Here, There, and Everywhere

As some of you may know, I've had a whirlwind life these past two months! I've hardly had time to do much else but come home, unpack one suitcase and then pack another to dash off to vend at a show or teach a workshop. It's been an exciting rug-hooking-gypsy-style life but now it's good to stay at home and keep my feet in one place for a while.

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Above is a gate in a courtyard in Fredericksburg, Texas. Just gorgeous!

Here's Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe in Fredericksburg. We ate breakfast here one morning. I bought some lovely raspberry scones to take home. They were so hot that they nearly melted the bottom of the bag. Yes, they did make it home but in several large crumbly pieces!

Fellow teacher and Michigander, Maria Barton, waiting for Rather Sweet to open! Maria took pictures of my students' rugs below....thanks Maria!

This is Aurora's rug, designed by her granddaughter. This was only the second rug that Aurora has ever hooked. And one other special thing about Aurora....she is 80 years young! You go, girl!

This is Judy's rug. It's one of my designs called Deer Season. She's doing a fabulous job...love the turquoise star!

This is Linda's rug, a design by Bev Conway. Don't you love that horse's face? It already has a wonderful personality.

This fabulous feline is being hooked by Georgeanne. She has a terrific sense of color and this rug will look very old when it is completed.

Dianne's rug is simply spectacular! This is an adaptation of the Mary Comstock Bed Rugg. I love the old neutral colors mixed with the primary colors of red, yellow and blue.
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There were so many other terrific rugs in my class that were not photographed. Some of the gals had to leave before our "show and tell" and we didn't get pictures of them. I assure you that the whole class was working on some beautiful pieces! We had a great group of gals!
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Now on to the ATHA Biennial in Louisville, KY!

This is my booth at the ATHA Biennial. We were in the historic Seelbach Hotel. I did not take a lot of pictures but the photos below are from the Rathskeller at the hotel:

(above) Believe it or not, this is the ceiling near the bar. It is tooled leather!

Here are some very cool pelicans. They circle around all of the pillars and are made of Rookwood pottery.

More tiles on the wall. Isn't this stunning???
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Al Capone used to frequent the Rathskeller. It is said that there are secret doors where he escaped when the cops were coming. We got to see one of the underground passages!
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Now that I'm home, I can't wait to get back to my rug hooking project. Look for Diary Of A Rug, Part 2....coming soon!

Spooky-licious

My friend Connie and I went to the Ghoultide Gathering in Northville, Michigan this morning and look who we met !!!!

Yes, it's Lori Brechlin from Notforgotten Farm! I could not take a picture of her products but believe me when I say that her booth was exceptionally spooktacular ...*ahem*...spectacular! The shoppers stood literally shoulder to shoulder and crowded the little building shared by other ghoulish vendors. I dare say that by the end of the day, there wouldn't be much left for sale at Lori's table. We had to elbow our way through the crowd to get close and see her creations.

Lori was appropriately dressed in a black velvet dress, striped witchy socks and Puritan style shoes....OK, wait a minute...Lori's legs looked like this.... but those are actually MY legs!!! Connie and I got such a laugh from Lori's quirky fashion sense, that we trotted right over to Target after the show and I picked up the same thing! Yes, I'll admit that I'm a copy-cat but I think this is really wicked-good, don't you? Trick or Treat!

Diary of a Rug --- Part 1

Mary and Lauren left me comments about my last post...that they would be interested in seeing the progress of my Harvest Goode Things rug. I thought it would be fun to post the progress as a diary and include my thoughts and choices of colors and textures. I'll try to explain why I hooked things the way I did and even explain why I changed things later! This diary will be a little sporadic at first, due to my traveling schedule but my goal is to take you through every step of my hooking process!
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My wools for the Sunflowers are pictured below. The tweed on the left is what sparked the whole color plan for my rug. It looked like sunflower seeds to me and I loved the little blue lines that run through the weave. So I was absolutely sure that I wanted to use that for my flower centers. Then I picked some golds. Yes, it's a traditional looking sunflower but that's OK with me. The gold on the bottom was dyed over Dorr Oatmeal and the one in the center was dyed over a neutral texture that looked like little bricks. I liked the texture of the squares and that gold overdye turned out more subtle and drab than the first one. The green plaid on the top was something that I picked out of my private stash and I had used it in my Lion and Lamb rug. I thought it would make terrific stems for the sunflowers and I liked the fact that it had a blue line running through it.....hmm, recurring color spark might be blue....I'm going to look for more textures with a blue "theme" to them. The wool on the right was another scrap of an drab light olive-green overdye that I had used in a previous rug for leaves. I wanted to use that one again for leaves. I often "carry over" wools from previous rugs into my new projects. It's funny, you can almost follow a common "thread" through my previous rugs by looking at what I carried over and used from one rug to the next. I decided that I was going to try to hook most of this rug in an #8.5 cut but use a #8 cut for letters and smaller details if I needed to.

