A FOREST OF TREES…

hooked that is! by Janice…

and finally, a picture of the stocking Debbie hooked (a Shelly Atkinson pattern) ready just in time for filling for Christmas…

 

Wishing you all Happy Holidays and a wooly New Year… 

BRRRRRR…….

Did I mention how cold it is – well I was wrong. It is MORE THAN COLD! It is positively FRIGID! But that did not stop us – last night we went for the light show at Upper Canada Village. This event is held annually and the entire village is lit up with hundreds of thousands of lights. We took our young company from Germany to see the light show and introduce them to a REAL CANADIAN WINTER’S EVENING! It was nippy in the extreme but that did not stop hundreds of people from coming for a fun evening of walking through the village, stopping in the church for carolling (and to warm up), stopping in the bakery to see how bread would have been baked in the 1800’s (and to warm up), stopping in the gingerbread house to fill up on hot chocolate and sticky buns (and to warm up!), stopping in the tavern (just to warm up!) and hmmm TRYING TO WARM UP! Actually the cold cold weather lent a lovely true Canadian winter feel to everything – the stars were out in full force and the lights were wonderful. Thank goodness it WAS so cold because Gord kept stepping in fresh horse buns – which immediately (and thankfully) turned into frozen lumps. I know that this event continues through the holidays into January so if you get a chance to visit it is a fun way to spend an evening…

Unfortunately this was the end of the pictures BECAUSE THE IPHONE FROZE. Guess it is not used to Canadian winters either!!!

Sue sent pix of her ironing board cover – a vintage ironing board now covered with a wonderful rug will become a table…
Wendy’s Santa (Polly Minick pattern) with appliquéd corner trees!…

and Mary’s rug made with POLAR FLEECE… 

and I am finishing off a Shelly Atkinson stocking hooked by Debbie for her son Jake – hope to post it later this week. Shelly has some wonderful stocking patterns and Christmas patterns – check my online store for a few samples.

 

WAITING ANXIOUSLY…

No No not for Santa (although!!!)… This year we started feeding our deer early as our neighbour decided he was not going to hunt on his property – he was done! yeahhhhh there goes 100.00 a month on food. But when I see them standing, staring anxiously at the house, waiting for their daily dole of food – ahhh the money is nothing! This was taken a few minutes ago – waiting for Gord and his trusty red bucket!…

and a few finished pieces by Karen – I believe the first rug is a pattern by Lucille Festa…

and OMG(GOSH I sound like a teenager) but this tree is so beautiful that we have all decided we need to make one!…

ANN’S RUG…

A number of years ago I taught a few beginner classes in the Eastern Townships of Quebec (Knowlton to be exact). One of my students, Ann, did a number of my kits before deciding she wanted to do a BIG rug. Farm animals! big! farm animal heads! So we set about designing the rug – it was done a square at a time (each 18 inches square with sashing in between). There were to be 3 across and 2 down and a border – making the finished rug over 60 inches x 20 inches. We started with a chicken and sheep head that we found in an old rughooking magazine. Every few months I would hear from Ann that she was ready for the next head and I would draw out one of the animals she had decided needed to be featured in this barnyard rug and pop the pattern and the wool into the mail to her. A goat, a horse, a holstein cow and a highland cow. Ann worked on this rug over the years and recently asked if I could finish off the outside edge for her as she was unable to do it. Rug came in the mail and I laid it out on the table in my studio and hooked (without a frame) the last row or 2 around the edge and showbound it. It is now ready to be mailed back to Ann in time to be in place for the holidays.

Ann was so worried that her hooking was not up to snuff but oh my I sooooo love the way her rug looks. I think she did an amazing job and want to share this rug in all it’s splendour with you before it heads back to Knowlton…

From beautiful snowbound Westport to your homes – have a wonderful day…

BABY ITS COLD OUTSIDE…

Where I just spent the last 20 minutes with no coat on taking pictures of my wonderful handmade ornies and Christmas presents from our exchange. For some reason my camera was NOT cooperating and taking good pictures indoors – flash made everything white and no flash made everything blurry – and I don’t think it’s my eyes! or a fuzzy lens! So hmm, what to do? Ah ha! outside, although the sun is not shining, it was brighter than indoors so I schlepped everything outside and with my trusty camera took pix of everything, trotted downstairs to the computer and loaded everything on. ONLY TO FIND that all the pictures were once again blurry and dark! Flash does not appear to be working anymore (well what can you say – the camera was free with my old printer and is probably 10 years old). So when Gord got home I trotted outside once again for another 15 minutes of setting up in the snow and taking pictures with the iPhone. Back downstairs to the computer (shivering from the cold!!!) where I loaded the new pictures on and yeahhhhhh finally pix that actually do justice to these little works of art.

This exchange of hand made ornaments and a gift (again hand made and under 10 dollars – well maybe 50 hours of work and 10 dollars of materials!) has become a tradition. A wonderful tradition! with amazing work each year. I am so blessed to have such wonderful, creative, lovely ladies in my life… and am trying to narrow down ideas for next years exchange…

And so, without further ado… (should point out that the 4 pictures at the bottom are actually presents not ornies – the bottom one is mine. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of all the presents that were exchanged – next year!!!)…

 

CHRISTMAS PARTIES AND ORNIES…

This coming Tuesday I will be back at Stitch by Stitch for the final time this year.  Hope to see some of you there… In the meantime…

Thursday was our guild Christmas party and we had wonderful show and tell, delicious potluck lunch and a great ornie exchange! Even Gord benefited as I took home some of the leftovers for him!  He was a happy guy and I was even happier because it meant no cooking!!!! Yeahhhhh

Some pix from our show and tell:

Louise hooked this piece for the lid of a vintage basket…

Carol’s paisley rug…

and her lynx…

Sharon showed her Paw’s a While…

and Seagull…

and her first hooked piece – one of my purse kits (from a class I taught on hooking and finishing purses)…

Lois’ sampler rug…

Marie started this rug (an old Eaton pattern) when she was 12…

and is now working on Pearl and Earl…

Sue’s first rug (this was a day for showing our first rugs – if we could find them 🙂 …

and the pattern she is working on today…

Maureen’s first rug…

and her geometric inch mat from class with Laura Bozormeny…

Stacy’s sheep… 

and more sheep…

Joanne’s angel (tribute to her mom)…

Marjorie’s first rug from hmmmm many years ago…

and daughter Cheryl’s first rug (Cheryl was a reluctant convert to rughooking)…

But is sooooo hoooooooked (her Autumn rug which she is offering as a pattern)…(Paws a while was also one of Cheryl’s patterns)

Lori’s first rug (wow great fine shading)…

and one that has hung on her front door for many years – see that wonderful dirty mauve background – it used to be the colour of the fringe – blue realllllly fades in sunlight…

My house rug (seems I am doing a lot of houses these days)…

Nancy sent me a picture of her rug with geometric border done in a class with Wendy Scott-Davis…

Suzanne sent me a picture of her sailing ship mounted onto a bench…

and Diane sent me a picture of her punch needle snowman mounted in a scoop we found in an antique store in Vermont…

and finally a new pattern I will be offering called Eggnormous by Sandi Percival… I lovvve this design – it so appeals to my strange sense of humour! for details email me…