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

Another New Rug.....

I started this rug last Sunday for the Cheboygan High School Band Booster fun raiser and finished it by Friday. Five days...now that is some fast hooking as it is 19.5 inches by 19 inches. TheBoosters used it in their silent auction. Well, after I had given the rug to the Band Boosters, I realized that I did not take a picture of the rug. I was hooking, sewing, and steaming so quickly that I forgot the dog gone picture of the rug. Plus I was hoping I could sell the pattern and needed a picture of the rug. So guess who won this rug at the silent auction? Hmmmm.....YES, me! It is called "Little Dog" and really does hook up very quickly! The pattern on linen is $40.00. Maria

Look what Lori did with this pattern!

Lori Rippey hooked this Star Rug Company pattern and isn't it just wonderful. The colors in it are so warm and cozy. Great choice on the colors. I just love the dark lamb...he is oh so wonderful. Thanks for sharing Lori. Send me your pictures of patterns of Star Rug Company as I'd love to post the pictures to my blog. Maria

Sneak Peak of a rug I'm hooking for my local Humane Society

for its annual fund raiser. Hopefully, I'll finish it this weekend and post a picture the entire rug later in the weekend. It is pretty big measuring close to 33 by 22 inches. This rug has all my favorite things in it. A star of course....

A cat and another star.....

A little area of hit or miss hooking......

And another area of hit or miss hooking...........

I think the Humane Society will be selling raffle tickets for the rug so if interested let me know. Plus, I may sell the pattern for the rug on ebay and donate a portion of the proceeds to the Humane Society. Have a great weekend.

New Piece of Furniture in my rug studio

We were out shopping the other day...not looking for anything in particular when I came across this wonderful hutch. It was a steal and I just love it. It is huge and will hold most of my rug hooking supplies for the business. Don't you just love a good bargain? See the chair in the forefront of the picture? It is from Yellow Creek Trading Company, a Johnson Benchworks piece. The fabric on the chair is one of my favorite patterns. My studio is slowly revolving into space where I have all the things I love and enjoy spending time there.

Below is a rug that I hooked years ago. It's available as a pattern if anyone is interested. I found it sorting through some old rug hooking CD's. The geometric nature of this rug appeals to me. When I find time, I'm going to hook this rug again with different colors. Maria

I've been tagged!

Tammy Burks of Skip to My Ewe has tagged me. The idea is for me to tell you 5 unusual things about me that you may not know. Hmmm, now why would I want to do that? You all might think I'm a little strange after I reveal my secrets....But what the heck, I'm game.

1. Ok speaking of game, the first unusual thing about me is that I would rather watch a hockey game or a golf match on TV than a good movie. I'm a sports junkie!
2. As for movies, I haven't been to a movie theatre in about 12 years. Refer to #1.
3. I have a terrible singing voice...just ask some of my friends (Right Shelly and Mickey?)
4. One of my favorite vegetables is beets! Can you believe it?
5. I've lost a tooth playing hockey.

Getting back to rug hooking, here are a couple more rugs that Marcia hooked.

Aren't these rugs great? I love her pictorial style and how all her rugs tell a story. Maria

Wonderful Rugs hooked by Marcia Barton

who is my mother in law. About 12 years ago, I taught her to hook and as you can see, she could definitely teach me a thing or two about hooking. Her rugs are amazing when you think that she hooks most of them with an eight cut. Can you believe that she is able to get all that detail with a wider cut? As you can see, she is very artistic and has won several awards for painting. Below is a rug of Dave's house when he was a little kid. She hooked this rug from a photograph of the house. I just love how she was able to make the snowman stands out from the snow on the ground. The trees in this rug and the next rug are awesome as well. If you look at the rug, it only has about 5 different colors in it, blue, gray, beige, dirty white and some red. How she made it so warm and full of life with only those colors is amazing!

The next rug is dear to my heart as it depicts one of my favorite things to do.....skating.....well playing hockey while I'm skating....Isn't this rug great as well? This one is a bit more colorful and just fun. The ice looks real and the snow on the roof in the house in the background is terrific.

And finally, this is a rug that she hooked for Dave and me. It is a rug of our two dogs that are no longer with us. Bear was my wonderful black lab and Dolly was Dave's sweet little English Setter. They were with us for a long time and this sweet little rug depicts them perfectly and is very special.

I found a picture of a rug that I hooked several years ago for my sister-in-law, Lynne. It is a rug depicting her Jack Russell Terrier, Nick. The green background was something a little different for me but I liked the way it turned out. Enjoy the pictures. Maria

~*~Happy Easter~*~

I hope you had an enjoyable day celebrating Easter. It snowed here all day. Yesterday was the local Easter Egg hunt. They snowplowed a soccer field and scattered all the eggs over the grass. Look at all those little kids bundled in winter coats, boots, hats, mittens and snow pants. They all enjoyed themselves and sure didn't mind the cold! I couldn't resist taking a picture of the snow, grass and kids. Not the normal scene for an Easter Egg hunt.

