More Rugs from Cape May show

There is just so much eye candy at the shows when you go to rug camps that you really need to be sure your camera battery is fully charged.  I can remember one year when I was neglectful and only captured a few of the rugs and the show was over before the battery was charged up....I wasn't a happy camper (hooker).  So made sure my camera was fully charged before leaving my house and going to camp.  Okay, so here are more delicious rugs.

This one was hooked by my friend Deb and is a design which Woolley Fox offered called Hildafern; Deb did this rug with marvelous Barb Carroll and each of the ferns are hooked with different vintage paisley prints.  Yesseree bob.... my gal pal used different antique paisleys to hook all those gorgeous fern leaves and it is a delight to see in person.

Next is a rug that Deb started last year in a class with Kris Miller called Peace and Plenty and is a design from the artwork of Lori Brechlin of NotForgotten Farm. 

Next is a great lion hooked piece from Old Tavern sign. I just wish my photo skills had been a little better to do the piece justice.  It was hooked by the dear sweet Janet Reid.

Something which is difficult (I think) is hooking snow.  This rug is called New England Snowy Day which was also designed and hooked by Janet Reid.

Come back tomorrow when I'll be showing you more rugs from the show or from the show-n-tell of the hookers before the end of class.

Yup, even more rugs from Cape May

Okay, I have to admit to being a wide cut primitive hooker.  I have done narrow cut and have proved that I can do it but my heart is with the olde looking (some say ugly and dark) rugs that I was used to seeing in the former and good Country Living magazines and often in the Early American Life magazine. 

Anyway.......while my love of primitive wide cuts is my favorite, I do truly appreciate the work involved with narrow cuts and orientals.  It takes a lot of work with the shading, color design and hooking.  So the appreciation is there.  So now I'm going to show you some rugs that are diverse and the creativity of some of these hookers just took my breath away.

Here is a rug called Mountain Mama.  Can you see the image of a woman in the mounds of the mountain?  Now THAT is creativity!!  Wish I had some of that.

And my dear dear friend Char ~ the same one who did the Wedding Rug with the tree.... this is her original design entitled "Full Beaver Moon".  The story behind it is that each November the area where she and her husband have a cabin, the owners can put out traps for beavers.  As you can see there is the full moon behind the beaver, the shadow of the beaver and then the moon shining on the earth on the sides.  It has teeth and toes made of femo.  Let me tell you this is one very talented woman.  Why she hangs around with me I have no clue because I do not have that kind of creativity in my bones.

This next one I thought was extremely creative and could use up wool strips we all collect from our scrap basket.  Uh, except I don't think that I am creative enough to make something this well executed either.  This was done by Judy Quitman which I'm guessing was a challenge of sorts with a group she belongs to because of the name "Scrap Challenge".

And this one was very interesting as well.  For some reason I'm intrigued with the Mola's.  Perhaps it is because my friend Deb introduced me to the real thing and now maybe I could do it in a hooked piece.  My pal Deb has real Mola prints hanging in her studio and when I go there I just walk by and enjoy every piece and the work it involved.

The rug below is a Karen Kahle design Flower Box.  I love that rug and have hooked it but in more primitive (okay, dark) colors.  I enjoy seeing it every day as I walk from the kitchen to my computer room.

This one was started in a class with Kris Miller last year by Jeri Livingston and I was looking forward to seeing the finished project since it is a free pattern in a Polly Minick book that I have.  As you can see it was incorporated with fur locks.  You could write Kris at http://www.spruceridgestudios.com to find out what was used as she had different locks providing critters which could have produced this look.   And, since it is just about that time of year thought I'd post it here to get you thinking about gifts to give or to hook for yourself. 

And....yes, there are more rugs that I haven't posted yet but I need to keep you coming back for more and don't want to bore you with numerous rugs which you eventually don't even notice.

Mini Rug Show

It is always a treat to see the rug show at Cape May and each year I look forward to seeing what Evelyn Lawrence brings, as I love her style and see more antique rugs she has discovered.  She hooked Animal Farm and the Hen and Chicks and I just love the Hen and Chicks but the photo just doesn't do the colors and hooking justice.

My friend Deb hooked Magdalena's Double Horses brought it for the show. 

