THE POST EASTER BUNNY…

Today is April Fools Day – and the only  mean trick I played was not feeding the deer anything but carrots because WE RAN OUT OF FOOD! Normally we would stop feeding them at this time of year but the sad look on their faces as they circle around the feeder looking for stray bits of grain is sooooo pathetic that tomorrow Gord is off to the coop to pick up ONE FINAL BAG(which is what we said a week and a half ago!).

Finished hooking the 2013 Rabbit rug – one of the Margaret Shaw patterns I recently ordered. It is small and was fun – a one day hooking project (well in wide cut!). Her patterns are such fun – whimsical, funky and spring bright! Now to decide what to do with him – I could just bind it and make a chairpad OR I have an old cheesebox lid – I could make the border wider and attach it to the inside of the cheesebox lid.

Wednesday morning from 10 – 12 I will be at Stitch by Stitch on Gardiner Road in Kingston – cutters in hand. If you need help, need wool, need to cut wool or just want to sit and hook please drop in…

OH A LITTLE EASTER HUMOUR…

JUST HAD TO POST THIS – toooooo funny….

OHHHH CELTIC IS DONE…

yes – finished hooking it on Saturday at our Iawah retreat and then hmmm had nothing to work on! But this morning I finally finished the edge and clean up which involved plucking off all the tips of the tails, loose threads, filling in, holy cow, BIG gaps, rehooking some areas and then THE final pressing. Now just the label and a summary of the meaning of some of the celtic symbolism. Sooooo, here’s the final rug (probably not the greatest photography as I had to climb up on a chair and then lean forward (without falling OFF the chair in the process) and photograph the rug.  Still had to straighten and clean up the photo and the colours really are not as nice as they are in real life(a perfect match for the quilt that it will accompany)…

HOPPY EASTER to you all – wishing you a wonderful day and lots of chocolate!!!!… (and now I am going to hook a small rabbit chairpad – one of the new designs I just got by Margaret Shaw for the studio)…

IAWAH SPRING RETREAT OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR :-(…

What a wonderful weekend. 15 hookers in one room resulted in a lot of good fun and laughs and great hooking! We also shared the weekend with 50 Christian ladies who thought we were hot – wonder if they meant we were all either post, peri or premenopausal and generating our own heat! Quite a few of them were interested in the rughooking and came for show and tell and one became inspired enough to take it up!

Some of our rughookers came with half finished projects which were finished by the end of the weekend; some came with brand new projects which were almost finished by the end of the weekend and ANDREA came with a new project which was finished by Saturday! Here are pix of some of the rugs and other projects worked on this weekend. Every year we set a new challenge piece – this years was Canadiana. Next years is ….. FOUL FOWL! Open to many interpretations!!!

Wendy’s Canadiana Challenge piece 

Liz’ Canadiana Challenge piece – for her granddaughter Liberty whose parents are hockey players!

Karen’s rug for her granddaughter

Elizabeth’s Maud Lewis – FINISHED!!!  and Elizabeth doing the happy dance…

Laura’s Starr Rug Company pattern…

Andrea’s crow – hooked in yarns and a charcoal CORDUROY JUMPER…

Donna’s finished rug for her musical son… just in time for graduation!!!!

Trish’s bunny – will be inset into the top of a footstool…

France’s Out of the Closet rug hooked in silk scarves…

Donna’s rug made out of dyed nylons…(don’t look at the date in the bottom right corner!)…

Diane’s punch needle horse…

Diane’s Maud Lewis rug…

Sheila’s newest Klimt inspired rug …

Louise’s Star rug for her son…

Louise trying to pronounce the name of her Hawaiian fish rug (as Karen chuckles…)…by the end of the weekend the fish was done and all the background seascape was drawn in…

Elizabeth’s finished pineapple rug…

Lydia’s rug (a Notforgotten Farm design)…(I covet this rug!)…

Beginning of Elizabeth’s Canadiana rug (inspired by a G7 painting by Casson)…

Andrea’s Canadiana inspired by Norval Morrisseau paintings…

Andrea’s fish rug…(all in yarn)…

Another Norval Morrisseau inspired rug by Andrea…

Linda and her Canadiana Inukshuk… 

Donna and her carved Maud Lewis inspired Canadiana piece…

Liz’ painting of the deep south…

and her pineneedle and palmetto and sawgrass basket made while she was down south…

…AND A LITTLE DNA IN MY FELTING…

Yesterday was such fun – we had a small felting workshop at guild taught by one of our members, Maureen. Although noone completed their entire projects in class we all got a good start on how to dry felt. Of course, one of the things we learned was to be verrrrrry careful with our needles – have I mentioned I come from a rather klutzy family? Wellllll, poked myself 3 times and bled all over my felting (thank goodness my doctor insisted on a tetanus shot a few years ago!). I always say every project I have ever made – hooking, quilting, beading – maybe not knitting – contains a bit of my DNA. I am working on a journal cover – not sure what it will look like but I am enjoying adding some applique, beading and who knows what else into the needlefelting.