While looking for some rug tags today, I came across a rug that I wanted to share with you. I hooked it in 2005 to use as my logo for my business. It is a huge rug, 48 x 56 inches, and weighs a ton. If you can't tell yet, sheep are one of my favorite subjects to hook. I'm working on yet another sheep rug and I just love it. It will be a while before I finish it though.
In the next couple of posts, I'll share some rugs with you that my mother-in-law hooked. About 10 years ago, I taught her to hook and because she is an artist, her rugs have a neat pictorial and impressionistic look to them. They are really neat and I can't wait for you to see them.

Maria

~*A New Pattern*~ Lazy Cat

Well I just couldn't resist another pattern based upon the "Lazy Animal" theme. So here it is- the Lazy Cat.

It is 16 x 24 inches and available on Linen for $48. Email me at starrugcompany@freeway.net to order. Happy Easter. Maria

Here are some pictures of another completed rug

Several posts ago, I promised to work on my unfinished projects and hoped to get one done each week. I have fallen a little short of that goal but did manage to complete another one this weekend. With this rug, I have completed four rugs with many more to come. This is probably one of my favorite rugs. The background is wonderful. I used only wools from my scrap basket and tried to keep the colors similar in color value by using what I call neutrals and light colors. You'll see blue, grey, beige, cream, pink, yellow, and green wools in the background if you look closely. It is very colorful but blends beautifully. The background reminds me of one of Kelley Belfast's backgrounds. I've posted many pictures of the background so you can see all the different colors of wool used in it.
This pattern is one of Sally Kallin's from Pine Island Primitives. It was a free pattern insert in Rug Hooking Magazine several years ago. I'm partial to this pattern as my nickname at work is Eagle. Maria

Picture in Rug Hooking Magazine

on page 50 of the March/April/May 2008 edition shows a picture of the sisters rugs that Wendy Miller, The Red Saltbox, and I hooked for our sister rugs at Sauder Village last summer.

http://www.rughookingmagazine.com/issues/article.php?id=2685

Here is the link for Sauder Village which hosts great classes and a wonderful rug show each August. www.saudervillage.org/Creativity/Rughooking.asp

For the rug show at Sauder last August, participants partnered up with another rug hooker (friend or sister) and hooked the same design. Alot of hookers participated and it was neat to see two rugs side by side hooked with different color palette. Here is my picture of the sister rug.

It is one of Wendy's designs, Deer Fraktur, from her antique inspired pattern line. Visit her at http://www.theredsaltbox.com/ Her patterns are just wonderful.

Ok, I have to give equal billing to my two kitty cats. Meet Iggy.

He is such a handsome cat and perfectly marked. And here is my sweet Maggie named after my favorite rug hooker Magdalena Briner.

She is the sweetest little kittie! Maria

Sweet Offering on Ebay

My friend Lori Rippey has the most wonderful little hand made bunny on ebay right now. It is sitting upon a fabric covered paper mache box. Inside the box, she has attached the sweetest little sampler. Her work is just amazing. Her is the link to this listing. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190203852120&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Remember I was mentioning in the last post, that it was warm and hoping Spring was on its way.

Boy was I wrong. You can't see it but it is snowing again in this picture. This is the view from my family room. To tell you the truth, I don't really mind winter all that much because this veiw is pretty awesome.

I couldn't resist showing you this picture of my puppy, well almost a year old, Josie. Isn't she sweet? Well, sometimes...she is a chewer and loves to eat my wool. The rug she is sitting on is a reproduction of an antique rug. I bought it at my sister-in-laws store Yellow Creek Trading Company in Peninsula, Ohio. http://63.84.59.169/page.aspx?ID=67. In addition to home furnishings, they sell the best food items. The spicy corn relish is a must! Maria

Just found another rug

that I had hooked a while ago and tucked away in my studio. Geeshhh...I need to stop doing that. Hopefully, I'll get it loaded on my website later tonight. I had a hard time getting a good picture of it color wise due to the lateness in the day. This rug is similar in design to my Ohio Farmhouse rug but has different trees...which I like. It is 16.5" by 28" and the pattern sells for $50 plus shipping.

It was warmer here today, in the low 40's, but still good weather for winter sports. Dave went snowmobiling for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We'll have snow on the ground til mid April maybe later...boo hoo. I envy all of you that will have daffodils, hyacinth and tulips soon. Here's another one of my little hooked mats that makes me smile and think of spring.

Last night Dave and I went to a charity fund raiser for our local Fireman's association. It reminded me that our firemen are brave men and women that put their lives in danger each and every day for our safety. Please remember what our firemen do for us and keep them in your thoughts. Maria

Lazy Sheep Rug

Doris Danner hooked my Lazy Sheep pattern and sent me a picture of it. Didn't she do a great job? I just love how old this rug looks. She sells rugs on ebay under the name Wellingtonwoolies. I think she is keeping this rug though. Maria

Thinking out of the box....

What can we as rug hookers do to help others? In addition to the rug pattern business, I work in a prosecutor’s office in a local county building. Sadly, one of the gals in another office was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It is customary in our building to have monthly or bi-monthly, "Take a Break" lunches. All the offices take turns and make lunch for everyone in the county building. People donate to eat lunch. The lunches support different causes like Christmas gifts for underprivileged or American Cancer Society. On Wednesday, our office with along with other people in the building had a fund raiser for this gal and in addition to the luncheon, we had a silent auction. Our office asked people to donate gently used items for the silent auction. I had donated a few items and really wanted to donate a rug but only received two days notice and did not have any ready that I could donate. So wanting to do something rug hooking related, I came up with another idea. I displayed a couple of rugs at the auction as examples (this sunflower rug was one of them)and auctioned rug hooking classes including pattern, wool, hook and instruction for 4 people. The auction was a success and 5 people are going to take the class. The 5 gals paid between $30 to $35 a piece to take the class and it generated close to $200. Collectively, the building raised over $2000.00 for this gal and her family in just three hours. Isn't that just the coolest thing!


We can all make a difference in small ways. If asked to donate a rug to a charity and I’m given notice, I’ll try to tailor a rug to the audience. People love to bid on rugs because they are a little different than what is normally in a charitable auction. I know that many of you do the same as I have read about it in rug hooking boards, blogs and magazines. But remember in addition to the rug, you can also donate your knowledge and talent to teach others to hook rugs as well.


Because it is still cold and wintry here in Northern Michigan, I'll post another spring rug to remind me that warmer days are just around the corner. This is a rug that I hooked last year which I sold on Ebay. Maria

Upcoming Auctions

Isn't this banner just great? I just had to share it with you. Shelly Auen, a member of Blestb designed this banner for Blestb. I'm busily hooking up some new items just so I can use this banner. What is Blestb? Blestb is a group of artisans who strive to produce items that have an early time worn look. By typing in BlestB into the search engine of Ebay, you can find stitcherys, quilts, hooked rugs, paper cuttings, needle punch, candles and handmade wood items from this talented group of artisans.

As you know Spring is on my mind, so here is another rug that reminds me that it really is right around the corner despite this bitter cold.

I've also been working on another unfinished project from my studio. If all goes well, I'll have it done by the end of the weekend and share it with you. The pattern is from a free insert in the rug hooking magazine from a couple of years ago. It is Sally Kallin's pattern of an eagle. The finished rug will go in my office at work as the name my co-workers call me is Eagle.

Maria

I came across another rug that I hooked and sold years ago but thought you would enjoy seeing it. It is another one of my spring rugs. This morning when I was digging through my basement looking for some gently used items for a silent auction, I found the first rug I ever hooked. Boy, have I improved. Do you have the first rug you ever hooked? I’m so glad that I didn’t sell it or give it away. It is priceless as it reminds me of where I started and how I’ve evolved. I’m going to hang it in my studio. Do I dare show you a picture of it? No laughing! I can't remember whose design this is but I do love that funky rooster!

Woo Hoo! I listed a rug on ebay tonight (it only took me two hours to figure out how to use the template!) using my new template....I just love it! It has two sheep on it with the knit hats...How cute is that? The rug is a design out of Lori Brechlin’s books called a "Garden Remembered". It has such neat designs. I've been wanting to hook this one for quite some time. Here is a picture of the rug.

Here is the link to my ebay auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110228296544&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Thanks, Maria

~*~New Spring Patterns~*~

The sun is shining here today and gets me in the mood for Spring and all the wonderful treasures Springs brings. Hyacinth, Tulips, photo by Ian Britton, Freefoto.com


Daffodils
photo by Ian Britton, freefoto.com

Chicks, Bunnies and Lambs just to name a few.
photo by Ian Britton, freefoto.com
Oh, I can almost smell Spring in the air. Not really....we still have a ton of snow on the ground but a girl can dream!
Because I've got Spring on my mind, I'm offering two new "Springy" patterns. The first one I previewed a few posts ago, Chicks and Daisies.

It is 9 x 20 and sells for $28.00.

The second pattern is called "Chick Parade"
and is one of my whimsical primitive designs which is fun to hook. It is 15 x 20 and sells for $40.00. Since I'm in the spring mood, for all of you who order one of these patterns by Tuesday, February 26, 2008, I'll give you $5.00 off of each pattern. Have a great weekend. Maria