NEW RUG ~ ~ ~

Ta da!!  After a year and a half, this rug is finally finished!!  Last weekend at the lake, this rug and I spent some quality time together and the last Dresden plate design on the right got filled in.   This Woolley Fox pattern is titled "1668 Geometric".  Each design is done in a different color way of various antique paisleys and I think it turned out beautifully!

This is it's new home in front of an antique red jelly cupboard.  It looks great there and won't get a lot of wear in that out-of-the-way place.  Although the fabrics have been around many years, I just don't want to abuse them with a lot of foot traffic.  So ~ one rug finish completed ~ about four more unfinished rugs to go!

Last weekend was kind of a creative burst for me!  This is a bracelet that I picked up in Florida and then adorned with bits of beach glass that we collect.  These bracelets were in the beach shops and sold for $26 ~ I made this one for less than that, for sure!  Wish I had bought more! 

Sonny and I also like to pick up heart stones ~ I'm always kind of touched when he hands me one that he's found ~ a silent 'I love you' ~ at least, that's what I like to think!!  Glued to the glass of a simple picture frame, they make a nice little addition to this table arrangement!

Last weekend, we hit the lake beaches again ~ Sonny went out Friday and Saturday and finally, on Sunday, I joined him! It was cold up there ~ but look what we gathered!!  And we found tiny pieces of red and blue ~ so tiny that they only show up on top of another piece of glass. I'm always amazed that we can find these itsy bitsy pieces of glass but why in the world can't I find my car keys!!! 

I still want to post pix of our vacation ~ we had such a great time that I want to share it!  If you're a Facebook friend, you got to see probably more than you wanted to ~ I posted every day ~ sometimes more ~ of all the fun and silly stuff we did!!  Maybe the next post will be a bit of that!

Many of us are on the Pinterest site, which I enjoy immensely!  But, I see there is some controversy about the ability to 'steal' design ideas and posting pictures of others work that maybe we shouldn't be posting!  My thought is that it is an online scrapbook, much like we have clipped recipes and photos out of magazines,  of things that inspire us  ~ now we can 'pin' them to our Pinterest boards.  Evidently, others are using it in a different manner.  One of my blog friends has even deleted her account there as it just expanded the potential for her designs to be copied by others. I don't know how I feel about it ~ do any of you have an opinion?

Nice to be back in blogland ~ but now I need to go vacuum up the Mr. Kitty hair that's floating around here ~ and do a few other housemaid's duties ~ I'd rather be on vacation!!  Have a great weekend everybody! 

BIG RUG ~ ~ ~

 Just a quick post to let you know I'M BACK!!!! We got home late last Thursday night from our 16 day Florida adventure!  I was a slug all weekend ~ re-entry was tough for me!  Today, I hooked this leaf ~ the first hooking since December! 

The veins of this rug don't really show up well ~ I told myself that I'm into subtlety right now!  Maybe later it will get changed ~ maybe not!

This is the center of the rug ~ that's what I hooked late one night after wrapping presents before Christmas  ~ just wanted something simple ~ no mushing ~ no blending of wools ~ just blocks of color.  I'll post as I hook but there are other rugs to finish.  I just wanted you all to know we are alive and well ~ and getting back in the swing of things!

The vacation pix will get posted soon ~ for those of you on Facebook, you saw all too many, I'm sure!  I posted every day from every place we were ~ sharing ~ I was into sharing! 

Hope you have had a good January/February ~ it's been a mild winter for sure ~ Spring is on it's way,  friends!!!

RUG FINISH AND SATURDAY'S SHOW ~ ~ ~

The Berks County Floral is finished!  Actually, it was finished on Monday!! I emailed a picture to the Woolley Fox and it's on their website already!  I'm quite happy with the finished product and now all it needs is to be bound!  I might get that done tonite and take it along to the show this weekend ~ more about that in a minute! 