Now here is one of the sunflowers hooked up. I found a tiny scrap of brighter gold/yellow. I only had a few strips! So I used it as an outline around the seed center...gives a little more interest to the flower. The flower petals were hooked using the gold overdyed Dorr Oatmeal. The flowers were smaller so I didn't think they needed an outline. There are four sunflowers in the rug, so I hooked three of them like this one:

The fourth one was hooked a little differently. I used the brick texture for the flower petals, didn't use the bright gold/yellow to outline the seeds, but outlined the flower itself with the gold overdyed Dorr oatmeal. The flowers all look harmonious but one is just a little different. I like the theory of "odd numbers", therefore the "3 and 1" combination (instead of hooking "2 and 2" of the same color combination--too predictable for my eye).

When I was picking out my wools for the sunflowers, I also made the decision that I wanted a light background. This is such a fun and happy rug that I felt a dark background would not be appropriate. I wanted the feeling of light and airy. I actually had a different light texture picked out at first but after I got the flowers hooked into the linen, I decided that the background was just a little too "pinky" and I changed my mind. So much of the color I was using had green tones to them (even the brick-texture looked like a gold which leaned toward green tones). My final choice was a light herringbone that has yellowish green tones. I usually like to blend at least two textures into my background but after looking at how much background there was (not a lot and it's broken up by the house and the flowers), I decided that just using one texture was enough.
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Now a word about my wool: I don't use spot dyes at all. I use all textures, even if they are subtle heathers or overdyed oatmeal, I don't use solid-colored off-the-bolt wool nor do I use swatches nor spot dyes. That's just me. When I look at my very first rugs (and I didn't know WHAT I was doing back then), there are very few spot dyes used. I instinctively reached for textures..plaids, tweeds, herringbones, etc. The love of textures was further enhanced when I took my first class with Barb Carroll. She opened my eyes to the world of texture possibilities and I have never looked back.
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What's On My Frame Right Now?

Sunflowers! Don't you love to see their bright sunny faces growing in a garden?

This is just a part of the pattern Harvest Goode Things, a Spruce Ridge Studios adaptation from Lori Brechlin/Notforgotten Farm's art work. It's available in two sizes but I chose the larger size because I wanted to hook in #8.5 cuts (my favorite size cut right now). The flowers were super-fun to hook and now I'm moving on to hooking the house/roof. I'll post more pictures as the rug progresses. Be sure to check out the other newer patterns such as Love Grows In My Garden, Oh Honey!, and Crow ABC's. They will make you smile!
Yes, the sunflowers are on my frame but my hook has been very lonely this week. I haven't had one extra minute to sit down and work on my hooking. There's just too much going on! I'll be teaching at Star of Texas starting on September 13th and when I get home, I'll be off once again to the ATHA Biennial in Louisville, KY. Please don't miss the opportunity to go to Louisville...it isn't that far away for most of us! The committee has been working very hard to put on a great party and I know there will be wall-to-wall fun everyday. If you can't make it for the whole conference, please come and see the rug show and visit the vendors for a day of shopping. You'll see lots of your friends there! And it only costs $12.00 to see the rug show and vendors. Go to the ATHA website for all the information. Right now I'm drawing up lots of patterns for your fall hooking projects. I'll also be bringing some yummy textured wools, lots of other needfuls for rug hooking, and some hand-carved, must-have pins representing all kinds of autumn motifs from Marlene Dusbiber (you know, all the best dressed hookers wear them)!

Emma is a Cover Girl!

The newest book from Rug Hooking Magazine made its debut at Sauder Village last week. Eager shoppers were able to purchase a copy at the show. For all of the folks who couldn't get to Sauder....alas, you'll have to wait until late September or early October for a copy. Imagine my delight when I saw my rug in the left and middle portion of the cover...yup, that's Emma...and she's is a cover girl!
The name of my pattern and chapter in the book is "Under The Willow" and I hooked the little "Emma" lamb with Corriedale roving and some locks from Emma's first shearing. The opening sentence for my chapter says: "This adorable wall hanging was inspired by my young Wensleydale sheep, Emma, who has been seen chasing birds across her pasture."
Yes, it's true...besides chasing dogs (poor Nokie), Emma likes to chase birds too. That girl is not afraid of anything.

