I'm Back!

After several months of "no Posts", I'm finally back in the swing of things and hope to be posting more regularly. I've recently started hooking again and hooked up this little blue bird the other night using all scraps of wool. You wouldn't have believed the huge pile of worms I had accumulated over the years. So I sorted them into color groups and decided to hook a rug using only scraps. I could probably hook 10 more of these little mats. I am offering this pattern for sale if any of you are interested. It is 9.5 x 14 and sells for $22.00.

And I also punched this sweet little Sheep Guy over Christmas break. Sometimes, I'll punch one of my rug designs before I hook it. That way I can color plan my rug before I hook it. I can't wait to hook this one up for you. Maybe over the next couple of weeks.

I'm trying very hard to hook rugs with different colors (rather than my dark background that I always use) and I have a doozy on the frame right now. I can't wait for you to see it. It should be ready in a week or so. Maria

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I've begun to hook again and this is the rug that I just completed last night. I had a hard time deciding what colors to use for the snow people and decided to go with red and green and these colors worked well in the border as well. It was a fun rug to hook and hooked up pretty quickly. I started it about a week ago and finished last night. It is available as a pattern on linen (16 inches by 20 inches) for $42.00.


Hopefully in the next couple of days, I will finish up another rug, well it is a needle punch, that I will have available as a pattern. It is a sheep...just about my favorite thing to hook. It is pretty whimsical and not my typical sheep pattern. Although I punched it, it will be available as a rug pattern. Many times I'll punch a pattern as it is easier for me to color plan the rug by punching it. Plus I punched it during Thanksgiving holiday when we were traveling and it was easier to haul my punching supplies than my rug hooking supplies. Take Care, Maria

Meet the real Mister Iggy

Isn't he a great looking cat? Yes, he is the inspiration for my free rug hooking pattern in latest Rug Hooking Magazine. If you haven't seen a copy of Rug Hooking Magazine, you might want to buy one. Not only is there a free pattern of one of my whacky and whimsical Halloween patterns, there are some great articles as well. Wendy Miller of the Red Salt Box wrote about gravestone rugs and it is an informative article. Also there is an article about copyright infringement...again an informative article.

For your viewing pleasure, here is another one of my Halloween hooked rugs. This one is called Tilda and is available as a pattern for $28. Have a great week. Maria

With the nights getting cool.....

it won't be long before fall will be here, which is my favorite time of year. I just love all the fall colors from the wonderful colored pumpkins and gourds, to the deep rich color of bittersweet, and how about the awesome colors of the leaves on the trees. Using just the fall color palette for inspiration, you can create awesome rugs. While the colors of fall are awesome, it is the motifs from fall that I use most for my inspiration in Fall/Halloween themed rugs. In the next couple of posts, I'll show you some of my favorite Fall/Halloween rugs. This is one of my favorite rugs, Halloween Stroll. I designed this last fall. It is available on linen for $35 for 14 x 14 size and $45 for 20 x 20 size pattern.

A year ago, members of PRHG each designed a paper pattern for a fall/autumn book of patterns for use of the members of PRHG. Julie, Ebay seller, plumruncreek, hooked this rug that I designed. Isn't her rug just awesome? It is currently for sale on Ebay. If you click on this link it should take you there. It is so wonderful.....I may just have to bid on it myself. http://cgi.ebay.com/BLESTB-Primitive-Pumpkin-Folk-Art-Hooked-Rug-PRHG_W0QQitemZ300253095157QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300253095157&_trkparms=72%3A552%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14#ebayphotohosting

Another Lazy Sheep

I received a few pictures from Renne Housel from Illinois. She used real wool from a Lincoln sheep in Oregon for the lazy sheep. How cool is that? She picked Lincoln wool because it is so curly. Isn't it just wonderful. I also love the way she outlined all the motifs in a dark colored wool.

Just look at the wonderful curly wool!

Three months since my last post

Sorry about that folks...I really haven't been hooking that much lately though. Hopefully, in the next few months I'll start hooking and desiging again. For now, I'll post a finished picture of a rug that I was hooking for our local Humane Society. It's a fun rug with wonderful designs and motifs. Of course, I hooked it in my "Maria" colors....dark background and primitive colors. I say that because, the other day as I was preparing to send some patterns and rugs to Sauder Village for the rug show, I noticed many of my rugs have the same color palette. So now I have a new challenge for myself....break out of my "Color Palette" and try some new colors..... Maria

A month has passed.....

Time flies when you are having fun. I wanted to share with you these two neat pieces that Lori Rippey made. The first one is a wonderful handmade quilt that she made for me. Isn't it awesome? She knows I love stars and baskets and incorporated both into the quilt. The colors are terrific.

The next piece is a hooked rug that she made for her SIL using the challenge pattern I designed for PRHG last fall. I love what Lori did with the design and colors. The blue sky is heavenly. Maria