Kingwood Center Rug Show

I had a wonderful time at the Kingwood Center Hook-in! This was my first time there even though I actually know a lot of the people there including those who run it & help out. My friend Shelia comment that I have really got a lot done on this rug since I posted yet. Oops! Too much hooking & not enough posting is how it has been going. But I can tell you that being home for the summer with the boys in a house with no AC is bringing a screeching halt to that. We have also set our camper permanently in Loudonville for the rest of the summer,& I know that will be relaxing there with no wifi. Maybe I can post here & hook there! I changed some of my color planning as this rug unfolded & I was prepared for that. I was asked several times if Barb planned this for me & I proudly answered that I did it alone. I think this means I'm learning something at class! One lady asked about one of my smaller stars if Barb "made" me put that in there. I take that as a huge compliment! Although, I kind of got the feeling she didn't understand what I was trying to achieve. I had to laugh when another hooker asked me if my hooking is what they call dirty primitive. I told her it very well could be! I've been called fast & loose, but never dirty...I think it fits! This is a view of the room from my seat.
My mom Gloria (adopted that is) selling her wares.
And a few random shots of the rug show. I didn't bring anything to show. I really didn't know I should have, but I guess it was obvious. (Blond moment!)



Thank you Katie for putting together such a great day of hooking!

What I've been working on.

Kaleidoscope 48x55. This one is a whopper! I will be working on this one for a good long time.

Cricket Ship is just a tiny little rug, but it gave me big trouble getting the colors to all show up!

Hannah's Star was a fun little rug that I used up some of my flower basket scraps up on. All three of these pattern are available at the Woolley Fox.

This is such a busy time of year. I am focusing my attention on the Spirit of Friends Show and work like crazy in the schools. The boys have all kinds of activities, & we have lots of showers & weddings to attend. This weekend we went camping & I did squeeze in a little hooking. I have started my biggest rug yet, & although I know what colors I want to use, I keep changing my mind as to where they belong in this rug. I labeled some of them on the pattern, but I have already thrown that out the window & haven't bothered to relabel. I guess I have to wait to see where the rug tells me they go. I also hooked up a couple of smaller rugs to share. Stay tuned for more progress.

My Camp Pictures

As usual...I never take enough pictures! I didn't even come close this time. I guess I am just to aggressive of a hooker when I get the chance to be uninterrupted! I didn't even get our whole group or their rugs. Please visit my friend Alice's blog, www.alice-folkartprimitives.blogspot.com/ She did a much better job of taking photos of everything...but herself! In this first pic is Barb's new kitty Posie. She was big big hit & big fun too for such a little fur ball.

We had to search Peggy's bags before we left just to make sure Posie didn't accidentally get wrapped up in her pattern & wool stash.

When she wasn't playing with the kitty, Peggy did make some great progress on her huge rug. I think one night Barb actually trapped the little darling upstairs so Peggy would do her homework & not play too much! This is Heidi hiding behind yet another huge rug. Don't you just love all Barb's wool?

Sorry about this one Gloria, but I had to include you. You look a little puzzled here. Love the vest!

And this is Carol all packed up & ready to head home...If you think she looks like she was pouting, we all were.

Thanks for stopping by. I have two more little rugs done to show soon & my biggest rug yet is about to be my next work in progress posted here.

Kinderhook Flower Basket

As promised, I am finally getting my pictures posted of the rug I did at Thw Woolley Fox. It was a great time as usual! This is a pattern taken from an antique rug that Barb owns. It is a remarkable old rug. I was very excited & packed plenty of wool, but as expected, the rug's color story has us digging through Barb's wool stash as well. I just love building rugs with her. I learn something new every time. After three days, my rug was nearly finished. After we returned I travelled with Larry to vend in Saline, MI. This gave me an entire evening alone uninterrupted in a hotel room to finish it. I love the way it came out. After I returned home, I was still on a roll & hooked up this little Edyth O'Neill pattern "Cricket Whale". This pattern is also available from Barb. I will be posting pictures of class later. Don't forget that this is hook-in Saturday at Aults. See you there!

Hooked mat for sale!

Quilter's Basket, 14 x 14, by Edyth O'Neill. This was a fun little mat to hook, & I am offering it for sale here on my blog. I have a paypal acct. to make payment easy, or I will except a money order as well. Cost is mat is $115.00 plus shipping. You can email me at jthornton9@neo.rr.com if you are interested, or use the comment section for questions. Thanks for looking!

Finished!

Ault's hook in ended up being a great time this last Sat. I wish Gloria could have been there, but she wasn't feeling well. We had a great group of hookers there. I was able to finish my Magdalena Mayhem rug too! I am including a photo. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. The only wool I actually cut for this rug was most of the background, and the border. Everything else came out of my wiggles basket. (a big mess of wool strips that I over cut & now use up in a make do fashion) Sometimes the best bits of your rug come from using these unexpected wiggles pulled at random. I like my rugs to look old, so to me one element of this is to use what you have. Sometimes you might run short, so you use what you can to match, or add something else interesting instead.

My Magdalena Mayhem Progress

Ever since the Christmas tree went up this last year, our basset hound decided that is okay to eat or chew up anything she can find. She is nearly four & has never done anything like this before. We would come home to chewed up presents, ornaments, and toys. It was decided that the only way to keep her out of trouble while we were gone was to shut her in the bathroom. After the tree came down, I thought she would stop, but she hasn't. So this morning I am hustling out the door & I need to put her away in the bathroom when I find a sleeping Jimmy Dean in there sleeping on the dog bed. I thought maybe I would just move him as I have done in the past, but he just looked too darn comfortable!


