Monday, March 29, 2021

Rug of the Day - Notforgotten Flowers

Notforgotten Flowers
Design by Lori Brechlin/Notforgotten Farm, adapted by Spruce Ridge Studios/Kris Miller

I hooked this fun, cheery mat many years ago when I first started adapting Lori's artwork into rug hooking patterns.  Now flash forward to 2021....

A customer had ordered the larger size of Notforgotten Flowers and as I was drawing it, I made not one, but two stupid mistakes.

I have been drawing patterns for over 20 years....I could probably draw them with my eyes closed!  haha!  I am quite picky about having them straight so when I am drawing the outside border line, I always try to use a very fresh Sharpie with a nice sharp point.  When the tip starts to jump the ditch, I know it's time to switch to a new marker.  Sometimes a slub in the linen or a piece of lint will make the pen jump too.  If the overdraw is just a small line, I feel there is no harm done.  I correct the jumped line and keep going.  I think we all understand that it happens sometimes and it doesn't affect the outcome.  But when I drew out this pattern, my Sharpie jumped badly.  In two spots.  I tried to correct and made it worse.  I thought it looked sloppy and I just could not send this pattern to the customer.  So I drew another one that was pretty and perfect and without blemish.

Now, I will tell you that I HATE to waste linen.  It is expensive.  What was I going to do with this imperfect pattern?  My choices were to discount the pattern price and sell it as an "oops" or to turn it over and draw a different pattern on the other side just for myself.  But wait!  I started thinking that I could hook this pattern again...but in all soft neutral tones.  A little challenge to myself since I had already hooked the small version in a colorful palette. 
 
I think I mentioned this in a previous blog post, but I started gathering up some textures that I considered "neutral," piled them up on my work table, and let them "stew" for a few days.  I would walk by and glance at them throughout the day.  Sometimes I'd find another piece of wool that I thought would work and threw it in the pile.  Other times, I would eliminate a piece that would somehow seem out of place or just didn't catch my fancy anymore.  
This is what my pile looked like.  I had three piles for the three flowers in the pattern and there are multiple leaves to color plan too.  The dark taupe-like texture that is scrunched up at the top of the picture was a candidate for the background, but I realized later that it was not dark enough for what my vision of the background should be, so I used it to hook the flower pot.  A nice dark chocolate brown is working great for my background.

Even as I have been hooking, I have pulled some wool out and switched it to a different texture. But I think I am still on track with my goal to keep my mat in the neutral "neighborhood."
Here is the start of my rug and I am very happy with the progress so far!  I am outlining all the objects with one row of my chocolate brown texture.  This holds the shapes in place and gives me a good idea of how the background works with my other color choices.  I am considering another brown texture to mix with my chocolate brown but will try it out later when I am hooking the rest of my background.  I am so focused on hooking the flowers and leaves so I don't want to lose that mojo by filling in background right now.  Stay tuned!

You can find the small pattern for Notforgotten Flowers here:

and here is the link for the larger pattern, which I am working on now:





 

Monday, March 22, 2021

Rug of the Day - Matilda Hornbuckle

Matilda Hornbuckle
Hooked by Kris Miller
A Notforgotten Farm/Lori Brechlin design, adapted by Spruce Ridge Studios

Here is the adorable Matilda Hornbuckle!  She was my unfinished project that I mentioned in my last post...I had some background to hook in and I had not completed her face.  As is often the case, once her cute little face was completed, I had a smiling and mischievous friend looking back at me!  She really made me happy and the rest of the hooking was a snap!

When I hooked the shoe, I pulled up some scrap pieces of wool (just a tail and then another tail) to mark the spot where I wanted to sew the shoe buttons after my mat was steamed.  I could have hooked them but I have a small collection of old shoe buttons just for this occasion.  I think they add just a bit more whimsy to my mat.

I had quite a collection of light colored, textured left-over pieces so I promised myself that I would cut up, mix up, and use those scraps instead of cutting into a new piece of wool.  It's pretty strange how you can plan to do that and still have a bunch of scraps left over when you are done hooking.  

This little mat is a fun, quick project.  She could be displayed all year round and not just in the Fall or around Halloween.  I'm going to smile every time I see her!

You can find the pattern here:


 

Friday, March 12, 2021

Rug Of The Day Update-First Heavy Snow

First Heavy Snow
Designed by Cabin Creek Designs/Faye Schilling
Hooked by Kris Miller

I have been trying to wrap up some unfinished projects and here is one of them.  I just hooked the last loop on Monday night...it's not steamed yet but will be soon.  Then I'll bind the edges with the crochet finish, using the same Christmas plaid in the border.  

This was so much fun to hook! I think my favorite part was figuring out how to dress up the snow people.  I can't wait to hang it up next winter when the snow starts to fly.  In the meantime, I've got another UFO (unfinished object) on my frame....mostly just hooking the background but oh how I love hooking backgrounds!!!

You can find the First Heavy Snow pattern here:
 

I know most of you don't want to think about snow, now that the weather is warmer and the flowers are starting to poke their sleepy little heads through the dirt, but I think I could hook winter patterns all year round because they are so much fun!

Have a great week-end!