When I was pulling out the 'junk' wool used to hook the numbers,  I decided to leave the number seven just as it was.  Two different wool strips were used and it looked kind of neat so it stayed in! This rug was hooked with  lots of antique paisleys and lots of sparkly wool ~ not your typical primitive but a unique one, for sure!

Kathy works for Barb at the Woolley Fox and she brought in her almost finished Purple Peeps!!  We all loved her bright, Spring-like version ~ she's almost finished ~ we got the idea that she had been working on it a while! Hook on, Kathy!!!

This Saturday, the "Gathered Treasures Christmas Show" will be held at the Richland County Fairgrounds!  It's a new primitive antiques and folk art show put on by the gals that do the "Gathered Treasures Spring" show and "In The Spirit of Friends" at Malabar Farm in the Fall.  It's from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. so if you're looking for a fun way to spend the day, come see us!  As shocked as I am, Christmas is right around the corner and this would be a good place to start your shopping!  We'll be there with wool, frames, etc. ~ gifts for your favorite hooker!! I am packing now and have a BARGAIN BASKET with some great mark downs (lights, pillows, candle holders, etc.).  Also have some 1 yard bundles of wool for $20 and some $5 Christmas trees!!  I'm cleaning out the shop ~ come to the fairgrounds and save some money!!!!!

My  'Finishing Touches' class is now added to the Coming Events on my sidebar.  Sauder Village class sign ups started yesterday at 10 a.m. ~ I wonder if anybody's on my list?!  We won't really know much until December.  There is always a frenzy to get your favorite teacher but no doubt,  there are some who are not full yet. So,  if you're thinking you might like to experience Sauder Rug Hooking Week, you should check in and see if there are  still openings ~ or at least, come for the day.  They have one of the best rug shows in the country and Kathy Wright works very hard to assemble a list of very talented teachers and give us lots of choices ~ you should consider putting it on your next summer's list of things to do! 

I need to get organized for tomorrow's packing ~ right now, I'm washing and wishing ~ washing wool and wishing I would get some new projects finished!!! Off to the hooking room!!  Have a good weekend!

WOOLLEY FOX TRIP ~ ~ ~

Good grief!! I hit publish instead of save!!  And then, yesterday afternoon, I typed a whole big post and at the end, hit some darn key and it all went into cyberspace neverland!!!!!!  I gave up!  But, I'll start anew!

This is Barbara Carroll's Berks County Floral that she introduced at the ATHA Biennial recently.  I have been wanting to hook it since I saw the sample last fall but had to wait until it was rolled out in Lancaster!  It's 17" x 20" and I hooked all this in the three days we were at the Woolley Fox this past week!  The background is a mixture of my sparkly wools and the hearts and gold flower centers are paisleys.  Barb's loving it and I am, too!  The numbers are hooked in just to hold the space and then I'll rehook after the background is in. That's a very good way to make sure they stand out ~ same for the flower stems!

Maria and Mary M. were having a fun chat!  This was the only people picture that I got ~ we were really hooking up a storm! 

Judy is hooking a new Magdalena pattern ~ I can see Happy Trio in the upper left of the pattern so that must be it's name!!  Love the duck with all it's directional hooking!  Judy also stitched a little pinkeep for each of us ~ very thoughtful!





Mary is hooking this monster of a rug!!  It is a room size rug with pineapples on both ends ~ the colors she and Barb have chosen are beautiful mauves and creams ~ it's really going to be something!  Mary says it's her winter project ~ for me, it would be my lifetime project!

Miss Maria just got in around noon on Tuesday and managed to get this hooked in her day and a half with us!  It's Aunt Tillie's Garden ~ another sizable rug!

Donna ~ our leader ~ is hooking Magdalena's Great Grandaughter's Rug.  When she was returning from the Biennial with a friend, they travelled the Magdalena Trail as set out in Kathy Wright and Evelyn Lawrence's new book.  This pattern is painted on a barn that's on the trail and Donna is  memorializing their trip with this rug!  It's really going to be soft and old looking!

