IT'S A GREAT DAY ~ ~ ~

It's a great day because, finally, my 'Christmas Hands' rug is finished!!!! I drew the ten grandchildren's hands at Christmas 2005 and started it right after the holidays were over! And then, it ceased to be fun ~ hooking with basically two colors wasn't very challenging, I guess. Or maybe it was too much of a challenge ~ but not until someone on the Wool Snippets forum started a challenge for unfinished rugs (UFO Challenge), did I get interested in finishing this project!!

Last year on the Minick and Simpson blog, Polly Minick had a little contest to which I had the correct answer ~ and the prize was all this wonderful red, white and blue binding!! Since my colors were based on her blue and white star rug, I thought using her binding for this rug was perfect!! This close up shows lots of hooking 'holidays' ~ I guess they don't concern me a lot as I look at the how the rug lays from the front ~ if there isn't a low place in the way the rug lays, it works for me! How do you handle 'holidays'??

And this is the room that I hooked this rug for ~ a guest room predominately blue and white ~ perfect! The quilts are all antique except for the two on the foot of the bed on the right ~ they are Amish pieces that I purchased quite a few years ago. The washstand was from my mother's things and the bowl and pitcher were from my former mother-in-law. There are also an authentic Amish child's cape & bonnet hanging on an old shelf ~ but it didn't get in the picture!! Above the beds are pieces from my cross stitch days ~ that's the year my eyes went to pot and I had to get glasses!!

This is the room where Miss Luci and I have our tea parties ~ the small quilted pieces are Amish, too ~ as well as the painting above the table. As you can see, the Christmas Hands rug fits right in with the simple decor in this room.

I have to say that finishing a rug that was started three years ago really pointed out to me how much I've learned in those years! My hooking is higher! And I never would use now the light weight white wool that is used to separate the various blocks! As I started the rug, I left spaces unhooked in each block so that other blues could be used to fill in. A solid blue was not going to have much interest and as I picked this up again, that was very apparent to me. I even picked out other blues from my strip basket to fill in ~ in some of the blocks, I thought maybe I even got to carried away with trying to create 'interest'!! All in all, I'm happy with the result and more than happy to have it finished. I have two rugs I'm working on now ~ one is the sheep rug commissioned (I love to say that!) by my friend, Melody ~ and the other is the American Fish that I started in November ~ new things to post about!!!

And it's a GREAT DAY TODAY in our country because we have a new President!!!! I was glued to the TV most of the day watching history in the making for our country and no doubt, for the world!! President Obama is a commanding presence ~ we trust that he will guide the United States back into a place of prosperity and respect that we deserve!! Today was a very uplifting day!!! Tonite I'm going to hook and watch the inaugural parties on TV ~ sounds like fun!
Alice

BACK TO HOOKING ~ ~ ~

After three weeks, I finally am back to hooking!! This past weekend, I worked on my UFO for the Wool Snippets challenge ~ not a lot but at least a little progress! Last night, I started a small pattern ( 10 x 15 ), which is an enlarged version of one of my starter patterns for beginning rug hookers ~ and it's also a good pattern if you need a small project or gift for someone! The star motif was a little off kilter and had to be moved, so it wasn't something I could offer for sale ~ the next best thing was to hook it myself ~ it can be the example picture to attach to the pattern! The crow wool is a really dark hand-dyed burgundy ~ kind of a black cherry ~ so with all the variation of color and a plain black strip for the wing distinction, it hooked into a nice looking old crow!! There is a nice buttery-feeling, kind of neutral plaid that appears to be a good background wool ~ I'll give it a try tonite! I hooked for about an hour, while watching Dancing with the Stars and will do that again tonite. I miss it when I put the hook down for too long and am trying to put into practice the goal of hooking a little every day!! As with most of my good intentions, it's difficult ~ but it won't happen if I don't give it a try!!

