Yeah, you've been wondering what progress has been made on Rainbow Cabin. And sorry for the delay in showing you but must admit I didn't want to stop and take a picture even now.
My plans were and still are to use as many of my worms as possible. But we hookers know there has to be a flow and balance of texture, color and value.
My first task was to hook the chimney which is to be stone and did use different colors from my worms.
Since the background is dark that meant the chimney and roof needed to be lighter in value so did an outline around the chimney. With the sides of my log cabin, as that would be next to dark background chose a great wool worm. There were were 3 or 4 different wools used for the logs on the cabin. But it required a special worm from my stash to put that light against the dark background on the sides.
You will be very surprised what that wool is from Dorr . It is #2011 Sage Green Gold. There is a disclaimer there which says it cannot be ripped. Well, yes it can if the cut is made in the right spot.
As you can see the door and windows are not filled in yet. I just wanted to keep on hooking. And NO, the horse mats aren't fully bound yet either. BUT....did make a great pot of vegetable soup for tonight and a few days lunch and dinner.
Enjoy your evening and please be kind to one another.
Saundra
Well, actually it is MY dilemma with hooking Hannah rather than Hannah being the problem. Perhaps the reason I air my dirty laundry is to show you newbies that even seasoned hookers have hooking issues. Or at least this one does, and being self taught am not ashamed of my hesitation.
I wanted Hannah to be a mixture of reds since she is going in my kitchen as that color makes me happy in the morning. In yesterday's post there were a few pieces of wool under consideration for the background. With a few more loops pulled and changes managed to get part of Hannah hooked so some background could be hooked in to see.
Here are those two sections below. Lighter to the left and darker to the right.
Here is that picture of those options posted on yesterday's blog.
The initial color planning was to use one or the other of the top two wools as the background. Then a mixture of two or all of the wool at the bottom for the ground color and elsewhere.
My concern was that the wool on the right would be too close in value with the ground green. But that wasn't my only concern. Hannah needs to have a noticeable wing. I'm still not sure the value is different enough for it to show up. Will just do it "one loop at a time".
Even now looking at the colors on my monitor of the background don't know what I'll do. However, I'm leaning toward the lighter color on the left as it will work better with the ground colors I'd chosen.
Hey, ya know what.... this is a journey and entertainment for me so it ain't over til the fat lady sings. I can hook loops, pull them out and put something in it's place.
This is a great design by Woolley Fox and can be found on the "keeping the Past Alive" folder.
Have a great evening.
Saundra
Today I decided to pull a half yard of wool to do some dyeing. This past November had another great rug camp with Betsy Reed where she told me of a dye recipe that makes a primitive dirty wool. Yeah, right down my alley for the antique adaptations.
The recipe was 1/32 Silver Grey and 2/32 Seal Brown in 1 CBW over half yard of wool. Easy peasy ~ have dye, have wool.
She went on to say it had been used on Rainbow Squares, and gave the otherwise pastel square wool a worn and soiled look of a well used antique. Hey, I have some of that; and I had a piece of wool purchased on sale a few years ago at Woolley Fox so would pull out the dye pots. When I looked at the brown and light plaid had envisioned hooking a checkerboard style border but the light always turned me off so maybe a dirty water bath would help.
Here is what I started with.
Alrighty then ~ being a wise hooker I rinsed my measuring cup first so that the dye particles would attach themselves to the moisture in the 2 cup measurer and put on my mask. Smart, eh? Well the mask is old and doesn't fit properly any more but figured it was still wise to prevent inhaling dye particles.
My breath started fogging up my glasses and mask moving when my head moved. But grabbed the measuring spoon (double ended ones) and put the dye in the measuring cup with 1 cup boiling water. Not knowing if I should pour the whole 1 cup in the dye pot decided to put in only half. The other half could be added later if needed.
