New Doodles and new Cutter

I've still got a few more rows of golds and creams to go--maybe tonight the dragon will be done I hope.

Yesterday, I went over to my daughter's to use her backyard to hook since it was in the 70's and I wanted out of the shop. I had been looking at Create and Decorate Dec '08 issue at the hooked sheep and decided I really want to try doing some dimensional designs. So I ended up taking a bunch of different fabrics over for making hooking canvases. I took some of my Betsy Ross 16ct linens, Heatherfields, some 14 and 18 count aidas, and some burlap. I am still experimenting with using things other than monk's and rug hooking linen to do designs on. I'm especially interested in how strip and yarn sizes make or break designs.

I'm still trying to work out how I want to do a greenman purse that combines felting and hooking and is 3D. It will have glass eyes, a dimensional nose, the leaf eyebrows and parts of the outer leaves will come out of the picture along with the bread part. I'll be glad when I get space again to do handmade wet felting again and can make up some purse blanks. So that project is on hold until then. Though I did do an oval shaped greenman that may or may not become part of a purse. I drew it out on burlap and am going to attempt to do it in # 6wide cuts.



One of my on line friends Vicky Tandler of Pawling, NY sent me her old Frazier cutter with a #6 cut head when she got a brand new Bovliar cutter as a present from her husband. I just got it today and I am throughly overwhelmed by Vicky's generousity on this. Thank you so much. This cutter is going to be well loved and used and I will now have uniform strips--yeah!



Meanwhile back to my doodling--still in thinking about purses mode I came up with a phoenix design with flames on the strap on burlap. It's also going to be in the wide cuts. Then I got to thinking about dolls, and started designing weird ones for my grandkids. My kids had the strangest toys in the neighborhood when they were growing up as I loved making unusual stuffed toys and dolls. Dragons, a large Capicorn, demented crabs, serpents, bats, Muppet rejects and monsters. I've lost all the pics from that time period show I can't show you and the toys themselves have gotten lost. I always embarrassed my kids as our house was never like anyone else's. I was the coolest mom in the neighborhood to all but my kids. So I came up with sort of voodo or simple rag doll shaped dolls drawn out on the 16 count linen. I'm going to try doing these in fleece and yarns with more detailed work and shading. I'm going to try one of the dolls on monk's to see how the larger strips work for it. I've got some sketches for some more dolls and critters in my notebook that I'm going to do up later after I think about them some more. If I wasn't committed to doing the Hopes and Dreams I'd jump into the dolls. I really want to do one. Maybe I'll work it in somehow.







Here's the Hope and Dreams canvas ready to go. And these are 2 of the plaids I am thinking of using in the hearts section. Wish the camera was better as it's not really showing the colors as they are. The one of the left has a beautiful teal running through it and the other is a sort of light sea blue green or greenside aqua.

Dragon Day 11

Getting there slowly... Still have 1 full side of 5 rows each to do 2 green, 1 gold, 1 cream, and 1 gold, and two sides with gold, cream and gold rows to go. I am determined to get this completely done including edges by Sunday. Though whenever I plan on something something else happens to throw my time tables off.

I did not make my meeting with the local rug hookers--again. This time it was hubby's cat attacking the blinds at 5 AM to get at cats outside that are in heat or fighting. Anyway my son tried to get him out of the blinds and got his arm and hand mangled and bitten by idiot cat. This necessitated a trip to the emergency room for tetanus shot and get the deep puncture wounds from his teeth seen to. Luckily cat had been to the vet last week and had gotten his shots. By the time we got home I was too exhausted to drive anywhere, especially 30 miles across town since they moved the meeting to some one's house instead of the 10 minute drive near me at a church. Maybe next month. But cat is on my sh-t list for hurting my son, age 26, and having to pay out lots of cash for medical stuff as we don't have insurance.

I used to like cats but after having my art and needlework shit, pissed on, and torn up by cats over the years even when put on high shelves and closets in plastic containers I have very little use for them. The worst was an entire order of 15 hand painted needlepoint canvases I had just finished for a shop and had gone out to get packing materials for to ship them. We became cat-less for a time. This one and I have reached an understand he stays away from me and off my stuff and we don't have problems. I'm a dog person and dearly love my dog, Spike.

Dragon Day 10

It's getting there. One more corner and then all the border bands on 3 sides and all done except for the binding and finishing--yeah!!! I'm still not that great at doing the binding edging, Have to root around and see if I have any gold yarns. May end up over dyeing some yellow sports weight I have on hand. I know I have gold acrylic close in color to border golds but I'm going rug purist and stay with the wool yarns for whipping the edges.

One thing I have managed to do with this rug that I haven't before is get nice straight almost uniform rows of hooking on the border bands. They probably would have been even more uniform and neat if my strips had been machine and not hand cut and not varied in sizes. This outer border part I have been hooking off hoop which has actually worked better and I am not packing my strips as tight as I was using the hoop for the center part. What I am doing is laying the mat on a flat surface and picking up the edge I am working on and hooking at a sort of left angle towards me. My rug is laying a lot flatter than my other ones have done and I can get my hoops uniform and in a straight line. This bears more experimenting with. It has been very frustrating hooking some of my larger rugs on frames and trying hook in the center of them. This is Nantucket style hooking as you wrap your mat around your legs, using your legs as a hoop. I have no idea what I am doing is called but for now it's working to get the outer border parts done and with no hooking hassles.