This is Donna's new friend ~ Gabby!  She made herself right at home in Donna's hooking bag!!!!!  We had a lot of fun with Gabby and Posey, the Woolley Fox cats ~ they go anywhere they want ~ and they're quite entertaining!

We had a great time on our trip ~ it goes so fast ~ it's time to head home when you're really just getting settled in.  We ate some great food and I love the shops in Ligonier ~ we always find some great things there!

The day after I got home, Tad had to have a tooth pulled ~ we have been dealing with this tooth for a couple of weeks and Tad and I are both so glad it's over.  Dealing with dentists and oral surgeons who are in no hurry to make things happen, made this mother have a headache!!  It was quite an ordeal but he's on the mend and happy as a clam ~ thank goodness!!!!

Luke and Luci and their mom, Miki, were at the lake with us this weekend!  Son Teddy was deer hunting so they hung out with us. Miki joined us and our lake friends for a trip to a local winery, Chateau Tabeau, in Fremont!  Very nice little place ~ good wine and good food.  It was a beautiful afternoon so we set outside for a while and then moved inside for a bite to eat.  We have been doing this for a couple of years in the fall ~ just a nice way to wind down our season! 

I have a NEWSFLASH!!  I have been asked to teach a one-day workshop at the Sauder Rug Retreat next August!!  Kathy Wright called me some time ago and I'm really honored to be included on a roster of such creative rug hookers!! I'm going to be doing a hands-on finishing class and want to make it fun and informative for you gals that want to know how to put that finishing touch on your artistic endeavors!  You can check out my  page on the Sauder Village Rug Retreat website.  Come join me!!!

So that's it for tonite!  I finally got this post done ~ and now I'm going to hook on my class rug!!!

TIPP CITY CLASS ~ ~ ~

 Last Thursday and Friday, I was in Tipp City, Ohio ~ north of Dayton ~ for a two day class.  The theme was "The Shape of Things" and we were given templates to design our own geometric rug ~ this is mine!  We were all given the same size foundation fabric ~ we worked within the outline of 17" x 22".  We took some of our own wool and purchased some from the teachers.  In this rug, I took the corner template and put it end-to-end to create the design on either side of the rather wild center circle!!  The blue wool was in our packet and I really wanted to use it somewhere in my design ~ hence, what looks like an eyeball with a blue pupil!  Somehow, I think this looks rather artistic ~ hopefully, not as I described above!

These lovelies are our teachers ~ Karen Kahle, Alice Strebel and Nola Heidbreder!  They work really well together and have lots to  offer in terms of color planning and creativity!  I swear ~ I wonder if I'll ever learn what 'value' is ~ they talk about it a lot!! Even their mode of dress is creative ~ and has lots of  ''value''!! 

Pam, Sue and Charisse are friends and customers of mine that live in our area!  I have lots of fun with them and admire the friendship they have with each other. Each one is very special in their own way!!

Two new friends are Valerie and Barb, on either side of Nola!  They're new friends that I met ~ they've been friends with each other for many years ~ very fun ladies!!

 Jennifer came all the way from Nebraska to join us!  Such a sweet gal ~ we all enjoyed her a lot!  She joined us for dinner, too ~ I think our reputation from last year preceded us and they put us in a private room!!!

This is Jackie from Pittsburgh!  We met last year at this class and she has been to my studio for a couple of classes since then ~
 this year she stayed with us on the way to Tipp City and back ~ I call her Princess Jackie ~ she's a little high maintenance but we like her anyway!!!  We had a good time and I think she enjoyed hanging out with Sonny and I here at our house!!!

Our other table-mate, Lanna, got away before I could get her picture!  She's a very creative gal in her own right ~ designing a pattern line and making great wool pincushions!!  We had lots to talk about, too!

So it was a fun two days ~ it went fast!  Saturday morning, Sonny and I drove to the lake and vegetated for the weekend ~ really, just rested ~ not something we do a lot of! It was great!

The next post will be of rugs that the gals brought to show ~ that's always one of the best parts ~ to see what others hook and how creative everyone is!  I'm looking forward to the nice weather that's coming our way ~ need to do my outside fall decorating ~ I'm a little behind!!! 

