Lucky Find Cleaning the Shed

Recently I started cleaning out the shed of 'junk'.  Amazing how much debris was disposed of.  BUT.... amongst the trash I found two treasures.  Two dog collars belonging to my departed Shumba and her son Panzer.  Those tags had the address of Columbia, MD where this photo below was taken which inspired my hooked wall hanging.

Had to take a photo of the tags before attaching to my hooked piece.

Tried to attach with the rings but the tags didn't hang right so removed the rings.  

Above is a photo of 'before'.  And below is what it looks like now.  

As a side note, in V of each dog's neck their own hair is hooked in. When they were alive and groomed I'd save their hair in individual baggies with this intent.  Yes, Rotties have short hair so wouldn't be good for spinning into yarn UNLESS you have a friend who spins and used a very thin piece of wool roving to blend in the spinning process. That friend was Leslie Covney of Florida who has since departed.

When looking at the hooked piece you can see their hair texture and it was hooked where the color changed between the brown and black.  I love this and am proud of my work.  The dogs were hooked in #3 wool strips but learned to hate narrow cut so did the background in #5 cut.

I've willed this piece to my ex but if he is departed it is to go to my local veterinary hospital for the euthanasia room.

Oh, just as soon as that rug was bound and hung on my wall I drew out a PRIMITIVE design depicting my girl and boy and hooked it in #8...my kind of cut.  Well it was my cut back then but have since gone larger.

Happy weekend everyone.

Saundra

Pondering What To Do Next

With Turkey and Tallowberries almost bound and wanting it DONE, am wondering what I'll hook between now and leaving for Cape May camp in just 12 days. 

As my focus will be on the new camp rug when getting home surely don't want a regular size rug vying for my attention.  So I've decided to pull out this hit and miss UFO.

This is what it looked like August 16th.  And am wondering if one of my readers has decided to do one too?  Was that you Gayle?  If so, have you started yours?  Would love to see you post it when you do.  And DUH, this is NOT my design.  It is just a hit and miss and anyone is welcome to do their own thing.

Something else I'm considering starting before Cape May is this pattern.  That is IF I get bored with the above hit and miss.

One year when taking a class with Eric Sandberg he had a side workshop teaching 'light, bright, dark and dull'.  The pattern he offered for sale which was a Fraser design, was the Paisley Stair Tread. 

At that time (and still now) was a wide cut hooker using #8 cuts.  I hadn't hooked anything narrow and thought this would be a great way for me to start.  Besides, Eric is a fantastic teacher, magnificent designer and hooker. The class was enlightening and had high hopes of doing something spectacular with the design.

Then I hooked my beautiful Rottie Memorial in #4 cut.  

I love how my beautiful babies turned out, know that I do have the talent to pull off a narrow cut but do not like hooking narrow cuts.

So that is when the Paisley piece went into my stash.  It isn't a big piece and IF I end up pulling loops on it will start out with #8 and fight the system.  However, could be that more narrow cuts will be used to fill in small spots and that is doable. 

Who knows what I'll end up hooking before camp.  So stay tuned.  

What I know for sure is that soon I'll have to start a fire under my arse to get things done here before I go.

Have a great evening everyone.  Weather here is soon going to change back to the 90s of August instead of the mild temps of September.  

Saundra

New Rug Labels

Since all my rugs have been bound and ready for the Cape May rug show thought I'd make rug labels for them and some older rugs which had no label. 

Last year at Cape May is when I started working on my Shadow girl Memorial rug from a photo.  During the labeling process decided that her photo should be on the label which was the inspiration.  Here is my Shadow girl who was a wide cut with #8 wool strips.

This is the label which I've attached to the back.  I'm so glad I decided to put a photo which was the inspiration on the back.  All I did was copy and paste a smaller picture in the label area.

Then it was onto the Rottweiler Memorial piece which was hooked way back in 2006 and never had a label.  I hadn't started labeling rugs back then, just the initials and date on the rug.  Here are my departed Rotties and they were both delightful, perfect companions.

This is the label on which I mentioned my then married name and my special loving names each dog was given by me.....Shumba-dumba and her son was Panzer-wanzer.  I used to sing, "Panzer-wanzer sitting under a tree......."

If you would like to read about how I made these labels again, or if you are new to my blog to find out how they were made click HERE.

 

Have a great evening everyone and enjoy this beginning of fall like weather.

 

Saundra

 

 

 

For Better or Worse

And right now it is beginning to feel like it is 'for worse'.  When I looked at the original photo of Shadow and what I'd hooked it looked as tho I needed to make that extra flesh fold line so pulled out several loops and hooked it in.  Now this most recent photo of my hooking makes her appear as tho she has on a collar or weird hooker making irrational hooking choices.

This is the pose I chose for her portrait and you can see the fold that I made a stab at. 

