PROGRESS ON THE CHURCH…

Wellll not much since I last posted a picture! Have been so busy and having way too much fun – still have 10 fingers to hook with so maybe carving pieces in the future is in the cards. Once my fish is attached to his wormbox I will post a picture. However, I did block off an area to hook this morning (in between dyeing wool and ripping strips out of my Riverus Otterus Canadiensis!). Hmmmm there is a story behind that but first here is the church:

My friend Nancy, for whom I designed Mr. Wieeennneerrrr, asked if I would do a river otter design – same size as the wiener dog rug and facing the other direction so she could hang them both facing each other. Well hmmm that was almost a year ago I think and since Nancy was coming to my hookin this past Sunday and gently (oh so gently) prodding me for the pattern I drew it up on Friday and started hooking it on Saturday. Well it WAS coming along but when I looked at it last night hanging across the room I realised that hmmmmmm not enough light in the water! Out came wrong strips and in will go new strips – much lighter so that the water lilies and bullrushes and otters pop! As for the unusual name – wellllll I figure this might qualify for my “canadiana” challenge for Camp Iawah retreat in 2013! I love 2 birds with one stone (notice I left out the killing – not in my vocabulary!) So no pix of the otters until the tweaking is done and it is finished!

Don’t forget – this weekend is Sundance Studio Tour in Maberly. I have taken a vacation from Sundance this year but will be visiting the tour with my weekend guests. There are I believe over 30 artists at one location and having done the show with many of them in the past I know this will be a great event. So if you are in the area try to stop in to Sundance – now at the intersection of highways 7 and 36 in Maberly.

Next weekend is Fiberfest in Almonte and YES I will be there! Saturday and Sunday – always a great show for anyone loving fiber!

STILL HAVE 10 FINGERS!!!

unlike my Dad (yup the same guy who fell through the roof and broke his knee!) who has cut off hmmm one thumb and the ends of 3 fingers! Usually Gord hides knives when my Dad comes and won’t  keep sharp ones in the house – hence no cooking!!! 🙂

Yesterday’s carving class with our incredible teacher Donna was such fun. We worked long and hard – from 9:30 to 5:30 but wow did we ever produce wonderful carved folkart fish. I have hesitated to try carving – always figured I could just buy from Donna but hmmm it was fun so next  summer we are doing CHICKENS!… Here are pix of the class and our results! (Wendy and Vince unfortunately left before I pulled out the camera so no pix of their fish in progress):

Here you can see what the original uncarved piece of wood looked like

the final process was painting, painting, shellacking, sanding, shellacking, distressing, antiqueing, spraying…

Donna our teacher doing the dirty job!!! antiqueing…

Finished pieces – Ingrid

Liz

Kelly

Donna (with my fish!)

Most of the finished fish …

and Dewey waiting for a treat!!!!!

MALLORYTOWN FAIR, HOOKIN AND NOW OFF TO CARVE…

The last few days have been such fun – Saturday’s Mallorytown Fair was lovely – hot and sticky but lovely. Great artists and vendors (mmmm good baking which I bought to pass off as my OWN homemade at the hookin) and great music. It was fun to see people walking around with olde tyme candy, cuddle the rabbits that were there for judging and just hook and chat all day! ALTHOUGH wool and heat are not a good combination! If the lake were not so low (has dropped 2 feet this summer) I would have jumped right in when we got home.

The hookin yesterday was – as usual – wonderful. Amazing rugs and desserts and Captain Hiliner took some of the hookers for a paddle and swim (another hot sticky day!). Here are some of the rugs from show and tell:

Peri’s Turtles

Elizabeth’s NO WOOL rug started in a great class at the annual in May:

Cathy’s Sharon Smith rug:

Cathy’s OTHER Sharon Smith rug:

Kim’s rug based on a design by Lydia Quigley:

Linda hooking her Holly Hill design:

Barb with her Deanne Fitzpatrick rug:

Alana with a new rug to be combined with mosaic glass:

Deb’s rug (too big for my camera!!!):