Have a good week wherever you are!

MORE SARASOTA ~ ~ ~

These photos were in my phone and I almost overlooked them!  The battery in my camera rolled over and played dead so I was still able to catch a few of the rugs around me that day! This is such a cute rug done from a grandchild's drawing ~ this lady had several that she had done and they were just darling!  She's from New Brunswick  and I think my friend MJ and she were going to get together sometime ~ they did and MJ emailed that the artist's name is Danielle Ouellet.  I loved her sense of fun and color in capturing these children's artwork!

The colors in this rug were just great ~ I don't know the hooker or the details but it caught my eye for sure!

Gwen Gilson (thank you Cheryll S. for her name) hooked this alphabet rug was just packing it away and I asked if she would unroll it for us to see.  It is hooked in a very narrow width and was absolutely beautiful.  I will never create such a fine piece of work ~ it's just not in me to hook this narrow but ~ I certainly appreciate all of the time-consuming love and care that it takes to create this kind of art! You can click on the photo to enlarge it and see the detail.

This was the extent of the hooking that I got done that day! I hauled pattern, frame, cut and un-cut wool all the way to Florida so that I could actually say I hooked at the hook-in! The day was mostly spent laughing, talking, shopping and taking photos ~ will I take hooking the next time?  Oh, probably!  But this will be a cute rug when finished ~ maybe for my show in April?

Seaside Rug Hooking donated this pattern for the drawing and I was the lucky winner!  I can see this has future as a pillow, maybe ~ and I can see felted eggs and sparkly wool nesting material ~ I see all that ~ now when will it become reality?

There were lots of things donated by the vendors for the drawing and that certainly added a nice touch to the day!  Thank you Seaside Rug Hooking for the  pattern!  I did email her a thank you note ~ wonder if she got it? When I win something that has been donated, I always try to send a thank-you so they know that it was appreciated

There was a huge display of flowers in the produce department of the grocery the other day so I treated myself to a little touch of Spring!  We still have dirty piles of snow outside our windows and I thought this would brighten things up a bit!  I can see only one leaf that has been attacked by the cat so I think these will stay around a while.  Mr. Kitty must not have liked them so good! If he likes a plant, I can kiss it goodbye so to speak ~ or put it up high where we and he can't see it!! 

Have a good day ~ Spring is right around the corner!!

Alice

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

ODDS AND ENDS ~ ~ ~

This is a little hooked hit-and-miss mat that I made for a hostess gift.  A dear friend had a small luncheon yesterday and I didn't want to go empty handed ~ so, the night before I went down to the hooking room, found a scrap of linen backing, drew a rectangle on it and started pulling strips from my strip basket!  Two and a half hours later,  I had this ready to bind ~ our hostess has lovely primitive antiques and I knew she would appreciate it ~ I'll do a post about the lunch ~ I have so many things to post about and so little time! But keep in mind, we can make great little gifts out of our leftovers ~ rug hookers  know ~  the ever multiplying 'noodles'!!

Sparkly wool ~ my favorite!!  I haven't posted yet

about the Sarasota hook-in ~ it took all last week to  get unpacked and caught up on home things.  I bought this huge ball of sparkly wool and these great leather purse handles from Fiddlehead Finery ~ DeEtta had a great booth and she and her helper wore these wonderful wool vests that she hooked designs on!  There are hundreds of yards in this hank of yarn so I'm going to divide it into smaller bundles to sell ~  it will add just a little touch of pizzazz to grass or hills or who knows what else!

Polly Minich had a booth, too, and I was lucky

enough to pick up this little wool applique piece from her pile of goodies.  Perfect for our decor and made by Polly ~ what could be better.  She had some of her kits that benefit Semper Fi for sale and also raffled off one of her rugs for that charity.  Polly had the greatest looking glasses ~ just perfect for the 'artiste' that she is!  I'll post more about the hook-in shortly ~ just trying to get in a short one today!