The dye was almost dissipated but the wool seemed unchanged so poured the remaining dye in the pot. Still not a lot of difference and looked at my notes. HUH? Remember that old saying "he who hesitates is lost"? Yeah, well I must have hesitated to listen to the wisdom of Betsy and didn't write down 1/2 yard as I was going from memory (you kidding, memory at my age???) So maybe she said 1/4 yard?
THEN I looked at the dye spoon used. One end was 1/128, the other end was 1/64. OMG!!!!! No wonder there was hardly any headway in color change. Frankly I don't know which end I used either. My fogged up tri-focals and moving mask prevented me from reading properly. NOTE TO SELF..... pick out dye spoons BEFORE putting on mask. Perhaps I should have titled my post "Too old to Dye?". harhar, now that's funny.
Since there is half yard of wool in the pot and not much difference made the recipe again using the proper measuring device. In addition to what was used before I put in another 5 Tablespoons of the recipe in the pot. These are the results. There really is more visible difference in person with the brown/tan than shows up in the picture.
I've several Tablespoons of the recipe left and saved in a small jar marked to use again if there is another wool I'd like to dye.
So there's my confession and I'm sure my 'dye by eye' friend is falling off the chair laughing at me. Oh, and Betsy too!
Oh well, this enabled me to provide a blog post other than another update on what I'm hooking and wool for an antique adaptation. Oh my...... ya know what I just thought of!!!!!!! Those pastel colors would work marvelous in the stems and flora of this antique!!!!!! Oh my! And I've something planned for my frame next already. Oh dear, what to do?
Have a wonderful evening everyone and hope you got a good chuckle from my confession.
At least the dye pots put a little heat in the kitchen with these frigid temps.
Saundra
I've still more to hook on Jack as you can see and have border color decisions to make. I'm thinking of putting some green in the bottom right corner to offset the green star and green trim on hat. In case you didn't noticed, I changed the hat stripe and if you scroll down to a previous post you will see what was there in the beginning.
There are two stars needing color and was thinking about red for the star in the background but the values will be too close for comfort. So perhaps it will be the eye color of the grey green. Uh, but that is too close for the moon and left corner colors. EEK!
And was so dang frustrated when I came to the realization that the distance on the left of Jack to the border was more narrow than the right side. Almost considered pulling it out. But ya know what? Just as I was about to pull the border line out decided against it.
Here's why I decided against it. Barb Carroll owns a design called Kinderhook Basket which I hooked in one of her classes. Look at the design of this wonderful antique rug which hangs on Barb's wall. The picture was taken from upstairs, thus the angle. Notice how the hooker ran out of room; so she made her border the same but the flowers encroached into the border. Ya gotta love it. Well, I'm gonna love my Jack with his imperfections. Besides, don't some men have imperfections?
This is the version of Kinderhook Basket which I hooked in Barb's class and proudly hangs on the wall behind me where I am right now.
I'm sure all the readers would enjoy seeing different color choices. Yeah, I'm taking a chance they'd like yours more than mine, but so what. I love seeing how different hookers choose colors for the same design. It gets the juices flowing. Thanks for dropping by for a visit, sorry you couldn't stay long enough for an ice tea, water or glass of wine. Would love to hear your ideas of color options and if any of you have started hooking this pattern from the Rug Hooking Magazine insert I'd LOVE for you to share and I'll post your progress on my blog too. Just send me a picture to saundra125@comcast.net. Have a great evening, stay cool.
Saundra
What a better way is there to spend 2 hours sitting at a car dealership than using that time to bind a rug? I hate binding rugs and if money grew on trees I'd hire someone to do it for me. But it didn't seem all that boring at the time and even seemed like fun compared to sitting and watching Price is Right and the other game shows on their TV. So Henny Penny is bound and I'm caught up..... for now.
The dimensions of the small Henny Penny was 15 x 20 (it comes in 2 sizes) but I took a little creative license and extended some of the elements to make it a bit bigger. So mine now measures 15 x 23. This was a fun, fun design to hook and can be found on Barb's Keeping the Past Alive page.