Here are a few of the colors I will be using for the Hopes and Dreams mat. I need to take some pictures of the red plaids, but these are some of my tie dyed pieces. I love my sky blues and am really curious how they will hook up.

Dragon Day 9

I had lots of running to do Monday and Tuesday and didn't get all the hooking I planned done. Left side is almost done. Just one more row of gold next to the cream should finish the left edge. Had to cut up some more fabrics too as I started running out on some of the colors. I'm going to start hooking after I finish writing this and work all evening on it. I want to get it done to take to my first meeting with the local rug hookers I found on Thursday.



I'm already planning the colors and fabrics for the Hopes and Dream Basket mat. The central color is going to be a magenta and light teal green plaid that is going in 4 of the hearts and maybe the outer background colors. The other three hearts are going to be in shaded teals. My 4 girls are the 4 reds/ plaids and my 3 boys are the 3 teal hearts. The stars are going to be in light to dark yellows and golds. Six yellows for my granddaughters and three golds for my grandsons. The banner part is going to shaded cream and black lettering--which may be in yarn instead of strips--we'll see when I get to that point. I found a bunch of light sky blues buried in one of my tubs that I missed when I was doing the inner background of the dragon and want to use it for the inner background of this. The outer background is still evolving in my head. Maybe more teals, adding some swirls or stars into the outer border part. I'll have to stare at it awhile and see what hits me to do to it.

What does anyone think about the outer border on the dragon--is it okay? Does it work with this?

Dragon Day 8

I've almost got the left side of the mat done. Just one more border or so. I got a lot more hooking done yesterday than I though I would. I got to hook at the Guild meeting and then when I got over to my daughter's to work on my laundry. The dryer isn't working that great and takes a while to dry a load of clothes so I got a lot done before I lost the light outside.

Debe in TX wrote me asking how I was getting an impressionistic look to my rug. The question kind of floored me as I was not going for that kind of look at all and if it looks that way it was totally accidental, though I am suspecting it might be because I am using a camera phone to take my pics and then run them through my Paint Shop program to lighten and clean them up before I post them. I know everyone likes this rug but I'm not real happy with it as it is not as detailed and clean lined as I would like it to be. It's sort of fuzzy focus to me because I am using just strips and not yarn or fleece where I can get sharper edges and details. Maybe if this had been done in 2 or 3 cut I would have been happier. Or if this mat had been larger and the center design had been larger I could have gotten better detail.

The basket weave outer border is made up of 5-6 different fabrics, most of them tweeds, and plaids or have some texture. They came from some coats and one skirt and aren't dyed. The dark green on the border is a green plaid with gold running through it cut 1/4" wide. I think I'm adding a row of cream then another row of gold to finish that side. With luck I'll get this done by the time I go to my meeting with the local rug hookers on Thursday. I had hoped to get some hooking done this afternoon but looks like I have do grocery shopping with older daughter today.

Dragon Day 7

I had to go do laundry and grocery store yesterday so didn't get in a bunch of hooking though I did get to work on my Folk Angel 12 cut rug over at my daughter's house between loads.



The dogs kept me company outside. Poor Sebastin, the gold/rust Corgy mix, is on his last legs and will be dying soon, He's at least 18 years old maybe older as he was an adult when my other daughter first got him in the early 90's. It was around 70 and I wish I had gotten over earlier in the day as I didn't get over until 2:30 so I only had about 1 1/2 hooking on this. Spike is my dog and is 1/3 wolf, and the rest Black Lab and German Shepard. He's the same age as my granddaughter Chloe and I got him as a 4 week old pup.






At least I got the left wing started and some reds in on top. The closeup is closer in actual colors I am using. It's slow going because of the width of my frame and the strips themselves going through the alternative monk's cloth. I am hoping I've got enough reds dyed up that I have enough for this and for the Hopes and Dreams basket which has red hearts. I had picked up some pretty red plaids last thrift shop and I'm going to use them on the the wavy lines radiating from the heart.




I've done a triple border of gold, then cream, then gold again before starting on the basket weave part in colors similar to what was used in the basket. I put in radia, I think that's the word, or basket spines then am filling in the basket part. Tonight I'll br filling in more and taking repositioning the hoop. When I can afford it I'm going to get a frame or make on with the gripper strips to see if it makes hooking any easier. One of the outer borders is going to a green plaid that I found that will work with the greens in the dragon and leaves. One border will have to be the gold to match in with the border around the picture.

Not sure how much hooking I'll get done as I'm off to my Congaree Fibre Arts meeting and will be showing someone how to crochet in the round, and talk about wet felting.

