Charlie Brown snowman

If you are looking for a quick little pattern to hook as a Christmas gift than this little guy is for you. It took me about 3 hours to hook this little snowman. It is small, 7 x 13, and that is why it hooks up so quickly. I'm offering it for sale for $20.00 which includes first class mail.

Speaking of small, when I was at Barb Carroll's earlier in the month, Miss Alice saw me hooking a small rug using my quilting hoop. For years I used a hoop to hook all my rugs and she just laughed at me because the rug I was hooking barely fit into the the hoop. I was using my larger frame for the olde duck pattern and didn't want to pull my rug off to work on this smaller pattern at night. Anyways, Alice was kind enough to mention that she and Sonny sell a smaller frame that would be perfect for small rugs like this. I have the larger frame and love it so I knew the small one would work well too. And let me tell you I love that little frame also. It is perfect for those little pieces of linen that you don't want to waste but don't want to take time to sew fabric around the backing just to make it fit frame. So this little frame is a dream. I highly recommend it. For those of you that needle punch, this frame would work great for that as well. Here is the link to Alice's website where you can see this frame as well as the larger one. http://folkartprimitives-alice.com/products
Oh and I must confess, while on my way to Barb Carroll's retreat with the girls.....I stopped at Aults, http://aults.com/hooks.html , in Shelby and bought several,ahem.... let's just say several, of his Aultimatic pencil hooks....I just love them. I'm afraid Larry is going to stop making them so I keep buying them whenever I find them...and yes I bought another one at Barb's as she was selling them as well. What? A girl can never have too many hooking supplies!

Another Sweet Design by the child

I asked her to design a dog rug for my neice's baby shower and this is the sweet design.


Isn't darling? The design had small Dots all over it which would have been impossible to do so I improvised a little. I laid the rug on the floor to get a better look at it and my pup came and sat on it. Funny how the animals always do that! So is there any doubt where she got the inspiration for this design? Just look
at that big head and ears.
Remember the spots?

Here is the book that has inspired these new patterns. This book is so great. The pictures in it are wonderful and plentiful. The background in Susie's rugs are terrific. All you rug hookers out there should put this on your wish list. You won't be disappointed.
And for those of you that asked about Bedhead pattern, it is 13 x 10 and sells for $22 plus shipping. Enjoy the rest of the weekend. Maria

Look what a 6 year old designed!

My little one is so curious about my rug hooking and the business end of it. She also loves to draw. After reading the Susie Stephenson book "Designing and Hooking Primitive Rugs", I told her to draw me some things to hook. Here is first design. Don't you just love the whimsy of a child. We have named him "Bedhead". It will be available for purchase as a pattern. To teach her about business, I told my little entrepreneur I would give her a percentage of each pattern sold. To which she replied, ah mom, what about something for designing the pattern. She'll do just fine in the business world!

Here is a picture that she drew in art class. Isn't it fun? Love the magenta hair.

Another wonderful finished rug from Star of Texas

Linda Gartner sent me this picture of her completed rug from the Star of Texas Rug Camp. Isn't it wonderful? Her background is simply divine. The background was easy to do once she figured out what her base color was going to be (olive/gray color). After that, we chose five to six additional colors to hook with the background. She did a great job on this rug. Thanks for sharing the picture Linda!
Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at designing a cross stitch pattern for my sil for Christmas. Wish me luck! Maria

Back from Camp

What a wonderful time I had at Barbara Carroll's camp at her home in Ligonier. The wool, the rugs, the antiques, the wool, the company, the wool, Barbara Carroll and .....Did I say wool! Oh, I had a grand time and will post pictures as soon as I can get them uploaded. For now, I'll leave you with a few photos of rugs I completed before I left for camp. The first rug is Winter Angel and the next Ho Ho Sheep. Sorry about the quality of photos as they were taken with my blackberry.
Winter Angel

Ho Ho Sheep

Finished a couple of Halloween rugs

As promised, I wanted to show you these two rugs I finished. The first one is called Boo Boo sheep. Don't you just love the sheep with the witches hats. They make me smile. The pattern is available for $30.00 (16 x 11)

I tried to get a good picture of this rug but I just couldn't. The white in the pumpkin face shows up as bright, bright, bright and it isn't that way in person. This is a sweet little rug that hooks up quickly. I used beading as a border around the rug. Love the way it looks. This pattern is available as well for $38.00 (21 x 15)

Have a great weekend. Maria

The last batch of pictures from Star of Texas Rug Camp

New patterns will be coming in a week or so. I just finished one tonight that tickles my fancy. A couple of whimsical Halloween patterns and one new winter themed rug. In the meantime, I'll finish showing the last of the rugs from camp.
The first picture is rug adapted from a postcard. Mary Jo did a wonderful job hooking this Jack Russell terrier. The dog seems so alive and looks like he could walk right off the canvas.

The next rug is by Shirley. Didn't she do a terrific job with the colors in this
rug. The clothes on the snow family are great.I can't wait to see this rug when it is finished.

Terri from Nebraska worked on the Pearl, Laverne and Mae pattern and her roosters are
to die for. The wool colors are so rich and warm. You can't see it in the picture but for the circles on the middle rooster, she coiled the wool and it looks fabulous. People kept oohing an ahhing about how neat it looked. Keep hooking Terri!

Next up is Kristi and I love what she is doing with this pattern. The
rug looks so much better in person. Very dark and primitive. I just
love it.

Here is a picture of a finished rug by Kristi. You can see her wonderful sense of color in this rug.

Connie was hooking a Magdalina Briner style rug and doing a great job on
it. Hooking a rug in this "hit or miss" fashion can be somewhat daunting
but she did great with it.

Karen was hooking a pattern called nesting and was very open to hooking
outside her box. Throughout the nest, Karen pulled up wool at different
heights to give the nest dimension. She also pulled the loops of the rooster tails very high to give the tail depth and mixed in some wool yarn just for fun. This rug is going to be terrific when done.

Connie was hooking an Edyth ONeal pattern and it was coming along well.
She used a lot of Paisley in this rug and it made it look so special.
Connie is one of the fastest hookers ever and did a great job with this
pattern.

Last but not least is Sue's rug which I love. She did a fabulous job
with this pattern incorporating many different techniques such as
beading and coiled or rolled wool for flowers. She is making this rug into a
pillow. Go Buckeyes! (inside joke)


Thanks to all my students. It sure was a great experience and
I encourage you to attend this camp if you ever get the opportunity.
Cythnia and Katie do such an incredible job hosting this camp.

While looking through some pictures, I found a few from Sauder that I thought I'd share. Both are new patterns from Wendy Miller, The Red Saltbox. Aren't they wonderful? Til next time, Maria