HD day8 Almost Done

Hopes and Dreams is almost done, Just a corner, row of border, and binding and I'll be through. I'll get the last of the hooking done tonight watch Trial and Retribution. It's a UK cop show we follow. We watch a lot of British TV. The binding will get done tomorrow, just simple whipping, nothing fancy. This rug is getting done in less time than the dragon mat. I'm happy with my speed on this.

I'll get back to Voogee and get her done. She's definitely a her. Then back to the Family Rug. I really want to get it done before the end of March, April at the latest. If I can get it done by the end of March and if I can talk my hubby into it, going up to Virginia for the Rugfest show. I'd really love to go to it someway. It'll be a long drive and it'll depend on how the poor car is doing and money--always money as we are still paying for 3 places plus utilities because of the kids.

I will be doing up some new designs. I found my needlepoint masters that I used to for drawing needlepoint canvases. I will have to enlarge the designs somewhat as the designs are too small for hooking as is. I will be doing a Green Cat which is along the lines of a Greenman except with a cat face and winged mice. My Walk Me Please Dragon, some of my Star and Patchwork Snowmen. Tribal Phoenix, Dragon riders, and Dragons in Flight. There will also be a new one There Be Dragons Welcome mat, and I have been thinking of doing something with dinosaurs. Not that much different from doing dragons, but thinking in terms of kid's rooms. Also have some fairy, knights and other fantasy ideas in my head to try.

I'm hoping I can get the Green Cat out on a piece of linen Saundra, an on line rughooking friend gave me. It's my only piece of rughooking linen I have right now and this design merits using it. Gene Shepherd inspired me today on his blog with his dyeing for his hen rug class. I love some of the mottled colors he is going to be using and I can see some of them in both the Green Cat and Walk Me. Here's a picture of my cross stitch model of the design to give you an idea of what the mat will look similar to. And a picture of the Green cat Painting I did for a friend but I will be doing different colors than this as it was for her house and wanted particular colors in it. The painting was 36 x 60.

HD day 6

No pictures today. I did do the inner border in just 1 row in about 5 different pinks and am continuing the dark blue, black watch background and will be adding in swirls in blues and purples.

I'm still worn out from yesterday's grand moving of my crafting stuff from the trailer over to Kendra's house. It filled the back of a 10 ft Uhaul to the half way height point. The only furniture was a folding table the rest was books, and books, and more books--I really could open a mini crafting library on multiple subjects with no problem. Then there were the 6-8 sheep fleece tubs, the 3 x 3 by 4 box full of cotton roving 20 lbs of it, spindles and niddy noddies I've made for sale, felting tools, my large handmade tapestry loom, art easel, boxes, tubs, and bags full of cotton fabrics and others, yarn of various types, embroidery and fancy flosses, needlepoint miscellaneous, cross stitch miscellaneous, beading stuff, 10 boxes of porcelain doll parts and accessories to make them up, non porcelain dolls made by me or my mom, paintings, artwork and supplies. I keep telling my kids they are going to make a mint selling off my junk after I die but we are not getting rid of anything until to I do croak.

Right now almost everything is piled in my bedroom over at the house and I have to go over to sort it out--joy. A large chunk is going into the attic, mostly the stuff I'm not immediately going to work with like the doll stuff or too fragile for up there since it's not well insulated and mice and squirrels do sneak in from outside. Hopefully my compulsive organizer SIL will resist the urge to get into my junk. He was itching too so badly yesterday. He's already organized the books I have brought over by subject matter on the shelves.

I have been careful not leave any of my craft stuff over there too long if it's bags as he can't stand plastic bags and has to put it in a container. Last time he took a bunch of my knitting projects I had organized in bags with their respective yarns, directions, etc., took them out of their bags and put them neatly altogether in one big container. Needless to say I was not happy and he couldn't understand why I wasn't. My kids were amazed that he is still breathing as they got taught from an early age not to mess with momma's stuff or help "improve" it in anyway without asking. He reorganized the shed--the paint cans were lined up in an artistic arrangement from big to small, the tools were also carefully arranged in a row. His art tools are very carefully arranged and his desk spotless, needless to say I don't see much art being done, and he is very talented. The house inside is very uncluttered, but outside it's a mess. I can't do all the yard work I did last year at the time so I'm going to be lighting fires under him to get both the front and back straightened out.

Sebastin, the elderly dog at my daughter's house is nearing the end. i feel so sorry for the old guy. He doesn't seem to be in pain and recognized me and enjoyed being petted. But he's not eating now, very weak and refuses to come in. I think he wants to die outside rather than in and it been in 40's to 70's here. I keep going back and forth between having him put to sleep and letting nature run it's course. Going to talk to Heather again and see what she wants to do as he's her dog. Spike, my dog is trying to be helpful and supportive to Sebastin but his dying is freaking my dog out. Samson, that we lost 2 years ago went to the vets and never came back but he was in a lot of terrible pain from a type of dog cancer and degenerating disease. He was 10. Sebastin is at least 18 as he was mature when they got him in the mid 90's.

More hooking tonight I hope.

Hopes and Dreams 5

A little more done last night on the inner background. Got the right side done and have started on the left adding some swirls, and meandering lines in purples and blues. Gene Shepherd has a write up on the basket on his blog today. http://geneshepherd.com/blog1/ Thank you Gene!!!