And here is Magdalena's Dog, a rug hooked by Pat Foster.

And since we are making representations of the wonderful designs of Magdalena Briner, even tho I have posted it previous, here is the one I took to Cape May because I finished it during the past year.

I've more rug pictures to post and will do those in the next day or two.  Hope you enjoyed the mini rug show from Cape May.

Wedding Rugs at Cape May

There were two wedding rugs on display at the rug show last week at Cape May.  One was designed and hooked by my friend Char for her daughter and son-in-law and the other was designed and hooked by teacher and designer Bev Conway for her daughter's wedding.

The wedding rug that Char hooked was humongous.  The rug could easily have accommodated the bride and groom, both sets of parents and even more of the family or friends with room to spare.  It must have been a real challenge for her to hook as the dimensions and weight of the rug increased.

The groom's family was in awe and honored that their family names were forever recorded in the hooking of the heirloom family tree and wedding rug.  The two dates at the bottom were for the two separate wedding ceremonies; one which was a traditional Asian Indian ceremony and the other a traditional American wedding.

This rug below was hooked by designer and rug hooking teacher Bev Conway.  As you can see the flowers and leaves are beautifully shaded and an outstandingly beautiful rug.  So you are wondering.... since it is a wedding rug, where are the dates, initials, etc?

You know how sometimes you want to hook your initials and date in the rug but there just doesn't seem to be enough space or a proper place to hook them without distracting from the appearance of the rug and design?  Well that is the technique that Bev developed and held a secret for a couple years as she experimented with and perfected a new way to sign and even capture a message in a rug.  It can be done without destroying the beauty of the top.  Bev even consulted with seasoned hookers and teachers to find out if this technique had ever been recorded or seen done previously.  The unanimous answer was 'no'.  None of them had ever seen this technique performed or known to exist anywhere. 

Now, I'm not letting out any secrets as Bev was quite willing to share her technique with her students as well as those of us who sat at the same table with her during meal time.  By the end of the day of the show I'd expect there were some 50 women who learned of the technique even if they had not been in Bev's class.

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

Isn't that just SO romantic and lovely for a mom to hook for her daughter and son-in-law?

So now, I want to put my initials and date on the back of the log cabin rug I started last week so that I won't need to worry about destroying the ambiance of the design on the front.  

Happy Hooking everyone. 

Show-n-Tell

Here are a couple pictures of the show-n-tell we do at Cape May so each of the students from all 4 teachers can see what everyone has been working on.  This is really exciting because you get to see patterns you may not be aware of and various color combinations or techniques you may wish to find out about.  The teachers were Kris Miller, Judy Quitman, Cindi Gay and Bev Conway.  My roomie Deb, friend Char and I took a class with Kris Miller. 

This is the cutest design called "Glad Tidings" a pattern offered by Spruce Ridge Studios which was the rug my roomie Deb was hooking.  What I thought was awesome was the metallic ribbon like yarn she hooked for the buttons, the cord or chain on the horn and the bell on the hat.  It gave it a little shine as if it was a bell on the hat and metal for the buttons and chain.  Really cool, so then of course I had to go to the yarn shop in Cape May and pick up a ball of it for myself for when the urge hits me to have something special like that for me.

I saw several rugs that I would love to hook myself but I've already got my rug for the November class with Lucille Festa chosen as well as the next rug class next May with Barb Carroll.  And I've several designs here on linen that I want to hook between classes ~ don't we all?

In addition to having a real rug show during the week and is offered for the community to visit as well, but we students have a rug 'throw down' where we look at what each of us has been working on during the week.  On this side of the front yard at the Chalfonte is where Kris Miller and Judy Quitman's students placed their rugs.  

And on this other side is where Cindi Gay and Bev Conway's students placed their rugs for show-n-tell.  It just happens that way since that part of the real estate is closest to the room where their classes were held. 

There are more rug pictures to come later as I want to show you something our friend Char is working on as well as some finished rugs. 

Home from Cape May

I don't think this brain or body could have stood one more day of fun.  It really is exhausting having fun at rug camp.  Rugs by the Sea camp is held at the Victorian hotel Chalfonte where the food is excellent and the organizers Norma and Linda are professionals who have this camp running like a well oiled machine. 

