What Time is It??

Nope, it isn't Howdy Doody Time, I'm neither Buffalo Bob nor Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring ~ are you old enough to remember that show?  I am and looked forward to it as a kid.  And if I'm not mistaken Kate Smith came on afterward and started her show with a song ♫♬🎜🎝 "When the Moon Comes over the mountain......."

First rug depicts the animal all rug hookers love, sheep.  It is also easy on the eyes; 2 sheep rug circa 1900 which measures 28 x 44.

This next one has much more color yet is small.  I named it Downingtown Rooster since that is where is is located.  It was hooked early 20th century and measures 21 x 22.  That background looks great and is probably a black and hound's-tooth.  Sure do LOVE that hit and miss border. 

Oh my, look at this 19th century Floral Hearth rug.  It's lovely and measures 22 x 52.

Here are two very primitive Roosters from Downingtown, PA.   It measures 31 x 45 and sorry, no date provided.

American Farmers hooked rug isn't really old enough to be in the 'public domain' category since it was hooked 1948, but thought I'd show it anyway.  It measures 39 x 85.

I'm guessing this is a Wolf, not a Dog.  A shame it is in such bad shape on the ends.  It is hooked on burlap and comes from Simcoe County, Ontario.  Probably the fact it is hooked on burlap is part of the reason for its fate.

Floral basket with great border and blotchy background.  It measures 26.5 x 36.5 and said to be hooked 20th century.

Here's my horse for the show with large border and leaves in corner.  Dimensions are 29 x 46.  I've said before that often I look at rugs and try to channel the hooker.  Notice the blotchy border and variance in color on the horse?  I wonder if she hooked a while and then stopped until she could either save up more textile similar in color or had to find textiles to do natural dying to try and get a similar shade.  You can see the center is quite soiled.

So see, if you run out of a certain wool being used in a rug, it is quite appropriate and will even add interest to your piece by using something similar in value or color.  Frankly I love antique rugs with those blotchy hooked areas.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

Throwback Thursday

Thought I'd show you the Jewel Basket pattern I hooked at home several years ago.  Yes, it is the same design I am presently working on again after 17 years.

At that time the only 'good wool' I had was that left over from that which was purchased for two rug patterns hooked at camp.  I've had this rug on the step landing for 17 years and it will be so nice to replace it with what I hope will be a better representation of the design.

Stay tuned to see what the 2021 version of this design looks like.  Happy Hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

Testing...Testing..

I'm testing my instincts and testing my color choices.  Hell, color choices are always a testy time for me.  And as all of you know by now I play (hook) by the seat of my pants.  I'm changing the design as I go making the flowers bigger which means moving or REmoving some leaves.

If you look closely to the bottom of the 'basket' on the left side I've moved it down a tad to make room for the somewhat larger flowers to come.  Some of the smaller flowers above might be eliminated to make way for more prominent flowers as well. 

Weather today was quite warm and the pollen count VERY high.  I've been sneezing like crazy and wake up with sticky crap on my eye lids in the morning.  But it is seasonal and this too shall pass.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

WIN Some LOSE Some

Sadly I lost a follower today and wonder why that happens.  I'm a follower on many blogs but never thought about going back to one and removing my name as a follower.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  

I've started a Patsy Becker design named Jewel Basket.  Actually I hooked this pattern many years ago before I had any wool stash and most what I had was bland non-textured wool.  So when spying the pattern at rug camp a few years ago decided to try it again but better colors.  As  you can see I'm also making some changes ~ what's new.

I've moved the basket down a smidge and will make the flowers larger, might lose a couple leaves during the process so who knows how this will turn out.  Will show the other hooked one in a later post after getting more of this one hooked.

And, I have a redux of my boy Ben's Memorial.  Here is the after just finished today:

Here is the before.

I'm going to call him done for now.  If that eye bother's me I can always pick it up and tweak it.  For some reason and some how that eye has a different look now that the wool around it has changed.  But am done stressing over it for the time being.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

MY BENNY BEN (UPDATED)

I've hooked profile memorials of my Rotties Shumba and Panzer as well as Shadow and figured it was time for my boy Ben to have his.  So today I pulled what won't be the last loop pulled on Ben's Memorial because I can see changes need to be made, mostly with the shine on his black hair.

Am so sorry I chose this particular side of the reversible black because it shows up more brown than black.  Won't hook another...yet I might pull out loops and turn the wool over.  