Did take some pix of finished sunflowers – I was amazed at how creative they are and how well they turned out. Hmmmm maybe now a needlefelted center???? This afternoon I leave for a weekend of hooking with friends at camp Iawah where I intend to finish the celtic rug (leaving the whipping for Gord to do!) and be inspired by some amazing pieces. Will post pix next week… have a wonderful weekend and hope you are as inspired by creative friends as I know I will be…

Cathy’s grouping of sunflowers…

and more of Cathy’s sunflowers…

Glenna’s sunflower – she is adding another one to the other branch…

Lou’s sunflowers (bugs and all) and scary sheep (big teeth!!!)…

Elizabeth’s sunflowers (recycled fabrics and burlap bag!)…

FRIENDS WITH RUGS…

Well a week has gone by with no post – can I blame it on my many accidents in the last week? Probably not since I don’t type with my feet – although I do have friends who say my usual emails are rather messy – no capitals or punctuation or breaks. I say they are just a reflection of my mind – scattered! Last week though I wrapped my baby toe around the leg of a table in my bedroom and I think it is broken. The skin is puffy and a was a lovely shade of purple and green and it HURTS! Then yesterday I had a battle with the hose of the vacuum cleaner and I lost – fell onto the floor on my bad hip (fell onto a concrete floor last summer and have never really felt right since then) but MY HANDS WERE UP IN THE AIR well protected! So I can still hook, dye and type! Which is a goooood thing since this is our spring Iawah retreat weekend. No cooking but lots of looking and hooking. I am so excited to see what everyone has been working on and will take lots of pix to share next week. Our challenge this year was Canadiana and although I have a bad sketch on paper I have no piece to enter in the challenge. I will be working on the celtic which is coming along rather nicely. I finished the borders on the weekend and yesterday and Monday I hooked the first “celtic knot duck”. In looking at the picture I took I see there are definitely things that need tweaking but so far I am pretty happy with it…

Last week a few friends – Ruby, Sandra and Terry –  dropped by and brought rugs for show and tell – these ladies are veryyyyy prolific and there were more rugs but I did not get pix of all of them…

Terry’s current rug

Terry’s first rug (love the very primitive look of this rug)

Terry’s finished welcome mat

Sandra’s Deanne Fitzpatrick rug

And another DF rug by Ruby

Ruby’s version of Alana’s Frog and Fishes (sans fishes!)Ruby’s primitive floral rug

A Martina Lesar chairpad hooked by Ruby

CONTINUING SPRING…

Well once I started I was on a roll – decided I needed a new bright but slightly dirty mustard yellow. I started out with 1/4 tsp Cushings Bronze and 1/4 tsp Cushings Buttercup over 9/8 (I know that my wool quantities are a bit wierd but it all depends on what pile of wool is sitting on the floor or stashed in the shower stall). The bronze that was used both in the Dirty Spring Green and the new yellow should tie the two colours together beautifully. I gleaned this through using Karen Kahle’s Vintage Colours dye book in which Karen does numerous colours that all work beautifully together because she repeats certain dyes within the formulas. For instance, most of her red formulas  are based on the same 4 – 5 dyes but in different proportions. Then one or 2 of the colours she uses in the reds are carried through to the greens etc. What you end up with is a wonderfully cohesive group of wools that work well together in the same rug. Well… I ended up with a French’s mustard yellow (no dirty water left in the dye pot!) which was a bit brighter than I wanted (but if you are looking for French’s mustard yellow this is the formula!). So, hmmm, needed to tone this down a bit, dirty it up a bit – so I mixed up MC blue violet (1/32) and filled the cup up to the 2 cup point with boiling water and then gradually added the new mixture to the pot – mixing up the wool in the water and abrashing with some of the formula. I now have a wonderful old Basil Pesto Mustard (I love mustards – Gord and I collect all sorts of funky mustards – Basil Pesto is by Stonewall Kitchen and is theeeeee best mustard ever) – a kind of old greeny yellow colour. Love it with the Dirty Spring Green. So what is next? Thinking daffodils – dirty daffodils of course! Maybe a nice dirty bronzey brown for the ground!(PS – in real life the colours are a bit more toned down – flash distorts colours or should I not be blaming it on the camera

And the dyeing must have worked because sky was blue (well bluer!) – until the snow started!

DYEING FOR SPRING… OR IS THAT DIEING FOR SPRING???

