HAPPY NEW YEAR…

May you spend the next 365 days enjoying family, friends, good health and creative moments.

A few creative pieces to share…

Susan sent me a picture of her lovely wide cut and torn pillow… This I believe, is Sherri’s first finished piece. The stocking was for her granddaughter whose name Loann is Vietnamese for Phoenix. She wanted a Phoenix rising from the flames and I think this piece turned out beautifully…At the Cobourg hookin a few months ago I took a photo of this cute Santa Pillow. Betty emailed me and asked if I knew the name of the hooker or designer – nope!!!! Can anyone help?…

and Anne sent me a picture of her wonderful Van Gogh adaptation of her and her husband – ready for their 50th! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS…

A few new Christmas decorations made their way up this year…

Alllll that decorating just wiped me out… Gord just cannot get that food out there fast enough… My little sheep door pocket… Lucky and my Charlie Brown tree – I discovered when I set it up this year that hmmmmm there was a LOT OF ROOM left on the back of the tree for more ornies!!!! Yeah!!!!… Years ago my cousin made me this macrame Christmas tree which I love and which holds dozens of tiny ornies…

my lovely scoop holds my Christmas present made by Wendy…
and my little punch needle pocket…
May 2018 be a year filled with good health, good friends and peaceful days (oh and of course a little hooking!)…

SOME MORE PIX…

No not from Vermont – these are pix others have sent me of some of their work…

Helen’s beautiful punched snowflake ornies (hope I get one of these hint hint!)…

Jill bought one of the fish bones made out of wood and converted it into her Charlie Brown tree…  

and bought this amazing rug at a local antique store in Kingston…

Last year I finished off this stocking (one of my Shelly Atkinson designs) for Debbie who had hooked it (her first hooked piece).  I just put it together for her.  Wellllll, this year her daughter is getting her stocking which I put together on Friday after Debbie finished hooking it… 

PIX FROM VERMONT…

MANY years ago when I first started rughooking I would make the trip down to Vermont (well back then I lived south of Montreal so the trip was not a long one!) to the annual rughooking display put on by the Green Mountain Rughooking Guild. There I discovered the work of Patty Yoder who created beautiful rugs which she entitled the alphabet rugs – one sheep rug for every letter of the alphabet. Sadly, Patty passed away a few short years after she began her rughooking journey but her beautiful rugs were donated to the Shelburne Museum south of Burlington, Vermont. On Monday Gord and I headed through the driving snow to the museum to see the wonderful exhibit (which is on till mid January). Although I had seen many of the rugs years ago, it was wonderful to see them all in one location, beautifully mounted with the description of each rug. I asked for permission to photograph the rugs and post them on my blog and the museum kindly agreed. We were also very lucky as we were the ONLY visitors (got there just as the museum opened and the parking lot had not even been ploughed). So here are the rugs – sadly when we transferred them from the phone to the computer they for some reason (oh oh – Gord!!!) are no longer in alphabetical order and the little tags are REALLLLLY out of order so I will only post tags for the rugs I am totally certain of. If you live ANYWHERE within driving distance of Burlington Vermont this is a display you will want to see. Google Shelburne Museum for more details on hour and length of the exhibit. We stayed for a few days at our favourite hotel – Green Mountain Suites – which has a great special at this time of year soooo…. (plus of course we did some great junkin at 5 Corners Antiques in Essex Junction). So lots of fun things to do in the area – but the exhibit was the best part!!!

at the antique store Gord spied this amazing cranberry scoop – welllll out of my affordable range but soooo beautiful…(but rest assured I DID GET A FEW GOODIES I COULD AFFORD 🙂 )

SHOW AND TELL…

Yesterday was our annual Christmas luncheon at guild. Wonderful potluck luncheon with an amazing variety of delicious goodies to nibble on (nibble would be, hmmm, probably not the correct word for what most of us did 🙂 ). A fun ornie exchange and lovely show and tell…