I'm debating whether to change the first heart like he suggested to a more solid color rather than shades and swirled like it is now. It is close to blending into the basket color. Maybe hook darker under the first and third hearts so they stand out more? I do agree that the two hearts really aren't as contrasty as they should be.

My friend in Iowa, Barb Barnett, who got me into the rug hooking when I was hunting for sheep fleece to spin weaving yarns because I thought I wanted to be a tapestry weaver, but found I was a hooker, and felter instead, sent me pictures of one of my sheep designs she's hooking with her own hand spun, and hand dyed yarns from her sheep fleece. Barb is also a beginning hooker,, and I think she's doing great. Barb has a number of my early canvases for hooking and is a fantastic rag rug weaver, and felter. She taught me long distance with lots of emails. She also has a flock of about 20-30 sheep of different breeds--Finns, Shetland, Karakuls, Lincoln, and mixed breeds which are wonderful to spin and felt with. She will be shearing soon so check with her for great deals on fleece.
http://barnettsheepandwool.com/rughooking.aspx

Meanwhile back to packing and sorting my junk for the big moving session tomorrow.

Hopes and Dreams 4

Got the lettering done. Not real wild about it but I'll let it stay. It is readable even by my husband. I shortened 'hopes' to just 'hope' because I couldn't get the other 2 letters to come out. Note to self--practice more lettering at least with strips rather than yarn or fleece. Redid stars 6 and 7 and reversed the colors. Filled in around the banner parts with the dark plaid. IF i do this sort of banner again used a light mottled cream or white or shades of white to make it less boring and solid colored. I added a blue and purple spiral up above stars 6 through 8 and will do a matching spiral on the other side and maybe something on each side of the bottom part around the basket. You can see the spiral better in person than in the wide shots of the basket. I've include a closeup of it.



I keep wondering if I should have done this in fleece instead or yarn. The shading would have been better and more realistic. I feel like this rather a plain looking piece at least for me. I have very mixed feelings about it. I really have to work more on doing shading with strips and getting a wider range of dyed fabrics to work with. What I think is going to work doesn't seem to be at least the way I want it to. It is going rather quickly because of the size of the #6 strips but I think this would have been better done traditional and with smaller strips. I don't think any larger would have worked at all unless I did it all primitive style and left off or moved the lettering elsewhere like above and around the basket or maybe in the outer border. Maybe I should have done the hearts all in shades of reds instead of the pinks and blues I used? I can see a couple of primitive color pallets for this piece. I can also see it in patriotic colors of red, white and blue and turning the banner into a flag.

Anyone got any opinions on how this looks? I'm very unsure about this piece.

Hopes and Dreams Basket 3

More hooking done on the basket last night. I got all the basket part done. I think it's more flat primitive style than dimensional realistic. I used dyed herringbones and plaids for the basket part. Almost did it in a solid gold, but decided not to, though I did hook a solid line around the rim and base as I was afraid it would have faded into the background too much, but didn't outline in gold on the top. Should I have outlined the handle on top too? Opinions anyone?

Finished the stars too, but will have to reverse stars 7 and 8 above the word 'wishes' as 7 needs to be gold and 8 needs to be yellow. From left to right it should be Jessica, A.J., Chloe, Kelsey, Brody, Kira, Nicholas, Aurora then Autumn. With luck I'll get the lettering and banner part done and maybe some of the background hooked tonight.

Outer background is still in flux in my head. Thinking of doing a simple one or two row border--gold maybe or shaded golds, then continuing with the inner background color, but throwing in some swirls or spirals in the colors of the hearts, and maybe some more random stars. Then maybe a simple 2 row gold outer border to finish it off. Gee, this sounds like a cooking recipe. Do this, do that, throw a little something there and mix well and cook until done.

Hopes and Dreams 2

I changed a few of the hearts from yesterday to more solid colors rather than the attempt at shading I was trying to do. Shading like I was trying to do would probably work with a smaller cut size than the #6's I am using on this. On the lettering I did use a smaller cut. I cut the strips into 2 strips for the lettering and the cream was all ready in a smaller cut size maybe a 4? I love the dark background so far. It's actually a dark blue and green Black Watch plaid. I think Gene is using something similar on one of his baskets, and I thought I'd give it a try. It may not be the same plaid as what he is using but it's working well on mine. I decided not to use the sky blues I was originally going to use as the inner background, and cream wasn't going to work and neither was gold or tan because I have gold in the stars, and will have tannish golds in the basket part. I'm really going to have to do some thinking on what the outer background is going to be.

The lettering is not easy to do. I almost gave up on doing it until I figured out how to make it work. Even tried yarn at one point and that didn't work out. The trick was finding a fabric that would stay together for hooking once I cut a #6 strip in half. I found some of my dark herringbone worked. I did each letter individually as I went upwards surrounding it with the cream before I did the next letter instead of doing the letters and then filling them in. Seemed to work better for me. I'm using a fine hook on this part rather than the medium one I'm using for everything else. The burlap seems to be doing okay hooking wise for this project. I don't know if the monk's or something else would have been better.

Time to go work on the ever ending laundry. Hope this is looking okay? I'll get more done on this today and this evening.