MY FAVORITE WAY TO BIND A RUG

Actually I don't have a favorite way. 

I liken it to when I used to make dolls ~ after the cloth doll was sewn and stuffed the shape inspired me to either hand stitch facial features or paint them.  Likewise once the doll had a personality she inspired the clothing I'd make.  Below is one with a stitched primitive face.

Another with a Victorian look.

Don't want to bore you so will do just one more picture, but you get my drift I'm sure.

So depending on the rug is how and when I choose the style binding I'll do; and think I've done them all.  The rug below is a Bev Conway design named Rufus hooked in 2006 when I was in my brighter side of the crayon box.

I bound the rug with a bias wool covered cord.

BTW Blogger is NOT playing nice at all today.  It will not allow me to enlarge the photos.  Hopefully if you tap on the photos they will appear larger for you to get a better look.

Magdalena's Goat (and other rugs) have wool yarn whipped edges here is a corner of the front and back views.  I used to do wool whipped edge with cording but no longer do the cording.

Cherries and Candy Stripe was bound using the doubled cotton fabric technique which I have done on a few occasions.

This chicken rug was done in a completely different style as I wanted it to look primitive.  Betsy Reed demonstrated the technique in a class and you can see how I did it HERE.

And the last way I've bound rugs is using the traditional cotton binding which can be purchased in various colors.

I would like to suggest you not place your wool covered cord rugs in a highly walked area.  One of my rugs wore thin and you can see those white holes on the left side and bottom of the photo below.  Those are not moth holes, the wool has worn thin.

Okay, I know what you're thinking and saying to yourself, "but the cord edge protects the hooked edge".  Yes, that may be true but I've rugs in well used areas with cotton binding and the wool on those at the edge has not worn thin.

Well, I've an Ox Farm pattern to draw and hope to clean the pollen covered back porch.  Have a great weekend.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

  

My Hooked Items #3

The year 2006 brought forth new experiences for me.  Feeling a little more comfortable with a hook in my hand and my abilities did something I'd been insecure about trying ~ narrow cut hooking.

The intimidation was not just internal but also external.  When starting to hook on the eastern shore the hobby/art/craft was consumed with McGowan narrow cut designs and rug hookers.  As mentioned in a previous post, the McGowan school would only allow McGowan, Primco or Charco designs.  

There appeared to be an atmosphere that wide cut hookers were not considered 'real' rug hookers; if your project wasn't a flower using dip dyed wool with fingering technique or an oriental rug you weren't up to snuff.  Or at least that is what I felt.  

So under the tutelage of Jon Ciemiewicz decided to hook my Rottie Memorial in #3.  Hey, I was used to hooking in #8.  Yes, I was able to get good detail with the #3.  As soon as the dogs were hooked decided the background would be hooked in a wider cut so used #5 (or was it #6?) for the background.

As a side note, when the dogs were alive and would groom them would save each of their hair in a baggie.  Later, a dear friend spun each of their hair on a narrow piece of wool roving.  That wool was hooked at the nape of necks of each dog.  And, the dog tags were added just recently when being found while cleaning out my shed. Below is the photo from which the design was hooked.

Just as soon as the Rottweiler narrow cut was hung on the wall I drew out a primitive design and hooked the pups in #8.  That one is on the floor beside my bed and has been there since 2006.  Many is the night that Ben will lay on it.

That same year at Cape May I took a class with Bev Conway where I hooked her design named Rufus.  I had seen someone the previous year hooking it and loved the wild a crazy colors of the mane.  Now remember, I'm not normally a wild and crazy color person but it was another 2006 challenge and experience.  But hooked in #8 of course.

As I was doing artisan shows (primitive dolls and hooked items) thought hooking items to sell might be in order to help support my habit.  So I hooked the following items which sold at shows.  Some of the same design were hooked over again to replace the ones sold previous and purses were really popular, particularly the cat purses.

Decided to try a hooked penny or cat's paw purse and it even sold.

This same year I hooked Stars in Blocks and purchased the kit from ebay because someone didn't want to finish it.

My original way to document what I hooked was with photos on my computer's hard drive.  Then the unthinkable happened ...my computer crashed and along with it many of my hooked rug photos were lost. When I could find photos of them most times I'd 'cropped' the photo so the date of the photo changed.  Now, I have started a Word document with the rugs by year.  

What makes it difficult tho is getting the timeline right.  One such example is this 1880 Running Horse adaptation which has a last date of 2010.  But I know it was hooked before that so will include it in 2006.

