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.

You Must See This Rug Collection

Mary Shepard Burton is a noted rug hooking artist and author (A Passion for the Creative Life: Textiles to Lift the Spirit) who has donated a collection of her work to the American Folklife Center, a research center of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
The site has excellent pictures of the pieces that will surely be an inspiration to all rug hookers. There is a great zoom function that allows you to see the fine detail in the rugs and many have a link to commentary by the artist.
It's encouraging to see our art and craft form in a venue of artistic respectability.
Be sure to take a look:

The Mary Shepard Burton Collection

Primitive Spirit Rug Hooking Patterns

I'm so pleased to be able to offer a variety of primitive and whimsical rug hooking patterns from Primitive Spirit by Karen Kahle. The designs are available on my website as patterns on quality linen and several are now available as kits with both the pattern and my premium quality hand dyed woolens included. If you're brand new to rug hooking and don't yet have your own cutter, you can even order the kit with the strips prewashed and cut.....get hooking right away.
My favorites for a beginner are Lavender Welcome, Bittersweet and Friendship (a great novice pattern!).

I have one or two projects to finish up and then I'm going to hook Almond Blossoms.....I have the wool all dyed and tossed on the floor of my studio so that I can pick and choose which colors are really working for me. I'm reshaping the outline of the rug slightly because the completed hooked piece will be used as a teaching tool in the pillow construction workshop that I'll be teaching in my studio in October.

I've never done any proddy but I think this will be a perfect piece to try out that technique for the almond blossoms. I'll post pictures when I get it started......but, no promises about when!

Happy Birthday USA!

Wishing you all a memorable 4th of July....

A Blank Canvas....

....metaphorically speaking.

This deceptively simple-looking form took quite a bit of time to make! Not hard, just needed attention to detail. So what do you think it's going to be when it's completed?????

Home From College (Briefly!)

I woke up Wednesday AM to signs that my soon-to-be 21 year old son, Alex, was in the house.

Having just finished his second year at University of Oregon, he's off to backpack in Europe for three months.

This means we're cramming a summer's worth of visiting, home cooking, friends stopping by, Father's Day and hugs from Mom into 5 short days.












Ryan came by to say hi ....



I love having their energy in the house!

And what, you may ask, was the clue that tipped me off to Alex's middle-of-the-night arrival?

Hooking Styles

After watching each of these well-produced videos, I am reminded of how inclusive our art from is. Perhaps, since I'm not much in to dogmatic thinking, that is part of the reason rug hooking is so appealing to me. Watch these & see what you think (be patient, they may take a moment to load):
From Deanne Fitzpatrick....



From Gene Shepherd....




Gene is precise in his technique…..each of his “linguine” strips is evenly cut and his movements to create his loops are so uniform; Deanne will quickly snip a strip off a width of fabric with her scissors and she allows her loops to wander over her foundation to give an impression of the form she wishes to depict.
My personal hooking is somewhere in between....where's yours?

There are so many 'right ways' to hook.....we can all find what works for us.

Maybe more world leaders and religious leaders should take up rug hooking. Oh dear, that doesn't solve the challenges with the bankers and corporate exec's though, does it? Sigh.....