Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Sheep rug started



I was ambitious today. Between 9:30 AM and 5 PM I got all of this hooked. I'm hooking with Badgerface and White Welsh Mountain uncarded fleeces to do the sheep while the colors are coming from food dyed and Wilton cake dyed Lincoln, Finn, and other breeds of sheep. This was designed on rug warp and so far I am very happy working the fleece on this. I'm a lot happier with this than when I have done similar hooking on burlap and linen. I'm using fine and primitive hooks.

Noon

3 PM

5 PM


I am going to do this all in fleece, adding no strips or yarns just t see how an all fleece piece will come out. I am also experimenting with adding a fleece ruff to it. I'll see how it turns out and debate whether it stays or not. I'm hooking the fleece into the fabric and then pulling the intact fleeces out, not doing true proddy with this.

The crows are enclosed into a felt bag I am still sewing together by hand. I almost got the sewing machine out then decided not to use it and to hand sew instead. I cut out a circle in the felt and then turned down the edges of it and sewed in it and then sewed another ring around it to hold the backing fabric in place. There was enough fabric to do a good size tote bag with side gussets and a strap. I'll post pictures of the finished bag next time.

I'm making a 2 inch border in black around the dino rug. I started that yesterday after seeing that 2 rows was not enough of a border so I'm taking the border out to the original inner border line and it does look better and frames it without being over powering.

The neighbors across the street killed and removed all the big oak and other trees in their yard. These were huge trees probably 40 to 80 years old, 2-4 feet in girth, some older than the ones in my yard. I have a hard time understand tree killers when these were nice healthy trees with great shade for their yard. The squirrels and birds that lived in them are upset too.

At least the neighborhood wildlife has a haven in my yard. I love watching all the squirrels, and birds as well as the butterflies and dragonflies that come visit. I have trees and plan on keeping all of them as long as the neighbors don't kill them off. Today I had a very unusual visitor and huge hawk that was as big as my 3 year or grandson. My dog was inside at the time but it landed by my clothesline and before I could grab my camera phone it took off. I did find a similar photo of what I saw which was a red shouldered hawk not a red tailed one as it was lighter colored more golden and with lots more cream on it's chest and head. I've heard them in the yard and seen them flying up in the sky but it blew me away to see one land not that far from me while I was working. I felt very blessed today.

3 comments:

Julie said...

Hi there

I discovered your blog site and must say your work is lovely. I too have a history in petite point and cross stitch patterns. In the past year, taken up rug hooking and find the transition easy and quicker.

Not to say that I don't still love cross stitching and designing my own patterns too. Love the dino!!

Julie
Corner Brook,Newfoundland
Canada

Julie said...

Hi there

I discovered your blog site and must say your work is lovely. I too have a history in petite point and cross stitch patterns. In the past year, taken up rug hooking and find the transition easy and quicker.

Not to say that I don't still love cross stitching and designing my own patterns too. Love the dino!!

Julie
Corner Brook,Newfoundland
Canada

WoolenSails said...

Love your new piece and how you use different styles to get textures. I had that happen this weekend, an eagle came flying out of the bushes but of course my camera was in the dry box on my kayak.

Debbie