For those that are wondering what happened to a new design for yesterday, I have the perfect excuse....Thursday was a storm day, a nor easter blew white powder all over the place so the shop was closed. Then to add salt to that wound, the power went out for several hours so I didn’t get to the shop to prepare a new design on linen. I tried working on a few drawings for as long as possible at the dining room table, and as the sun began to lower, I lit a candle. Several times I bent over the design and felt the heat of the flame too close to my hair. I don’t have much left so singing the rest off was scary so I blew it out before anything bad happened. Then I napped to ride out the greyness. The power came on around 8:00 pm, hallelujah!
When the power is off, what we lack in water convenience we make up in warmth. Our Waterford wood stove keeps us cozy and in coffee. It has a cook top so we can heat water and a Bodem is all you need to make great tasting coffee. It also heated our soup, brought up out of the basement deep-freeze that I make for these moments. It doesn’t take long to thaw and heat over a hot flame.
The wind wasn't blowing that hard so the outage was unexpected and we weren’t prepared with pitchers filled with water. I drink a lot and once the power failed I got a powerful thirst, freaking that I could be dry until the lights came back on, something akin to a crack addict awaiting the next fix. We are on a well system. No power, no pump, no water. We had some stored in big jugs brought from the shop during our last power outage for toilet flushing, but it tasted like swampy plastic and as desperate as I was, I would have turned to beer to quench my thirst instead of suffering that putrid taste in my mouth.
One of these days we have to get a generator. Our town never used to have power outages but now they seem commonplace as the weather goes a little mad, so if this is the new trend with climate change, we’ll have to invest in one to keep us drinking and flushing because one begats the other for sure.
Considering this is spring, I’m not sure what Mother Nature is up too. She gave us a lovely winter, hardly any inconvenience at all, and now that Spring has sprung she dumped a load of snow and has been sending nor'easter after nor'easter with a vengeance.
Hubby has been out of work all winter, a sad circumstance of the Alberta oil downturn and because he was here to shovel and pile fire wood, jobs that usually land on my dance card, I’ve been feeling pampered for the last couple of months. If he had been away working, the temperatures would have plummeted, the snow would have come in droves, piled six feet between the house and the car every second day or so, shoveling until my arms nearly fell off, then had to haul firewood into the house every other day. Yup we should all thank my hubby for being out of work, providing us with the best winter we’ve had in years, because if he was away, I would have been persecuted with the cold, bad weather and wet wood and therefore, so would you all.
This latest design isn't original and I'm not sure of the year it was created, but it's an oldie and a goody. A customer brought in this tired and faded rug and asked if we could dye the original colours and transfer the pattern to linen so they could hook it. I've not seen this design before and I'm familiar with a lot of the old ones so perhaps it was created by an individual home rug hooker and is a one off.
The Union Jack was hooked using peach instead of the red, white and the medium blue, possibly from lack of choices back then. The leaves also sported a wild, burn your eyes hot pink that rivaled Pepto Bismal.
The colours have faded beyond bleached. Amazingly the background was originally a light blue and the outer border behind the leaves was a delicious medium blue. The leaves were various greens, peach, yellows and oranges and that in your face bright pink. The person didn't want the pink so we substituted a creamy yellow everywhere it was used. Although the client wanted the original colours, they weren't exactly a palette to scream about so I made some changes so they tonally matched and married well together, which will make for a much more pleasing outcome.
When we squeezed the rug the loops splayed so we could see the original colours at the root of the loop. The material used to hook the rug wasn't wool, I think perhaps it was a cotton. The outside border has faded into oblivion as the original colours were antique green and a dark brown, some of it survived its colour more than others due to a different material used.
The sun wasn't the main culprit causing the fading as the bottom of the rug was almost as pale. The dyes just lost their pigment over time, I've seen this before especially with blues that turn to a pale, dirty sort of cream. Today's dyes seem to be more colourfast, at least we all hope so.
As we were reproducing the pattern another customer came in and fell in love with the design but asked for the Canadian flag which was a perfect change due to the wonderful maple leaves, so we indulged her whim and in turn we've added another pattern to our portfolio. It's as patriotic as we Canadian's can get with our wonderful flag and the stylized maple leaves adorning the edges. This could also be designed with the American flag with stars in the corners. Let us know if you are interested!
The Union Jack was hooked using peach instead of the red, white and the medium blue, possibly from lack of choices back then. The leaves also sported a wild, burn your eyes hot pink that rivaled Pepto Bismal.
The colours have faded beyond bleached. Amazingly the background was originally a light blue and the outer border behind the leaves was a delicious medium blue. The leaves were various greens, peach, yellows and oranges and that in your face bright pink. The person didn't want the pink so we substituted a creamy yellow everywhere it was used. Although the client wanted the original colours, they weren't exactly a palette to scream about so I made some changes so they tonally matched and married well together, which will make for a much more pleasing outcome.
When we squeezed the rug the loops splayed so we could see the original colours at the root of the loop. The material used to hook the rug wasn't wool, I think perhaps it was a cotton. The outside border has faded into oblivion as the original colours were antique green and a dark brown, some of it survived its colour more than others due to a different material used.
The sun wasn't the main culprit causing the fading as the bottom of the rug was almost as pale. The dyes just lost their pigment over time, I've seen this before especially with blues that turn to a pale, dirty sort of cream. Today's dyes seem to be more colourfast, at least we all hope so.
As we were reproducing the pattern another customer came in and fell in love with the design but asked for the Canadian flag which was a perfect change due to the wonderful maple leaves, so we indulged her whim and in turn we've added another pattern to our portfolio. It's as patriotic as we Canadian's can get with our wonderful flag and the stylized maple leaves adorning the edges. This could also be designed with the American flag with stars in the corners. Let us know if you are interested!
TRUE NORTH STRONG AND FREE 26 1/2" x 42 1/2"
Click to view on the website http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/new-designs.html
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