March is definitely not my favourite month of the year. Living in the North when the snow starts to disappear we are surrounded by the ravages of winter – dirt, sand, mud, footprints, dirty windows, garbage left behind by the collectors, 5 million sunflower seed husks(could the birds just eat the whole darned thing!)… Skies are grey most days because it is mild out and the weather cannot make up its mind if it is still winter (more snow) or spring. My racoon babies are out of hibernation and have left trails of mud all over the front porch and on the windows as they wait somewhat impatiently for handouts (last night they got a few freezer burnt wieners). So in retaliation I decided I needed to do a fun spring green. Not an in your face neon green but something a little olivey but not to old and dirty – well somewhat dirty!!!! I used Cushings dyes this time and here is the formula:

1/2 tsp Bright Green

1/2 tsp Bronze

I must admit though, that there was a bit of yesterdays olive green formula left in the pot that the wool would just not absorb after an hour of sitting (mostly a bit of chocolate brown and orange) so if I were dyeing this colour in fresh water I would probably dirty the water a bit beforehand with a bit of brown and orange. I love this green – have a friend who asked for some green for fields and I think this might have to be included!!! I did 15 fat 8ths of various base colours – natural, oatmeal, textures and some darker textures for overdyeing. So on another grey muddy day this Dirty Spring Green (can I call it that) makes me feel a bit more cheerful.

SUNFLOWERS AND MORE…

Last week at guild we worked on sunflowers. I took along a few samples of some that I had made and everyone jumped in. Once they are done I hope to get a picture of the finished pieces but here are some pix of people at work.

At guild I was given the most wonderful gifts. These came in a bag with a wonderful vintage cashmere scarf in the most lovely soft beize and taupe colours and made in Germany!  Now that is a label to keep because hmmm not seen too often on clothing anymore! I do not think though that I can cut up this scarf although it would make the most lovely vintage rabbit! I think I will have to wear it for a few winters and THEN CUT IT UP! Check out the vintage bottle brush tree (yes it came that lovely faded green colour) that Wendy inserted into an antique door knob. I might have to leave this tree out year round – it is so beautiful. Wendy said I was an easy person to buy for – find junk and wrap it up and give it to me! I do know that at my local junk store they charge me extra for rust!

And now for a few pix of rugs completed by friends…first Andrea’s version of Alana Kapell’s Frog and Fishes (done all in yarns)…

and Bill’s Northern Sign of Spring – a wonderful pattern designed by Ann Hallett. Bill and I met last fall and he had  almost decided to give up on rughooking – I am soooooo glad he did not because I think this is an amazing first rug!!!… 

AND IT IS STILLLLL SNOWING…WELL MAYBE MELTING…

A week ago I started the following post but all of a sudden life got turned upside down when I found out that my mom had been rushed to the hospital. Everything was put on hold as we drove 5 hours to their hometown to take care of her and help my father. Finally after 6 days she was recovering well enough that we could come back home – and then Gord got sick! Now all is back to normal again so I am posting today what I wanted to post last Thursday!!!!! So if all of this sounds a bit dated (because yes the snow is melting like crazy!) you will understand…

…Well yesterday’s morning at Stitch by Stitch in Kingston was fun. Despite the bad weather (rain, ice pellets and snow all day long meant slushy slippery roads) a few people braved the roads and came to spend some time hooking, chatting and helping each other with finishing, colour planning etc. Pat came with her amazing rug – a Woolen Memories pattern that she had gotten from me done in number 9 REALLLLLY wide cut. It is glorious and I hope next time to take a picture of it to show you how beautiful it is. Diane came with her Deanne Fitzpatrick rug that she is working on, Lyn came with a few pieces that he wanted to finish off, Elizabeth came with her pineapple rug and got wool she DID NOT NEED – don’t we all say that!. A few other ladies came by just to pick up supplies or check out what everyone was working on. It was a fun morning – I did a bit of work on the finishing (showbinding) of my Russian Village – yessss the hooking is alllll done! The next morning is tentatively scheduled for April 3 10 – 12 – would be wonderful if we could get a few more rughookers to drop by. I left a new stash of wool at the store – some of the new blue spot dyes so if you are in the area and need some wool or a kit check out the stores supply.

SNOW SNOW SNOW AND MORE SNOW… here are a few pix for those of you who live in the south and never get to experience that lovely white stuff – not so lovely when you are driving in it but oh it is so beautiful out there today:

AND… here is a picture of RV almost done – I am doing a showbinding in the same wool as the last 2 rows of hooking – a dark teal with bits of red, purple, navy and double folding it to the back to make the edge really strong and thick although I do believe this will go on the wall. My cats have a tendency to seek out the closest rug when a hairball is working its way out! (update – the showbinding is done and I am ready to hang my rug!)…