Maryland Sheep and Wool Virtual Festival

 

The Spruce Ridge Studios booth at the 2019 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is always the first week-end of May and something that I always look forward to.  This year the festival will take place virtually and Spruce Ridge Studios will be participating!  I will have a "Festival" special and an exclusive decorative pillow for sale on Saturday and Sunday.  Here is a link to the vendors (but you can't use it until Saturday):

https://sheepandwool.org/partners/vendors/

Please note that the marketplace/vendors will go live on Saturday around 8:30 am. So you won't be able to see much until then...but if you were attending the festival in person, you would not have access to the vendors until 8:30 am when the gates opened on Saturday anyway!  I think that's part of the fun!

There were many new patterns added to my website over the past year...including two new pattern collections!  I am proud to be representing the artwork of Robin Leuschen as rug hooking patterns.  I have always loved her whimsical, wonderful designs and I could see a hooked rug in each one.  I can't wait to start hooking my first "Robin" rug!  There are so many wonderful patterns to choose from...but I think I really like "Just Keep Swimming"...oh wait!  I love her little snowman in a snow globe too....or what about the turkey design...or the "Farmhouse Christmas?"  I can see my summer is going to be busy hooking away!

I have also taken over drawing the patterns for Red House Wool Studio/Cathy Greschner.  I have always been a fan of her Orange Sink blog and her lovely designs, so I was quite honored when Cathy decided to turn the sharpie marker over to me and enjoy her retirement!

I do hope you'll shop the Maryland Sheep & Wool Marketplace...look for my virtual page and check out my website.  I plan on shopping too!  I've had my eye on some yarns that are just delicious.  I think it's important to support the other small businesses, especially now.  The pandemic is not quite over yet and I know that every small business needs a little extra support until they can get back out on the road again.

See you tomorrow!

More progress on Notforgotten Flowers

Notforgotten Flowers

Design by Lori Brechlin/Adapted by Spruce Ridge Studios

Hooking by Kris Miller

 Just one more leaf to go and then it's all background!  

I used a lot of textures and values of gray but threw in some gray blues and that wonderful pink and gray herringbone for the flower on the far right.  It's more of a salmon pink, or maybe a brick pink.  The scalloped leaf on the lower right was outlined with a gray herringbone and then filled with a grayish windowpane plaid.  It had a lot of cream lines in it and I picked out the strips that were mostly creamy and just hooked the gray strips.  Much to my surprise, the gray hooked up looking a little pink too, so it is friends with the flower above it.  A match made in primitive, neutral heaven.

Do you love to hook background as much as I do?  I know some people do not but I find it very relaxing and rhythmic.  It doesn't require a lot of thought so I find it perfect to work on while watching a movie or a program on Netflix.  I don't normally hook squiggles into the background, rather I just echo around the shapes, like the ripples a stone makes when it's dropped in the water.  However there are a few squarish shapes...I call them "blocks"... and if I continued to echo around those they would not look like they had any movement.  Just a big old blob.  A few squiggly lines hooked there should break up the area.

I am so happy with this color plan and honestly, I think it is my favorite version so far.  Isn't it funny how a dumb drawing mistake ended up being such a great learning experience and such a fun rug!

You can find the pattern here (no drawing mistakes, I guarantee it!):

https://www.spruceridgestudios.com/product/not-forgotten-flowers-24-x-24/

Notforgotten Flowers update

 

Lots of progress on my neutral color plan for Notforgotten Flowers!

I started calling this the "Goldilocks" rug because I've hooked in certain textures/values and then ripped them out again. Several times! 

Too dark, too bright, just right!

You can see in the picture that half of the gray petal of the big tulip is outlined in taupe.  I left it that way temporarily to show you the difference between outlining vs. not outlining.  I think that the photo shows the outline just a bit too bold.  In real life, it looks more like a soft transition between the light gray and dark gray.  I really like the way the outline looks so I'm going to go ahead and hook the rest of it.

The large oak leaf was fun to color plan.  It also needed to be outlined and I think the light gray was just the right touch.  I'm not sure if I'm going to use the leaf texture again.  It is sort of a wait-and-see situation.  

Next up is hooking the flower on the right.  I need to get that completed before I finish up with the leaves.

Have a great week-end and a beautiful, blessed Easter!