.... with my snowman. Yes, tis true. It was love at first sight when Maria (Star Rug Company) posted the pattern "Jolly" on her blog last year. Then my blogger friend Lauren (Rugs and Pugs)bought the pattern and she posted a picture of her progress. That is when I knew he had to be mine too.
I was so hoping to have him done by this evening but figure it is close enough so this is what my JOLLY snowman looks like right now. Just HAD to share.
I loved Jolly so much that he needed to be a little different from the others. Jolly needed a star to light his way to the tree destination. So hooked a star at the top, thus you can see the lighted path under the feet. Dang, there is an empty area under his left hand so I could hook a lantern.....nah.
BTW, 98% of the wool used is pre-cut, left over wool worms. I did cut a few dark navy blue pieces for background wool to go with the existing blue wool but the rest is all left overs. Oh my but it gives me such pleasure to use those worms.
My Magdalena Olde Ducks is sitting in the wings but since it is getting close to snow time wanted to be sure to have a snowman piece on my harvest table. Now I wonder if my dear sweet daughter-in-love will try and sneak out of the house with the new man in my life... my Jolly Snowman. I'll bet she does because she LOVES snowmen and I've hooked her a piece and made an applique quilt with snowmen. Will definitely have to keep my eyes on that one for sure.
Have a great evening everyone.
Saundra
This has been the longest time spent without hooking than I can remember ~ it has been 5 days. So yes, this is a sight for sore eyes to have a pattern on my frame again. However, 10 of my rugs managed to get a label and the rug binding caught up.
As you can see I have chosen to hook Magdalena Briner's Lollipop Bouquet. The first loop wasn't pulled until this afternoon so there hasn't been much accomplished. But oh does it feel good to have that Hartman in my hand again and linen on my Snapdragon.
In the foreground you can see the hooking accessory which is a magnet holding my scissors and the pouch which holds my Hartman hook (or snippets). You can see the hook part sticking out at the top.
In the background there are bags of worms which have been separated by color. That was a tedious and boring task when first taking on the project but oh so worth it. There are other bags upstairs but thought I'd work on these color sections first.
Enjoy your evening, you know what I'll be doing tonight.
Saundra
Would you believe that my woolie worms have been reduced to this?
Honestly, there must have been 50 empty baggies after I integrated all my worms to color. Now mind you, that didn't include the clumps of worms not in bags. All of the very narrow cuts are in the bag at the bottom. But I have bags with blue, red, orange, ...uh, all the colors. What I might do later is divide into value by color but hey, this WHOA-man has had enough of wool strips.
So now to the issue of serger problems. I own a wonderful Bernette serger that has served me well for years and I've kept it cleaned and oiled and taken good care of it. However, it is over 15 years old. It began showing signs of 'health' problems when I was serging up the last 19 linens for someone. So I cleaned it, oiled it, kissed it and wished it more miles. This is my Bernette.
For some reason I cannot insert the left needle into the slot far enough. I've tried using a small instrument to try and clean out the hole but the needle keeps falling down into the hole on the dog feed even tho the screw shows it is tight. Obviously it needs to go to the shop.
BUT...... late Saturday I had an e-mail from a client who needed a pattern drawn and shipped tomorrow (Monday). I cut the linen and tried to serge it with my beloved Bernette. After two breakdowns again decided to call a friend. Lo and behold she said she had two sergers which were given to her and they were going to take them to an auction. So I could have either.
Today I brought them home and tried the Bernette first since that is what I own and figured threading and usage would be the same. Even tho it is obviously an older serger, after cleaning and adjusting stitch was able to get that pattern serged. Here is the war horse.
Then decided to pull out the New Home serger, test drive it to see which one I wanted to keep as my own. OH my goodness. This one looks like a beauty and is newer than the Bernette above.
So I cleaned and oiled it before starting. Made sure it was threaded right (both had been confirmed as working last time) and turned it on. I heard the motor run but the needles weren't working. So I took my foot off the presser foot and tried to turn the hand wheel. Nope. Frozen.
