Before and After

Here is a before picture of the sweet little table that I found while thrift shopping last weekend.

I just loved the lines of the table. What I didn't like about it was the melamine finish on the table so....... I bought some of Krylon's Fusion plastic spray paint and went to town...
..
It took two cans and I like the finished product. The table would look perfect in a cottage/lake type house.
I've also been having fun with hooking rugs for the upcoming Ghoultide Gathering show in October. The show has made me come up with new rug designs and create new ways to display the rugs. I'll post some pictures of a few of them when they are completed....here is a little sneak peak of one I'm working on.....

Can you tell purple is my new favorite color? Maria



Maria

Metal Sculptures

Whenever we go to Manitoulin Island, we pass through this little town on Highway 17 called Massey. There is a metal artist in Massey that does the most amazing things with metal. He use scrap metal and if I remember correctly uses old propane tanks for his sculptures. His sculptures grace the open spaces in the center of town. Check out this horse. It is life size. Can you believe the mane on the horse?
His work is so wonderful. Several years ago, he had two rabbits, March Hares, they were probably 5 feet tall and would have been amazing in a garden. Here is a picture of two more horses and a life size moose.



Don't you just love these wonderful works of art?

As promised, here are a couple of rugs I've been working on for an upcoming folk art show in October.



Thanks for stopping by, Maria

I have many things to share with you since my last post. I'll start with the finished picture of my Tyler Flower Basket rug and pattern. I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

One of the gals in Tyler was working on this pattern in nice soft muted colors of red, yellow, blue, purple and white. Below is a picture of it in progress.



Hopefully, she send me a picture of it when it is done.

Next up are a few pictures of rugs from the camp in Alabama. I only have a few photos. The first one is Elaine's foot stool. Elaine is such a dear person and incrediblely talented. It is a Kim Nixon pattern and hooked to perfection. Elaine finished the hooking portion of the stool at camp and put it together at home. The colors in the rug are wonderful colors of teal, lavender, purple, peaches, blues and creams. Sorry about the size of the photo...Elaine sent me a photo and I scanned it and this is the only size I can produce. Obviously, this picture does not do this rug justice. It is so much better in person!

Next up is my triangle sheep pattern that Jamie hooked. The colors in the triangles of this rug are fabulous. And the dark sheep, is simply divine. She inverted one of the triangles in the rug and I just love that about this rug. Jamie is a sweetie and a hooking machine. She was also working on two other rugs that were awesome as well. She is also a fabulous knitter and had the most incredible long shawl at camp. I just about bought it but changed my mind at the last minute. I wish I had a picture of it to show you as it was awesome.
The next picture is of Penny's fun rug. When I met her, she told me that lime green was a nuetral for her. Ok......well when we started pulling her wool for the rug, we picked hot pink and vibrant orange and neon purple and the colors were worked well together. When the time came for the background color, a color that had to be muted to go with the brighter colors....what color do you think I chose? I chose a wool that I always use when I néed a little spark in my rugs. That color was lime green! I nearly died when I chose it as Penny's first comment to me was " Lime Green is a nuetral for me"! I love this rug! The colors are fantastic and it taught me a ton about color. Penny is one of the funniest gals I've met in a long time. She had me in tears most of the time!
That's it for now....I've been working on some new Halloween rugs, that I'll share in future posts. Maria

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! Enjoy your day, Love ya
One more picture of my parents with my nephew at graduation. Aren't they a handsome couple. (I'm secretly getting my mom back with these photos as she needles me about not posting more often!) Gotcha again mom!

Love this picture of my nephew as he is reading his diploma.

Rug photos will be forth coming in a day or two. Maria

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday mom, I hope you enjoy your day!Love you!,
This picture was taken in Charlevoix, MI overlooking Lake Charlevoix. We were at a local arts festival in the center of town.

Here is a Sneak Peak of a rug I'm working on for Tyler

I'll be teaching in Tyler, Texas at Star of Texas rug camp and am in the process of hooking a large flower rug, Tyler Flower Basket. Flowers are not something I hook very often, so I thought I would expand my horizons with this rug. It is going to be a large rug.....30 x 30. I'm not yet finished but here is a little snippet for you to see.


The next picture is my new lion pattern. Yes, I was playing again with new techniques. I love the mane on this guy. It looks like proddy but I did it with my hook. I also did the wrapped wool technique for his eyes and beaded around the outside. I think I'll make this into a pillow.



I was playing in photobucket and came up with this picture. I'd like to hook a rug like this some day.



Please stop back as I have some other rugs to show you from my class in Alabama and a cool butterfly rug that my friend Holly hooked. Maria

I call this new design "Tumblin Down"

Between drawing patterns, dyeing wool (well sort of....more in another post about that), I found some free time to finish this pattern, Tumblin Down. Don't the pumpkins look like they might lose it and bite the dust? I used several fun techniques in this rug as well. On the bottom pumpkin, for the mouth, I used a stitch I call herringbone. And of course, I used the rolled wool, for the eyes in the top pumpkin. For the mouths of the blue and mustard pumpkin, I used the beading technique. This rug was just fun to hook. I'll debut this pattern at the Tyler camp as well.

I also wanted to share a finished rug from one of my students, Sharon, at the Wool Sisters camp in Alabama.

This is my Old Thyme House pattern. Didn't she do a great job with this rug? I just love the way she made all the birds a different color. Great job Sharon! I have a few more finished rugs from that camp to share with you as well as tales from my dyeing escapades so check back in the next couple of days. Maria