It's rainy here in Ohio again today!  We had huge flooded areas at the beginning of the week and people are just now drying out and now there's more to come.  Thank goodness we live on a hill!  If the water gets this high, you'll know that Noah and his ark should be coming by at any minute! 

Have a good weekend ~ I'm trying to get a cold or get over a cold ~ don't know which ~ I'd like to stay in today but must run out for a few things!  Ta ta for now ~

Alice



"OUT ON A LIMB" ~ ~ ~

That's the name of this Blog Challenge # 3  ~ and it's done ~ fini ~ completed!!  I couldn't be happier ~ late Sunday afternoon, I decided I better get this under way since I had to have  the post about it done before we leave on our vacation!  Yesterday, I wasn't thrilled with the way it was progressing but by the time it was finished this evening, it was looking very good to me!

To refresh your memory as to materials ~ the roving in the picture was used for the circles in the sheep and for the big fluffy cloud in the sky.  I stripped it out into skinnier pieces of the length and hooked it right into the foundation fabric first, before I hooked anything around it!

The same with the curly yarn ~ that's the three flowers at the bottom and the sparkly craft thread makes up the flower stems!  All the limey green dyed curly fleece is at the bottom of the rug also ~ it looks like nice curly grass to me ~ enhancing the countryside!

And last, but not least ~ the TWIG which became the "limb"  ~ Out On A Limb ~ yes, that little sheep definitely is!  I hooked the tree in a light, natural color to complement the twig, laid the twig on the bare linen, traced it with a Sharpie pen and hooked in a temporary row to follow that drawn-in line.  Then, I hooked it with some junk wool and hooked all around it with the green hill wool ~ after the mat was done, I pulled out the hooking and laid the twig into that space and anchored with some linen twine!  It's not looking too bad, if I say so myself ~ and I do!!  To get a closer look, double click on the photo and you can see the rug in detail!

When I opened the box of bits and pieces that Kris Miller sent, the idea came to me pretty quickly ~ it was just putting the idea into wool, that was a bit tricky for me ~ but it worked!  Check out the Ali Strebel's  and Maria Barton's blogs on the 20th and see what they came up with ~ I can't wait myself!!!

Today is Sunday, February 20th and I'm posting from sunny Englewood, Florida!!  The weather has been spectacular for the entire 9 days we've been here ~ as if it were custom ordered!!  We've had the most fun ~ that's for another post ~ and I had a great time at the Searsport hook-in in Sarasota!  That's another post, too!  I met up with Tammy of Skip to My Ewe blog and Tere ~ a Wool Snippets rug forum friend ~ and my friend MJ saw that I got there ~ it was fun for her, too, as she was able to hook up with some Florida hookers!!  How many people can say that with a straight face?!!  We're heading home to winter in Ohio tomorrow ~ I think our wonderful friends and hosts, Diane and Greg, will be glad to get back to their schedule ~ they have taken us hither and yon to some very fun places!!  Talk to you soon!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ~ ~ ~

A little early, I know ~ but I won't be here on Valentines Day!!  I wanted to wish you guys all a very happy day and hope you have a nice sweetheart to spend it with!  I hooked this heart last week since I had all my reds laying out from the last blog challenge.  It really turned out nice ~ it's 12 x 11 and I will happily offer it for sale ~ $90 including shipping!  The background is a mixture of an overdyed plaid and some dyed solids to fill in because I ran short!!  I, actually, like when that happens because it challenges me to find something that fits in ~ just like the old time hookers made do with what they had on hand!  The heart is hooked in a 9 cut and the background in a ten!  I cut up half the piece before I realized I had the wrong blade in ~ it worked out swell!  And goes very fast!

The 1668 GEOMETRIC is almost done ~ only the orange paisleys left to hook in the Dresden Plate design.  It looks all whopperjawed (is that a word?) because I laid it on top of three different wools that I'm anticipating using in the border ~ so it made a big hump at the bottom of the rug.  My thought is to do a triple-corded binding ~ you lay cotton cording inside the wool strip and machine stitch ~ then I would add another row and do the same three times.  I'm not sure how it will go but I'm going to give it a go!!

