Giveaway winner and CYBER SALE!

The NUMBER is 8 and it wasn't until 8:00 tonight that GracevilleGirl guessed it. Congrats for guessing the right number. Please contact me at here tor edeem your $50 gift certificate! 

And of course, since so many of you participated, I decided to ask my husband and daughter to pick a number, and they chose, 44  and  16 respectively, so Cathy, Carolyn and Daisy522 each will each win a $25 to Star Rug Company. 

AND THE first Monday after Thanksgiving means a CYBER SALE at www.starrugcompany.com. All patterns at Star Rug Company will be  25% off on Monday. Email me here with your orders. When ordering, please put Cyber Sale in the subject line.

Here are several rugs that have not found there way to the website but they are included in the sale. The  price and size will be listed  above each rug.

         Woof, 20 x 25, is $48

     

          White Pumpkin, 8 x 10, is $16 and 8 x 12  is $18.

                                                      Cat and pumpkin, 12 x 15, is $28.00.

        

 Jack, 8.5 x 14, is $22

     

  Olde crow, 24 x 25,  is $55.00

                                       Barnyard sheep, 15 x 20, is $35 and 25 x 36 for $60. 

                   Jack Frost, 14 x 19, is $38

         Red Besnickel, 7.5 x 15, is $22

    Little Deer, 12 x 13, is $25

Thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Giveaway...

Hello Friends! To celebrate the Christmas season and thank all my blog and facebook followers, I am giving away a $50.00 gift certificate to Star Rug Company to one lucky winner.   You can use the gift certificate on patterns on my website or blog. 

To win, all you have to do is choose a number between 1 - 100. If you pick the MAGIC number, you'll win the $50 gift certificate to Star Rug Company.  all you have to do is GUESS the WINNING NUMBER between 1 and 100 for a chance to win!

The Winner will be announced here on my Blog this Sunday, November 30th at 10:00 pm Eastern. So how do you enter?  It's  EASY! See the details below... 

How to Enter :

* First, leave your lucky numeral guess in the comments portion below this post. Please include your thoughts on why you want to win!

* For a second guess, SHARE news about my GIVEAWAY  (including my Blog link) on your favorite social networking sites.  Then, return back to my Blog to leave another comment entry. Remember to guess a SECOND NUMBER. 

Remember, this giveaway  takes place here on my Blog, so only guesses made in the comments portion of this Blog Post will be entered. If you have any issues leaving a comment via my blog, you are welcome to Email Me and I will include your comment.  ALSO, if your comment doesn't show up right away, no worries, as I moderate comments. 

(....and, If nobody guesses the correct number, I will do a drawing from those who guessed the closest. And, if 2 or more of you guess the winning number, I will do a drawing from those lucky names)  

Have FUN & and  GOOD LUCK to ALL!

Best Wishes,

~ Maria 

Follow me on Facebook for future Giveaways, news & event info to come...

Another pre cyber pattern....

For the first 15 people to contact me. 

I just pulled this rug off the frame. It is a small pattern and hooks up very quickly. Perfect for those of you wanting to hook for a Christmas present!  

Red Belsnickel is  7.5 x 14.5 and with shipping is $18 (Canadian customers email for shipping). My email address is davemariab@sbcglobal.net

Thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Early Cyber Sale

I just finished hooking this little mat (12 x 13) and am offering it to the first 10 people that contact me for $20 which includes shipping. 

Look for more sales during the week leading up to cyber Monday. 

Looking for a EWENIQUE Christmas gift?

Check out this cute fused glass ornament!

During a fused glass class today, I spied these darling sheep ornaments hanging on the Christmas tree in the shop.  I snatched them up as quickly as I could. 

Along with a 1/4 yard of wool, these would make the perfect Christmas gift for your hooking friends. Sandy was only charging $6.00 for them.   And after taking the class, let me tell you that is a bargain!  

If interested, leave a message and I will post her contact information. Maria 

Pumpkins galore!

I stopped by school today and was greeted with this terrific display of handmade pumpkins. Can you believe Second graders made these guys?

Although the pumpkins are all made from the same orange, white, green and black construction paper, they all look different.

  These guys just warm my heart!  

Definitely some inspiration for a hooked rug or two! 

Thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Barnyard Sheep is complete

There are some patterns that hook themselves and this was one of them. I designed this rug to challenge myself with depth perception (see previous post) and enjoyed the process. 

Lately, I have been pushing myself to hook rugs out of my box to expand  my hooking horizon and grow as an artist. Barnyard sheep challenged me not only with depth perception but also with color as these colors are not my normal palette.

After hooking this rug, I'm not so intimidated to hook landscapes and look forward to more challenging landscape patterns. 

The barnyard sheep pattern (14 x 20) is available for purchase for $35 plus shipping. 

M next challenge is to finish a rug that I started last fall when Alice Frazier, Ali Strebel and myself got together for a hooking weekend at Alice's fabulous cottage on Lake Erie. I think I surprised them when I started hooking this rug. I'm not sure if I shared this "way out of my box" project with you. 

So do any of you feel the need to challenge yourself as an artist and do something different or are you content to hook rugs that you like? Inquiring minds want to know.  

As always, thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Mother Nature at her best

Doesn't Mother Nature provide the best color inspiration?  It was a gorgeous fall day here in northern Michigan and I couldn't resist picking up some of these colorful leaves as I  walked through our property. 

 Look at that gorgeous purple leave?

This reddish orange one makes me smile.

Oh and that red and lime one is the best!

You can draw inspiration not only from the colors but also the shapes. 

Love the lime green leaves. 

