Trick Or Treat....

Smell My Feet!!!

Goats Wearing Sweatshirts

Is your fall as crummy as it has been in Michigan? It has been so rainy/cloudy/cold for most of the month. That kind of weather is really hard on the fiber farmers...when can we ever get our shearing done before the snowflakes fly? I've been waiting for a good day to roll around, and finally yesterday we decided it was "now or never"....so we sheared the four youngest goats and left the three older ones wearing their mohair until next spring. If there is one thing that I absolutely hate, it is a shivering goat! I HATE IT! I feel so sorry to see them quiver. So I get old sweatshirts, cut off the arms and make a slit in the neck, and dress up my goats to keep them warm! Sometimes we go to garage sales or Salvation Army, and sometimes a generous friend will donate a couple of old sweatshirts for our cause. They are all appreciated and get good use!
~~~
In my travels somewhere over the past few months, someone said to me that they would love to see a picture of a goat wearing a sweatshirt. I'm sorry that I can't remember who it was. So here is a picture for all of you to see...and I hope the person who asked to see it will be looking too....

They will wear their shirts for a couple of weeks until their hair grows out to about 1/2 inch or so in length, then we cut the shirts off of them. Believe it or not, they actually like wearing their shirts!
Now if we could get some fairly decent dry weather in November....my barns are in serious need to be cleaned out! Is that too much to ask for?

Diary of a Rug --- Part 3

I wanted to talk more about hooking letters....
~~~
When I first started hooking, I listened to a lot of people who said letters were hard to hook and they didn't like doing it. I got a pre-conceived notion in my head that I wasn't going to like letters either. I used to feel weak in the knees just thinking about it! Then one day, I just sat down and decided I was going to tackle it....and I found out that letters ARE NOT hard to hook! I actually like hooking them!
~~~
I really like Wendy Miller's philosophy about hooking letters. Letters are just straight lines, just like stems or one-line borders. You can hook a flower stem, can't you? Then you can hook letters! Just hook straight on the lines and don't think of them as letters.

As I said in my previous post, I used #8 strips to hook my letters which gave them more clarity and crispness. I hooked right on the line that was drawn. First I hooked the longer lines of the letter, then I went back and hooked any lines that intersected, for example, look at the "t". Don't cross under the longer lines with your strip...start and stop your strip on either side of the long line. Then I hooked a row of my background around all of this to hold the shape. Sometimes I crowd things a little and hook real close to the letter to help define its shape. This is definitely one time when it's OK to crowd your loops if you need to. Look at the "H" in the picture...its left "leg" is wider than the rest of the letter. While all the other lettering was hooked in a #8, I'm going to hook this wider part with a #9 strip to make it fatter. I could have hooked it with 2 #8 strips but I think that might have made it TOO fat, so that's why I opted for a #9.
You may notice that as I was hooking around my letters, I was getting pretty close to the wavy outside border. I needed to get a line or two of that wavy border hooked in so I could safely continue around my letters.

Here's a great plaid for the wavy outside border. I like it because it is going to bring a lot of the tones that I am using in the main part of the design, out to the border. This will be very pleasing to the eye...sort of helps your eyes "walk" around the rug and ties things all together in a harmonious way. I have hooked two rows of it, as shown in the picture below (it looks dark in the photo, but trust me, it works well and I like it).

So here you have it! The lettering is completed and I didn't even break a sweat! It looks like a lot of brown values going on here but I am going to start working on the house. Once I get some red wool in there, things will start to change dramatically.

Diary of a Rug --- Part 2

The last time I talked about my Harvest Goode Things project, I discussed color and wool choices for the flowers, leaves, and stems. I also hooked a little of the background wool around the flowers. This holds their shapes and also gives me a general idea of how the background color is going to relate to the other colors I have chosen. So far, I liked the way everything was coming together so I was ready to proceed on to another area of the rug.

I decided that I wanted to hook the house next. I'm going to start with the roof, and therefore the lettering on the roof has to be hooked first and then the roof colors will be hooked in around the letters. Several decisions had to be made...first of all, I wanted a dark brown roof and a red house. I had a great red plaid for the house and found the perfect brown windowpane plaid at Sauder Village. The plaid has some colored threads running through it, one of the threads is blue...cool...it fits right into my "blue theme"! The brown plaid acts like a chameleon wool...in some light it looks brown and in other light, it has a green tint to it. I liked the fact that it wasn't your typical chocolate brown. After deciding on the brown roof, I needed to pick out a color for the lettering. Since I have a "blue" theme running through some of my wools, I decided that I'd like blue lettering. I don't want these letters to jump out too much so I was looking for a subtle blue. I have to be careful of value, as well. I don't want the blue lettering to fade away into the brown roof.

At first, I picked this Blueberry plaid. I've used it before and it hooks up to look like denim. I thought the color would work nicely on my brown roof. I want the letters to look nice and crisp so I cut the wool in a #8. I thought #8.5 would be a little bit too chunky.
~~~
After I got the first letter hooked in, I worked some of my brown roof wool around the letter to hold its shape. Guess what? I found out that the Blueberry plaid looked too bright up against the brown! I wanted something that was not going to "sing" too loudly...so it was back to my wool stash to look for something different.....