Well, the GOOD NEWS is that my third Creative Blog Challenge piece is done!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!  I'm beyond excited!!!! I started it Sunday afternoon and worked on it in the evenings.  In my last post, I indicated that I wasn't thrilled with the results ~ but I'm thrilled now!  It turned out pretty good ~ can't wait to show it to you.  When I'm done with this post, I will do a post about that piece and put it into a 'draft' ready to be published on the 20th ~ so stayed tuned!!

I have clothes and suitcases all over the bedroom ~ trying to figure out the best things to take on our trip!  We leave tomorrow night for Columbus to stay at the airport ~ we have a 6 a.m. flight ~ Sonny says he stands a better chance of getting on the plane on time, if he has me at the airport the night before!!!  Fooey ~ that's not true at all ~ but who want to leave home at 3:30 a.m. ~  not me!!  Tad will be here with his sitter ~ bless her heart for taking good care of things here at home so mama can have a little respite from responsibility! That way there's someone here to answer the phones, feed Mr. Kitty, and generally keep our home fires burning!!

Another thing I have to do is get  a hooking project ready to take to the Searsport hook-in in Sarasota next week!  I've already arranged to meet Polly Minich, TereCatBird (that's her WoolSnippets name) and Tammy from Skip to My Ewe!  I wonder what other blog friends will be there! 

So,  that's it for now ~ I'll post again on February 20 ~ have a happy Valentines day with someone you love ~ until we meet again ~
Alice

RABBIT RUG AND OTHER THINGS ~ ~ ~

 It's been a long time since I've posted ~ just too busy to sit down and write!  The Rabbit Rug is done and sent in the mail and delivered to it's new home!  My friend, Cathy, is the proud grandma of her first grandchild, born in December ~ in her words "I've waited 63 years to be a grandma"!!!!!  I replied "ever since you were born?"!!!  She is beyond excited and I wanted to honor her new little Jacob with something special!  She loved it and took it to the new parents, who appreciated the thought very much!  The rabbit is hooked with camelhair wool from a retired jacket of Sonny's ~ I don't use much recycled wool but this was perfect for a furry little creature!  I mixed hand-dyed and handspun yarn into the background and handspun into the star.  I like the results ~ again, I drew it freehand and it just kind of developed as I hooked along.

The Tipp City rug has been finished for some time, but the bird needed some attention.  I appliqued it onto the foundation fabric and then hooked around it ~ but in doing so, the bird fabric was kind of wrinkly and just didn't lay flat, and the stitching definitely got lost when the hooking was done.  Betty Young, a long-time teacher, was at a hook-in that I attended and suggested that I stuff the bird to fill out those wrinkles and I took her up on it.  I slit the backing ~ stuffed it with only a small amount of fiberfill, stitched it back together and sealed it with white glue and covered the ugly mess I'd made with the label!  I also added a bead for the eye and some beads to the wing.  It looks good and the stuffing made a lot of difference!

 Now, the "Tipp City Bittersweet" resides under "Tom" and they look great together.  I toted that rug all over this house and this seemed to be the right spot.  There are lots of windows in the living room and this rug, apparently, needed all that light to show off the various shades of the background.  When I tried to find a place for it in our bedroom, where the colors looked great, it just had no life to it at all ~ now, it's found it's proper home.

 It was a pretty productive week for me ~ amazing!  Since I was labeling the Rabbit Rug, it was a great time to make labels for some of my other finished pieces.  I've been using a printable fabric that can be run thru the copier and then ironed on to a backing. I hand-wrote several labels onto paper and copied those on to the fabric, pinked the edges, ironed it on felt, pinked the felt edges and then hand-stitched that to the rug.  It gives a more finished look that what I was doing before!  You can buy the printable fabric in office supply stores and probably fabric shops, too.