They bring in fantastic teachers; this first week was Kris Miller, Bev Conway, Judy Quitman and Cindi Gay.  I've had Bev Conway numerous times but last year and this year had Kris Miller.  Kris has a great color palate and prefers to teach nothing smaller than #6 and considers the #8.5 to be the new #8.  She is interesting, fun to be with, upbeat, very great at color planning rugs and tells great goat stories and soon will have great Alpaca stories to share I'm sure.

Since there are no TVs in each room (it's a Victorian hotel of course), there is a small TV room where guests can decide which show to watch from that room.  However, my roomie brings a flat-screen TV with DVD capabilities and three of us pals watch movies, eat snacks and sip on wine in the evenings in our room.  And of course we stay up too late, eat too much and drink more than we should (UH, I drink more than I should).  Unfortunately I put on 1 1/2 pounds in just 5 days since I ate much differently (indulging in things I normally don't eat at home) and my ways have changed since being home and will get that weight off within the week (uh.... I hope).  But the food there is so delicious who can pass up that cuisine?

For years I've wanted to hook a log cabin rug and I FINALLY put it on linen and started a project.  As mentioned in a previous blog, it is an adaptation of a rug titled "July Cabin" by Barb Carroll and offered in her book "American Folk Art Rug Hooking".  There are 18 patterns in the book which may be enlarged to hook.  I took some liberties with the design to make it mine but the essentials came from the book.  

A lot more progress could have been made on the rug if I wouldn't talk as much as I do or if I'd hook and not look at the person I'm talking to.  I should talk and keep my head down and look at my project and keep pulling loops.  So, suffice it to say that I could have had a lot more to show for my 4 1/2 days of hooking had I done that.

Here is an overview of my project and the right side will be quite similar to the left side but not a mirror image.  However, I'll have the same multi-colored leaves on the tree (don'tcha just luv it??).  The only thing I told Kris was that I wanted to do different colors for the leaves and showed her my selection of colors (the same ones which were in my Woodland Deer rug).

So, preparing for this rug, as soon as I saw Betsy Reed's MR ED wool it just shouted log cabin and I ordered it immediately.  Funny thing is, that when I opened up my container to show Kris the wool selection I brought (and many different browns for a cabin) she immediately picked up Mr. Ed as the log colors.  AH HA!!!!!!!  Maybe I really am capable of picking colors for a rug after all.

And the roof is Jinx by Heavens to Betsy.  However, I cannot remember which names the colors of the leaves are and the background is a piece of wool I purchased at a manufacturer in Baltimore.

The sheep is hooked using Icelandic Lopi and the ear is a piece of wool which was prodded in.  So this rug will be hung somewhere in the house so the ear doesn't get squashed.

Kris picked her choice for the border wool I took to camp but haven't started hooking that in yet.  So my project will just have to  wait for me as I've got to catch up here on yard work, laundry, and getting ready for my art/craft show October 1.  I've got 3 dolls to finish, one remaining pumpkin on a candlestick to finish and hopefully finish hooking the NFF cat in the shoe before the show.

Cape May Here I come

Lemme tell you that I am psyched about rug camp.  I get this way not matter how many times I go to a rug camp or even if it is the same one I attend year after year.  It is like I'm a kid waiting for Santa.....can't go to sleep because of the excitement..... Santa won't come until I do go to sleep.  Oh my what a delimma

So I leave early tomorrow morning and my vehicle is partially packed ~  oops, but I still need to print out my 'camp list' to be sure I've include every thing I need.  Finally did a rug camp to share with my gal pals so we wouldn't forget who was to bring what.  And of course each one of us has our own person things....cell phone, camera, supplies.

For those of you who have not gone to the Rugs by the Sea rug camp, which is organized by Norma Batastini, it is wonderful.  There are two weeks of camp which has classes two separate weeks.  Some teachers, such as Bev Conway, teach both weeks. 

We stay in a Victorian hotel named the Chalfonte which has a fantastic history and the food is magnificent.  Since it is a Victorian hotel there are some human comforts which aren't available... elevators, telephones or TV in every room.  But if you need those there are other sleeping accommodations available in Cape May and you could be a commuter.

Here is a hooked rug which depicts the Victorian Hotel from the front view.  This a design by Bev Conway and she has another version from the side. 