Perhaps I should have left well enough alone when Shadow looked like this and before I pulled out loops and rehooked what you saw in the first posted picture.

But now I have to obviously pull out the *#!? loops once AGAIN.  And do what????  Hook back in the strips that I removed????  Were it not the fact that I'm so close to being done, and the fact that she was a precious part of my life and loyal companion, I'd roll this up and stuff it in the back of some shelf so I didn't have to look at it for a while.

Today I really thought that I would be on the right track and the change needed to motivate me to complete the rug.  Not so; I've had it, I'm frustrated and plan to pull loops on Long Island Farm for relaxation tonight. 

I'd thought of taking the rug with me to my workshop this weekend and get teacher advice to set me straight and give me direction.  But don't know if I want to taint my fun time at camp bringing it even if only for advice.  Obviously I will NOT be hooking on Shadow at camp because this will be a fun camp and not work.

Sorry to use the blog as a sounding board and I'm not normally a negative type person.  But Shadow was started in early September and it is now November 7th.  The rug only measures like 19 x 20 or something like that.  I would have had most things this size hooked inside a month or less.

So now that you've heard me rant and rave I'm wondering how many primitive hookers (like me) are interested in doing realistic hooking now?  I'm pretty sure this will be my last.  Heck, I thought I was doing good by hooking Shadow in a wide cut #8 vs. #3 like my departed Rottweilers were hooked in (below).  But think the days of hooking realistically is over for me.

It is time for me to take my boy Ben for a walk and will hopefully walk off a little frustration with the fresh air and the driveway full of pretty fallen leaves. 

Have a great evening everyone.

Saundra

Blogger an AH HA Moment

Now the picture is becoming more clear.  I can recall other people with Google Blogger who had to pay extra for pictures.  So now it is clear where this is going.  Guess it is time to see what other options there are out there.

The above is a picture I hooked of my departed Rottweilers Shumba and Panzer.  The SS is because I was married at the time and after the divorce changed my name back to Porter.  The dogs were hooked in #4 and the background in #6.  In the nape of the neck of each dog is some of their own individual hair which was spun on a thin wool thread by my dear departed friend Lesley Covney.


Saundra

Small Fix not Enough

My small fix was not enough and now I know what to do.  Since I was afraid of a radical change from the direction given me on color planning the rug didn't want to just rip out everything at the border line.  So thought about keeping the red there and adding spokes and blue.  But now, with this picture I know exactly what I need to do.... well, almost.  Here is a picture I just took with the minor change.  But sometimes it really is best to start with a minimal change and see if it works.  However, my quick fix did not fix the problem.

For sure that red is coming out at the top and will be filled in with the background color (I can always dye more wool).  After hooking the background color in I'll have a better idea as to whether it should be the blue for the banner line or maybe switch it to red since there will be blue along the rest of the perimeter.  Even tho this is primitive nice linen I'm not sure about pulling out and re-hooking numerous times because it will eventually weaken even linen I'm sure.  So I'll hold off replacing the blue yet again (was red before if you check back in my blog) so already it has been re hooked twice.  But with that going to be the background color will try red for the banner line in a new spot along the way to make a comparison.

Must say I was almost tempted to just put this whole rug and wool aside as I was quite frustrated ~ didn't like what I saw, thought that I had a color plan all ready in place and it wasn't working out.  But since I'll start another rug in 3 weeks thought that I'd see it thru because what isn't needed in my house is yet another UFO collecting dust and having negative vibes.

And, in all honesty, while I love love love whimsical and colorful rugs that I see hooked by others, I just don't have that in me to do it justice.  I love Gail DuFresne rugs, love her color sense but just cannot pull it off.  Even took a class with her asking her to please force me out of my comfort zone.  Bless her heart she tried, I finished the rug and sold it at a show, so someone appreciated my piece.  Yet, it wasn't me and so desperately wanted to be able to go there.  Which means there is no way that I could ever be a McGowan certified teacher because I cannot do bright color.  

Okay, for McGowan certification you'd have to do narrow cut and wide cut primitive,  I've done narrow cut and know for sure that I CAN do it.  But do I like it?  Heck no!  Here is a picture of my Rotties hooked in #3 and background in #5 and if I could have pulled off a background in #8 to make it look right I'd have done just that.

Yes, I love the cute Wee Folk design and have wanted to hook it for years.  But each year I'd choose something else to hook instead.  Well now is the time to get this baby done and out of the way.  For in November I'll be back to my wide cut, naive, dark primitive old looking rugs!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my thoughts.

Saundra

One Day and a Wake-up.....

.... before I leave for Cape May.  But before I ramble on about that, I know how all of you look forward to looking at rugs so thought I'd post a wide cut hooked rug of my departed Rottweilers Shumba and Panzer.  The other day I posted a picture of them hooked in #3 cut and as soon as that was hung on the wall I immediately started hooking a wide cut, primitive rug of them.  Just had to get it out of my system and prove to everyone that you can get some detail with #8 strips.  

