WIP Wednesday 1/30

Slowly, but surely, I’m making progress with my WIP’s. When Peter is on the road, which he has been for most of the month, I seem to have an extra hour or two in the late afternoon. In these hours I get restless and want to snack or get into some other trouble, so I make myself sit down and sew. I have been diligently working on the livingroom rug quilt (and the leader/ender half square triangles project). I am happy to say that I have made progress!

Here is Toby Lischko’s quilt so you can see her design; I am not duplicating her quilt. Can you see the corner detail? She changed colors in the squares and also hand appliquéd some geese flying in the border. She was making a show quilt and I am making one to cuddle under, so I have decided to keep mine simple. I need to get this particular piecing project done and soon – it is very messy. I am not going to show you pictures of it, but I have a very large pile of fabrics that I cut pieces of for the red flying geese and the green Lady Liberty’s. When I paper piece, it always looks like a hurricane has been whirling around my sewing machine!

I continue to practise quilting with my Bernina stitch regulator. I have filled 12″ squares with designs and am trying to relax and move smoothly. It’s interesting; the BSR does regulate the stitch but I can still make long jump stitches and unpleasant looking designs. It certainly doesn’t “do” the work for me!

At night, when I am watching a show that doesn’t need my full attention, I am hooking on the Vermont Shells rug. I have made some good progress since I finished dyeing the new wools.

Here’s a cautionary tale for my fellow bloggers. I printed a book of my 2012 posts with blog2print. It’s really fun to have a book with everything you’ve written for a year. As I was looking through it with Peter, I noticed a problem. On the last 10 pages of the book, all the photos had been replaced with my blog header. I had a bad feeling but I did call customer service. Of course I was supposed to look through all 200 pages online and then approve the book and pay for it. I did not. It is my fault, but I do think there might be something they could do. I’m certainly not going to pay to have it reprinted. Next year I will be more diligent…

Foxy Ladies 1/12/13

It’s been several months since I was able to attend Foxy Lady Rug Hooking Guild’s meeting. It’s always fun to see what the ladies are working on. Hooking rugs is slow, so one of the nice things about going to a meeting is getting encouragement and being inspired. Here is some of what was going on.

I had a finish to show! In December, I worked hard on the mat I started in a class with Susan Quicksall. I love the design, and her colors, though I did tweak it a bit. It still needs some trimming and perhaps some more steaming and then I’d like to make it into a pillow.

Here is Pam’s progress on her geometric rug. It looks great, doesn’t it? She has several containers of cut strips and is coloring each section as she goes.I really like it!

Beth went to a rug camp in the Fall and this is the rug that she started there. They really do look like individual tiles, don’t they?

Barbara is working on this rug, which I was most interested to see because I also bought this pattern. It’s called Sebring Circles and it is from Searsport Rug Hooking. They have two versions of this rug on the front page of their website and they are quite different. Barbara is wondering about the background she chose, which is on the left between the two circles. From this shot it looks like it’s linen colored but it’s a bit warmer. Backgrounds are tricky and can make the pattern sing or dull it down; whatever you want. Finding the color you want is not easy.

A new member, Carol, finished her rug during the meeting! It is so exciting to complete a project and we all celebrated with her. The roses and the border are really yummy red plaids.

Another new member, Vicky, was sitting next to me. She was starting her first original design! The paper at the top of her hoop is what she is working from. She is using bits of wool from previous projects to create each square. It will be a fun exercise to see how colors work with each other.

{Isn’t 1/12/13 the craziest looking date? Being in the 21st century still boggles my mind..}

The Grove Fest

The Grove Fest is an annual event held in Glenview IL. You can read about the history of this beautiful former farm on their website.  This is the second year that we have demonstrated and we Foxy Ladies again teamed up with the Loopy Ladies rug hooking guild. And, just like last year it was really cold! We have a lovely space under a roof and there is a big fireplace there, so it is a great spot to get warmed up. We had quite a good show of hooked pieces! In going through my pictures, I noticed that there are a lot of Foxy Ladies finishes. Barbara finished her amazing fox runner and Pam brought a foxy rug that she had made as well!

Pam completed her lovely Oriental rug. Isn’t it impressive-looking? I’d love to see it in her home.

And Karen finished her matrix design runner, though at least half of it is missing in this picture….. The rainy day ladies above Karen’s piece were hooked by Diane (I think!). Click on the photo to see the details – they are very fun.