One other little project I started this week is a heart mat with a variety of reds out of my stash.  It's going to have a really dark background ~ a black and red plaid that is overdyed with black.  I'm headed down to the hooking room now to finish this and START my blog challenge piece!!  A perfect Saturday ~ hooking all day!  Sonny went to a tool show in Columbus and I'm going to be an all day hooker!!!

Ta ta for now!!

Alice

RABBIT RUG & PUDDINGSTONE ~ ~ ~

 Happy hooking ~ that's what I'm doing ~ I'm happy as can be when I have time to hook!  This is a smallish rabbit rug that I drew on linen and as I go, I'm adding bits of handspun green yarn ~ it's wonderful lumpy stuff with lots of texture ~ it kind of livens up the background and is mixed with a green as-is wool and a hand-dyed green, as well.  The rabbit is a 9 cut  and the background, a 9.5 ~ so it's moving pretty fast!!  Should be done in a day or so!

Sonny took this picture a few days ago down in the woods ~ it's a big puddingstone rock covered with snow!  Puddingstone is left from the glacier that was in this area many eons ago ~ it's kind of like the garbage that the glacier left as it moved across the landscape.  If you double click on the photo, you can see all cracks and crevices that were formed.

This is an outcropping of puddingstone  across the way from the one above.  I was actually thrilled because Sonny took these pictures and said he thought I might like them for my blog!!  He doesn't really even read this thing so I was shocked that he wanted to provide subject matter for it!  These are two of the biggest examples on our property but there are other smaller ones here and there.  We love it ~ we don't really know of anyone else around us  who has this and we enjoy telling people about it.  A retired geologist, who was a guest here quite a few years ago, enlightened us as to what these really are! 

I'm kind of excited today because I just made plans to attend a hook-in Sarasota while we're there in February.  Searsport Rug Hooking is hosting their first annual hook-in with several vendors that I haven't seen before and it will be a chance to network with different  rug hookers.  A new friend, MJ, who took a class here this fall, invited me to join her and it coincides with our visit, so, finally, I made the decision to go.  The hardest part will be missing out on being with Sonny and our friends for the day ~ I told them to not plan anything fun until I get back!! 

We had a fun weekend ~ Sonny boy turned 67 on Saturday and we went to dinner with friends and intended to stay and listen to a band from Put-in-Bay that was playing there.  But ~ my son and his wife and other friends were at the new wine bar in our little burg and called and texted and called some more until we finally went to join them!  It was great fun!  We knew almost everybody there and a good time was had by all!  We went out with other friends on Friday night and ran into Sonny's daughter ~ she secretly told the waitress that she wanted to buy the bottle of wine that was on our table ~ which was great ~ except it wasn't our wine!!!  Our friends were surprised and so was Sonny's daughter, the next day!!  Oh, well ~ her intentions were good!!  And our friends enjoyed it immensely!!

That's it for today ~ I'm working on tax things and other fun stuff ~ have to head to the office supply store shortly!  The second new dishwasher arrived a while ago and Sonny was here to check it out ~ so by tonite, my dishpan hands can take a break ~ maybe! Thanks for stopping by ~ hope all is well in your world!

CREATIVE BLOG CHALLENGE ~ ~ ~

 Okay, readers ~ here it is!!!!  Tuesday, I put the hook to the linen and three days later, it is finished! 

I started with some lines for center and a rough drawing of a heart and began with the sari ribbon.  I agree with Kris ~ I love hooking with sari ribbon and want to do more, for sure!  Ali gave us a really long length and I thought it would go further than it did ~ but I improvised and used this beautiful hand-dyed roving to fill in the middle! I like the idea of 'making do', like the old time ruggers did!

Next, I stitched on  the felted heart and hooked around it with the piece of dyed hosiery ~ not enough of that so I folded it in the middle and hooked both sides of the heart top till it ran out. After the rug was hooked, I snipped each loop of the hosiery to poof it up a little and  I used another roving yarn to fill in around the bottom but reverse hooked that along the way.  I drew some other hearts and gathered various dyed red wools and away I went! This project kind of designed itself ~ I had no idea that it would be this big ~ and didn't start out with the idea that it would be a pillow.  It's interesting what each of us sees when we open our package of goodies ~ and how we come upon our end result!

