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!