Having Fun In Emma's Garden

I was in Canton, Mississippi recently teaching a workshop at P is for Primitive. Most of the participants worked on the Emma's Garden pattern. We incorporated antique paisley in the leaves, hooked with roving and sheeps' locks (Emma generously donated a small bit of her locks to everyone's rug), flowers were given dimension with proddy and beading. We talked a great deal about my favorite subject: the life and behavior of sheep and goats! The most thrilling part for me was to see the rugs develop into their own personalities. Everyone did their own thing and added their own personal touches....which is exactly what I had hoped for!!! Here are just a few samples of what was going on......

This "Emma" belongs to Candi. She looks beautiful with her curly locks.

This is Carol's version of Emma. Carol was using a lovely roving that was natural taupes and light browns.

This is Melanie's rug in progress. You can see her lovely prodded sunflower at the top of the picture.

This is Ginger's rug. Ginger added some "foofy" yarn to the plumes on the bird's head which added some great dimension and interest.

Now isn't this a fun little Emma? Becky made a glamerous pink lamb....err...Becky calls it "Glam-ah".

Kala hooked her "Emma" with gray roving. Her sunflowers are big and bold!

Bette's "Emma" has some special meaning to her. She used roving from her granddaughter's sheep! I also love how Bette thought "outside the box" and hooked her flowers in different colors.

The last two photos are views of Martha's work. She chose to make her lamb with dark features, more like a Suffolk sheep. Her bird and flower were turning out great...she used "foofy" yarn too!
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Thanks to Lisanne Miller, owner of P Is For Primitive, for organizing, making sure everything ran smoothly, and cooking lunch.
And thanks to all of you who brought snacks and food everyday...I loved the King Cake...probably a little too much...yikes! Now my jeans are too tight!

Emma's Garden

Here's a new design I hooked up for a workshop I'm teaching later this week in Mississippi. I named it "Emma's Garden", in honor of my lamb Emma (of course!). I hooked it up to be a sampler of various techniques and materials. The leaves all have antique paisley veins, the flower petals are prodded using various lengths and widths of wool strips, the seed part of the flowers have an accent line of beading, the little sheep is hooked with Corriedale roving, and curly sheep locks were worked around the lamb's face. Yes, those are some of Emma's real curls! The lamb's ear is also dimensional...it's a proddy strip that was trimmed in the shape of an ear, pulled up through the backing, then the two pieces were sewn together. Three different textured wools were hooked into the background and I echoed around all of the shapes to give a nice soft movement to the rug. The rich plaid in the border helps bring the colors of the rug out to the edge. I think it has a nice flow all the way around.
But of course, this pattern could be entirely hooked with wool strips without any special embellishments and it would be equally wonderful!

Where In The World Is Kris Miller?

It's been so long since I posted on my blog but the explanation is that I've been on the road teaching some rug hooking workshops. I'm going to show you some pictures and let you guess where I've been lately....

Hmm...let's see...beautiful mountains....

Stunning red rocks with distinctive formations.....

Yes! If you guessed these pictures are from Sedona, you are right!
I've been in beautiful, sunny, warm Arizona!!!
Below is Bell Rock....

And below is a picture of one of my favorites...I believe it is called the Madonna. Doesn't it look like a mother holding a baby?

Here is a picture of the busy rug hookers in my first workshop at The Quilted Apple in Phoenix. (sorry to all of you in the second workshop, I didn't get a picture of you!) I love all the creativity going on here, all the stacks of wool and the cutters waiting to be used...

It was such a fun time! I'm glad I got to spend a little time in warmer weather. So many talented rug hookers and beautiful rugs....and now I have some wonderful new friends too!