Then I look out in the dining room at this poor pathetic creature and I think, there's no way I can interrupt them today. So Wags the dog got another chance. I quickly scanned the floors for anything she might get into. Much to my delight, I came home to a clean house with nothing disturbed.

Here is my progress on my Magdalen Mayhem rug. I may have to change the bird in the top left corner, but I'll cross that bridge later. I will not be able to post tomorrow, but you all are probably tiring of my ramblings any way! I will try to post again later this week. I will be hooking this Sat. at Ault's. If you live in the area, please join us from 10-4. No cost & lots of fun!

Magdalena Briner inspired hooking.

This is the last of my pictures for Barb's class. In this picture Mary is busy hooking away. I think this is Dea's rug. These ladies truly embrace the primitive style.

This is Maria's rug. She biggie sized here animals rather than hooking a lot of smaller ones. She hooks fast like me. Using a wide cut sure does help with the progress.

And finally one last picture of my friend Tammy. This was her first class ever & I am so glad I was able to talk her into it. She is definitely "hooked" & would love to do it again! She did a great job & I will post her finished rug when she gets it done.

Barbara Carroll at Ault's Rug Hooking Store

This is the last picture I took from day one. The ladies are eager to get started on their rugs. Below is a picture of Ginny. She is designing her rug to be a wedding rug. She is a descendant of Magdalen Briner herself.

Here is some more progress on day two. Bobbie's rug is on the left & Melissa's is in the foreground.

This is our lovely host Gloria Ault & Jackie, who's rug is coming along nicely.

I still have a few more pictures of day two to share tomorrow & then I will post my progress on my version of this rug.

Magdalena your way at Ault's.

As usual, Barb brought loads of wonderful wool. In this picture she is explain how this class is going to work. On the table is a selection of background wools to choose from. This was the starting place for the color planning. Also picture here is Roxanne.
These are my dear friends Peggy & Tammy. I enjoy hooking with both of them. At this point the class is cutting their templates. I am envisioning them saying, "you want us to what?"
This is what my linen looked like after I filled in my animals. I have never done a rug with my cats Jimmy Dean & Travis, so I thought this would be a nice opportunity to get that done. Remember, every ones rugs will be different from the very beginning. Barb even encouraged some of the students to write over some of the existing animals with a red sharpie if they didn't want a chicken or a donkey. I chose not to do that. Tomorrow's pictures with contain some more of the hookers & their rugs in the hooking stages. I am about half way through mine. I plan to put an hour or two in tonight.

The Woolley Fox came to town!

Last week was a crazy busy one, but it was so much fun. Barbara Carroll came to Ault's Hooking Store in Shelby, OH for a wonderful class called Magdalena Your Way. Unlike other classes, in this class we were given a partially draw patter & templates to finish the pattern how we wanted. It made for a very interesting lesson full of self expression. The first rug shown is Barb's and the second is the one her close friend & helper Lisa hooked. Next I have included a picture of the linen as it looked when we got ours. I was working during the class, but I did get a little hooking done on mine already. Tomorrow I will post some more pictures of some of the other ladies & their progress, as well as mine. I have enough pictures to keep you coming back to see more for a few days or so. Enjoy!

Leaping Deer & a favorite corner.

This little rug was started in October & I just finished it two weeks ago. Sometimes I can hook up a storm, & sometimes life happens & I get out of the habit. Regardless, I am glad to have this one finished. I wanted this rug to look old & to have an interesting background. I tried to make it look like a sunset. I really like the way it turned out. This is an Edyth Oneill pattern available through The Woolley Fox. I took two pics, one with flash & one without. To me the true color lies some where in between the two. I should have taken it in the day light. I don't know why the rugs are on their side, but I'm to tired to figure it out. Sorry!

I am also sharing a little spot in my home that separates the kitchen from the living room. It is also where the basement door is. I used some of that wallpaper that looks like an old log cabin here, & I really love the way it looks. I hung an old tobacco drying rack here, that I have been holding onto for a long time. I never had any where to put it till now. I love the narrow primitive stand. It is holding some old primers from my family of teachers, some neat old amber colored jars, and some cool stone colored crocks. I also have a small collection of old clothing hanging here too.

At the truck stop.

Okay, so it's really our upstairs bathroom. I call it that because it is where my two boys & two cats make their pitstops. Right now the upstairs in our house is pretty much kid domain. That is also where our nineteen-year-old, blind & deaf cat spends the majority of his time sleeping. So I am only up there to wake up, tuck in, clean & sometimes play. Because of this those boys can really make a mess out of that bathroom. I don't understand what on earth makes it so hard to fit the target after all these years of practice, but it seems to be mission impossible.

I do have some great primitve decor up there though, so I thought I would share. Oh yeah, & one more thing about this bathroom before you look at the pictures, this bathroom was remodeled before we moved in 6 years ago. So day it will have to have a redo, but because everything is new & in working order, it is stay as is for now. It is quite small, so I didn't really get too many of the fixtures in the shots. I did paint it, but beyond that nothing was chosen by me (the lighting especially.)

The rug is a Warren Kimble pattern available through The Woolley Fox. I have altered it to look like our beloved basset hound. Enjoy!

In My Room

These are a few pictures of our bedroom which is inspired by our love of the New England shore. This isn't exactly a primitive color pallet, but this blue gray really makes me think of the warm summer days we spent in New Hampshire last summer. I used a Venetian plaster technique on the walls. The rug over the bed is my project for The Wooley Fox last April. My blogging fell to the wayside after I got this finished & I never did get it posted. I had this large rug done in about 6 weeks. Mainly because I wanted to get it finished before Barb's words of wisdom disappeared from my memory. I love this rug & it was a real challenge for me. Right now I am trying to decide what to take this year. Also on the dresser is awesome shelf I bought there on one of our trips along with some old boats, floats, & our collection of sea glass.