Now I guess I'll do an on-line search for New Home 134D issues to see what to do because there was nothing in the manual about this problem. So if any of you have had a similar issue, please let me know how to resolve this.
Thanks for visiting and hope you had a grand weekend.
Saundra
Oh my, never in my wildest dreams did I think there would be this explosion of wool strips in my home. As you all know, when we first start out we don't have many colors and to be thrifty we go to the 'thrifty' shop to buy wool clothing, wash and cut. Being new to hooking I was starving for wool. Not any more, they are multiplying like bunnies. You will gasp when you see these photos.
Okay, when at rug camps I usually have a basket to put small pieces of wool in, carry to sleeping room to cut or use if I need any wool in the evening, so the basket is small and easy to carry. And then upon getting home from camp it is handy to have beside me when finishing the rug. Sounds great, right? And it is.... except that immediately upon finishing that rug want to start another so I'm too lazy to remove the wool from the basket. Instead, I put that basket aside and grab an empty basket and start the process all over again. Except now I had 3 baskets with wormies in them so what did I do you ask? Heck, ordered more baskets!
Here is a group of baskets which have woolie worms in them. Actually there are 8 baskets but some are piled on top of another and one is hidden to the far back right.
And then there are the worms and basket as well as bags of wool I was working with in the living room where I sit and hook.
And let us not forget the worms which eventually were removed from baskets to start over and wool was then put into baggies and then in plastic containers and zipper bag on my my shelves but 'out of sight out of mind.
But look at the baskets now. The one here still needs emptying and there is one on my work table which isn't completely empty ~ but I'm working on it.
However, I still have to work on the containers on the shelves. But look at what has been accomplished so far since yesterday afternoon and I've even managed to pull a few loops. Once I get all the colors in color piles will put them in those nice zipper plastic bags which blankets and bedspreads come in. And I may or may not separate into value. Sometimes it is nice to have just all the blues in one bag and then then you can pick and choose light or dark without having two bags to deal with.
Here's a Big Dog update. I did pull out the wool from the one star and replaced the moon with it. So now need to make a decision if I want all light stars with moon the color it is hooked now, or the moon be the darker star wool. Not sure if I want stars all the same color or different.
Strange that I'm now looking at it and can definitely see a difference in background color from left to above and below dog and to the right. That was when I was first starting and trying so hard to make it look like sky but with light colors, and the left I loosened up a little and just started adding a little this and little of that. Oh well, that is what our foremothers would have done anyway so I'm not gonna stress over it. The stars and moon are another thing tho, tee hee.
Thanks for dropping by and watching Big Dog develop.
Saundra
Hope all my friends have a special event planned for their significant other ~ or rather your significant other has a special event planned for you.
My significant other is Ben but he can't have chocolate (bad for dogs) but I'll give him a chew bone which will please him even more. And of course he will walk around the house fretting on where to hide it so no one will steal it. Then he will lay beside it to keep a watchful eye on it for extra security. Eventually sometime today he will whittle that rolled raw hide bone to a nub. But that is a ritual with him so maybe part of the enjoyment is just looking at it in anticipation. Sorta like how I get when I know that I'm going to a rug camp..... the excitement of anticipation.
For those of you who have just recently started reading my blog thought I'd let you know more about Big Dog Hollow. It measures 27 1/2 x 33 1/2 and is the pattern that I chose when Kathy inquired if I'd be interesting in doing a pattern swap. She wanted one of my Frost Sheep designs (the one with birds and flowers) and I chose her Big Dog from her web site.
Most of the background colors are comprised of these wools but also use some of my woolie worms sprinkled around ~ some extra blues, grey, a tan and orange texture and anything else which might make it look like 'that is all she had'.
The house I used 3 different colors of tan textured wool and various darks for the roof. The house outline has 3 different shades of red/orange and they were woolie worms as well. I feel so good when I can use up some of the leftovers. Hard to believe that when I first started there was no wool stash here at all. And now? It is out of control and need to take a couple days and just organize it all. To prove it to you, tomorrow I'll share pictures of my massive stash and you will all gasp.
And now the right side, as you can see there is still much for me to hook
Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Thanks for stopping by for a spell.
Saundra