I was really worried about the eye but after 5 tries I might have gotten that part.  Think my biggest problem is the shine on the crown of the head, snout and ear.  Perhaps the ear can be fixed with a more narrow and somewhat darker shade of grey to differentiate the ear from the body.

This morning (Saturday, day after first blog post) I looked at the hooked profile and decided to take a photo with a different camera to find out if that camera captured what I see.  Here is a more accurate picture of what I've hooked and the color.

Here is the photo from which I drew the pattern.

Happy Friday Saturday and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Looking back at some 2012 photos from Rugs by the Sea rug camp in Cape May a couple things caught my eye which didn't when first posting them years ago.  But first a few pictures of rugs.  Below is a Hutchinson inspired rug.

I've hooked this antique adaptation below with hearts and made  mine into a pillow.  Jennie, do you see a familiar design to the left of it??

A Frost sheep design below.

This Beagle rug makes me smile.  Is he sniffing the air or loving the breeze flowing by his ears?

No doubt about it, this is a Polly Minick Design because I drew many of them for her.

Do you notice anything strange about this rug 😊.  BTW, this is right side up.

Now to things I never noticed before.  Take a look at the rug frame attachment below.  The desk looking table probably accommodates a cutter, has holes to place various hooks and/or scissors, and a groove for a sharpie or pencil like our old school desks had.  

And something else I didn't notice when hooking in the same room is the rolling container beside dearly departed friend Susan Woodworth (in pink).  It would be easy to transport lots of wool the sturdy top could hold the wool for the area or motif being worked on and looks like she even has a container with a snack ~ basically another accessible table top.  I think I want one of those.

Happy Thursday and happy hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

This Time Last Week.....

....there was to be April MD Shores Rug Camp except it was cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid.  So thought I'd reminisce, share parts of it with you and dream of the one for 2022.  I registered for Norma Batastini in 2018 but due to her health Eric Sandberg filled in for her.

I've had Eric before, he is a great teacher, very prepared and hands-on with students.  Eric LOVES color and I've always remembered his quote "light, bright, dark, dull" for what makes a good rug; although I don't always adhere to his advice.

The rug pattern I took for class was one for which I had no color plans but took wool colors I like and which go with my home interior.  Of course I'm always open to buy wool to make the rug better or wool that is just yummy for the future.  The design is called Flower Power.  Remember, I'm a primitive hooker and love antique rugs with dirty colors 😊.   In full disclosure the April camp is a McGowan camp therefore destiny might be determined.

This is the finished rug, it is pretty and definitely has Eric's signature all over, just not my signature.  Plus I've never displayed it in my house as it looks out of place.  Anyone want to buy a rug?

Yet I have been known to hook rugs with color, not all of mine have been drab or dull rugs.  Here is an antique adaptation I did called Stars and Diamonds ~ quite colorful I'd say.

Eric used me as a model for his color planning lesson on what wool doesn't work in color planning a rug.  I snapped the photo just as he was  gesturing in my direction, you can see the other gals chuckling as was I.  He said my colors were bland and basically all the same boring value.  Did I care?  Nope, ran off me like water on a duck's back.

Here are a few rugs from the show.  The one below was hooked by Capri and had a price tag on it of $6,862.  It was a big beautiful rug.

The one below is named Cape May.

In the rugs below I see a Bev Conway design with a girl and horse so there was at least one other primitive hooker in attendance.

Dorset Flowers below and I love that background with the soft large blocks of plaid.

Gettysburg, a Quail Hill design, is the rug below.

Love Margaret Shaw's designs and here is a rabbit design by her in progress.  Yes, at the McGowan rug camp but obviously not in my class.

Be still my heart...sure do love this Poppies piece below!!!!!  See, I do like color after all.

This is something I learned from this geometric hooker and another friend who does this.  When working on a big rug at rug camp pull loops where color is established to maximize time with the teacher for color planning then take it home with the story already planned out.  Easy peasy.  

One last photo I'd like to share is this fantastic pin hooked by Tish Murphy of Pierre Keller, Eric's grandfather.  It was unbelievably realistic and must have been hooked with colored dental floss size strips.  WOW!!!!  Do you believe what you are seeing right now??

Happy Hooking.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

A Few Vintage Rugs

I'm in the mood to look at a few old rugs, how about you?  Every once in a while I just need that 'fix'.  

