And it only took 4 months!!!! Yikes! Should not have taken that long but this was the kind of piece where I could not just sit and hook away and have fun. This one required concentration, a LOTTTTTTT of different wools and a lot of ripping out and rehooking. So was it a fun piece – hmmmmm – it was a challenging piece! And challenge is good! And I am happy with the end result. Will I do another VG – yes!!!! I love his sunflowers and of course Starry Night is one of my favourite paintings – will it be soon? Probably not – for now I need to just play for a while – something a little LESS CHALLENGING 🙂 .
To hook this piece I used exclusively 6 – 8 value swatches which I had taken apart and spot dyed in a measuring cup in the microwave! So there were no solid wools or even textures except the very outside row which was a wonderful texture. So lots of short, spot dyed swatches. I love taking swatches (which I do not use as I do not do fine shading) and spot dyeing them in the microwave. Soak a bunch of related colours in all the values, squish them into a two cup measuring cup and pour on one related colour and microwave for 3.5 minutes; flip the wool and pour on the second related colour and microwave for 3.5 minutes and then do this process one final time with another related colour. By related colours I mean if I started with a blue solid swatch in 8 values I would make up three blue formulas in say sky blue, turquoise and smoky blue. This gave me amazing spot dyed valued pieces of wool to work with. I used about 1/16 of each colour to spot dye about 8 pieces of swatch. It was a wonderful, fun way to repurpose something which I would not have otherwise used.
So here is my Wheatfields – not perfect but perfect for me! And yes I used artistic license to darken things up a bit and make alllllll that blue a blue I could live with (cause you KNOW I am NOT a blue person 🙂 )… (started this in September in a class taught by Carol Shewan – thanks Carol for all your tips and help).
Hooked On The Lake 
Beautiful!
Wow,, loretta,,, its gorgeous, ,, congratulations, ,,,, love it!
You did an amazing job,,,
Labour of love , for sure!!
That is absolutely beautiful! 👏 Good for you!!
Beautiful! Also interested in your dyeing technique, as just beginning to learn this skill.
It is beautiful, Loretta! Love the way it all turned out. Your method of dyeing, though, to me sounds very complicated & confusing, but I love the result!!! Nancy
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That is beautiful Loretta. Winter here last week with snow in Tallahassee- felt very sorry for any second week vacationers as temps were in 30s and 40s!
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I am new to hooking but think your piece is lovely!
It is beautiful! Can’t wait to see you and also learn new techniques.
Big hugs.
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Just lovely. Very well done.
It is beautiful, Loretta!! Commend you for perseverance! I understand the “blue thing”. I am working on a piece right now that I love, but has a huge sky, and I do not like it, but the weirdest thing, I posted it on a couple of hooking groups on FB, and almost a hundred percent of comments are beautiful sky!! I love sunsets, but am doing this as a late sunrise, and I am not a “blue person”. I will send when I finish it, you will see what I mean! Sort of wished I had done what you did, but I persevered!!
Love your Van Gogh
Someday I will do one. Good for you.
Wow Loretta, this is fantastic, the sky just flows…..
WOW!!! … I’m so glad you stayed with it. For someone that doesn’t like blue, you did an excellent job. Thanks for even more inspiration.
Stunning! You are welcome to hang it at my house if you decide that blue just doesn’t work.😀 Your talented dyeing techniques paid off. Can’t wait to see it up close.
It’s beautiful! I’m in awe. ( mine sits in the WIP queue, where I fear it will sit for awhile). I love your sky.
This piece is gorgeous. It is really a fabulous piece of art. The shading is magnificent. You do have the touch.
Your beautiful hooked mat was well worth the wait and effort- You nailed the Van Gogh effect!!!!
Your VG is spectacular Loretta. Your dyeing ski skills are ever increasing it seems. What a sky!!
M
Good for you Loretta, a challenge is good for you, gets the brain into overtime, and give one such great satisfaction when you have finished. It is beautiful and inspiring. Thank you for sharing.
LOVE IT!! It was worth the 4 months!!!
Oh Loretta it’s beautiful. This makes me so ashamed that I too took a workshop and have not finished my wheatfields. I know what you mean about challenging colours. I got so hung up with all the blues of the sky and wanting to copy the original that it felt like paint by number and the creativity I enjoy with rug hooking went out the window. I am so impressed with your use if #8 cut, wow such movement! I will definitely look at my piece again in a new light. Still working on my Otter piece when I have time and am loving every minute of it. Somehow life gets in the way doesn’t it. Question for you, I have been asked to draw a tea cosy pattern for a lady in Kingston. She has purchased linen so, she just wants the drawing. What should I charge for my artistic work? I haven’t a clue. She will be able to take my drawing and transfer it directly onto her linen and start to hook. Thanks for any advice. By the way I have received two more tea cosy commissions and I have raised my prices so won’t be working for peanuts, ha ha. I do it for the love of rug hooking. Take care Weezie
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Omigosh Loretta, doesn’t matter that you darkened the blue …it works! I think I am overthinking mine and allowing it to intimidate me….mine has barely progressed at all!
Hope to get out to RVBB soon to see everyone, as long as the weather cooperates. Keep well and good job keeping the wildlife healthy!
Loretta, l love blues and your sky is beautiful! Sky’s are my bug-a-boo as well. Some day I will tackle a sunset. Thank you for finishing Van Gogh and sharing it with us!
Nice job Loretta
On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 6:55 AM Hooked On The Lake wrote:
> hookedonthelake posted: “And it only took 4 months!!!! Yikes! Should not > have taken that long but this was the kind of piece where I could not just > sit and hook away and have fun. This one required concentration, a > LOTTTTTTT of different wools and a lot of ripping out and rehooki” >
OMG Its gorgeous!!!! Well done Loretta :). Carol’s a great teacher too 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous Loretta!,
Just love it~!!!!!
Just wonderful!
It’s wonderful! Great sky!
Absolutely wonderful!!!
Hi Loretta, just WONDERFUL…your Wheatfields turned out spectacular! I have a couple of questions though: 1st – what is the over all size of your rug in (feet)…couldn’t figure out these width x length measurements in inches. — 2nd, can you share a bit more about HOW you dyed these 8 swatches more clearly; I’m a bit lost & would love to try this.
#1 – You mixed up 3 separate (sky formulas) — were they in 1 CBW’s or 2 CBW’s?
#2 – With (each swatch out of the 8) did you mean you added 1/16 cup to the measuring cup with the swatch in it (on one side) then flip that same wool & add another 1/16 cup of “related” sky dye to that same cup…then continued so on… for the remaining 7 sky blue solid swatches??
#3 – You would have definitely had dye left over… (Yes)?? Because 16/16 = 1 cup and if you were putting 1/16 c. from one dye formula over one side …then flip & add 1/16 c.to the flipped side from a “related dye formula”… you would clearly not use up all the dye assuming these formulas were 1 cup to begin with… am I following you correctly — just a bit confused?
Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful work, I love to dye…and love to learn & challenge myself to…so any (added) information would be most appreciated & valued. Have always loved Van Gogh’s work, used to be a painter myself & would love someday to hook a Van Gogh piece like Starry Night. And btw — I’m not a BLUE person either…but with touches of your green & grays in the sky… you pulled it off nicely! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of winter! xo ~Diane