HOOKIN AND MORE DARN MICE…

Well we are dealing with invasion of the mice! not body snatchers!!! According to my totals we have “rescued and released” either 26 mice or the same 3 mice 8+ times!!!! Must admit I am getting tired of being woken 2 times a night to the sound of rattling in the trap and having to hop into the car and drive half a kilometer to release the captives (okay so I don’t hop in the car – Gord does!). We decided when we saw one of the mouse wink at us as we released him in the garden that perhaps!!! it might be a good idea to let them go a little further away from the house! I know these critters can squeeze down to a little skinny to get in through small holes but with the numbers we are having heck there must be a beachball sized hole somewhere on the outside of my house!

Anyway, the mouse invasion did not deter me from holding a hookin yesterday and about 15 crazy hookers showed up – braving rain and possible ice on the roads and dark. But we had a great time! Ate toooooo much and tooooo well and did some hooking! and were inspired by show and tell. So here are some of the fun projects being worked on:

If I understood correctly Nancy is FINISHING THIS RUG for someone else – does she take orders?

Nancy’s rug based on a photo started in class in NFLD – a rug camp she highly recommends

Julie’s Emily Carr rug

Suzanne’s rug and below her hooked doll

Alice’s hit and miss table runner – Alice was working on the showbinding

Marilyn’s first rug – a Mad Hen Primitive pattern – wellllll done!!!

Peri’s begonia – for some reason Peri does not like this rug – I think it is wonderful!

Peri’s finished bear rug – amazing and whipped with strips rather than yarn!

Shauna’s first rug – wonderfully primitive!

Gwen’s almost finished mittens! By the end of the day they WERE finished!

Linda’s Alley cat rug – Christmas gift for hmmm was that grand daughter?

 

MAD FOR MAUD WEEKEND WAS…

a roaring success!!! Thirteen of us took part. Pam was a wonderful teacher. She had put an amazing amount of work and time into researching Maud Lewis, collecting and making up great visual aides, brought many hooked rugs based on Maud’s paintings, had movies to inspire us and move us to tears (Maud had a hard life and was severely disabled with a form of arthritis yet managed to paint cheerful whimsical images of life in Nova Scotia) and imparted her knowledge of hooking techniques that would enhance our rugs. The twelve students worked in everything from narrow number 3 and 4 cuts to wide 8.5; finer yarns and heavy big slubby yarns and fibers; hand dyed and as is textures. The end result is going to be an amazing group of rugs – each unique and beautiful in its own way. Would love to share pictures with you however! it appears one of our members may be doing an article on the class and Maud Lewis rugs and we may not be able to publish our pix before that – if we CAN I will share the pictures of the beginnings of our rugs later. Camp Iawah was as usual a wonderful location for a weekend of hookin’ no cookin’!  We overate but all healthy good homecooked food (yeah Jim!!!). Despite rubber mattresses (which we have decided are not a bad idea as you get older) we enjoyed ourselves so much that we have decided we should set up a Hooker Retirement Home at camp Iawah! They take such wonderful care of us.

Gord and a few of the husbands had a great time as well – junking, eating out at the pub and playing darts and getting the chains on the tractor ready for winter in the country! So this may have to become another annual event!

I do have some pix from the weekend that I can share:

This is Sheila’s piece from the Jule Marie class in May. It is a stunnnnning piece – full of wonderful colour and textures. Sheila works with an amazing mix of slubby yarns and wool strips – this represents the Yukon tundra and was inspired by a photo of this northern landscape. Who would imagine that these colours actually exist – but they do and she has captured the colours beautifully.

Another one of Sheila’s rugs.

One of the rugs done by Betty (my sister) at Trent a few years ago in a class with Janice Daniels on cats. This was based on a Laurel Burch quilt pattern – Janice had arranged for permission for the class to hook LB cats.

Betty’s rug from the Jule Marie class – just needs to finish the edge.

Betty’s rug from our class in Canaindaigua with Jayne Hester. Seems Betty is on a finishing kick!

Members of the Camp Iawah Hooker Retirement Home!

Our host for the weekend – Pete – who did a LOT of running for us!

Sunrise at Iawah Saturday morning – stunning! Of course none of us slept much – too much going on to GO to bed and sleep and so much going on that we had to get up at 5:30 and start hooking again. So here is the final picture of one of our members hard at work Saturday a.m. (hmmm was it around 6 a.m. Wendy?)….

Oh and are those your PJ’s??? We won’t show pix of my Bed, Bath and Beyond PJ’s!!!!

MAD FOR MAUD…

So this weekend is our Mad for Maud (Lewis that is) retreat and I am soooo excited. I am so looking forward to a weekend away with friends, no cooking and lots of hooking! Pam Langdon is a great teacher and this will be a fun class. I laid my Maud pattern out and pulled all the wool I THINK I will use butttt just in case will take along a few more suitcases!!!! cause we DO change our minds as we go along.

Also today is part 2 of the first mitten class I taught so I am anxious to get the mittens all put together and pix posted of their creations. Of COURSE it snowed and is freezing rain in some areas so whether all my students will be able to make it today is questionable.