Here's a plaid with a completely different color scheme. It does have some blue, but also some olive green and a bit of orange. I began to think that I might be able to play with the plaid by cutting it and then separating the colors. Hopefully this one isn't going to "sink" into my brown roof.

I posted this picture so you could see the brown roof wool and the colors for the letters.On the right is the Blueberry Plaid and on the left is my second choice, the blue and olive plaid. It's pretty evident by this picture that the Blueberry Plaid is just too bright and stands out a little too much!

Here's my lettering with the blue and olive plaid. I played with separating the colors in the plaid, hooking a few of the letters with the olive, but made most of them with the blue part of the plaid. I like the way this looks...the letters stand out but seem a little faded. I did hook the letters in a #8 and then hooked around them with the brown, also cut in a #8. Then I ended up hooking the whole roof in a #8 cut...I'm not sure why I did that, I guess I just kept grabbing the #8 strips and filled it in. In hindsight, I think I would have just outlined the letters in a #8, and then filled in a #8.5. Too late now, I'm not going to pull out what I've done. You can certainly mix all kinds of cuts in your rugs and it won't make any difference. I'm just not going to worry about it.

I will sit down tonight and hook some of the letters in the sky with blue/olive plaid. I'll make sure to hook some background around each letter. Again, this will hold the letters in place and I can double check to see that I like the way the background and the olive/blue plaid are relating to each other. Then I will focus my attention on hooking the house itself. As you could see in the previous picture, I did hook the chimney and I like the way that looks, so I'll continue with the red plaid. I want to hook directionally, straight across the house with the red plaid. In order to make my straight hooking a little easier, I used my background wool to outline around the house. When you do this, you have to hook outside the line of the house. Then you have a "holding" line, a starting and ending point for your ends.
~~~
Now there are some other decisions to be made....what color shall I use for the windows? The door? The dividing line at the corner of the house? You'll just have to wait for the next "Diary of a Rug" chapter!

Let's Talk Turkey!

Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I looked out the window and saw this (click on the picture to get a closer look):

We have seen this flock of turkeys lurking around our yard over the past week or so, but they have never gotten this close to the house. I was thinking of getting some cracked corn to feed them but Ken doesn't want to encourage them. Note the light colored one in the upper right hand corner...we don't know much about turkeys, does anyone know what's up with the color variance?

Our weather has been chilly and damp, just like November should be. Must be Turkey Time! Or maybe we're just going "cold turkey" here in Michigan. *tee hee*

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.

~~~
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.
~~~
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!
~~~
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???
~~~
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!
~~~
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!
~~~
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.
~~~
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.
~~~

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!
~~~~
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!
~~~
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.
~~~
It was hotter than blue blazes while I was down South....so glad to be back in cool, cloudy Michigan!!!
~~~
I'll post "Part 3 of Sweet Home Alabama" tomorrow!