And here's the celebrity girl, all grown up. She's quite a big girl, as you can see. Ken (dear hubby) likes to say that she is the size of a small pony and that's not far from the truth! She's much larger than Lumi and she's a lot stronger too. But Lumi is still the boss of the sheep pen!

Lumi hardly ever baa-ed until Emma came along. Now Emma has taught her that baa-ing brings the hay out to the feeder a lot faster, so Lumi chimes in with a loud voice at feeding time. Thanks a lot, Emma.

When we were at Michigan Fiber Festival last week-end, there were a couple of Wensleydale sheep in the sheep barn. They weren't as lovely looking as Emma. Maybe I'm a little biased...I guess I'm just a proud sheep mama!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I can't believe that the summer is flying by so quickly! Here are some pictures of the Castle Farm Fiber Festival that took place 2 weeks ago:

Here's our booth space...so airy and so much light! The facility was absolutely gorgeous! Lots of windows and a beautiful slate floor. The aisleways were really wide and overall, it was just a lovely show. If you couldn't make it this year, please try to come next year in 2010. You will enjoy this show so much.

Here's the outside courtyard at Castle Farm. They were setting up for a fashion show, thus the tents outside. There were also some demonstrations going on in the courtyard too, but all the vendors are inside and in air conditioning....not that we needed it this year! The temperature outside was perfect.
It is the lazy, hazy, crazy days of ... rughooking around here! I am in the midst of pattern drawing for Sauder Village and Michigan Fiber Festival, both taking place next week. You ought to see all the little scraps of strings and dust from the monks cloth and linen on my floor...then again, I'm glad you can't see it! Quite the mess!
And just to add one more thing to all of the madness, our hay is being delivered in less than 10 minutes. Go to last year's blog post to read all about it...The Hay Wagon Cometh
I'd better run....got to get the hay in the barn before it rains!
Have a great week-end!

Summer Fiber Fun

What's more fun than two boys in a goat cart???
A summer fiber extravaganza, of course!
I'm going to have a booth at the Fiber Arts Festival at Castle Farms in Charlevoix, Michigan this weekend...Saturday July 25th and Sunday July 26th. I'm really looking forward to seeing Castle Farms which was built in 1918 by the acting president of Sears Roebuck and Co. It was originally used as a model farm where livestock was raised and where Sears and Roebuck highlighted their newest farm equipment. Yes, the buildings look like a castle, with stone buildings, arches, and turrets. It has now been renovated to accommodate weddings, festivals, social events, and tours. What a perfect place for a fiber festival!!! Besides rug hooking (that's me), there will be lots of stuff for knitting, spinning, dyeing, felting, etc. There's also demonstrations of sheep shearing, sheep herding, llama obstacle course, a fashion show, and live music. Admission is $5.00. You can go to Castle Farms website to get more information. Charlevoix is a great place to visit, too, so jump in the car and drive up north! Sounds like a great week-end, doesn't it? I hope to see you there, but if I don't, I'll certainly have some pictures to post when I get home.
Have a wonderful wooly fiber week-end!
PS: I forgot to mention that I'll be bringing lots of freshly dyed wool and three brand-spankin'-new rug hooking patterns adapted from Lori Brechlin/Notforgotten Farm.

How Lovely!

I just came back from visiting the Holland, Michigan rug camp...by the way, what a terrific and inspiring place for a rug hooker to spend some time! And even more lovely is Sibyl Osicka posing with her gorgeous bouquet of flowers! These were given by one of her students (actually, you can see her face just above the pink lily!) who grows them in her backyard garden! This was especially impressive to those of us (uh hum...I'm talking about me) who don't have a green thumb. Click on the picture to get a close up of the beautiful variety and colors of the flowers.

Sheep's fleece vs. mohair

I was washing up some fleece the other day and I thought you might like to see the difference between sheep's fleece and mohair. It is so much more apparent when you look at it in person! But I think you can see it here in these photos....

Emma's fleece (Wensleydale sheep) is to the left...and Zion's (Angora goat) is to the right. Zion's fleece has a bit more curl to it...but look at the shiny luster of his fleece! I think it sparkles like a diamond! Even though Emma's fleece is beautifully white, it has more of a matte sheen to it. The mohair fleece is much more slippery than a sheep's fleece and just a little bit trickier to hook with. But if you take your time, the results are wonderful.