I mentioned while I was in the states last week that I had purchased a few primitive goodies – here they are:

I intend to hook a “WOOL” rug to hang on the bottom of this …

I have wonderful pieces of barnboard – would like to attach this to one of them and hook a chicken scene …

This is an antique berry basket from a berry farm in north western Vermont. It will look wonderful with a rug in the bottom …

So as you can see I have a lot of hooking ahead of me again!!!! But they will be fun winter projects. Better buy a whole stock of pork and beans (actually Heinz has a chipotle baked bean that is delicious!!!!) cause I won’t be cooking!

A couple of people were asking about the 3D tree in the pix from Shelburne.  That tree definitely was 3 dimensional.  I did a tree like that a few years ago and used a spindle as the stem (I have a WHOLLLLLE collection of old cruddy primitive spindles I have collected over the years – for what??? who knows but they look lovely!).  It almost looks like maybe she used some kind of heavy duty wire? since it was curved or maybe it was something she repurposed and covered with the wool.  But old chair spindles doweled into a base work beautifully. The one I made had a flat piece of dyed wool on the back but I believe this one was hooked back and front and joined together on the sides (fold under the edges – usually monks cloth – and hand stitch together or whip together – this one looks whipped together) and then stuff with fiber fill.  I think she also used a flat piece of oval shaped wool for the underside of the tree and whipped that on.  It was a really fun fun piece…

 

OH THANK GOODNESS…

Other people are posting pix of the rugs from Shelburne sooooo if you still need a fix check out Jen Manuel’s blog http://fisheyerugs.blogspot.com/ and Wendy Scott-Davis’ The Rugged Moose (on my blog list to the right) and you will see even more pix and comments!!!

SADLY LAST OF THE SHELBURNE PIX …

I know you would have loved to continue to see pictures every day but these are the last on my camera – hmmm by this point my camera had died, been fixed, went wonky and I was getting tired of taking pix and not seeing the rugs! PLUUSSSSS chomping at the bit to also get to the amazing vendors!!!! So here are the final pictures – enjoy!

 

 

OF MICE AND SHELBURNE!!!…

So does the title give you an idea of what has been going on in my household? Welllll last night i did not sleep well – at 2 a.m. I heard rattle rattle rattle – oh God I knew what that meant. Wee mousie in the live trap! So got up cause  – of course Gord did not budge although I am sure I heard his breathing stop!!!! Walked through the dark into the kitchen where we have a cabinet that is empty except for live trap – there is a pipe coming up through the bottom of the cupboard!!! Mouse sized hole surrounding it! Checked the trap and of course there he/she was! chowing down on peanut butter(which I have been told is increasing 30% so mousies will get something cheaper instead!). Took the trap as the cats surrounded me out into the cold and dark and set free the mouse! Went back to bed and did not sleep at all until 4:30 when Gord muttered about a mouse in the trap! Duh! So I mentioned that I had already set it free – to which he replied – I think there is another one! Wellllll sure enough the cupboard was surrounded by felines! and trap was full so off I went AGAIN into cold and dark with trap in hand to set free the mouse. Felt like that old movie – Born Free!!! Anyway I think I have done my good deed which hopefully wipes out squished mouse!

ANNNNND more Shelburne pix below… getting unfortunately close to the end though….

 

 

HMMMM … WILL THESE BE THE LAST SHELBURNE PHOTOS?…

A few more remaining that don’t look like they were taken by someone on drugs!!!! How is it that every photo I take comes out with wider top than bottom? I thought it was related to taking pix on the floor but even the ones I took hanging on a wall at Shelburne come out the same way. I personally think my camera is wonky! (more acceptable than saying I am a bad photographer!!!).  So here are a few more – slightly cropped but still fun to look at…

AND STILL MORE SHELBURNE…

More pix of the wonderful rugs…

AND MORRRREEE SHELBURNE…

Well this could go on for a few more days!!! But I am sure you are enjoying the rugs.

Taught my mitten class – well part 1 – yesterday.  I was amazed at some of the wonderful designs that people had come up with. Tish Murphy was kind enough to provide us with blank mitten patterns so that everyone could do their own designs. Once the class is finished in 2 weeks I hope to be able to post pix of some of the finished mitts.

Okay – I know you are anxious so here are a few more rugs from the show:

Most of these rugs (if not all of them) were hooked by one of the featured artists – Bev Conway. Bev uses amazing colours in her rugs. In addition, in many of them  she has incorporated a secret message on the back of the rug – hence the 2 pix of the ducks. The picture above is actually the back of the rug with the “secret” message and the picture below is the front of the rug. Bev had an explanation of why and how she does this (well partially anyway!) and I think it is really interesting to read how she started this technique and why.

MOOOORE to come!…

MORE SHELBURNE…

So today I am off to teach mittens to our guild. Should be a fun class. But before I leave I have cleaned up and will post more pix from the rugshow – this show runs all week long yet till noon on Sunday so if you are within driving distance you should really try to get to it – definitely inspirational and exciting!

Okay so tune in again tomorrow for more pix – getting there but still a lot!!! to go…