IAWAH COME AND GONE…

Our weekend retreat (Hookin and no Cookin) was fabulous as ever. It is always a thrill to get together with good friends who all love what we do whether it be hooking, punching, knitting, crocheting or felting – there was a lot of different stuff going on but we were all excited and inspired. We missed a lot of our usual group but welcomed some new members who we know had a great time. So without further ado, some pix to share…

Wendy’s lovely punch needle piece framed in a beautiful Eastlake frame…

Susan’s BIGGGG scrappy rug… Wendy with her adorable little elf dolls…Sandi is hooking a pad to go on a wonderful old stool she got from me… Chris was hooking this colourful piece out of T-shirts… Andrea was hooking Abstract Paisley by Karla Gerard in yarns… Helen had finished her 2 small punch needle pieces… Sherri was working on 3 Blooms (another Karla Gerard pattern)… Betty was finishing off her fabulous piece…Karen was working on her Old Tattered Flag pattern… Grace’s funky chicken… Laura’s geometric scrappy rug… and her wings… Helen punched up this piece in yarns that she hand dyed and her Oxford needle… another view of Susan’s mega rug… Jane’s beautiful Rosemaling piece… Wendy’s crow (an RHF pattern)… I was hooking Fraktur birds…The following are pix sent to me of pieces either finished or in progress…

Mary sent me a picture of her wonderful Silly Goose…

Michelle finished her punch needle version of Karla Gerard’s Red Bird…And Della Anne finished her Antique Pineapple (Quail Hill pattern)… and Pam sent me a picture of the start on her Karla pattern…

WELLLLL…

it’s pretty ugly out there – I started this post on Saturday morning and between me starting to say that we had not gotten the 24 centimetres of snow they predicted and today things rapidly went down hill! So ice ice ice then snow then ice then snow now snowy rain makes my driveway very skateable but not drivable!!!!! Tomorrow I must get out! – put on the chains Gord! and yup we did get 24 cm – about 10 inches… Even my deer don’t want to be out in this weather!

So a few things to share…

Diane is a new hooker and this is her second lovely piece…

I finished punching a piece that I will be offering as a pattern or kit… This is now attached to my lovely antique tramp art thread holder…

and my Mini Fish Bones are now framed in a beautiful rusty vintage metal hoop – I love rust! It is the perfect frame for my bones… that piece of wool is actually old gold in real life – flash makes it look like chartreuse! …

CLEANING AND REDECORATING WOES…

So, I have mentioned we are decluttering, deep cleaning, painting and redecorating – the house is 12 years old now and it needs some work and a bit of freshening up. Last week we finished working on my dye kitchen/laundry room/washroom. Put in a new, higher self cleaning toilet! Yes, you read right – the box and the man at the store insisted that these toilets clean themselves. A hand pops up out of the hole in the bottom and scrubs daily! Well, much as I love the look of the toilet and the fact that it is higher I have discovered THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SELF CLEANING TOILET! 🙂 . During the process of redoing that multi-purpose room we had to pull out the washer and dryer (which I have to admit, because they are stacking and extremely heavy and awkward, had not probably been moved out since they were installed!). We all know how much dust and wool fluff erupt from the dryer whenever we wash and dry a load of wool – well, suffice to say, it was rather fluffy behind the machines but I diligently scrubbed, windexed, vimmed and painted and it was spotless. Machines looked brand new. Before pushing them back into the corner we decided it MIGHT be a good idea to make sure there were no leaks and that everything worked well as we had to change some plumbing. Although there is a wonderful old picture of my dear hubby at the age of about 2 with his arms in the toilet – HE IS NOT A PLUMBER! OR ELECTRICIAN! Well, the cold load of laundry came out hot (so after 3 tries we finally got those taps and hoses connected properly) and hmmmmm, NO HEAT IN THE DRYER! It worked BUT NO HEAT! And a dryer with NO HEAT is not a dryer – it is just a very costly piece of metal! After much trying we realized we could not open the machine – probably it was a thermostat or a coil which just needed changing but to do that you need to be able to get INSIDE! So in the end we called the Maytag repairman. Remember the commercials – well our guy came in and in 5 minutes realized there was nothing wrong with the machine – in moving the machine it appears we may have pulled it out a little too far and disconnected wires in the back in the wall and zip it was fixed. Can I say that I LOVE MY MAYTAG REPAIRMAN – yesssss. Instead of costing me biggggg $$$ for new thermostat or coil or entire new machine (because if the circuit board is gone they don’t fix! – by the way what is a circuit board doing in a dryer???) and of course, if that had happened, a new washer because they don’t stack the same way when you replace one machine, it cost me a minimal service fee.  I was definitely dancing after he left! and still am!!!! Actually got to dye wool again yesterday! So what was the message in all of this – DON’T CLEAN! Leave things ALONE! much cheaper and less stressful 🙂 .