It was hooked in #8 and #8.5 wool strips. The majority of the background is Irish Eyes sold by Heavens to Betsy. Now, when you go check out her web site to see pictures of the wool, what you see on her site is NOT what that wonderful wool looks like in person. It shows up as bright but it is a soft and mild green which is a little darker on one side and lighter on the other so makes a nice background.
And there were blobs of this n' that hooked as part of the background to attempt making it look old and give the appearance that 'she used what she had'.
Monday I need to go back to the dealership and have a part installed on my van, seems the computer is bad and that is why I'm having hard downshifts in my transmission. In February the transmission computer module was reset but am having problems again, thus a new computer. Since it is doubtful Westmoreland Ponies will be ready for binding by then perhaps I'll take the Eat Crow rug and re-whip the edges.
Have a great evening and thanks for dropping by.
Saundra
Sure doesn't seem like much headway has been made on my rug so far but am hoping to change that tonight. After I finish hooking the one heart think I'll move along to the left side and hook on the...what? Is it a flower, leaf, scroll? But you get my drift. Then will continue over to the right side so the horses are enclosed. Then some more background so that won't be the only thing left to hook when all the fun stuff is done.
There are severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings in our area until 10 p.m. Sure hope the tornado's pass us by but with it being summer thunderstorms are an expected occurrence. Sure hope that after I feed Ben we are able to get in our last walk before the lightening starts. Guess I'd best go feed my boy now.
Have a great evening everyone.
Saundra
Getting back to routine kept me away from hooking as much as I'd have liked but here is Oh Deer 11 days after it was started. Now that some of the background has been hooked closer to the deer, the rug doesn't appear to be as bright. Or at least it doesn't look as bright in my home as it does in the picture and may have appeared brighter with the light linen next to the deer and with the primitive dark it tames it down a tad.
My friend Lauren tries so hard to get me in the habit of informing everyone the dimensions of the rug I'm hooking and I always forget. Since she kindly reminded me again this morning, the design measures 24 x 33. Thank you Lauren, I'm sure everyone else who has visited the site or will visit would wonder the size as well.
Today there's more yard work to do and hope to accomplish some before it gets too dreadfully hot out there. Spring took a long time coming but sure did kick it up a notch from spring straight to summer heat and humidity, that's for sure.
Can't wait for summer red ripe juicy tomatoes to come on the vines of the local farmers. Since I live on a very acidic soil with lots of pine trees my growing of tomatoes has not been successful here. Summertime I could live on corn on the cob and fresh tomatoes. Many times that is all I eat for lunch or sometimes for dinner.
Tomorrow I plan to post another tutorial of sorts, for binding a round mat.
Saundra
But first, welcome to the first Day of March.
I made a primitive quilt applique' for each month of the year to place on my sofa table when this house was being built. And it was 1997 when we finished on the home and moved in. Originally I'd planned to properly finish each of the quilt pieces but only properly finished just one; but they still look cute on the table anyway.
Even tho I'm still hooking away on Big Dog Hollow I'm thinking ahead to my next rug and a camp in May, which will be with the magnificent Barb Carroll at Woolley Fox in Ligonier, PA. I've already decided on the antique adaptation I want to hook so thought I'd do a little dying today to prepare. The recipe came from this little book by Karen Kahle.
Since I had a small amount of already mixed Tawny dye in a jar and had a color in mind, decided to use up some of that solution. Of the liquid I used only 6 TBS. of the dye and still have more left.
This is the wool I started with.
This is what the wool looked like with a flash.
And another shot without a flash but it is a little blurry.
The actual color in person isn't quite as light pink as the top picture nor orange as it indicates in the bottom picture. Yet it is exactly what I need for the rug I plan to hook. Sometimes I end up with exactly what I was hoping and sometimes not and into the stash it goes. But this will go with me to Barbs for sure. And, nope, not gonna share what rug design I'm going to hook just yet and bore you before it is even started. So that will be something to share later.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Saundra
