First, I should mention that the sale on Lisa Ferguson patterns 20% off and wool kitted for these patterns 10% off is still on until February 15. I just got enlargements for the following patterns. Had to figure out how to do this on line so I could pick up – wow Covid has made me more techie!! not much but every little bit is a challenge and a victory!!! So these now are available as rughooking patterns drawn on linen (and as miniature punch needle patterns on weavers cloth:
And now for show and tell…
Michelle finished her funky Reindeer rug (pattern from Judy Cripps of Rustic Rugs)…
Jen finished punching her Teresa Kogut Santa…
Chris finished her oriental in 6 and some 4 cuts – so yes it is possible to hook these in a wider cut 🙂 …
And Andrea finished her Martina Lesar rug in lovely neutrals…
and me – well I am show binding my Porky rug so I can move on to something else…
A couple of years ago I took a class at Green Mountain entitled Whimsical Animals. I decided to pay homage to – A PORCUPINE. For a few year we had been battling with a porky who would arrive at 3 a.m. and would start chowing down on our front steps. I would wake up from a deep sleep to a shaking house and GNAW, GNAW, GNAW as she gobbled the edges of my lovely cedar stairs. I would run out to the front porch and jump up and down yelling at her to stop eating my house (thank goodness we live in the woods and the neighbours are far enough away that they did not see this crazy woman in a frenzied dance on the front porch in the middle of the night – did wake up company a few times though 🙂 ). She would disappear for a while and we flipped the porch stairs over so that the chewed edge was underneath and at the back. And I discovered she did not like the smell of pine sol and would pour pine sol on the stairs every night (of course I did not like the smell either but…). Of course, that did not deter her for long – however when she came back she crept under the stairs and started chewing on the back underside of the treads. I guess the pine sol had not reached that edge. So, we stapled chicken wire under the stairs and around the sides. Well, that worked for a few days until once again at 3 a.m. I heard and felt the undeniable sound of GNAW, GNAW once again. And again I ran out the front door and started my wild dance. Only this time, poor little porky could not get out. Some how she got trapped in the chicken wire. And so, at 3 a.m. by the light of the moon Gord and I pulled out staples and removed chicken wire and Porky ambled off into the night. Now she comes (or perhaps it is her offspring) and eats the bullrushes in our pond and even comes in the middle of the day to slurp up the algae! Front steps are safe and sound and Porky needed to become a rug! She started out as Porkzilla a tribute to Godzilla’s rampage on Tokyo but once I had her hooked in she became Porkalicious!
I started the rug at rug camp and got a good chunk done (it is 31 x 23 inches) and worked at it diligently when I got home. Only to discover!!!! that I HATED THE PINE TREE AS IT LOOKED LIKE A BLOB and the birch tree looked like the frito bandito with an arm sticking out almost sideways. What possessed me to draw these trees so badly??? Of course, by then, I had hooked the sky and water around the trees and redoing them would mean taking out all the sky and water and ugh… I hate rehooking! So poor Porky languished on the harvest table for two years while I worked on other stuff. I would pass her every day and think about how I was going to fix those trees without having to take out soooooo much hooking and then I would walk away. Finally, friends Lesley and Sherri last fall said – hmmmm maybe you need to just pull out those loops – remove the sky and water – and finish this rug! Well it took a few months but finally I picked up the rug, sucked it up and pulled out a mound of strips. Wellllll, it wasn’t that bad! I hooked in trees I actually like and rehooked the sky and water in a few days and I SURVIVED! And Porkalicious is finally done (well except for binding and touching up and cleaning up) and will soon reside on my living room wall where she can keep watch over the front steps… and now I can move on to hmmmm… maybe a rug to honour my raccoons?… Oh, and Gord says she looks like a rogue Stegasaurus – I say she is whimsical!!!