Shumba measures 13" tall and Panzer is about 14 1/2" tall, both hooked in #8 cuts.  Yes, I've very proud of that narrow cut piece and even incorporated some of their own hair which I saved in a bag when I would groom them during happy days.  Then I had a friend spin the hair on a narrow core of wool.  That wool/hair combination can be seen at the neck where the color changes.  Hard to see in the picture (from the other day's blog) but very easy to see in person.  Frankly, I think this rug shows the essense of who these great dogs were.  So here is the wide cut:

You can see my Townsend Orbiter on the floor, two small totes with wool for my rug, but already in the van is a container which holds those rings with samples of all the wool I'm taking.  So the totes of wool will stay in the van and I'll only pull out larger pieces of what is selected for the rug...saves time unloading and loading back up .

Also the OTT light is patiently waiting in the back of the chair, there are some items I'm taking to 'hopefully' sell at the camp store ~ flower pins in the long vintage sewing machine drawer, some pouches for snippets or hooks with a magnet on top to hold scissors.  Then, inside that patriotic sack are 10 rugs and mats that I am taking for the show display.  Good grief, that is the most I've ever taken in one year.

Suitcase still has to be packed because I'm watching the weather to see what kind of wardrobe will be needed, my Townsend cutter is still upstairs and being used before I go so HOPE I don't forget to take it.

Now, I'm going to talk about Blogger.  Yes, they are generous to give us free blogging capabilities, but sometimes it drives me NUTS!!!  Nuts I tell you!!!!  Somehow my blog spot disappeared between yesterday and sometime this morning.  Even I couldn't find it.  I did notice yesterday that I was given a box to put my telephone number in and I refused.  So here is what I surmise......

First must tell you all that I HATE the word verification thing.  A lot of times the letters are so squished together that you can't tell an 'a' from an 'e', or an 'f' from an 'r'.  Sometimes the numbers are so blurry they are hard to detect too.  So I do know that on some blogs where I tried to post a comment I didn't get the letters right so it prompted me to another series of  letter/number combinations.  Maybe that is what happened and Blogger wanted to verify it really was me and not some stupid robot trying to decipher the numbers.

Anyway, this morning I did put in my phone number and had an automated return call giving me a code to type in a box which gave me my blog back.  So people, let me say that from this day forward I will not make any comment to any one's blog who has that stupid and hard to read word identification.  There, nuf said and glad I got it off my chest.

Thanks for this visit and this girl has to get of'n this machine and work more toward getting ready for camp.  TA TA.

Saundra

Prelude to Cape May

Even tho it seems like an eternity, it has only been one year since last rug camp at Cape May.  I'm sure that I've previously posted about the 'hidden messages' technique that Bev was teaching last year and it would be in last September or October 2011 blog.  While I wasn't in her class last year she spoke about the technique at mealtime and was interesting.  But just in case you didn't see that post I'll do it again to let you know what a part of our class will include.  You can see my initials and date hooked into the the Rottweiler Memorial (Shumba and Panzer) hooked and seen from the top.  The initials were before the divorce when I took back my deceased husband's last name of Porter ~ yeah, more than you needed to know.

However there is a way to hide initials as well as secret messages that can be seen from the back and won't destroy the beauty of the front.  An example would be a rug which Bev hooked for her daughter's Wedding Rug.  This is what the wonderful top looks like.

The full message hooked says, "Life isn't measured by how many breaths you take, but rather by how many times it takes your breath away." 2010 Ashley Jeff All my love bmc

I don't plan to do a whole long message but will put my initials and date so it can be seen from the back and not the front.  It does take a little more effort to do Bev's technique but you can definitely see the benefits.

Thanks for visiting.

Saundra

Rottweiler Memorial

What piqued my interest in wanting to learn to hook rugs was the look of the primitive rugs I would see while looking thru issues of the older Country Living magazines, plus the fact that I have antique furniture (well eclectic and antiques).  So then as a hooker and visiting camps and rug shows I'd see these lovely narrow cut rugs.  I wondered if my choice to hook wide cuts and primitive was really because I would be lousy at narrow cut hooking.

So I decided to try a narrow cut but knew it would have to be something near and dear to my heart or I probably would never finish it.  So I decided to do a memorial profile portrait of my dearly beloved Rottweilers Shumba (the mother) and Panzer (her son).  They are hooked in #3 cut and I was so happy to have successfully finished that so did the background in #5.  If I thought I could have pulled it off successfully I would have hooked the background in #8 but knew there would be too much difference.

So just as soon as that was bound and hung on the wall I immediately drew out a primitive pattern of my dear dogs and hooked it in #8.  Ahhhhhh, I was in heaven.