the house with a flash.  Amazing how different the background and border colors look with that little bit of indirect sunlight.

There is nothing new on my frame today nor will there be this evening.  However, I'm thinking about designing one and have enlarged a couple motifs.  Will see how that 'plan' goes and if I get frustrated will pull something from my stash as I get the 'vapors' if I don't have a hook in my hand and pattern on my frame 😬. 

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

This, That and The Other Thing (edited)

THIS is what I'm working on now, have had this Primitive Spirit pdf pattern for years and finally decided to hook it.  As I often do, took the liberty to change something in the design.  The original has Santa holding a sack from which the small sheep is showing out of the top.  I felt that unnecessary and distracting to my eye so changed the mitten somewhat and hooked Santa in his clothing only, no sack.  

Figure the black mittens make the eye think there are legs folded under.  But I think the eyes and mouth needs a little work to make him look more happy.

Am editing the post to show you a view of the original design.  Should have done that upon doing the post yesterday.  

I'm hooking it in 8.5 and the sheep are hooked with varying sizes from #8 thru #9.  Below is the wool I'm using for the sheep and something purchased from Gail Dufresne several years ago at camp knowing it was a perfect sheep or Santa beard wool.

Santa's beard, however, is hooked with a very fuzzy white wool my pal Deb shared with me a few years ago.  I didn't take a photo of the beard wool as the fluff didn't show up, but here is a picture of the wool purchased from Gail.  

This wool is rather thick and I did hand cut a lot of it but when my hand tired of pulling wide strips of the thick wool I ran it thru my Townsend in #8.5.  It was a slow processing guiding that wool thru but made it more manageable to hook as I wasn't able to get uniform strips with hand cutting.  

THAT would be providing something Halloween for Cranky Crow's ravenous appetite.  In my sewing room I have two Halloween items hanging all year, one is yet another of Tonya Robey's handmade items.  Just love this wool Halloween stocking with the words BOO stitched near the toe.

I keep the Vintage Halloween Cat as a reminder to make a rug pattern from it.  The hanging ornament is a little worse for wear, has some bent pieces, areas taped and toes missing; but he is the only vintage Halloween item I own.

Took a photo of the back and you can see years ago when sold it was 10 cents, when I purchased it from the thrift store a few years ago I paid $1.

THE OTHER THING is taking a lead from Lauren (Rugs and Pugs) and make a "Project List" to monitor my accomplishments or lack of.  

    Wooly Santa ~ pattern to linen - hook - bind - label

    Old Tom ~ Hook - bind - label  😞  Sadly that task hasn't been done since the rug was hooked in September.  These are not the true colors of Tom as he isn't neon gold in person.

Okay, over and out for the day, gonna go pull more loops on my Santa this rainy day in Delaware.  Yesterday the temperature rose to 80* which is well over 10* higher than normal for this time of year and today will have a high of 56*.   Delaware is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com