That horse rug has been sold but guess I had better pull out all my other rugs and check the dates before continuing with this 'my rugs' story.  Also need to back track and make a label for those which have been neglected.  Let this be a lesson to all of you, learn from my mistake.

Happy Sunday everyone.

Saundra

Rufus and Friday Wine Tasting

On Fridays several of us friends gather at the local liquor store for wine tasting.  We get to catch up on each other and test new and different wines for less than an hour.  It is always fun and they have come to expect the 'local hooker' to bring something for show and tell.

Tonight I decided to take a rug they had never seen before as there's nothing much progressed on any of the UFOs.  So I took RUFUS, a design by Bev Conway which was hooked in her 2006 Cape May class.

Much to my surprise the owner of the liquor store picked it up, inspected it, hugged it and asked what it would sell for.  I told him it wasn't for sale.  Again, he persisted asking what it would sell for IF it was for sale.  To that my comment was...."it is bigger than the last rug you purchased so it would cost more".  Then I added...."I'm getting ready for rug camp and if you really are interested in purchasing the rug contact me later."  With that he took a picture of it.

Am not holding my breath and not dependent on a sale of a rug.  BUT... how many rugs must I keep?  Believe me when I say there are many here to give duplicates to my relatives and still have hanging on my walls or on the floor....OR, the ones I switch during holidays for the harvest table.  So a sale would give me more cash flow for rug camps and more wool to feed my addiction.

Have a great evening everyone.  I'm in the calm before the storm ~ tomorrow is when all the S**t hits the fan, the van gets loaded and leave for camp on Sunday morning.  

Saundra

New Rug / Old Rug

I have been trying to decide what to hook at my next rug camp and have narrowed it down to something with lions.  This will make the fourth lion rug I've hooked.  This is the last one I hooked:

The one before that was Rufus, a design by Bev Conway which I hooked in her class.

The one previous to that was a Mad Hen lion rug and unfortunately lost the photo and the rug has been sold so not available for a picture.  However, this is a picture of the design I hooked, designed by Tonya (borrowed from her web site).

So now am thinking of doing a antique adaptation of a lion and lioness.  There is only two weeks left before camp so I have a lot of preparation to do and I'd better get busy.

What is making matters worse is the FrankenStorm hitting us here on the eastern coast.  It is headed directly in my path and within the last 5 years have been flooded out twice.  This development has a stream surrounding it which gets run off from a local pond and river just a mile from me.

So will be sketching and using electric resources while I still have them because news is that power outages will occur and probably for days.  OY!  I've plenty of batteries, candles, water and have propane gas logs for heat in the living room.  If worse comes to worse I'll sleep on the sofa and Ben can sleep in the room too.

Keep your fingers crossed that all the preparation is for naught and a miracle happens and the Mother of all Storms goes out to sea.

OH, and I'm making some headway on the Wee Folk and the 'old' rug will be updated tomorrow after I pull a few more loops.

Saundra

A few more of my rugs

Who doesn't love a rug show?  I love seeing rugs that other people have done and particularly love looking at antique rug pictures.  Actually I do have a couple small hooked things that I picked up at the local thrift shop and that has a story which is a whole blog message in itself.  Perhaps one day I'll take pictures and tell you the story.


Here is a rug that I hooked with Bev Conway and it is her design.  This is what I chose to hook with the first class I had with her.  I was at Cape May where I saw someone else hooking it and thought it would be great in my kitchen to welcome people from the living room into the kitchen.

Another rug that I hooked with Bev is called Rufus.  I'd never worked with such vibrant colors before so it was a little out of my box but I like it.  Normally I go for the more drab antique looking colors.

This one makes me smile every time I look toward the dutch doors in my kitchen.  This is also a design by Bev Conway which originally had each of the chickens sitting on a huge egg each.  But, wanted to tweak it to suit me so I made them sitting on straw nests instead.

The Olde Gals was an adaptation of a quilt design, I asked permission to hook it and permission was granted.  When it was time to put something new on my frame I was leaning toward Coastal Girls by Deanne Fitzpatrick.  It was during the time of going thru a divorce I didn't ask for and the pretty girls with flowing scarves just couldn't happen...... I kept thinking about this image of a quilt panel I had.  And so I contacted them to get permission to hook it.

This was a very cathartic hooking project which was a way for me to make a statement for all women no longer young but who are comfortable with themselves.  These women are not spring chickens, they are wearing their olde clothes but think they look pretty snazzy.  They like who they are and who they have become in their aging process; they have been close friends for years.  And ya know what, I'll bet they are all hookers.