There are rocking chairs lined up in the front and side where hookers sit and chat away during the afternoon and until the sun sets.  And when the horse drawn carriages take tourists around you can hear the driver saying they are 'hookers' in town for the week and we wave and they laugh.

So here I am putting this on my blog and I've still got to finish my suitcase (was waiting to see what the weather required) and to finish loading up my vehicle so I can get an early start to the Lewes/Cape May ferry in the morning. 

Oh, I can't wait until Santa finally gets here.

Have a good several days pals..... see ya when I return.

LEE, what the heck????

Here I was scared out of my wits when Irene made her uninvited appearance so I was not worried about Lee at all.  Well, lemme tell you Lee is a menace and have had rain the last three days and torrential rains all afternoon.  It is also supposed to rain tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. 

Things from the backyard have been floating down my driveway, the overflow hole at my fish pond is covered with water and with water up to my knees in the back yard it is over the bottom of the entrance to my crawl space.  And all this after spending a few thousand dollars to have a 'conditioned crawl space' so no humidity builds up to cause rotting and termites.  I can assure you that water has seeped in there.

I don't know just how much more rain it will take before it starts coming into the garage and then into the house.

Here is a picture of what it looks like just outside my garage door.

And, here is a picture of what it looks like to the right of my fish pond.  And notice how the framing around the bird feeders is floating away and would have except it was around the poles so can only float so far. 

Now, if you want to see what it looked like before, scroll back to my last post to check out that very same tree, the same homemade seat at the tree and the bird feeders. 

Some neighbors cannot enter the community because there is a few feet of water at the entrance to the development..... uh, which means I also cannot get out.  I can only hope FIRST.... that water does not come into my home and SECOND hope the water recedes at the development (even with the rain tonight, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday) that I will be able to leave on Sunday for the rug camp in Cape May, NJ. 

Sure has been a couple testy years as far as weather....drought, flooding, two years of bad snows.   But I have my hooking to keep me calm and as soon as I go walk my neighbor's Rottweiler (since the rains have subsided temporarily) that is what will soothe my nerves.

My Woodland Deer

Oh but I do love to watch the deer that roam my property and keep buckets of water for them during the drought.  Problem is that I get absolutely nothing done when they are within my eyesight.  They have such small faces and huge ears for hearing that they look imbalanced on such a delicate head.  So since my deer mean so much to me it made sense that I should hook the pattern Woodland Deer by the same name as my address (a Woolley Fox pattern).

I took a picture of the rug with a flash and one without flash.  This picture with the flash sorta washes out the true color while the one without a flash is somewhat dark.

So the other day I threw out a couple boxes of old cereal thinking my birds might enjoy a different menu.  Much to my surprise my deer decided to come up and enjoy the meal themselves.  These pictures were taken just outside my bedroom window so they are close but 3 are behind the tree.  But the youngster is getting even closer after having munched on cereal as well.

The fawn with the spots must have heard the camera or perhaps there was a reflection of the metal from the camera but I froze fearing it would bolt and take the other 3 deer with it and wanted to enjoy this scene a little longer.

After a bit of a snack my woodland deer moved into the wooded area but they will be back as they know this is a safe place for them to visit.  Ahhhhh, I sure do enjoy my nature.

Sincerely Jane Update

When I joined the Rughookers Yahoo challenge we were to post an updated picture the first of each month to show our progress and provide an opportunity for discussion and questions.  Well, I'm a couple days late in posting my picture on the group but thought I'd also post a picture here.  Perhaps Jane-HO will visit my blog and see what I've done in the way of hooking it whereas she is taking on the endeavor of quilt piecing the entire Jane Stickle quilt ~ whew!

As previously mentioned I've chosen a small size rug for me to hook but other rug hookers have taken on a humongous task of making a bigger hooked rug using more, if not all the squares in the quilt.  There were a couple different ways I'd thought of doing the border; could have been a hit and miss rows of hooking around a 2" border, thought of having a beauty line and a solid dark border, then decided to do the triangles and have it lean toward the semblance of the original Jane Stickle cone shape border.  One think I knew for sure was that it would not have hooked scallops because that would be a nightmare to bind.  So here is my rug thus far.