Welcome ~ the rug with a beautiful leaf border was hooked late 19th century and measures 31 x 60.

Primitive hooked Chickens measures 19 x 40 and the auction site dated it between 1900-1920.

Apple Tree Farm was hooked around 1820-30 and measures  33 x 58.  

Below is a well worn rug of a Chicken with a neutral hit and miss striped border.  It  measures 41 x 57.

Here is a flower pot with geometric corners but no dimensions or date provided.

Documented as Maria Beck Warning's Rabbits (1884) it is offered by the Textile Museum of Canada.  The rug measures  27 x 53.

Gee, there isn't one horse rug here so better go find one.  Hmm, let's make that two😊.  Two versions of Hutchinson designs about the Father of our Country George Washington.

Happy hooking and would like to thank everyone for the kind words you said about my profile of Ben so far.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

My BOY BEN

I have missed all my fur babies and the last one lost was my boy Ben.  Am trying to create a Memorial for him as I did the others and it is going slowly even tho the linen is small.  

Have pulled out loops and replaced with different value or color ~ have hooked him upside down while looking at his profile upside down.  Although I'm trying desperately to get a good representation of him in #8 and #8.5 it will never replace my Benny Ben. 

Thought it about time to show you my progress so far.  By the way, I don't have those tangles any more.  And that which appears as orange on his cheek does NOT look like that in person, it looks more brown with a lighter brown as you see.

So far I'm pleased because I can see Ben ~ maybe because I WANT to see him.  Here  is the original handsome boy from which I cropped part to make his profile.  What shows up as brown in the ears on my hooking really shows up as a greyish black in person.  Eventually maybe I'll grab another camera or do other setting to get the better shot.

My Boy Ben was adopted at the age of 4 years 7 months and I had him for about 5 years but not nearly long enough.  

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com

CHANGING of the RUGS

You're familiar with the term 'changing of the guards' but at my house it is changing of the rugs.  This morning I changed out the rug on the harvest table and placed this on.  This one has a bit of a story behind it.  

I first fell in love with Westmoreland Ponies, a Barb Carroll design,  while at her rug camp in Ligonier.  And so I had to buy the pattern and buy wool for it while I was there.  Below if the one I saw in the Woolley Fox Cabin.

Brought the new next project home and posted about progress on my blog.  One of my followers/readers informed me they hooked it and did I know it was a free pattern insert in a 2010 issue of Rug Hooking Magazine?  HUH???  I paid for a pattern I could easily  have drawn out  myself 😀😄😂 ~ well the laugh was on me.  But at least hooking could start sooner at home by having the pattern already drawn.

Another rug change in the kitchen to the right of the table is Henny Penny, another Barb Carroll design.  BTW, the Queen tin cup was a gift from my sweet DIL.  Shortly after she and my son started dating I knew she would be a keeper, she had a great sense of humor so told her..."you may be a Princess but I will always be Queen".  We have joked with one another over the years about that.  One birthday I gave her a plastic tiara and Princesses are born in May tee shirt.

Guess I'd better run my errands before it rains AGAIN this afternoon and tomorrow.  When oh when will this water dry up which continues to stay as a moat around my property?

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com  

TANGLES !

Have you ever gotten tangles in your hooking?  I've gotten my knickers in a twist before 😊 but don't normally get them in my hooking.  Yet I'm getting those tangles twisted up now.  You see, since I've stopped cutting off loops at the top like I normally do ~ then change my mind, pull out the loops and am stuck with a short piece of wool good for nothing but a snippet.  So I've started keeping the length of wool under until I see if it is going to work.

Problem is when pulling out a loop I pull out something attached to it and end up with more of a mess because it pulls out more wool.  Obviously not a very smart way to work on a rug.

So I've got to change that and start to keep my wool strips cropped.  Have been going rather slowly on my precious boy but I'll eventually get there.  Here is what my boy looks like now.  Remember, this is NOT what I see in person ~ the camera lies.

The background makes him look very deceiving because it is the light green right next to what is the shine on Ben's black hair in the photo.  So perhaps I need to change that grey shine out for the black wool rather than trying to copy the photo.  Here is that photo.

Perhaps it is now the time to draw a SMALL to play with between the down time with my boy.  Or guess I could just clean up my wool room.  UGH such a boring task, lol.

Saundra

www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com