It's been awhile since my last post

Kind of feels like true confessions. I've been busy with work, gardening, hooking and getting patterns ready for a show and rug camp. You know, life sometimes just gets in the way of blogging. I'll try to post more often. As for my hooking, remember a while back I told you about a big Halloween rug I was hooking. Well, I finished it about a month ago but was not all that happy with one of the characters in the rug. I put it away and someone asked to see a picture of it the other day, loved it and purchased the pattern. So I thought I would share it with you. The pattern is 25 x 35 and retails for $70.00.
As I finish up a few more patterns, I'll post them on the blog. Happy hooking! Maria

Happy Flag Day

So there has been talk lately about unfinished projects. Do you have any? My guess is that I have somewhere around 30 rugs that need to be finished. Well, make that 29 rugs. I started this rug about a year and half ago and just wasn't happy with it. The Uncle Sam was too squatty so I enlarged the pattern and made him a little taller. This design is my patriotic version of my Antique Santa & Reindeer rug. I am offering for sale as a pattern. It is 24 by 27 and retails for $55 plus shipping. And in between planting some flowers today, I found some time to dye some more wool. I'll have no problem using these warm primitve colors in my rugs.
Happy Rug Hooking. Maria

As promised.....

First, Here's a picture of a rug that I just finished hooking. I just grabbed wools from my scrap pile and just starting hooking. Do you accumulate alot of strips of wool? No matter what I try, I just can't seem to make a dent in those piles. But I won't give up trying! Check out the birds. Do you notice anything? I forgot to change the wool on the curly ques on the heads. I'm definitely using the darker wool. The next couple of pictures are from my dyeing session over the weekend. The first picture is from Wendy Miller's Dye book. I bought a bunch of the milled wool and it is perfect for dyeing. This wool now is perfectly primitive for hooking. I've already started using it as my background in another Lazy Sheep pattern that I am hooking. This picture shows two different wools dyed using the same AlJO dye recipe. The more muted red is so wonderful. I just love it and am using it in an Uncle Sam rug that I am currently hooking. Speaking of hooking, I'm off to pull a few loops.
Maria

Just Hooking and Dyeing

Well, I have been hooking up a storm in the last few weeks and can't wait to share some of my new designs with you. It was so dreary here today so I played in the dye pots and used one of Wendy Miller's dye recipes and just love the color. I bought some wool off the bolt and the color just did not speak to me. So I dyed it using Wendy's canning jar blue recipe and I love it now! Can't wait to use it in a rug. As for the new designs, I still need to steam them and hope to have that done in the next couple of days. But I do have a few pictures of past rugs to show. This was my attempt to hook a rug and make it look like a braided rug. One of these days, I'm going to hook this rug using different colors. See the white spot in the rug....candle wax.
This rug was inspired from a scherrenschnitte-paper cutting from long ago. It's a nice litte chair mat. Have a great week. Maria

Hooked Rugs from the Past

While looking through some of my photos, I came across some rugs from the past. I hooked this rug in 1999. Back then I was selling rugs on ebay and sold this one. I wish I still had it as it is still one of my favorites. It is fun to look at older rugs and study them to see how or if your hooking has evolved throughout the years. Ten years ago, my favorite colored background was still the dark wool with motifs in brighter colored wools. Today, I still hook mainly with a dark background but my wool selection for motifs is a little more muted or primitive than in this photo.

I love this version of my lazy sheep pattern. Isn't it just great? Karin Manuel of Ohio hooked this rug. The colors she used in the rug are just wonderful. And Black sheep are my favorite. After I'm done finishing the BIG rug (tease, tease)I'm working on, I'm going to hook the Lazy Sheep similar to this one. Enjoy the weekend and Happy Hooking. Maria

A few of my favorite things!

I'm working hard on a new rug to show everyone but it is so big that I fear I will never finish. In the meantime, I thought I would share a few of my favorite pieces of folkart and antiques I have around the house...You know, the pieces that make you smile everytime you see them. And this just happens to be one of my favorite pieces of folkart. Last summer, I stumbled across this folk artist who makes pieces of art out of tools and such. This cat is made out of a hammer, screwdriver, funnel, spoon, piece of leather for the ears, and his head is a piece of wood that came from a campfire. Just delightful! Behind the cat is a fun little bike wheel. Love the graphic element that it adds to the decor.


Here you can see the hammer, screwdriver and spoon holding his head up!
Happy Mother's day to all. Maria

Playing in the Dye Pots

Well that is not something I do very often! But I needed some purple wool.....yeah, Kelley, I said purple wool, so I had to dye some today as I have none. I'm rather pleased with the wonderful colors I achieved. One batch did turn out as planned. As you can see it is a little too blue but I'll still use it. Aljo and cushing dyes were in the dye pots. Now why do I need purple wool you ask? Well, think purple, orange, green and maybe some black.....hmmmm, nice colors for a fall rug! Yeah, I'm working on a huge Halloween rug that I hope will turn out really cool and very whimsical......I'll post some pics in progress.....or maybe I'll keep it a surprise til I'm done. Maria