Proddy Workshop with Gene Shepherd

I'm so fortunate to be a member of the Wine Country Rug Hookers, an ATHA guild based in the lovely region of California where I grew up. There are many reasons to appreciate this guild.....not the least of which is the varied and talented group of hookers I've come to know & love.

Another reason is that, at least twice a year, we host well-known teachers from around the country to come & share their expertise with our members. For some inexplicable reason, we don't have much difficulty getting teaching commitments from these great teachers. I wonder why???

Last weekend, we had a visitor from not-too-far-away, the inestimable Gene Shepherd from Anaheim, California (otherwise known as the home of Disneyland). Gene spent a very busy day and a half teaching us proddy techniques to enhance our hooking. It was great fun and Gene is a great teacher. He's thoroughly researched his subject and has worked hard to develop neat ways of prodding realistic-looking flowers. He's also quite personable, tells a good story and kept us laughing.

The hookers in our group have a broad range of styles and, as a result, there were a great many interpretations of Gene's proddy flower techniques. I took two pieces that I had put a lot of work in to before the workshop. The first is a Primitive Spirit design, Almond Blossoms, which I had completely hooked but left spaces to add the proddy blossoms. The top photo is how the piece looked after the workshop. I spent the whole first day cutting out the blossoms and adding them to the piece.

While I was very happy with all that I learned, I did find that I was not completely pleased with the colors of the blossoms.....somehow the brighter pink just didn't go with the overall muted colors of the mat. I have since made a few changes and additions and am much happier with the total effect.
I welcome your opinions on which you like best.....the first version with the brighter blossoms or the second version with the more subtle coloration in the blossoms?

This mat will be used as my demonstration piece for the Pillow Construction Workshop I'm teaching in my studio next month.....I rather like the idea that I'll be using a piece that Gene helped me to learn from to help others learn some of what I have to offer.

The second piece that I worked on is my own design.....you'll see the finished version & the pattern at a later time but, for now, I just wanted to share the flowers I added using Gene's techniques & guidance. This piece makes me very happy!

Notice the wonderful vintage Bakelite buttons I used as centers for two of the flowers? I have quite an extensive collection of vintage & antique buttons and it's fun to find such a great use for a few of them!

Keep Hooking.....

Midnight in the Studio

Working very late in the studio one night this week, I just happened to snap this shot as I thought about photographing lots of new hand dyed woolens for my website. As I took a better look at the photo I realized that my studio mate, Suzanne, and I share our studio with some rather odd characters!

Happy Hallowe'en to all.......

Spooky Time of Year

Seems like a good time to bring this old friend out for a visit....he's based upon a pattern available in Rug Hooking Magazine a few years ago.
He hangs out in my studio most of the time and scares off the goblins & ghosts!

We had a great time at the planning session for the Pillow Construction Workshop in my studio last weekend. I'm sure I talked way more than was necessary but my lovely class participants were very kind. I'm so encouraged by their enthusiasm and the projects they are planning! We'll have several beautiful new pillows to share the end of November.

If you'd like to join the class we still have a little room and I'm giving a make-up class on Sunday, October 25 in my studio. You can click HERE for more information.
All of you good witches and wizards stay out of trouble~~~~

Pillow Construction for Rug Hookers

Well I sure didn't mean to be gone so long! Life just has a way of getting in the way of blogging.

I'm busily preparing for the pillow workshop I'm teaching in my studio this and next month.... I've spent years making beautiful custom pillows for the interior design trade and thought it would be fun to teach some of the professional tricks I've developed to my rug hooking friends. We're going to have great fun making lovely pillows.

I still have room in the class for a couple more people.... come and join us! Click here for more info:

Classes and Events at The Merry Hooker Woolens Studio

I'll post pictures of the class and the pillows they make when we're done.

I made these great (big!) pillows for a favorite client in Silicone Valley a few years ago. Big fluffy pillow inserts and attention to all the details make them just perfect. It wasn't easy getting the Greek Key trim perfectly placed for the boxing strip of the two big boxed pillows but I was pleased with the way they turned out. And, more importantly, so was my client.

If you click on this picture you can get a better look at the trim details....the trim on the knife edge pillow has incredible red glass beads combined with the tassels and the textures of the fabrics are wonderful. I especially love the old green velvet in the center.

Wonky Houses

Geez, it took me awhile to finish the sky on this rug! I'm still not entirely thrilled with it & will probably rip out a few things before I put it on stretcher bars.
I tried a few new (to me) materials.... hand dyed silk ribbon that I got up in Oregon the last time I visited my son at school, and some of my own hand dyed fleece, Starless Night. It was great fun trying out new materials......

Oak Leaves Tote

Yippee! The hooking is done on my Oak Leaves tote. I confess that I agonized more than usual over the colors on this one and did quite a bit of reverse hooking. Sometimes a color that you think is going to be perfect ends up being just blah..... (A little 'thank you' to our Tuesday Night Hookers group ...they listened to a lot of whining.) But I think persistence paid off and I'm pleased with the results.

I will often hooked a variety of related colors and textures into my backgrounds. But, for this piece, I wanted to keep a strong focus on the leaves so I used just one color, Chocolate Truffle, in the background. Because it's dyed with some mottling over a great plaid, it has just enough variation to give it some movement without drawing your eye to the background. I especially love the deep rusty orange, Late Fall Maples, that outlines two of the leaves.

Now I'm patiently waiting (fingers tapping on the table) for the lovely pair of leather handles I've ordered to arrive ..... then I can construct a beautiful and useful bag to take to the Farmer's Market on Sundays!

Finishing A UFO.... Oak Leaves Tote

Why did I put this beautiful piece away??? Literally, it was stuffed in a bag at the back of my closet for more than a year.

This great Bev Conway pattern was given to me as a prize a couple of years ago by Tammy, of Skip To My Ewe. It's a 2-sided tote (one side is shown) with a nice shape.

Michelle Micarelli did a wonderful job getting me started on it at a workshop hosted by our guild, Wine Country Rug Hookers. Michelle helped me step outside of my color "box" and combine my leafy greens in ways that I would not have on my own...... and, she convinced me to use a #6 cut. This was an important choice because the detail would have been lost with a wider cut.

(It did take a bit of convincing on her part since I'm rather wedded to wide cuts)

So why did I put it away? I've thought about this (since I can't really remember!) and I think that, first, I got distracted by another project and second, this pattern is on Monk's cloth and it was bothering my hand quite a bit to work on it. In retrospect, I should have redrawn it on to linen... live & learn!

Another lesson: When you put away a project, be sure to put all of your wool with it and don't raid that wool for another project. .....took me a week to find the wool! And, of course, I had to dye more of the color I stole for a green pumpkin....what formula did I use for that sparky green???

In a couple of days (once I take a few good photos) I'll post my recent progress on this. I'm very happy with the results and it's going to be great fun to turn it into a tote bag.