You might have noticed that Zion's fleece has little bits of hay and vegetation in it. Yup, that's a goat for you! It may be because the curls are tighter and trap a lot of hay. Or it may be because those goats seem to get into all kinds of stuff! Despite my best attempts to keep them "clean", I have seen them roll in the dust and dirt just days before we have to shear them!

Sweet Home Alabama - Part 3

Happy Friday-Holiday Weekend to you all!
Here's the last group of pictures from my recent workshop in Alabama with The Wool Sisters! There were a couple of gals who had to leave early before pictures were taken and their rugs were equally as wonderful.

Here's Kate (L) and Bobbie (R). They were both hooking Herb Angel, a Notforgotten Farm adaptation by Spruce Ridge Studios. They did a fabulous job on the angels' faces, don't you think?

Ruth copied an old family photograph to design her rug. Just hints of facial features were used, and yet it gave each person their distinct personality. This rug is absolutely spectacular! I can't wait to see it completed. Isn't the old T.V. set cool?

Jeanne learned how to rug hook while she was at the rug camp. She started on a watermelon design and was doing a really great job on her first rug....*applause*applause*!!!

Kandy was working on a REALLY BIG bunny rug. Great job! I love the bunny!

Sandy was working on her own design of a witch's hat, a cat, and a pumpkin. I love the way the hat is turning out. Isn't the cat's face charming? Love that smile!

Sharon was hooking Juggling Pumpkins (this is a Keith Kemmer pattern available through Spruce Ridge Studios). Her cat and pumpkin look great....another wonderful rug!
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A very fun camp and a great group of gals! I hope you are inspired to get out your hook and get working on a rug!!!

Me and Jack

I've just gotten back from visiting my family down in Nashville, Tennessee and Cadiz, Kentucky. I had so much fun and we kept so busy that I hardly took any photos at all! We did lots of sight-seeing, eating out, and shopping!
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The handsome man on the left is my son, Kevin. I'm on the right and the guy in the middle is THE famous Jack Daniels! We all took a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg. I'm not a whiskey drinker but the tour was fabulous and I have a new appreciation for the making of whiskey. And even though it's known as a "Tennessee sipping whiskey", our tour guide "Miss Bettie" told us that she substitutes equal parts of Jack Daniels whiskey for vanilla in all her recipes and you can't tell the difference.

Here are a few photos of the Carter House in Franklin, TN. My son is interested in Civil War stuff so we walked around the grounds of Carter House where the Battle of Franklin took place.

Above is the farm office of the Carter House. There are over 200 bullet holes in the side of the building. Some of them went straight through the building and you can see the exit holes on the other side.

Above is the back wall of the smoke house at the Carter House. Again, so much bullet damage from the battle!

We found this particularly fascinating...if you look up toward the top of the wall, you can see where a cannon ball tore into the house! The hole was patched over it with some wire and you can also see bullet holes on the wall. The Carter family took refuge in the basement of the house while the battle raged outside.
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It was hotter than blue blazes while I was down South....so glad to be back in cool, cloudy Michigan!!!
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I'll post "Part 3 of Sweet Home Alabama" tomorrow!

Sweet Home Alabama-Part Two

As promised, here are a few more pictures of rugs in progress at the 2009 Wool Sisters Camp. Our theme was "It's Fall, Y'all." So you'll notice that there were a lot of Halloween themes as well as fall.

Nancy is working on one of her own designs which included pumpkins, a spider, a ghost, gravestone (of Elvis), a flying monkey, and a really cool witch on a broom. She used gray sheep's fleece for the witch's hair which made the witch look....witchy!!

Sue was hooking Pumpkin Thyme, a Notforgotten Farm adaptation. I love his striped pants! We thought he looked very dapper.

Libby is hooking Oh My!, another Notforgotten Farm adaptation. The photo is a little dark but the cat is wearing a marvelous purple hat.

Kathy designed her own rug which is a tribute to her cat Punkin. Her hooked pumpkin was turning out wonderful and I can't wait to see how her cat turns out.

Ginger is hooking Give Ye Thanks, a Notforgotten Farm adaptation. Her cabin is turning out great, don't you think?