Susan is working on another partially hooked piece by her mother. This is a really pretty bird design.

Here is what a Loopy Lady looks like! {;-D} This woman is working on a portrait of her mother from an old photograph – it is amazing! Ann (?) is also a quilter so we had a good day of chatting about  the may crafts we love to do.

This is always fun – to see the same pattern hooked in entirely different styles. The one on the left was hooked by Linda and I believe the one on the right is by Beth.

Here is Leslie, on the home stretch of hooking a great floral rug. Can you see how many layers she is wearing? There was a mighty cold breeze blowing…

I believe the floral rug was hooked by Diane. I don’t know who Calvin’s owner might be! Isn’t he dear?

This is a great grouping, really highlighting the variety of hooking designs and styles.

Santa belongs to Susan and was very popular with the kids. I saw one pair trying to carry him off!

This is just a sampling of the rugs on display and being hooked. The people who attended the fair really got a great overview of the craft of traditional rug hooking.

My apologies to the Loopy Ladies and anyone else I did not credit! If you would like me to add your name to your rug, please leave a comment! I am bad with names and did not actually know who hooked each piece….

More Rugs From Indiana

There were some great rugs to admire, both in the Woolkeepers Hook In show and in the process of being hooked. This was a vendor piece. I was admiring the bright lollipop-like flowers and then I saw the bunny! Can you see his whiskers?

And while we’re talking about animals, here’s a very cute flock of sheep. It’s a DiFranza design hooked by Angela Thomas. The sheep colors and textures are really good.

And more animals. There was a group of ladies discussing backgrounds, as you can see. I really like this design with a farm animal on each edge. And the size of them is quite large so the hooker can play with some fun texture.

Another animal with vegetables! This show rug was probably hooked in a 4 (smallish width) and had wonderful detail. I particularly like the border of Fall leaves and bittersweet. It’s called Harvest Blessing, designed by Kaye Miller and hooked by Jyl Clark (?).

This woman was hooking a 3 or 4 cut Oriental. It’s going to be magnificent when she’s done. I asked if she had a spot for it and she said in her entryway. But she was worried about her dogs ruining it. I do put rugs on the floor and use them but not in the entryway! I hope hers is large enough so that visitors can walk around it with dirty shoes!

This snow family rug was in the show and I bet it really is her family! It was a cutie. The design is Let It Snow by Barbara Carroll and hooked by Becky Chenault (?).

Here’s a fun way to finish a hooked piece – as a neck roll.

Oh – just one more! This piece is going to be lovely! The flowers and perhaps the leaves are being hooked using dip dyed fabrics. That sort of dyeing gives a water-colory, batikish look. It’s a bit fussy to hook, but is well worth the effort. It makes me want to get my dyepots out….

I hope you enjoyed this hooking show and tell. The result of all this is that I want to do nothing but hook!!!

A Room Full of Hookers!

;-D

This was the scene on Saturday at the Woolkeeper’s Hook-In in Camby Indiana!

The photo above is of the hooking area, but what struck me funny, was that it was pretty empty all day! There was so much to do – classes to take, the show to admire,

and most importantly, lots of vendors -

and more vendors! This was my first hook-in, but they are fairly common events. They are organized by rug hooking groups or shop owners and rug hookers from miles around attend. Groups set up at a table and spend the day talking and sharing rugs and hooking away. And shopping.

Rug hooking stores are few and far between. Because of the need to order on the Internet, we all get pretty excited to see wool and patterns and supplies in person. This vendor had some wonderful rug patterns. I saw the washer woman several years ago at another rug show and really admired it. The colors are lovely and it’s quite realistic for a rug done with wider cut wool strips.

Most of the booths featured dull colored primitive wools and designs, and of course lots of fun Fall pumpkins and witches, but this lady was into brights! I thought this was a fine-looking rooster.

