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

Some new techniques used in this rug

I'll be teaching a class at the Star of Texas camp in Tyler in a few weeks. The camp is hosted by Cynthia Norwood and Katie Hartner and let me tell you, they run fantastic camps. I've tried to design a few new rugs for the camp and this is one of them.

In this rug, I've used some new techniques such as the rolled wool flowers. These flowers look like they are proddied but they are not. I'll be teaching this technique at camp. I've also used some of the rolled wools in the flower in the left. Rather than make them round, I elongated them. As I finish the other rugs, I'll try to post them. Have a good weekend. Maria

Picture of little dog

Nancy purchased this pattern a while back and recently sent me a picture of it completed. Isn't it just darling? I love the colors she chose. The hit or miss border on the bottom of the rug is terrific. Don't you just love the simplicity of the word dog in the corner? Terrific rug! Please keep the photos coming. I love to see, as does everyone else, what you do with the patterns.
I recently taught in Alabama with Wendy Miller and will add a few pictures from class in the next couple of days. Maria

Taa Dah!

Here is a picture of the quilt.
Sorry it isn't the clearest of photos but I wanted you to see it. I'm pretty darn happy that this little quilt is almost completed. I was able to piece it together in 2 nights and had one of my friends quilt it for me on her long arm machine. Didn't she do a wonderful job? Now all I have to do is add the binding. I'm thinking brown...what do you think? Enjoy the weekend. Maria

I may have lost my mind!

You know why I took up hooking almost 20 years ago? Quilting! I used to quilt and could never line my points up so I took up a more forgiving craft, rug hooking, where perfection is not required. I haven't quilted in nearly 20 years.
So why have I lost my mind? Well it starts with this wonderful assortment of fabric. Aren't the colors wonderful?
Throw in the sewing machine which constantly gives me fits.
Oh and did I mention, one of the last times I used this thing, I sewed over my finger nail...painful, very painful!

Add in a rotary cutter and mat which makes me just cringe as I can't cut worth a darn with a rotary cutter.


And finally a quilt pattern. Really....I know you are asking yourself if that really is a quilt design and the answer is yes.
I'm putting a baby basket together for a fund raiser and one of the items is going to be a baby quilt. So check back to see how this comes together and wish me luck. Maria