It will be quite interesting to see the final results of all the hooked rugs when the challenge comes to a close in April 2012. 

New Publication with Patterns

Just look at this gorgeous olde looking rug.  It is a beauty that I just have to hook one day.  The gals are at it again; Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson have co-authored another new book which will be released soon, probably within the next two weeks.

And, this is another hooked design that is offered in the book along with patterns for 3 quilts, 2 additional hooked rugs (total of 4 rugs) and one denim jacket.

THE BOOK COVER

You can pre-order the book from the Minick and Simpson web site:  http://www.minickandsimpson.com/catalog.php?item=106    I can't wait to get my hands on the book so I can start drawing out the eagles rug.

Back to Hooking

Whew, thankfully Irene left me with minimal flooding, no house damage and minimal tree problems.  There was a lot of leaves, limbs and some sizable limbs to fall but it could have been much worse so consider myself lucky.  I started the clean-up yesterday and there is still more I plan to do today as soon as I update my blog.

I was without electricity for 22 hours which is not conducive to rug hooking and hooking by candle light didn't work very well for me. I even tried propping up two mirrors so the light would be magnified and that wasn't much help either.  So yesterday for about an hour between clean-up I finally pulled some loops on this NotForgottenFarm design which I think is adorable. 

I have received my copy of the book written by my friend Evelyn Lawrence and Kathy Wright and oh boy is it ever interesting.   A lot of work and research went into the compiling of information for the book.  It gives historical informormation about the life and times of Magdalena, beautiful colorful pictures of rugs hooked by Magdalena, some of which I have never seen before.  In addition to the pictures of the rugs there is detail information on each of her rugs regarding design, color size.  This is a fabulous must-have book about Magdalena Briner Eby, one of the most well known (in my estimation) textile artists of American Folk Art.

And, some great news for any of you who were not able to attend Sauder (like me), and you would like to own one of your own, here is a link you can access to order: www.rughookingtraditions.com .  You can also see the dates for next year's  Sauder. 

Well, guess I better get outside and do some more post-Irene clean-up done.

Irene getting closer

I've purchased extra batteries for the flash lights, batteries for my portable radio so I can stay apprised of hurricane developments if (ha!!, when) power goes out.  Unfortunately the hurricane is still on track and headed this way as a category 3 hurricane with winds (as of this moment) 110 miles per hour.  All of the beaches (Rehoboth, Bethany, Lewes, in DE and Ocean City, MD have a mandatory evacuation for visitors and residents are recommended to leave.  While I live inland, I do live on a low lying track of land with streams circling the development, which flooded about 5 years ago during a nor easter.

In my previous post I showed you before pictures of the left and right side of the back yard and here are current pictures of the front yard.  Right now there are no trees down but I am quite certain that the dying trees will fall and there will a mighty mess to clean up after Irene has left.

This is the left side and to my back left is where the garage is and the driveway leading to the road around the meadow which would be my exit route from the house. 

Straight ahead is the center front of the property which will have lots of debris in it after the storm runs it course with lots of limbs, leaves and probably tree trunks.

And to the right front yard....., yup, that is a very tall oak tree real close to the house and am praying that it will not topple over onto the house during this storm and twisting winds. 

We are to again to have a thunderstorm and rain before the hurricane gets here Saturday afternoon into Sunday so the saturated ground will make the possibility of falling trees even more probably and would come up with the whole root system.  That is what I'm afraid of with this tree.

Calm Before the Storm

Two days ago we had a rare east coast earthquake which measured 5.8 on the Richter scale and while the epicenter was in Mineral, VA it was felt here in Seaford, DE and even in Canada.  And now we are battening down the hatches in preparation for Irene which is a tropical storm headed directly toward us.

I can remember having a hurricane and my mother's house had waist high water inside her home.  Of course she lives across the street from the Indian River and with the tides, the wind and rain, it was a terrible mess to clean up with mud coating everything in the house, ruined all electrical items and furniture.  While no one is living in the house at the moment, my brother and I still own the house so it will not be a pretty picture after the storm hits.

At my house I've pretty much cleared all the deck furniture off and put it inside the porch, and here is a picture of the left side which, after or during the hurricane will be flooded I'm sure; but this is a picture before.

