Friday, March 5, 2010

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

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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? Photobucket
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! Photobucket

Add in a rotary cutter and mat which makes me just cringe as I can't cut worth a darn with a rotary cutter.
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And finally a quilt pattern. Really....I know you are asking yourself if that really is a quilt design and the answer is yes. Photobucket
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

Monday, February 22, 2010

Pictures from Barb Carroll's Magdalena Briner workshop

What a fun workshop Barb Carroll put on for us. Barb is such a great teacher and I learned so much during this workshop. Thanks to the Aults for hosting this workshop and being such gracious hosts.
Let me first say, this was not your average workshop though as she allowed us to design our own rugs using templates from Magdalena Briner's rugs. There were dogs,sheep,donkeys,horses, crows,roosters, rabbits or a goat depending on your perspective,snakes, ducks,leaves,and hearts shapes to use in designing your rug. Barb provided us all with a canvas with some shapes on the linen and we were to choose what other motifs we wanted to add to the rug.
As you can see from the pictures below, everyone had their favorite motifs to add to their rugs. I did not want to hook so many small designs so I enlarged five of the animals and used them in the design of my rug. Photobucket After we drew our pattern, we started to color plan our rug. Barbara really pushed us to do our own color planning. She had a ton and I do mean ton of wool in all the colors of the rainbow...well primitive rainbow. We had to pick our background wool first and we had a choice of 5 different color palettes. Of course I picked my usual dark background wool. After choosing our wool, we started by working on one motif. I chose the cat and used many different wools in the cat. After I was finished with the cat, I moved on to the next motif.
Barb, in her gentle way, coaxed me into using some wool that I wouldn't otherwise use and I'm so glad she did as I just love the look of this rug. As usual, my rug looks very typical of most of my rugs, dark background, with the brighter primitive colors. No matter how much I try to break this pattern, I always end up hooking rugs in this color palette. I think I need to quit fighting it and embrace it. The next two pictures are of Mary and her rug. Mary is a delightful woman that I had the pleasure of meeting in Ligoner at a Barb Carroll workshop. I've hooked with her four different times now and she is such a wonderful gal. PhotobucketPhotobucket
This is Jackie who is a good friend of Mary's. Jackie is a hoot and I enjoyed meeting her and sharing the hooking experience with her. She taught me how to proddy while at the workshop.
This is Jackie's rug and it was great.

The next rug picture is Pam's rug. Isn't it great?


The next picture is of Dea. She sat behind during the workshop and was such a sweet lady. I didn't get a good picture of her rug, but she was the only one of us that added a snake to her rug. It was this awesome green snakey color.
This is Bobbie's rug. She is a fellow hooker from Michigan. I love how she used all different textures in her rug. Photobucket<

I took the remaining pictures to give you an idea of all the different designs and color palettes. This is Tammy's rug....
Next is Roxanne's rug...she is a fellow Michiganian....

Up next is Peggy's rug. She added a llama to her rug design.
I don't know the name of the person who hooked this rug, but I love the blue water she put around her duck.
The next two rugs are Barb Carroll's designs and were hooked by Mary and Tammy. I wanted to show them to you 1)because they are both beautiful but 2) because it amazes me how the same pattern can look so different.

The last picture is TV cabinet that I saw on my way back home that I should have purchased.....
Thanks for stopping by. Maria

Monday, February 15, 2010

What I've been up to............

Just finished this sweet little needle punch for a friend in Texas. It is larger than it looks.....about 6" x 8" or so. I forgot to measure it before I sent it to her. I think this would make a fun hooked rug using neutral colors for the heart.
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I was busy snapping pictures of my kitties this past weekend and got some great ones of Iggy. Life is rough around here for the cats. Iggy hanging out on the couch.
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Maggie also posing for some pictures.
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She just couldn't stand anymore photos and covered her head.
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Have a great week Maria

Monday, February 1, 2010

Standing Wool Circles

I've had many requests about how to make the rolled circles that are in my sheep rug. Ali Strebel of Kindred Spirits is the one that taught me how to do this and perusing her blog today I came across this blog entry. She explains in detailed instructions how to do it. Don't you just love how she used them in tassels along the bottom of the rug? She sells those great little felted balls. Check out her website. Thanks Ali for the tutorial! Also check out her new little wool charm in the February 1, 2010 post. Love it!
Ali Strebel: Standing Wool Circles

In this rug, I used the standing wool circles in the background of the rug just to add a little whimsy to the rug. Photobucket

Alice Frasier also has a blog entry about these rolled circles. Check out her blog here. A DAY IN THE LIFE ~ ~ ~ Have a great week, Maria

Monday, January 25, 2010

Rugs from the weekend

One of my online rug hooking groups does retreats every month. This month's theme was to make something you love or would love to give away. This was my first time participating and I'm glad I did because I started a rug that I've been thinking about since September.
When I taught at Star Rug Camp in Fredericksburg, Alice Streibel of Kindred Spirits (Love this gal!) showed me how to roll wool into circles and I just loved the technique. I thought they would look good in the body of a sheep. Because I was so excited about these circles, I gently persuaded several of my students to incorporate them into their rugs.
Last week, Kris Miller (another sweetie), debuted an awesome rug she is working on for a class using the rolled circles...check out her blog. Anyways it made me start thinking about the rolled circles again and so I finally started the rug. I usually hook neutral colored sheep so I stepped out of the box and tried a black sheep!

I also found some time to finish up two other little mats that I had started back in September after camp.
Grinnin Guy

I'm trying to decide what to do around the border. As you can see, I started to bead around the edge and the orange wool I pulled is a little too bright. I've also been thinking about crocheting with some fun eyelash yarn...Wouldn't that add some jazz to the rug? Oh, but I don't know how to crochet.
This guy is my Butterscotch cat. I beaded around the edges of this rug.
Thanks for stopping by, Maria

Sunday, January 24, 2010

A NEW BUT OLD RUG

I hooked this rug a few years ago but never added it to my website. Not sure why? I think I just forgot about it. It is patterned off of an antique butter mold. Thought I would share it with you as it is perfect for Valentines Day. Photobucket
This rug reminds me of my first rug camp at Barbara Carroll's house. What a wonderful time I had. I used the leftover wool from my project for the star and hearts. Check out Barbara Carroll's home page to her website. When I was at camp, Barb always used the phrase "cool beans" which tickled me so.....So, I hooked a little mat that said cool beans on it for her using the leftover wool from the project. Here is the link so you can see the mat. www.woolleyfox.com Maria