Charlotte is hooking "The Witch Is In" which I believe is a rug that she designed herself. She was using some great embellishments with craft cord such as sparkly shoe laces. If you look closely in the upper left hand corner, you can see her spooky spider...it looks like it has glowing eyes!!! The witch's hat is terrific too.
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We're not done yet!
I still have more photos which I hope to post again very soon!

Happy Father's Day to my dad

Here is my dad who is 82 years young and rides a motorcycle!
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My dad is my inspiration and my kindred spirit. He lives his life creatively and I am like him in so many ways. He taught me how to fish and paddle a canoe. Many summer days were spent camping and exploring. When I was 14, he and my mom pulled all of us kids out of school for 6 weeks so we could go see a total eclipse of the sun in the Mexican wilderness. It was a better education than regular school as we learned about astronomy, visited Mexican (Aztec and Mayan) ruins and pyramids, and learned about and experienced the Mexican culture. I was one lucky kid! No, my parents were not "hippies", they were the most straight-laced folks I ever knew.
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Thanks, Dad, for giving me your creative "genes", your eye to see things a little differently, and the wings to fly as an individual.
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I love you!

Sweet Home Alabama

I was in Odenville, Alabama last week-end with Wendy Miller from The Red Saltbox. We were team-teaching a workshop for the Wool Sisters group from Tennessee (although some of their members come from other states too). OK, the gals warned me that they were a little crazy...well, yes, they were, but they didn't scare me...I just laughed right along with them!!! What amazed me the most is the fact that everyone was so productive during the three days we met. I believe there were no less than 5 rugs completely hooked during our retreat and those who finished began hooking on a second project!!! Yowza!! That's a record for any workshop that I've ever taught at...
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Need I say that the food was exceptional??? All home-cooked Southern style! Yum. I think I ate dessert twice a day. Oh, well, except for the day that we had Banana Pudding. I had several helpings of that. Ask Ginger and she'll tell you it's true.... I can be bribed to do just about anything for a bowl of Banana Pudding. So she made sure that I got my fill.
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Here's some pictures of the participants and their rugs. I thought that today I'd post some of the rugs that got finished at the retreat and show some more pictures tomorrow. Be prepared to be dazzled!

The picture above is Melanie holding her completed rug. As you can tell, this was no small project. Love the border.

Here is Penny with her finished rug. It's a Red Saltbox pattern. I love the colors she used...nice and old looking.

Here's Merry holding her sheep "mug mats". This is a pattern also from The Red Saltbox. Cute!

Here are Carrie (L), Megan (C), and Linda (R). Carrie and Megan's rugs are completed. Megan is holding a portrait of her dog and I believe this is her first hooked rug! Linda is working on a dimensional project (a downward view of a sidewalk) and is experimenting by adding sculpting, needle felting and couching to her rug. Pretty impressive trio of gals, wouldn't you say?

I think these big panties are a real hoot! They were hanging on the wall during our workshop but on the last night, Ginger (L) and her sister Bobbie (R) decided to model them. The saying on the front: "Support Your Local Hookers."
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The next photo may be disturbing to some people.....

I'm not exactly sure what is going on here....but Bobbie's face says it all!
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More photos tomorrow!!!

Thank you!

Emma would like to say "thank you" to all of you who came to the tent sale yesterday!

When the first shoppers showed up, Emma made sure they all felt welcome by greeting them with some sheep chatter.
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It was a beautiful sunny day and we had fun! And those who came found some great treasures to take home.
Thank you to all!!!
(P.S. to Suzanne: the display mannequin is still here if you still "need" it ... )

Tent Sale Sneak Peek!

Here's just a couple of the treasures that will be available at my tent sale this Saturday:

This old rug shows a lot of wear and needs some TLC! However, it's still a great primitive floral design and I think the scroll border is fabulous! I have a couple other tattered old rugs that are waiting for new homes. Maybe they can be "re-purposed" into other things...maybe trimmed and used as a top cover for an old bench?

Look at this cute little display mannequin! It is in excellent condition. The body is covered with black knit and the height is adjustable. This is a wonderful piece to display jewelry or knitwear!

There is so much more! I have been finding lots of treasures every day: books, rug hooking patterns, bolt wool, overdyed fat quarters, pieces of linen and monks cloth, a few punch needle supplies, sewing fabric, yarn, buttons, roving, a treadle sewing machine (it's in good condition and it works too!), and a variety of other vintage collectibles.
The sale starts at 10 am sharp...don't come early or I'll make you wait in your car... *wink*wink*
My studio will be open all day for regular sales too!