Gord would be the little curly top on the right probably stuffing toilet tissue DOWN the hole…

My friend Andrea has a set of Cheticamp Gears and plans for sale.  Normally these sell for $99.95.  Andrea would like $55.00 for them.  If you are interested you can contact her at hammel.am@gmail.com.

And what am I up to??? Well, in between hooking Ruby’s rug I am working on a miniature punch needle to go on the front of this antique thread holder. I have had this piece for a number of years – it has original red and dull green painted carved scallops and is lovely. I finally decided to cover the area in the front where a piece obviously went missing with a punch needle piece…

URGENT POST – CHANGE OF DATE FOR MOIRA MAT MAKERS HOOKIN THIS SATURDAY

Sadly, due to the prediction of freezing rain on Saturday the Hookin in Belleville has been postponed until SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2018.  Same location. I had just started packing my suitcases and doing some last minute dyeing – well now I will unpack! and plan for a day of hooking at home. Hope everyone who was planning to join us on Saturday gets this message and does not make the trek in what looks to be very nasty weather. If there was something I was supposed to be bringing for you this Saturday please give me a shout and we can arrange delivery another time and place…

However, in the meantime here are a few lovely pieces for show and tell…

Wendy finished her beautiful Van Gogh full of wonderful texturey fibres (from our class with Carol Shewan)…

And Jane sent me a picture of her lovely Canola rug from our class a few months ago…(Canola is what I named my class on Canadiana Molas)…

A few announcements about upcoming workshops:

I will be holding another Purse workshop on June 18 from 10 – 4.

and I will be holding a miniature Punch needle workshop on May 14.

If you are interested please email me and I will provide you with the details.

 

 

 

AND MORE PURSES…

Yesterday another group of lovely hookers joined me to put together their purses. No deer to entertain us this time but my 3 cats were definitely hanging around – in fact Lucky tried to climb into a bag where he spied a few balls of valdani thread – his passion!!! Even when the bag was firmly closed he was still tentatively trying to insert his paw into the tote to nab a ball – which he usually unwinds throughout the entire house after chewing on it! Thankfully, none were lost to his jaws or paws!

The purses were wonderful – Shelagh actually sewed the body of her bag out of a recycled suede skirt! And Bev’s purse (the one at the front) incorporated amazing stitching. All the fronds were done in a chain stitch.

Mary send me a picture of her beautiful finished bench pad…

PERFECT PURSES…

Just a reminder that I will be back at Stitch by Stitch from 10 – 12 this coming Tuesday = if you are coming and need something please let me know…

Early this morning 5 lovely ladies arrived at my door for a full day of making purses. Each arrived with their beautiful flap hooked and ready to sew together. We were regaled by the deer who decided they wanted a second breakfast (which they did not get as they are becoming RATHER portly!). So with a short break for lunch (well not that short!) and despite a lot of laughing we did manage to finish all the purses – early! Thank you ladies for a fun fun day…

Tara sent me pictures of her latest lovely rugs – the top one was done during Deanne Fitzpatrick’s latest on line class… and the bottom one is Tara’s own design…

And Michelle finished her punch needle within days of starting it in my class in Kingston – and is working on 3 more! I think she is hooked…

HAPPY EASTER…

To all. Here’s hoping you get to celebrate the day with family and friends and lots of chocolate!

Wish I could say we were doing the same! Instead we are cleaning and repainting my dye kitchen – although that is not a bad thing! There were some BIG bunnies hopping around in there – mega dust bunnies! I think I could have hooked a few rugs with some of that wool dryer lint! But hopefully, within the next few days, all will be spic and span and pretty and organized.

In the meantime, I do have a few pieces to share…

Meg’s lovely rug of her own design based on Roman mosaics that she saw in France…

Elaine finished her first punch needle piece – Folk Art Cat based on a design that I carry by A Piece of Work …

and I finished punching and assembling my mini fish bones which are available in the punch needle section of my online store…

Now that April is here I am posting a reminder about our Annual Rug show in a little over a month…Hope to see some of you there – Sunday is open to the public and soooooo worth the visit!