IAWAH RUGHOOKING RETREAT…

Well another Camp Iawah retreat weekend has come and gone. 12 – 13 of us met this past weekend and shared food, friendship, laughter and rugs. We met up with a quilting group who were also holding a weekend retreat in one of the other buildings – some of whom were hookers – and did our show and tell for them in exchange for their show and tell. We were even serenaded by the mens’ Evangelical group at breakfast. It was a wonderful weekend. Not even the blanket of snow when we woke Sunday morning could dampen our spirits – maybe our shoes and socks because none of us wore boots…

I think we must be getting old though! I remember when we first started going to camp we would stay up till midnight or beyond – this time most of us were in bed between 9 and 10 – which does not mean we stayed there!!!!  We used to go to bed late and get up early – now we go to bed early and get up many times! Another sign of getting older!

Came home to a pile of laundry. Seems Gord does not know how to use the washing machine!!! He said it kept dinging as he tried to set it to go on and the error message D5 kept appearing (ahhhhh what happened to the good old days when we just turned one button – now the machines talk to us!). He thought this meant I permanently had delayed laundry for 5 hours (or would that be 5 months) – had to explain it really just meant he had not closed the door on our front loading washing machine! Oh well – he tried! 🙂

So some of our rugs from this weekend:

Betty’s squirrel rug for a friend who raises orphaned squirrels… Betty’s sheep rug…  Sheila’s rug from her class with Deanne Fitzpatrick… and another rug by Sheila… And an amazing rug by …. yup Sheila…

Sheila’s sunflower rug in memory of a dear friend. This rug was inspired by a painting by Jeffrey Smith entitled Top Lit Sunflower. Jeffrey gave Sheila permission to translate his painting into a hooked rug…  Susan’s horse rug (pattern by Martina Lesar)… Susan with Moose (pattern available from Baa Baa Bundles)…

Chris’ Christmoose rug in the process of being snowbound… Chris also finished off Primitive Tulips (one of my kits)…  and worked on her Celtic knot chair pads… Helen’s pillow – a Karla Gerard design… and Abstract Paisley (another KG design)…The other Betty’s rugs…
and another rug by the other Betty…  Wendy’s rug (a Maggie Bonanomi design)… Donna finished off this piece for a friend who had decided not to take up hooking…Louise’s Deanne Fitzpatrick rug…
and her new piece which is huge… a bench pad in progress…  Andrea’s rabbit rug… and her Carol Feeney rug… and a completed rug – pattern she found at the Salvation Army for 5.00… Andrea’s coverlet Lion rug and mine… Karen’s Snow man rug… Donna has been toting this rug hooked with nylons to various hookins for a while now and FINALLLLLLY it is finished and soooo beautiful….

 

RIDEAU VALLEY BOOTS AND BASKETS VENDOR DAYS…

Our third annual vendor days will be coming up November 20th so mark your calendars and bring your wallets. We will have a number of vendors  – Baa Baa Bundles (Cathy Ivory) with reclaimed wool and luscious alternative fibres and that AMAZING Moose Pattern; Maureen Robertson with her beautiful hand spun wools and fibres and needle felting supplies, Carol Shewan with her lovely wools and new pattern lines, Elaine Tigges with books, hooks and wonderful wool, Hooked on the Lake (yours truly) with my usuals and perhaps a few more of our guild members. We will have coffee, tea and snacks but bring a mug and lunch and join us for a day of hooking and shopping.  We can be found in Burritts Rapids at the Community Centre at 23 Grenville. We usually start around 10:30 as we cannot set up till 10 but run till about 2:00 so lotttts of time to visit and be inspired, hook a bit and shop a lot!!!!

A fellow rughooker, Meredith, is looking for someone who might be interested in purchasing this beautiful, almost finished rug along with a ton of wool strips to finish it and the appropriate fine hook. You can contact Meredith at merware@kos.net. The entire kit would be $125 – peanuts for such a beautiful and quite large rug that in a few hours could be on your floor!

And a few rugs by friends… Gillian’s Fish Tych which she will hang on a bamboo fishing pole(this was started in a class I taught on introducing texture to your rugs and hmmmm I think Gillian should be teaching this one!!!); Louise’s Poppies (a Sharon Smith pattern) and my bashful friends rug for her granddaughter started in a WIDE cut class with Karen Kaiser and Pat with her amazing Poppy rug done in a class with Laura Bozormeny…

THE MAKER’S HAND….

I actually did get an opportunity Sunday afternoon to visit the show in Picton. What can I say – WOWWWW.  Amazing artists, beautifully set up with a nice variety of work for sale. Unfortunately, the new vehicle is going to eat up a lot of money so no buying although I was certainly tempted. There were potters, jewellers, clothiers, reclamation artists (that sounds so much better than junk artists :-O), blown glass artists and many more. A really wonderful show – I do hope next year that I can take part.

This weekend there will be another show that I thought I would share with you. The show will feature one of my favourite salvagers – John Sorenson of Ballycanoe – who will have his beautiful paintings as well as “found art” at the show. You can get more info about the show and the various artists at Beforetherushartshow.blogspot.ca and Facebook.com/Before-The-Rush

 

I have also been doing a little bit of hooking. I have always found hooking is great therapy. So a picture of two purses – both hooked in Scotland – one out of stockings dyed wild, non-Loretta colours! But I have to say, on a grey drizzly day working with those brighter colours on a SMALL piece was fun. A few people asked me how I dyed my stockings cause NOPE they sure don’t come in those colours!!! I soaked a pair of white pantyhose (which I bought from my supplier Hedore Gionet) in warm soapy water, crunched it down into a 2 cup measuring cup and mix up the first colour in about 1 cup boiling water and added a shot vinegar – popped it into the microwave for about 3.5 minutes. Then took it out, poured off a bit of the water and flipped the stockings over and poured on the next colour and back into the microwave for another 3.5 minutes. Repeat the same procedure if you want to add a third colour – the water should be clear each time you take your cup out of the microwave. I tended to use colours that kind of flow – yellow, orange, red; red, fuchsia and a pink. About 1/16 tsp of each colour. Then rinse and hang your hose to dry. 

And my finished (hooked anyway – think he may become a biggggg pillow) King of the Coverlet rug from my class with Barb Carroll at Sauder Village. This was a challenging piece as I decided to 1. hook it in straight lines to emulate a woven coverlet as much as possible and 2. decided to change colours in the background. Ugh! When the red and green met up no matter what I did it looked wonky. So I rehooked and hid the red tails inside the first green loop – well that worked a bit better except that it made a big lump all the way down the rug. So hmmmmmm what to do – finally I decided to take the green houndstooth that I used to outline the lion and do one vertical line with the red and green butting up against it. Not sure how true to a woven coverlet this is but it at least made that joint straight and even. Had to rehook his eyes 3 times – he looked like a vamp – outline was toooooo dark. Now he looks better and not like he just came back from a bad Halloween party!

 

 

 

BUSY DAYS…

So sad that I was not able to do the Makers Hand Show although I am hoping to visit tomorrow. However, we did finally find a new BIGGGG vehicle that will tote all my stuff. With FULL WARRANTIES so no more worries about things falling apart on the highway!

This Wednesday I will be at Stitch by Stitch in Kingston. Hope to see some of you there…

and now some pix of rugs by others (hmmm where are my own rugs these days – unfinished!!!!!)…

Lynda’s proddy sunflower pillow – the background was one piece of fabric – actually a scarf that was not wool and quite thin. I think Lynda hand cut and folded it – I love that wrinkly texture!

Alexandra’s Harriot rug – a little fuzzy :-)…