And to the right of the deck will have standing water as well, if we get as much wind and rain as anticipated. And, as luck would have it, we will be getting rain today and tomorrow even before Irene hits us so flooding is expected.

Yesterday I went out and purchased jugs of water and today will fill up my two tubs and buckets with water so that if I lose power I can at least flush the toilets, take a bath, brush my teeth and drink water.  I have candles but need to go out and buy some extra batteries 'just in case' and will buy more fresh fruit because I can live on fruits and vegetables if I'm unable to cook.

So keep your fingers cross for me and I'll be saying a few prayers myself.   

Magdalena Briner

I became enamoured with Magdalena Briner rugs since my friend Evelyn Lawrence first introduced me to her designs.  Evelyn launched her book on the subject at Sauder Village this past week and I only wish I could have been there to see them up close and personal myself and to congratulate Evelyn for her accomplishments.

So far I have hooked 3 of her designs:  Domestic Zoo (the long runner), Dog with Crows and the Eagle.  It would be very difficult to pick out my favorite of those but guess my favorite would be the one I was hooking at the time.  I'm going to do an experiment and post a picture of the original  Magdalena Eagle rug which was on display at Sauder and the post a picture of the one I hooked to see how far off I was in trying to capture the original look.

Here is Magdalena's original:

And now the one I hooked, which was the third and last rug of Magdalena's I hooked:

Here is the Domestic Zoo rug I hooked, which was the first Magdalena rug I hooked (pattern can be purchased from my web site, www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.com ). 

And the Dog and Crows rug was the second one I did:

              
I do have plans to hook the dog next ~ well I say next but it will be after I return home from Cape May rug camp where I'll be hooking something else entirely.  Since when hooking the Magdalena rugs it requires bits and pieces of wool it is best to hook that at home so I can dig into my worm bag for oddball pieces.  After all, Magdalena used what she had and while hooking the others would often say out loud, "Magdalena, guess that is all you had at the time so you hooked that color right there".

Here are two more original Magdalena rugs which were on display at Sauder.  I sure do want to hook this dog soon.

And then Magdalena's red horse original:

To all of you who were there to see the rug show and the wonderful rugs of Patty Yoder and Magdalena Briner, it must have been a goose bump day seeing these magnificent works of art history.

Sauder Village

Unfortunately I was not in attendance at Sauder Village even tho I was given advance information that there would be some original Magdalena Briner rugs as well as some of Patty Yoder.  So I begged and pleaded with anyone who attended to please take pictures so that I might enjoy them from afar.  Thanks to Phyllis (who is the host of RughookersYahoo) she posted this picture trail so that those of us who were unable to go could enjoy the show as well.  Here is Phyllis' blog:  http://rughooker.blogspot.com/ so that you my enjoy it as well.

Must say that even tho some of the pictures were fuzzy I still got goosebumps when Magdalena's rugs and Patty's rug appeared on the screen.  While my personal collection of rugs lends itself to wide cut primitive style, I did see some rugs which were excellent and as a hooker who has also done fine cut can appreciate the work involved.  And as a rug hooking teacher I had (Bev Conway) said more than once...."Color gets all the credit but it is value which does all the work".

Enjoy the picturetrail everyone.

My new small project

In between assembling purses for people, working sporadically on things for my October show, wanting to get ready for my Cape May rug camp, and trying to have some semblance of order here with my newly adopted pup (wish I could establish a routine with her), I find myself needing something new to hook.  WHEW!  That was a loooong run on sentence.

I love Not Forgotten Farm designs and have numerous patterns of hers.  I've always been enamoured with the Cat in the Shoe design, so that is what I'm working on right now.  As I'm looking at it the ears seem a little under hooked.  When I hooked them I remembered my teachers saying to "Stay within the lines to keep small things small".  Since I didn't want my cat ears to grow to huge proportion thought I'd better stay within the lines.  However, I just might re hook them a smidgen larger.

While I think of the pattern as Halloween am thinking that I'll  hook it so that if someone wants to buy it who loves their cats, it can be used all year.  It can just be a kitty kat who jumps in a shoe for play. 

The background that is hooked in right now is a blue and grey plaid with a tan line and off white.  Thought it might look like sky and be a light contrast to the cat.  Am thinking of a red and orange texture for the triangles and a darker one row border but not as dark as the shoe (Jinx) which is also a great texture from Heavens to Betsy.