Suzanne with one of her amazingly primitive chairpads:

Lydia’s toothbrush rug (a lotttt more difficult than it looks):

Nancy with her peacock feather rug:

Christine hiding behind her punkin:

Susan with her latest Karen Kahle rug:

and another KK rug:

and another KK rug!!! (are we on a mission here? – lllooovvee this rug!!!):

Sandi’s fraktur rug:

Donna’s antique rug purchased on an antiquing trip:

Anne’s quilt of many colours:

And her reproduction of an antique rug – almost done!:

Barb’s Sharon Smith bird tree rug:

and her Turkey Rug – love the edge on this one!:

Today off to take a primitive carving class taught by Donna. Will post pix later this week – assuming that unlike my father I do not cut off fingers (yes he has very few remaining fingers and thumbs – hope this is not a family flaw!).

MALLORYTOWN SHOW…

Well busy week again – company and classes and visitors to the shop and hooking the Church! The rug is now about 3/4 finished – had to do a bit of tweaking to blend the sky from the really light into the deeper tones where the fir trees are but I think I am happy with it finally so on to the biggggg maple tree! Oh I just LOVEEEE!!! (not) doing trees!!!! That is what bogged me down on my latest Maud but I will tackle it a bit at a time. Years ago there was an article in RHM by I believe Eric Sandberg when he did the castle rug. He said he would break down the original painting or photo and mask off an area and turn it sideways or upside down. This would trick his mind into hooking what he saw as opposed to what he imagined it to be and this is somewhat similar to what I have been doing (if I got that wrong slap my fingers!). I have been blocking off areas and turning the original on its side and hooking. It is a bit wierd because I keep wanting to see the whole thing but seems to be working out reasonably well. Still don’t think I am comfortable doing this style and probably won’t do anything like this again for a LONGGGG time! but it has been intriguing and hmmm pretty gratifying!

So thought I would share some pix with you. This is a show Alana is in in Kingston – check out her amazing pieces which are a combination of mosaic glass and rughooking:

And this is Linda’s dollar store vinyl coated bag all hooked up(so do I hear the sound of feet running to the dollar stores to snap up all these bags!!!):

This Saturday I am taking part in the show in Mallorytown – should be fun. I have attached details for everyone who can hopefully make it:

Welcome to the

2012 Mallorytown Village Fair!

…an old-fashioned weekend for the whole family…

Saturday, August 25 -9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Location: Mallory Coach House & Gardens- 1523 County Rd. #2

and Mallorytown Community Centre-76 County Rd. #5

Free Admission – Donations to the Food Bank Encouraged

·         Over 30 Local Artists, Artisans, and Vendors

·         Exhibits and  Heritage Demonstrations

·         Competitions – Baking, Flowers and Crafts

·         Live Music – Gravel Roads and County Rd. 5

      ·         Free Children’s Games and Activities

·         4H Rabbit Show

·         Free Horse and Wagon Rides

·         Vintage Motorcycle Display

·         Refreshments and BBQ lunch

(for more information contact John or Molly at jmsorensen@xplornet.com, 613-659-3874)

I FINALLY HAVE MY LEGS…

Well now that probably needs to be explained!!! A few months ago I hooked a chicken rug – one of the Alana Kapell patterns I carry. I attached it to the top of an antique egg crate (used for transporting flats of eggs) and ran the handle through the rug so that it could be carried. Welll Gord suggested it would make a great little table if it had legs soooo the weekend of our spring studio tour I asked one of my guest artists, Steve Henderson, if he could whip me up some metal legs. Sure! he could and yesterday Gord picked them up. They are nobbly legs with feet and a platform on the top that totally holds my eggcrate secure and safe. It is now a wonderfully whimsical piece of funky folkart and I love it!!!!