Bev Stewart is the show organizer (on the right), pictured with her niece. She has a business called Whispering Pines Designs, but has no website. This is definitely a show to remember for next year if you’re within driving distance of Indianapolis. There were more rug hooking vendors there than I have ever seen and I got into a good bit of trouble…

More photos coming…

Whew! Back to My Quiet Life

Great Nephews #3, #4, and #5 and their parents have come and gone, leaving a sprinkling of Lake Michigan sand and lots of dirty laundry. I taught Second Grade for many years but have never been a parent, so I don’t always cope well with young visitors! Particularly those who open every door and go in rooms they’ve been asked not to! Jasmine tried to be friendly, but got scared off and Gizmo is the definition of a scaredy cat and is still hiding. I spent a lot of Sunday watching the Olympics and resting up…  ;-D

I took them to “the beach” at Lake Michigan and that turned out to be the best thing I did with them – - – everyone was happy. No tears… no pouting…

They went right into the water and had a lovely time. Every day they wanted to go back, but we had rain early each morning and there was a rip current warning, which meant no swimming. Some tears… lots of pouting…

After the marathon of cleaning I did before their visit, I’d like to take a break from that, but a lot of miscellaneous stuff ended up in my studio (where I kept asking them not to go into!!!) and I need to get it straightened up again, not to mention doing lots of laundry. That’s first on the list this week.

The day before they arrived I had another Bernina sewing lesson. It was worse that the first one, so another plan for this week is reading the manual and learning the machine myself . (And Bernina USA is going to hear about how poorly this store is handling their obligation of providing lessons!) I have been looking at my pile of quilt tops and trying to decide which one will be the first experiment on (Ber)Nina and using the BSR. The Gail Garber quilt is going to wait a bit as I want to practice before I start that one. I am thinking maybe I will play with this very old red and white house top.

During the Olympic events that I don’t have to watch closely (swimming and track for sure), I am working on the No Neck Birds rug. I have already hooked 2012 in the corner, so I do need to keep moving along so I don’t have to change the date. And I have two woven Christmas runners completed and am wondering just how much warp is left to be woven.

Like a vacation, it’s great to have visitors, but really wonderful when they leave and life returns to normal!

More About the No Neck Birds

I’ve been working on the no neck birds at night. July is another time of the year when I get a lot of evening work down, as we watch the Tour de France. (And it has been crazy this year!) I hooked a few birds and then added some more on the opposite side. I debated sprinkling the birds around but then decided to make it two-sided. The next design consideration was what to do around them. I used cut paper leaves and some string to see what each idea would actually look like and I came up with three ideas. The first one, below, was vines that go from side to side.

And the next was side to side the other direction, sort of like birds on a wire.

The last idea was flower stalks that stop in the middle area. This is the design that Peter and I liked as it added more color and fun. Using the string and paper pieces worked very well as an auditioning tool!

And here you see some of it hooked. I am playing with several green leaf colors as I don’t like the one you see here. But I think the flower works. It is impossible to see, but I am doing two color beading around the flower middles as well as on the birds’ legs. Next step was to try the background colors. I had some lovely, dark, navy, burgundy, plum plaid fabric, but as usual – - – not enough! So I am using that with two other plaids. I am also using a wider cut (width) of wool in the background so the hooking will go a bit faster. I haven’t used two different cuts before so I am being careful to make sure they are the same height.

Also notice that I am making the corners curved! It will be much easier to finish and why do non woven rugs have to have square corners???

Home Again &amp Some Finishes!

I always find it refreshing to be away from home! Ten days away is long enough to have lots of fun and get tired of hotel rooms. Then, when I return, I have all sorts of new ideas and energy and I see everything here with “fresh eyes”. Usually I run around cleaning, but Peter left the house sparkling, so I attacked several projects waiting to be completed.

Because we were to bring completed hooked pieces to display at the Midwest fiber and Folk Fest show, I decided that I should get the braided edge completed on Welcome Tulips. The off white and green are off the bolt fabrics and I tinted a beige stripe with fuchsia dye. This is the first project I have braided since class and with the help of Kris Mc Dermott’s directions, it went fairly well.

As I hooked this next piece, I thought it would be a pillow. When I was done hooking it I went to a nearby home deco store and found the wonderful trim you see Jasmine lying on. I basted it close to the hooking and then tried to sew it all together – several times. It finally went in the to-be-finished pile. In looking at it when I got home, I decided to finish it as a mat and frame it. If you read rug hooking blogs then you know that making hooked pieces into pillows is a challenge.