Rugs by the Sea

Just one month away from rug camp in historic Cape May, NJ and I've finally decided what I'm going to hook in class.  Am going with my initial idea of the log cabin and sheep, however I have changed it up a bit some from the original July Cabin pattern in Barb Carroll's book. I thought I'd like to hook the leaves of those trees similar to what I did in the Woodland Deer rug (below) with different colors to give it pizazz.

So here is what I've drawn on linen, again with changes from the original design provided in her book.  As I'm looking at this photo now, I think I like the fuller tree to the right, might even make the leaves a tad bigger, don't know yet.

But below is a picture of it hooked by someone (forget who now) and is posted in the Carol Andress folder on Woolley Fox web site.  

Some other changes I did was change the direction of the smoke, instead of upwards I moved it more to the side because I wanted a smaller rug.  Also didn't want my trees in pots nor did I want flags on the trees.

Sincerely Jane Challenge piece

Obviously I have a flat learning curve because this is the 4th time I've typed and saved a message and didn't click PUBLISH.  So obviously this is going to be shorter and just cut to the chase.

Here is my Sincerely Jane challenge rug and am in a quandary as to what to do with the border so have put up a poll and would really love your feed back.

Here are some of my thoughts, which also appear on the poll.

~ pull out all the triangles and do a hit and miss border for 3-5 rows.
~ pull out the light triangles and hook only lines randomly
~ pull out the light triangles and hook only star and diamond shapes
~ pull out all the light triangles totally and hook those in dark & medium value too
~ keep going as started.

Or, if you have other suggestions would love your feedback.  If there is not a suitable answer for you on the poll, feel free to write me your thoughts at saundra125@comcast.net.

Little Bella's Update

Bella has been here 9 days now.  I wanted to give you an update 4 days ago on Monday but have had to jump a lot of hurdles since then, including finally shipping one of the two Edward Tulane rabbits I had orders for (again).  So have been to the shippers and one is on its way to Illinois.

Oh but it has been a challenge this week with a new pup and the A/C going off during a weekend and I refused to pay the exorbitant cost for an emergency call.  So I turned on all the ceiling fans in the house and brought the oscillating fan down from the attic.  But night time sleeping was a little uncomfortable but thank gawd this past weekend temps weren't the ones in the 3 digits as we'd experienced the week prior.

Since Bella was new and wanting to crate train her she had been sleeping in the crate all night until Sunday night.  Since it was to be really really warm in the room I turned on the ceiling fan, and had the oscillating fan mostly directed in the direction of her crate and two (yes, 2) beds outside the crate.  Hey, my girl must have her choice of memory foam or fluff.  And decided to let her sleep outside the crate so she could go in if she wanted (door remained open) and at least she would have access to water in case she wanted to hydrate herself.

Well she was a perfect roommate, no accidents or other incidents and she has been sleeping outside the crate since.  I'm happy she is getting more freedom.  Of course I don't totally trust her for 1-2 hours alone while I run errands yet for fear of the separation anxiety.

So we did get the A/C back in operation on Monday afternoon and it was like heaven in the house later. 

When Terry of Majesty Rottweiler Rescue was here she suggested I elevate the bowls to ensure her stomach didn't flip by too much water, too much food, too much play, which I guess with any combination of the 3 could or has caused the problem.  I've never had a dog with that situation but didn't want to start now either.  So I went out and found something suitable to elevate her bowls.

You can see that my little girl still needs to put on weight and you can readily see the eye which had the entropian surgery as she is sleeping by my side in the computer room.  I'm hoping that with time the hair will grow back and eye will take shape again.  Naturally I will love her even if it doesn't, but you know how we girls are sensitive about our appearance.

Lovin' my little girl and think she and I will embark on the trek to the mail box to retrieve mail since it is relatively  mild outside albeit somewhat humid.  I'll carry some water with me in case she gets panting.

Oh, in the picture above to the left is a stool with a hooked top which I purchased from Mad Hen (Tonya Robey) and the stool to the right is an antique one but the hooked design was the design which came with the dye recipe box and samples.  I figured that since I keep my dyes out of sight I may as well enjoy the design where I can see it every day.