Update on the church rug – it is moving along and I have to admit I am quite happy with it. I know there are fine hookers out there who probably would have done a much better job but considering I don’t hook realism or anything near realism I am happy with the results so far. Hopefully the woman who commissioned it will be as well or hmmm I may be enjoying my rug for a while!!:-)

NEW BACKGROUND…

Wellll I have been dyeing purples! Yup – purples. Something I rarely have in stock. BECAUSE yesterday Sue came to visit and she brought along her beautiful sunflower chairpads – all shades of golds and yellows and PURPLE BACKGROUND! I have never used purple as a background but it was STUNNING. And I realised quickly why it was so beautiful – complementary colours! All those soft beautiful golds and yellows just pop on that complementary purple! So as soon as Sue left I started dyeing purple! And old golds! May have to try a rug with a purple background now!!! Here is a picture of Sues beautiful chairpads:

And a picture of my purples and golds:

Add in a little burnt orange:

and then a little olivey green and wow what an amazing rug that would make!!!

WHAT AM I WORKING ON…

Ohhhhhh how do I get myself into these things? Got an email from a lady I have known for a few years. She has a few of my rugs and asked me about a year ago if I would do a commissioned piece. Welllll you know my style by now – primitive and wide cut. So last week when she asked me again and apologised because it would be needed by mid September I felt so badly for her that I said yes – I was not sure there was anyone else who would consider doing a commissioned piece that needed to be finished in about 4 weeks. So got the picture in the mail and drew it out and then agonised for days before I finally slapped myself and said START THIS RUG! It is sooooooo out of my comfort zone – more pictorial with very little colour. A primitive piece this size I would have had done in about 2 days but this piece hmmmmm. Well the church is done (it is supposed to look a bit more impressionistic and less realistic and precise –  yeahhh for that). Alllll the tombstones are done – road is in and now trees, grass, sky. Sky is light blue at the top fading to almost white – I have all the wool dyed up for that and the trees and grass. Just need to kick myself again! Here is a picture (in real life the shadows on the church actually do blend more and are much softer – all 8, 6 and hmmm could that be a 2 in there? what happens when you run your number 8 cut through your number 6 cut – you get what – 6 and 2??)

Just a reminder – my 20% off sale runs till Tuesday inclusive so please let me know if you need a kit – this sure is the time to buy! I will have a few ONLY with me at WAF on Sunday and very little wool as I have to squeeze 4 people into the car and all my stuff!!!! So no tent!(ohhhhhh pray for clear skies!).

GOING, GOING, GONE…

Wellllll those wonderful Star Rug Company kits are almost all gone – Mr. Rapscallion, Matilda and Mr. Snow have found new homes! Remaining are ATHA Pumpkin and Halloween Stroll. So let me know if you are interested in one of these last 2 kits. I guess a lot of people are thinking FALL – cooler weather, colourful leaves, pumpkins, sunflowers, bittersweet – so these little patterns are perfect – fun and quick to hook up.

I am sooooo disappointed – a bunch of my friends are heading off to Madisson Boukville (hope that is the right spelling) for the weeklong antique show. Apparently this is THE hot spot in the Finger Lakes this week every year. Bigggg antique show and the townsfolk all jump on the bandwagon by holding a weeklong garage/junk/collectibles sale. Unfortunately if I had even thought of going I know what Gord would have been saying – DOES THAT MEAN I GET TO BUY NEW GOLF CLUBS? So no junking antiquing trip for me!

A friend of mine, Cindy, recently started making these wonderful hooks out of recycled spindles and beads. They feel great in the hand and are available at the moment in the shop or on line for $30.00:

Yesterday Andrea dropped by for a visit – she brought the pile of rugs she has finished off in the last few weeks! This woman is an amazingly prolific hooker – she uses a lot of yarns and alternative fibers in her rugs and zips even large rugs up in a few days. This is her latest Karla Gerard rug done all in yarns and sari silks:

Later in the afternoon Anne came for a visit – we spent a bit of time dyeing some wool to match an old dirty pink/salmon that she is using in her antique reproduction rug. I think! it came out perfectly after a bit of playing around with cardinal and bronze! Anne brought along a few pieces that she had finished including this tote bag. These are amazing little burlap bags that are laminated on the inside. As you can see they are really well made and AVAILABLE AT THE DOLLAR STORE FOR 2.00. I RARELY go to the dollar store but these are wonderful as you hook right through the burlap and laminated backing. You need a sharper fatter hook but when it is done (no hooking background) you have a great little tote bag. Granted – hooking with no frame can be a tad tedious but I think it is worth the work!