This is another shot with a white background ~ it shows a little better but not as dramatic ~ so I'll let you see both!  I hooked the cotton lace, again, measuring it from the middle and hooking to the ends and then filling in with red wool.  The word LOVE is so bold here that it even surprised me!  I used the hand-spun white yarn to help offset the white lace ~ then second-guessing myself, pulled it out and hooked the letters in red sparkly wool!  That didn't work so I pulled that out and used a nice purple (in my teaser photo, there was purple wool that I hooked in to set the letters until I decided what to do) but that didn't excite me, either.  My original thought seemed to be best, so I hooked that  white lumpy yarn back in ~ and I like it.  I wired the beads on ~ there were five, so I went with the number there were and added them randomly.  And the finished product is a 12" x 17"  pillow ~ with a proddy edge like Karen Kahle showed us at the Tipp City class.  The pillow is stuffed with wool snippets, lavender  and ~ wool lint!  After new wool is washed and dried, there is a multitude of colorful lint  and it makes wonderful stuffing ~ nothing going to waste!!

There you have it ~ challenge # two ~ can't wait to see what Maria created!  Check all  of our blogs to see what we came up with!  Kris Miller is the next material supplier ~ and I'll do the last one.  We're leaving for Florida in mid February, so I'll have to dive right into the next project as soon as my little package arrives!  I've hooked so fast and furiously on this, it tells me I could really finish my other rug in no time, if I would apply myself!  Anybody who knows me, knows that I love a deadline ~ that's what gets my blood flowing and maybe even stimulates my creative brain.  I also see that starting with a blank piece of foundation fabric might be a good thing for me to try again!  It's always good to learn something new about ourselves, isn' it?

Have a good day ~ we're getting a nice soft snow here, that's really piling up!  A good night for hooking! 

BLOG CHALLENGE AND OTHER STUFF ~ ~ ~

 So sad to say ~ but I just started my project YESTERDAY!!!!!  They're due to be published on Thursday!! I think it's an illness ~ procrastination ~ it's a curse, for sure!!  But here's a bit of it ~ there's actually much more done than this!  I got carried away, which is dumb when the deadline is looming so close!  I got out a piece of linen ~ drew some lines on it for center ~ and then drew some other stuff on it and away I went!  I woke up two nights in a row thinking about this and figured out I better get moving ~ and then it ends up being out of hand!!  Thursday's the day ~ stop by and see what we've done!  I read on Kris's blog that she was starting hers, too ~ maybe Maria and the other Alice are already done! 

Here's the progress on my 1668 rug. It's coming along slowly ~ but coming along. The good news is the collection of orange paisleys showed up all by themselves ~ I didn't even have to look!  I had put them in one of the cubicles that holds my wool stash ~ they were right there waiting for me!  Woo hoo!

 The Keeping Room is a primitive shop in Galion that I went to in December with friend, Vivian and new friend, MJ.  I've done shows with Cherie but this is the first time I had been to her cute little shop!

There are antiques and reproductions and Cherie makes a lot of things herself.  She had her sewing machine set up on the counter and was working away ~ no idle hands for her! If you're in the area, stop by and visit her sometime ~ come visit my hooking studio, too ~ make a little field trip out of it!  That's what I call it when friends and I go out for the day ~ a field trip ~ like when we were in school!

The other day Heidi and I made arrangements to go to the International  Quilt Festival that will be held in Cincinnati the end of April!  We're very excited because this is the first time it's come to Ohio ~ usually, only Houston and big cities!!  So, there you have it ~ Heidi and I are going on a 'field trip'!!

Okay ~ I'm off and running!  Tax day ~ sympathy cards to send (too many) ~ and straighten the hooking room for a customer who's coming this afternoon!!  We'll talk later!! Ta ta!!!
Alice