Dragon Day 6

Inner background is done--yeah!! Managed to get a little hooked before the party then finished after we go back at 10. We keep late hours around here. I'm the only early bird in the batch, everyone else is a night owl.

Today, is figuring out what to do with the outer background. I'm going to attempt my woven wavy basket idea. I got some fabric cut last night after I finished the hooking. I'm thinking of a narrow band of gold or cream before starting the actual basket part. Also doing basket spines coming from the inner and outer curves. I keep seeing the Old Shale Lace knitting pattern as a template for this part. Though this is my Welsh Wool shawl folded in half but it gives the gist of what I am going for.



I have getting wonderful emails from people saying how much they love my hooking and my site. Thank you all. The web site was easy to do, just plug in elements, and add info. Lot easier than some of the websites I done before from scratch and having to write code for everything.

Dragon Day 5

I had to add a lighter colored outline to the dragon and the basket as the medium blue tones I chose were making the design get lost, not enough tonal contrast, and it didn't stand out too well. I hope it looks okay. I still worry if a beige or cream background would have been better. Definitely no black as the greens I used on the outer leaves are too dark. I used up all the light blues I had otherwise I would have maybe gone with a lighter blue background. Since my dyepots are still over at my daughter's house I'm not able to dye up a new batch of light blues. Plus I don't want to take the time to dye and dry. Though I thought I had more light blues stashed some place but didn't--grr. And for this mat I am going with what I have on hand and trying to do it all in strips and not add in yarns or anything else.

Hopefully I'll get the rest of the inner background done today before I have to go to Heather's house , my other daughter here for a 30th birthday party for youngest daughter, Kendra. So that's going to cut into my normal evening hooking time.

Dragon Day 4

Flowers are all done, now on to the inner background. I'm trying a mixtures of medium to light tie dyed blues and purples that had been overdyed from a light demin blue and a piece of light gray fabrics. I'm going to try and do a meander type pattern. Haven't done one before and hope I can do it all right. I hope the flowers look okay and aren't too colorful or busy looking. Still have a long way to go on realistic looking flowers. But flowers are not one of my favorite things to do anyway. Some are good, other...maybe?? Maybe bigger sized and smaller cuts I can get better detail. I really want to see how this might look in yarn.

I've been getting lots of compliments on this. Thank you everyone for all the praise. I'm still a beginner and am not feeling all that competent in what I am doing. Anyway back to the hooking.

Dragon Day 3

I worked on the dragon off and on from 4:30PM to about 2AM yesterday, and then about 1 1/2 hours this morning to get the main basket flowers, leaves and basket done. I went with fantasy flowers of different colors instead of realistic flowers using what I had already dyed since my dyepots and dyes are over at my daughter's house from when I was staying there house-sitting. I did have rehook in a couple of places on the flowers and leaves until I got where I liked it. I'm really happy with the basket. It has kind of a weathered wicker look to it, and then shine on it was accidental, and just seems to work so I repeated it in the handle part. Hopefully this piece has dimensional shading and it's not flat looking.





Today I'm working on the outside flowers and hope I can get them to match in with the center ones. After that comes the next section and trying to figure out what color(s) to do the inner background in. Choices or far are a medium slate blue gray, gold tones, cream tones, and the ever useful antique black. The outer background I keep seeing as waves following the contour of the wavy edges. I might be able to do it in the same colors as the basket--I think I have enough fabric to pull it off. I've also seen it in shades of greens, maybe adding in some flowers to match the basket ones. I really can't see doing a hit and miss border with the colors existing already in this or introducing new ones in.

Anyway, I'll get the rest of the flowers done and stare at to figure out what next. I hope my pictures have been okay. I just have a camera phone and it doesn't get the colors exactly right or is very detailed. When I get through with this I'll do some decent shots with my 35mm non digital camera.

Dragon Basket day1

I spent Sunday cutting strips and hooking on the dragon basket. My hand cut strips vary from 1/16 to 1/4". I'll have to look up what that translates in cut sizes. The dragon body is in a spot dyed yellow green with the 1/4 strips, with details around the eyes and paw done smaller. The ridges are in a dark kelly green with dark green gold spots. The wings are in a dark green dyed herringbone tweed, and a green ad gold dyed herringbone on the inner part. The spade shaped
tail matches the ridges.








The basket part is gives me fits. I have tried a number of different color and fabric combos on it and am still trying to find the right one. Right now it's a pale blue and narrow brown plaid cut in 1/4.

So far I am not wild about working on monk's cloth. This is my first time. Its hole spacing is too wide to do this design justice in my opinion. Yes, it will be great for doing other less complex primitive designs but I am very disappointed in how little detail I can achieve with this with the 1/4 strips. Using any larger size strips than this and the design wouldn't work at all for me. I may end up doing a second one of this in yarn on Heatherfield or do one all in fleece. May do that anyway just to see how the three different materials look hooked up with the same design. Since this is going to be a floor mat and not a hanging I will be doing the flowers flat and no proddy.

Today I am going to work on the flowers and leaves. I keep thinking these will be yellow and white daisies, but I'll see when I start working them what they are.