Anne also brought along her finished wool applique runner which turned out beautifully. She will be kitting this with the pattern for the store where she works when she goes back home in September:

BUSY WEEK…WOMENS’ ART FESTIVAL

This will be a busy busy week. Gord is away so I have to do alllllll the work :-)!!! Well maybe not! I will dye wool (all those fall colours), hook a commissioned piece, make kits and NOT COOK A DARNED THING! Dinners will consist of cereal or peanut butter wraps! although I woke up from a dream of toasted tomato sandwiches and caesar salad! but I think that qualifies as not cooking!

Sunday is the Womens’ Art Festival in Kingston:

31^ST

WOMEN’S ART FESTIVAL

AUGUST 19^th, 2012

CITY PARK, KINGSTON

(corner Bagot and Barrie Streets)

10:00am     TO     5:00pm

 

OVER 200 VENDORS;

MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT;

FOOD VENDOR;

CHILDREN’S AREA;

SILENT AUCTION;

WATER & POP

AVAILABLE

AT THE INFORMATION TENT.

Cash Machine 

Available this year 

 

IT IS A RAIN OR SHINE EVENT.

 

BRING SOME FRIENDS

AND

COME SPEND THE DAY WITH US.

 WWW.womensartfestivalkingston.ca.

Hopefully it will be a SHINE EVENT and we will not be rained out like we were last year. Torrential downpours, lightning and a leaky tent did not add up to a good day! This year I am SURE we will have bright skies, cool temperatures and lots of visitors! I am spot 114 if you are looking for me (not sure exactly where 114 is – I think it is under a big tree!).

I finished a purse this weekend – hooked it while visiting my parents. It has BLUE in it – I DON’T DO BLUE very often but this one actually lent itself to a blue background.

NEW KITS AVAILABLE…

THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WISHES AND COMMENTS ON MY FIRST ANNIVERSARY!!!! What a wonderful community this is! I am so glad I am a hooker (hmmm now that DOES need to be read IN CONTEXT!)

My dad is 87 – about a month and a half ago he decided to check to see if the roof of his shed was rotten by climbing onto it! YUP IT WAS ROTTEN!!! He fell through it and landed on his knees breaking his right knee in a couple of places then dragged himself across the street to the neighbours – noone was home so instead of calling 911 off he goes in his truck to get his glasses repaired as he ALSO broke them in the fall. ONLY AFTER DRIVING AROUND TOWN WITH A BROKEN KNEE did he take himself to the hospital!!!! He has been in a brace for weeks now and is miserable – this is a man who at 87 still has grass cutting contracts and snowblowing contracts. He shops every day so being home and not able to get out and about is driving him AND my mom crazy. To save their marriage!!! Gord and I went to visit. Had a good time with both of them, ate too much (my dad is an amazing cook) and YEAHHHHH got to visit 3 antique shops! HOWEVER, I have discovered that the tidier, cleaner and more organized an antique or salvage shop is – the higher the prices! So although we had fun I only bought 2 small items and hmmm one biggg dough box! Now IT was a reallllly good price! Has a wonderful flat surface for a hooked rug but does need a set of legs.

I have received a few patterns by Star Rug Company which I am in the process of making into kits – many of these are fairly small patterns and I think they would be great beginner kits. I am going to try to kit them as close to the colours and wools indicated on the photo that accompanies the pattern(on linen) so if you are interested please contact me for size and a price for the kit. These unfortunately are not eligible for the 20% anniversary discount:

Mr. Rapscallion

Halloween Stroll

Mathilda

ATHA Pumpkin

Mr. Snowman