I traced around the leaves for future projects. Please feel free to use them in any of your projects. 

Enjoy the rest of this gorgeous weekend. Thanks for stopping by, Maria 

You guessed it

Another unfinished rug. As you can see,  all I have to do on this rug is hook the background and the crow.

You have to wonder why I set these rugs aside when they are so close to being finished. I think it is because the challenging part for me is color planning. Once I have the rug color planned, I'm ready for the next challenge all the while thinking "I'll finish the 'almost done rug' later in the week." Well let me tell you that does not happen. 

Part of the reason I designed this rug was to try my hand at hooking leaves. With all the worms I have it was easy to play with color in each of the leaves. I simply added a contrasting vein to the leaves and voila, a leave.

For the most part I'm happy with the leaves except for that purple one in the top left. That one will have to be reworked. The shape of the orange one of the top right also needs some attention.

As always, thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Depth perception

Recently I taught a class in Manistee, Michigan for a delightful group of hookers. They asked me to design several patterns for them to choose from and this was one of the patterns. What I didn't realize when I designed it was (for a primitive hooker like me) what an exercise in depth perception this pattern would be for me. 

When I hooked the  pattern, my fence was nearly as tall as my barn which was not good. I also realized I had to break up the background to create some more depth in the pattern. Color is a great way to create depth but so is direction. Between the sky and ground there is adequate contrast however between the two grass colors, I needed more differentiation than just the colors.

This is where I hooked the lower grass on an angle. I also hooked a very narrow dark beauty line between the sky and two patches of grass which helps separate the areas. 

After taking this picture and studying it, I can see I need to correct a few things. Looking at your rug through the eye of a camera helps you really get a good feel for how your rug looks. In mine, I can see that I need to add dark faces and ears to my little sheep in the background.

 Also, see that pesky orange piece of wool in the second layer  of grass on the left side? It looked great when I hooked it. Yeah, well that will be coming out of the rug. 

In the first picture can you see all those holes on the right side of the sheep?  That was another attempt to create some separation between the grasses. I had hooked the lower level of grasses in higgly piggly Deane Fitzpatrick style but it didn't look right so out it came. Here is what it used to look like. It just didn't work. I reverse hook a lot, how about you? 

Hopefully, I'll finish this rug in the next days and will post a finished picture of it. 

Working on unfinished projects

Do you have any unfinished projects?  I know I have blogged about unfinished projects in the past and vowed to work on the pile but have I?  No!  Instead that pesky pile has continued to grow. 

I'd show you some unfinished rugs but that would take me away from working on them! (Chuckle)  Here is one that is nearing completion and headed to eBay. This rug was started last fall and it was an attempt to reduce my worm pile. That too is another blog post, the worm pile...

If anyone is interested, I'll offer this rug as a pattern. It is 12 x 15 and is $30 plus $3 for shipping. Thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Selling rugs on ebay

I'm thinning out my rugs and selling them on ebay. It is hard to let rugs go but really how many rugs does one person really need?  5, 10, 20.......well I'm way north  of that number so it is time to thin them out and make room for some new ones I'm hooking. (Don't even get me started about how many rugs I have started but haven't finished)

I have several Fall and Halloween themed rugs that I will be listing over the next couple of weeks. So without further adieu, the first rug is this sweet little white pumpkin mat.

 I've listed it on EBay and you can find it Here . It is 7.5 x 10.5 inches and hooked with 100% wool. 

If you are interested in this pattern to hook, it is $16 plus shipping of $3. I can also make up a limited number of kits (6)  for $34.00.  

As always, thanks for stopping by, Maria 

What does the fox say?

Are any of you familiar with this song? Well, let me tell you, I am. I've heard it nearly everyday during hockey season. The squirt hockey team I helped coached this year played it repeatedly in the locker room and all the kids, and I mean every single time, stood up and danced and sang to this silly, cute song. You can see the video of it HERE

Catchy little tune, eh?

I think the kids like it so much because it almost sounds like the fox is saying "hockey, hockey,hockey  ho". But I'm pretty sure that isn't the case but the kids had fun with it.

So I had to hook the fox in tribute to the squirts this year.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe mount the little guy on a canvas with the saying "What does the fox say".  Stay tuned! Maria

A couple of more photos from Holland

Judy was working on a Karen Kahle pattern and was doing fantastic capturing the magic of her style of hooking. The hit or miss in the background is so good! Sigh.....love it. 

Carol was having fun with my ATHA pumpkin runner pattern. The colors she is working with are perfectly Halloweeny. 

 

I came back from lunch one day and there was a whole lot of giggling and laughter coming from Carol's side of the table and I wandered over to find this! Can you see that funky eye? Carol had loosened up a rolled circle to let it pop up. Very clever!

Nan was working on a Maggie B pattern and it was coming together nicely. The colors are so primitive. This is on Nan's second rug and let me tell you she is a pro!  This too is going to be fantastic when completed. 

As always, thanks for stopping by, Maria 

Another rug in progress from Holland

Be still my heart - look what Bea was hooking at Holland Rug Camp!  Her rendition of my Two Sheep and Star pattern makes me smile. From the wonderful background which combines a mixture of textures of rusty tweeds, orange herringbones and many more wools........

to the terrific way she was mixing the wool to give the sheep fleece movement. I had suggested wool yarn or faux pixelating to give the sheep more texture and depth but this rug is going on the floor so Bea was limited in her options for hooking the sheep to make him look realistic. By hooking the wool in a wavy pattern and mixing up the wools, it looks perfect. 

Oh that eye........sigh! 

I can't wait until this rug is finished! Maria