Karen was punching Gears as a present for her son… Wendy’s beautiful rug… and her equally beautiful Santa… Donna was punching this piece with 6 strands of DMC – love the texture… Louise finished her beautiful stocking with LOTS OF ROOM for presents… France was punching a beautiful piece based on a photo of her son’s kayak… Marie brought a very vintage looking Eaton rug she had hooked… Beth’s beautiful rug…  Edith was working on a snowman… Hmmmmm I think Sue was hiding behind her 3 Punkins… and is that Margie behind that frame…Sue had an amazing standing wool mat… Andrea was finishing off a sweet yarn snowman…

and I finished sewing together and lining my sheep Christmas pocket – now I need to attach the hanging strip and fill it with greenery…and a few pix from our primitive Christmas party last weekend… (yup some of the pix are a tad fuzzy – wish I could blame it on my camera but it was me me me… forgot how to use it 🙂 )…

some of the ornies…and some of the under 10 dollar gifts (haha!!!)…
group picture… 
and my beautiful gift firmly ensconced in my scoop…

and yup our daily visitors started arriving a few weeks ago…

Betty had this hanging in her hallway – love the mixed media…

PIX FROM INTERNATIONAL RUGHOOKING DAY…

First I would like to share Toni’s beautiful coasters (which could be ornies as well) and how she finishes them. Toni starts by visiting the local bars and discreetly sliding those cardboard coasters into her pockets! (well maybe she doesn’t visit allllll the bars! 🙂 )Then she traces the outer shape onto her backing. Next… “I cut the backing to about 1/2 “ excess then  lightly glue the coaster to the inside, then glue very close to edge of coaster, bring backing up over the edge and hold down until it stays. (messy). Let it dry,  then cut a wool circle a bit bigger than the coaster, glue it to the back of the coaster again gluing very close to edge and a bit in the center and hold down. When dry trim the wool as close as you can to the finished edge.” Brilliant way of making lovely perfectly round coasters/ornies!

and now for some pix from our International Rughooking Day in Williamstown. We had great attendance and great vendors and delicious food. Our thanks to the ladies who hosted this fun day…

Mitch from Millinery at Cornerstone Farm with  his beautiful yarns and knitted items…
These ladies had beautiful wooden pieces for sale – you can see some of their tree collections on many of the tables – they sold out by noon and had to go and get more at the shop!  You can see more of their work at:

On Facebook: @peeterstreehousecreations

CHRISTMAS PARTY AND OTHER FUN (OR NOT) STUFF…

Tomorrow is our annual primitive Christmas party – soooooo excited. We eat, laugh, yack and EXCHANGE OUR HAND MADE CHRISTMAS PRESENT (SUPPOSEDLY UNDER 10.00 BUT 30 HOURS OF WORK) AND ORNIES. This year my tree cried as it is overwhelmed with ornies so I decided to not take part in the ornie exchange although tomorrow I know I will be kicking myself!!! I need to come up with another way of hanging ornies rather than putting 3 on every branch of my poor Charlie Brown tree!!!

Yesterday we decided (or rather I did) to hang my beautiful antique scoop. Ohhhhh I love my scoop. Once I cleaned it with orange oil not only did it smell wonderful but the old red paint and all the worn areas just looked amazing. I took a bit of brown shoe polish (my favourite antiquing medium) to a few dings that had gone down to bare wood. They are now dirtied up and it looks amazing. However, after 3 hours of trying to put it up on the wall in the bathroom where it was to serve as a towel rack and funky spot to display mini hooked rugs or punch needle pieces I was ready to toss it in the burn barrel. I insisted, to Gord’s frustration, that the integrity of the scoop not be damaged with screws going through from the front so hmmmm, how to hang it became a much discussed and argued about dilemma. Finally we decided on little metal interlocking hangers but they needed to be screwed into the back of the scoop without the screws coming through the front and damaging my lovely antique. Well, much sweating and cursing and breaks later it was finally up. One of the problems contributing to hanging the scoop was the fact that hmmm it is handmade, old and much used so nothing is straight – not the bottom, top or sides!!!! Which is one of the things I soooooo love about it. Anyway it is up and covers about 7 holes in the wall and a ton of pencil marks 🙂 and it looks sooooooo perfect! I stuck in a wool appliqué piece, some greenery and faux berries and it is ready for Christmas but will get changing little mats for every season! So here is a picture :-)…

And a few pix to share of rugs by others…

Christine finished this piece (design by Martina Lesar) just in time for winter snows…

and Jill finished her Karla Gerard Crescent Moon (one of the patterns I carry)…

DON’T FORGET – MONDAY IS INTERNATIONAL RUGHOOKING DAY. EVEN IF YOU CANNOT MAKE IT TO ONE OF THE LOCAL EVENTS PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES (OR HOURS) TO WORK ON YOUR LATEST HOOKED PIECE. IF YOU CAN JOIN US IN WILLIAMSTOWN ONTARIO (NORTH OF CORNWALL) WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU.