For all you dog lovers out there.....

Have you seen this dog on the youtube video?

Here is the video if you want to watch it.   VIDEO.   In our household, we watch it about once a week and it always makes us laugh. I guess we are easily entertained! You can skip over the advertisement and go straight to the video.  Enjoy, Maria

Garden Rabbit revealed....

Being around creative people always inspires me and this last camp was no exception.

When I returned home, I designed three new rugs and this is one of them.

I call it garden rabbit and it was inspired from an antique 

 garden statue from a magazine.

Closeup of the face and body.

Pictures of the flowers.

Closeup detail of the border.

Here is the picture that inspired the rug. (source, Traditional Home, May 2010) 

Where do you draw your inspiration?   

Thanks for stopping by, Maria

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This pattern is available.  It is 23 x 23 on Linen for $55.

What's on my frame

Here's a sneak peak of one of the rugs on my frame.

Can you guess what it is?

This picture gives it away!

Since returning from Punderson, I have been hooking like crazy. 

Look for many new designs in the next few week......

Also, I'm working on my website and hope to have it up in 

two weeks.  Thanks for your continued patience.  Maria

More Pictures from Camp Punderson

Jan was working on my Lazy Sheep pattern and used plum colored wool

 for the face.   It was a great color with the dark purple background.

  For the curly cues on the sheep, Jan embraced the quilling technique and 

went to town with it.  What a great embellishment for the rug.

Marcia was working on this awesome witch and was way out of her color box.

She was such a trooper trying all kinds of new things in this rug.

 Don't you just love her flowing hair? Marcia attached

 Sahri ribbon for her hair and rather than hooking it, she 

let it flow to look like her actual hair.

.

Check out that nose.  We needle felted a wart onto it

 and attached black thread to it.  It looked like hair growing out of the wart.

Don't you love the spider? The body is needle felted and the

 legs were hooked with ribbon.  Love it!

Another shot of the spider.

Isn't Joann's rug terrific? Her flower basket looks old, old, old! 

 She was hooking this rug for a family member and was using

 wool from a brown tweed coat from the recipient's husband. 

This rug is going to be beautiful.

Rebekah was hooking my Mister Iggy pattern and did a great job. 

 She was sitting next to Liz in class who hooks with a wide cut and really high. 

By the end of class, Rebekah was hooking high and with a wider cut.  I love

it when people pick up new and different ways to hook while in class. Rebekah was so 

productive in class and started another rug. 

Shirley was working on a Folk Art Landing pattern and was

 hooking a diamond pattern into the background. What she doing

 with the background will make this rug stunning. 

Speaking of Liz, here is her big rug. It was a neat pattern that 

was broken up into sections.  We spent a lot of time finding the just

 the right wool for the sections.  By the end of the third day, we had 

the perfect wools and Liz was well on her way to finishing this rug.

Aren't the colors fab?

Liz if you are reading this blog, hook, hook, hook as I can't

 wait to see this rug fully hooked.

The last rug is Tami's cabin rug and can you believe that she is a fairly new hooker.

There are so many things that I love about this rug.  Look at her fire.  

It is amazing and was achieved with the most amazing piece of wool.  

We all encouraged her to send that wool to Betsy or Rebecca for milling.

And how about that frying pan with the eggs in it?  We needle felted the eggs into the pan.  

Thanks for stopping by and checking out these great rugs.  Maria

Teaching at Camp Punderson

The week before Easter I had the privilege of teaching at Camp Punderson in

 Ohio. What a delightful place for a rug hooking camp.  The location is terrific,

 the food is wonderful and the rug hookers fun and friendly.  My class was one of the most

 lively ones in recent history.  We were is a small room so we heard all the conversations 

and let me tell you there were some interesting ones, right ladies???  The phrase

 "what happens at rug camp stays at rug camp" was heard more than once.  

For once, I was good about taking pictures and have pictures of

  everyones rugs in progress.  Because I have so many pictures, 

I'll do it in two posts. 

The first rug is Jane and let me tell you this Michigan gal is

 the proddy queen.  She does the most amazing things with wool. 

 The rug, which she designed, reads "Family, Friends and Rug Hooking 

Make My World Bloom".  Isn't it wonderful?  During class, I 

showed her how to do quill circles which she added to her proddied flowers

 and the herringbone stitch which she used for her flower vines.  

Karen's rug is a M. Shaw pattern that is fun and when Karen said she 

wanted a turquoise background, I thought "cool we are going to have 

some fun with this rug" and did we ever!

On the black chicken, Karen added quilled circles to the chicken. 

 For the quills, she picked up wool strips from all the colors in the rug.  

For the red chicken,(now here is where Karen thought I was a little crazy),

 I nudged, well convinced, her to needle felt the polka dots onto the chicken.

  It turned out terrific!  I think she may be a believer!  Oh and I love the

 colors she hooked into the chicken, reds, orange and pinks wool. 

The purple house kind of grounds the rug in a weird way and makes a fun statement. 

 For the border, Karen is beading a double row of black and white

 around the edges to give it a modern look.  This rug was out of Karen's

 box and I think she enjoyed it.  

Karen's rug was awesome and she did a great job with it. 

 From the wonderful spot dyed wool that she dyed specially

 for the rug to the delicate wools for the pumpkins, this rug is going

 to be spectacular when done.

Closeup of Karen's rug.

 Sarah was hooking an adaption of "Welcome to Turkey Hill"

 and isn't it great?  She captured the turkey perfectly.

Closeup of Turkey.

This Primitive Grace design was hooked by Debi and she is doing a

 great job with it. I love how four of five colors make such a statement with this rug.

Closeup of the colors in this rug

Fritz was hooking a Katherine Porter design and was using paisley in a unique way in

 the rug. Instead of hooking it she, sewed it into the rug.  By sewing it into the rug, you 

could see the weave of the paisley. This rug is stunning and will make quite a statement when done.  

Phyllis was hooking a flower and it was spectacular.  I wish I could 

say I had some part in this rug, but I can't.  Phyllis has an awesome 

color sense when it comes to flowers and she just went to town with this rug.  

Check out these flowers. So wonderful!

.

Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow.  Maria