Here it is in an Ikea frame. I glued some Japanese paper onto the masonite backing. Then I attached the mat using sticky hook and eye fasteners. Of course the sticky tabs do not stay on the burlap backing, so I will have to sew them on. Finishing is never easy…

I can’t quite remember when I started this little Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt. I made it using the very fun Paper Pieces and just so you get the scale, they are 1/2 inch on a side. There was a partial seam to finish, so it was quickly completed. Here’s the back of the quilt  - I just love this look. Perhaps I should make an “art” quilt showing the backside of English Paper Piecing!

I spent one evening in front of the TV popping out the paper pieces. Then I appliquéd it on a backing fabric. When I was working on it I really debated how to finish the edge of the quilt. In my real quilts, which we use, I fill in the spaces with partial hexagons and trim them. I thought I might do that but it seemed too fussy and un-necessary. Here it is in another Ikea shadowbox frame.

This is Katie’s Leaves, the last pattern I designed for my rug hooking class at Pieceful Gathering. I decided to finish it as a pillow. As with the hooked piece above, it was not as easy as I thought it would be, but here it is. This time I sewed wool fabric to the mat to enlarge it and then had to hook a row of loops as you just can’t sew close enough to the hooking. It’s on a 12″ pillow form. Next time I want to make a pillow I have a new idea to try.

So! I think these are my first finishes of the year; better late than never!

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment if you would like to win a big, beautiful bunch of floral fabrics on Wednesday!

The 6th Annual Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair

The Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair is a great Summer event in the Northern Illinois area and though I could not teach for them this year, my rug hooking group had a booth so I was still a small part of things. This year the guild areas were front and center and people literally bumped right up against us. It’s fun to chat with people and explain rug hooking. Whether or not people actually want to learn to hook, they are always so taken by this lovely craft. Each day our booth was manned by different guild members, so those who are at the fair all weekend see a different show each day. We had lots of goodies on Saturday! These are some small things.

This is Barbara’s tree of life and a portrait done by Karen Maddi Perks, I think.

The top rug is the first rug I hooked many, many years ago. I am not sure whose work is underneath.

Karen’s Catfish rug was a big favorite and one lady wanted to buy it. I wonder what she might have offered had it been for sale…

The Foxy Ladies meet in a small room with a lot of tables and chairs so we have trouble seeing large rugs. Saturday we were able to spread out and admire Barbara Gaynor’s wonderful fox runner…or maybe it’s the running fox runner!

The Lake County Fairgrounds building was full of wonderful vendors!

There were so many beautiful fiber things to look at but I did so quickly so that I would not be tempted! Thanks Carol for another great fair.

No Neck Birds Rug

I was planning the free pattern for the Summer Gathering at Pieceful Gathering quilt store a few weeks ago. Said Gathering is now cancelled (family trip!) but the hooking goes on. I did not need another rug hooking project, but I was so enamored of these birdies that I have started a little rug…

I thought birds was a good Summer hooking project, but I wanted to keep them simple for my (mostly) beginning hookers. I looked through my files of inspiration and my Pinterest pages and searched for shapes that didn’t require shading and could be “serious” or “whimsical” birds. Some wrapping paper gave me the idea I wanted: a simple rounded shape with no neck and a fat sort of beak. Wrens look like this and also some birds I was checking out when I bought cat food the other day. I drew and cut a bird body and then several tail and wing variations in colored paper. Then I spread them out on the marked linen to see about the size. The ladies at the Gathering will probably only want to hook one on a small piece of linen, but I wanted a flock!

I was very pleased with this design: the size is good (not too much fussy hooking for a size 6 piece of wool) and it’s a good beginning design project for those who have never designed. So I drew out one bird to hook.

For each Gathering, I try to introduce the ladies to one technique or idea. For this one I had promised to teach them what is called two color beading. Translation: hooking with two pieces/colors of wool at the same time. It’s a fun technique and adds the folksy, whimsical feel that I am so fond of. I learned how to do this in a class with Susan Quicksall last Summer. She uses it a lot on her wonderful birds. In the photo below, you will see it in the bird’s breast, the flower stems and outlining the fat flower middles. Isn’t it fun?

So here is the first no neck bird for your approval! I used plain colors in each area (no shading or detail) though I think there’s enough room should I choose to do that on another rug. I am using scrap wool {sigh} which is not so easy! It turns out that these shapes take more wool than I realized. The background will be dark wools, though I think I could have used lights as well. And I am going to try using a wider cut to fill in the large areas of background.