Linda sent me pix of her beautiful Deanne Fitzpatrick rug…
Sue’s lovely pine tree…
Fish-Tych done as a Uni-fish 🙂 by Laura who asked for it in one continuous fish rather than 3 segments (yes please ask if patterns can be changed!!!)…
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Kim sent me a picture of her lovely floor mat. Here is the bedspread we picked elements and colours from to make the design for her mat. We used darker values so that the mat would be grounded (and stand up to more wear and tear)…
Jill finished her lovely Maud Lewis piece (patterns are available from Highland Heart Hookery and some from Barb Lukas)…
For the next month I am discounting Lisa Ferguson Rughooking Patterns by 20%. In addition, I can custom dye for, and kit the wools (cut or uncut) and am offering 10% off the price of the wool for these patterns. I use only good quality new wool, dyed and as is, in my kitting. Below are only some of the wonderful Lisa Ferguson patterns – for the rest please go to my website hookedonthelake.wordpress.com and click on Rughooking Patterns. Email me if you are interested at hookedonthelake@kingston.net and if you give me your address I will get back to you with the total including shipping in Canadian or U.S. funds…
A few new lovely patterns just in time for Easter (oh maybe a little early but by the time I am actually able to get them enlarged at Staples it may just be! Easter)… Actually, they are all already available for punch needle (miniature) and I am hoping to get them enlarged for rughooking shortly. Email me if you are interested…
January – that dark, dull month – seems to be my month for cleaning and reorganizing my studio, finishing things that have been hanging around tooooo long and punching up a few small items just so that I have a sense of accomplishment! So, Tom Thomson’s Jack Pine, which had been languishing because I kept trying to fit it into a beautiful vintage frame, is now finally finished – but not in the frame! I finished it with a show binding because no matter what I tried it was NOT going to fit into the frame without a massive re-doing. The pattern, originally, was drawn by Carol to the exact measurements buttttt, as we know, linen stretches and shrinks during hooking so when the piece was finally done it was about half an inch too big all the way around. Now normally that would not be an issue, but hmmmmmm, I only did one row of border in a 6 cut because I did not want much of a border – the frame was going to be the lovely border. So taking that out meant that all my horizontal lines had no place to begin or end! messy border and taking out the border did not reduce it enough on the length but reduced it too much on the sides, which meant I would have had to redo allllll the way down the sides to make it fit. Finally, after looking at my rug and the frame on the harvest table gathering dust for many months I decided it needed finishing – hooked back in all those border strips that I had pulled out and added a show binding and Yeahhhhh – it is done, hanging and I am happy. Every time I look at it it reminds me of the morning sunrises here in winter. So what did I learn from this – next time I want something to fit a frame I will make sure it has more of a border and will measure as I am hooking to make sure it has not grown or shrunk and that taking out or adding in rows is an easier, less stressful, process!
Tara sent this picture of one of her more recent rugs – love the fact that the dog is not the usual dog colours but rather fun and funky. A play on values…
My River Otters rug pattern just became Beaver and otter… Yes, patterns can be played with and changed – never hesitate to ask…
Just finished this punch needle piece which will become a new punch needle pattern and even a rughooking pattern – I found the perfect frame in my “junk”. Reorganized my studio and found treasures I had forgotten I had and now I can actually see what I have. It was almost as exciting as actually GOING junkin’ 🙂 . And I realized there is NO NEED to go junkin’ anymore!!! I could actually OPEN a junk store!…
And today I started working on Porky again. I hope to have her finished sooooooon and ready to share.
2020 was a year many of us will want to forget but hopefully 2021 will be a year full of hope, peace and joy for all.
We were visited the other day by two little furry friends who decided Gord was not moving fast enough with the food bucket! I guess staying in bed till 7:30 is frowned upon when the belly is growling!
And now a few lovely rugs to share with you …
Joan’s wonderful hooked wreath (part of which had to be rehooked after a little furry friend ate it!)…
Beth sent me a picture of her tartan Mr. and Mrs. Claus and her fun tree decorated with hooked ornies…
Sylvie finished punching her cute little gnome…
Denise finished her fabulous Mosaic Shark rug started in a class with Sue Perry…
Hooked On The Lake 