We had a most fun weekend at the lake ~ Friday night, we were left to our own devices, as all of our lake friends were in other places!! We went to Mon Ami winery for the free food at happy hour ~ then went on to a Japanese restaurant and ate in the sushi bar (no sushi for me ~ a lovely lump crab & avocado parfait and a fire-roasted lobster appetizer ~ YUMMY!) ~ Sonny had sushi and sea bass ~ we were quite happy when we left!! Then a stop at some other friends where we watched the debate (sort of) and a stay that was way too long!! We decided that Friday night would be our belated anniversary celebration since Thursday night, we stayed home and ate brussel sprouts, beets and redskin potatoes for our supper ~ that was an event!!

Saturday, Sonny's daughter and two of her girlfriends came up for a night out! We had cosmopolitans on the rocks (you know how we like to rock-sit) and then to Mon Ami for dinner and dancing!!! The old guy and I danced till one in the morning to the Traveling Lounge Lizards!!! We had used a local taxi service for the coming and going and we were so happy to have them pick us up!! The next day, we put the girls in the back seat of the car and drug them around Catawba and Marblehead ~ in and out of shops and showing them the local sights!! It was a fun day and they all had a great time ~ a short weekend without their kids and time with such fun parents!!!! I heard one of them say (I think Sonny's daughter) "they're so cute"!!!! We're cute alright!! At least, we are still able to shake a leg on the dance floor!!

Office work awaits but I just had to post this ~ my 'intention' was to blog every day or so, but it's hard to find the time and the subject matter ~ well, not if I write about every dumb thing we do!! Hope all is well with you! Ta ta for now!
Alice

PRODDY SHEEP AND OTHER THINGS ~ ~ ~

This is the sheep rug that was our project when a group went to England two years ago. Cilla Cameron taught us the proddy portion and Heather Ritchie taught the stone wall background ~ what a challenge that was!! Heather's sample rug was a purple sheep and I latched onto one of the purple wool packets that was offered!! Then we chose 4 or 5 pieces of wool that Heather custom dyed for the stone walls. Kris Miller and I took close-up pix of Heather's stone wall hooking and it definitely helped when I was hooking this back home without her input! Heather had dyed Wensleydale fleece for sale and several packages of that came home with me ~ some purple went in the sheep body and I improvised on the pattern a bit and used the green for grass under the little sheep feet. I also made an attempt at a proddy flower at the end of the grass!! Those rock walls were the hardest thing to hook in such a fashion that it looked like stones ~ Heather lived her lifetime surrounded by all that texture and it was second nature for her but for most of us, it was a struggle! On my England Memory Rug, I prodded a smallish purple sheep into the top right of the rug to commemorate our reason for being in England in the first place.

There is an online rug hooking forum that I frequent and there are several rug hooking challenges that have been set up recently. The one that I joined is Unfinished Objects and you can check it out at http://www.uforughookers.blogspot.com/. So many rug hookers have pieces they've started and get put aside so this is a way to tackle that UFO and be held accountable through the team blog they've set up. It will be fun and productive, for sure! Mine is a rug of my grandchilren's hands that I started two years ago ~ the picture and story about it are on that blog site.

Several weeks ago, I posted about my sister, Joyce, having an embolism and heart attack. I'm happy to report that she is doing well ~ she even went out last week and did her Meals on Wheels route ~ hello !!!! She said her doctor said to do what she felt up to doing and she did!! We're a tough bunch and I know she doesn't want to let this get the best of her ~ I give her a lot of credit for that. She started hooking about the same time I did but hasn't pursued it as much ~ she mentioned that her hooking is shreddy and she doesn't hook fast, etc. I sent her the Hartman Hook this week and am waiting to hear if it's helped! I sell them now, because it made all the difference for me in regard to the ease of hooking with wide cuts! I hope she likes it and it gets her hooking again!

Another weekend is here ~ a new month has started! Does time fly for all of you like it does here? Holy crow ~ it's hard to keep up sometimes!! Take care and have a good weekend!

Alice