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Show & Tell visit from Sandy Bruce

4/30/2013

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Sandy holding up Vertical Changes.
The other day was show and tell at the shop with visitor Sandy Bruce, who vacations in Oakland several weeks of the year.  She is most known as a Duck Toller Retriever breeder and several friends have pups from her litters.  Lovey dogs, right Lorraine? 

Sandy came in totting a bag with finished rugs so we did a little photo shoot for the blog.  Two of the rugs hooked are my patterns and three are Deanne Fitzpatrick's.  It's obvious that Sandy loves colour  and each mat was a delight. 

Changes is one of our staple patterns that comes in a vertical as well as a horizontal shape.  This was the first time I've seen the vertical one hooked.  Lacking a proper picture I took the horizontal one that Mary did and worked a bit of computer magic to show it elongated but it fell short a bit on the borders.   

I love Deanne's houses.  The whimsy of them always brings a smile and a bit of professional envy for not thinking of them first!  My friend Sue hooks a lot of her designs so I get to see first hand how fabulous Deanne's designs can be.  The photo really doesn't do them justice.  In the smaller house and flower garden the oranges are far more yellow and the greens are electric, and blues a perfect match, making for a wonderful palette perfectly blended.  The sheep are adorable with their curly coats and posing faces.  No one is camera shy in this one....the trio look as if to say, "Whatcha doin?"

Mary would be delighted to see her Scottie hooked is such vibrant colours as well.   He's a handsome dude surrounded by stripes and squares! 


Sandy Bruce started rug hooking by taking a class from Carol at Spruce Top in 1995.  She was scheduled for a root canal and decided she needed something to do while recovering.  So with the class under her belt, she bought herself a Bolivar cutter and headed back to Toronoto.  To date she's designed most of her own pieces but when she sees something whimsical she goes for it. 

There was an hiatus when she put her hooking away and then got back into it a year and a half ago and is now going great guns.  She hooks mostly in #4 and #5 cuts. She likes to dye and has all of the equipment but these days would rather buy so she spends more time hooking that preparing to hook.  She still uses a hoop, likes the mobility of it and loves to hook on burlap. 

Sandy owns and operates Redland Kennels and if you would like to check out her site click the link... www.redlandkennels.com

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Sandy is holding a sheep design by Deanne Fitzpatrick.
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Mary Doig design "Scottie" done in bright, happy colours.
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Christine Little design called Vertical Changes, showing four seasons of an apple tree. Who doesn't love the whimsy of our Canadian seasons!
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A classic design of Deanne Fitzpatrick houses done in oranges and blues with a delightful mossy green. I love the way blue and orange compliment one another.
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Finished rug with just the rug binding left to sew on. More of the funky houses of Deanne's.
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Rug School Dye Class remembered....

4/29/2013

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I’m not so great with names or I would label each person in the photo so I’ll just point out Barbie on the far right front row, and in the back third from the left is yours truly, Susan and then Mary.
Oh what a week it’s been.  My eyes smart from the late nights, number crunching and way too much coffee.  I’ve had nightmares of being chased down by polar bears…whatever could that mean?.....

Why I let the paperwork go all year and then panic at the last minute I don’t know.  A flaw in my character no doubt….  I’m always pushing the envelope or skirting the edge of danger in one aspect or another.  Some say I like stress but I beg to differ.  I think it’s just a trait I picked up in childhood and can’t seem to shake.    

2013 will be different.  Even though I'm fully acquainted with the ins and outs of accounting my procrastination skills outshine my pencil pushing so I’m training my son to take over the task.  He wants to know all aspects of the business so I’ll pass the  bookkeeping torch readily.  Class for "Small Business Accounting 101" is now in session!

So, now it’s back to the daily grind.  No more stress or deadlines to be anywhere or do anything other than concentrating on orders and making stock for the shop to prepare for an anticipated busy summer.  Once again my nights are free so I'm back at the computer to  tickle the keys and coax out a story or two. 

Lately I’ve been looking through a bunch of old photographs taken at rug schools, hook-ins and retreats.  I must say, I was shocked to see my former self in the pictures.  A few years ago  I was cruising close to 200 lbs.  The pictures really hit home how I used to look before the 30 plus pound drop.  A bit of cutting out this and that and jumping on the trampoline have managed to keep it off for three years now.   I'm happy with the progress I've made and I feel much better but I do need to drop another 20 to be at my optimum weight for my height.   Still, it was a shock to see the round face staring back at me, and that long hair....what was I thinking?

Back in the day when I first opened the shop door I toyed with becoming an accredited Guild Rug Hooking teacher.  I knew the dye class was a prerequisite and felt it would be best to get that under my belt before I’d been dyeing for a decade and was knowledgeable enough to teach the class myself.  So Mary Doig, Susan Leslie and I enrolled in the May 2002 rug school in Truro, NS with teacher Barbie Baker-Dykens for the Dye and ColourTheory class.    

Because I had previously dabbled in oiled painting and came with a knowledge of mixing colour and understood the various processes of wool dyeing though practicing the different techniques numerous times, I completed my assignments quickly and spent most of the day being bored.  We weren't allowed to leave the classroom until everyone finished their tasks and at times that meant well into the evening.  I didn't take any hooking so I did a lot of thumb twiddling, tried to avoid getting into trouble or disturbing the others and did a lot of yawning.  Of course there are always things to learn  and that was great but it wasn't enough to hold me riveted to my chair. I took a lot of pee breaks even though my bladder could have been written up in medical journals as the amazing titanium cavity that it is, but it served as a reasonable excuse to stretch my legs, get a bit of fresh air and nosy about the other classrooms, peek in the doors and envy the students getting to hook for the week.

To be fair, I would like to add that Barbie Baker-Dykens was a good teacher with a room full of visual aids and insight into the various dyeing processes and had an extensive knowledge of colour theory.  For the complete novice she captured their attention and imagination to mold them into dyeing enthusiasts.   

Barbie told me the below photo was a first for her class.  Trying to stave off the doldrums and come up with something different I had plenty of time to create an original idea of dyeing wool to look like woven plaid.  I guess I was showing off a bit while needing something to stimulate and keep my mind from going as soggy as the wool soaking in buckets on the floor.  After dyeing hundreds of yards of wool for the shop, maybe even thousands,  I was only there to grab the certificate and hit the road jack!  I was probably an obnoxious pain in the arse for her, sorry Barbie!


I painted the colours on the wet wool with a foam brush following a uniform pattern, overlapping the various colours to show as plaid.   Customers had told me numerous times that they wished plaids could be cut into smaller strips such as a #3, but because  of the weave, usually a basket or herringbone, they had to be cut wider or they fray badly.  Hooked plaid adds texture as well as colour to a pattern and spot dyed wools were the only way to achieve that look.  I won't be hanging a shingle out and mass producing this technique because it was laborious and not an exact science, but it was incredibly fun to play around with.  Phone a friend and give it a try at home!     

To be expected, there was a bit of bleeding as the colours seeped out around the painted lines but that only added to the appearance.   I had produced two pieces and at one point I cut up the smaller of the two and put it in my scrap basket.  I knew the larger piece of wool was still tucked away somewhere but I couldn't locate it for the story.  But then when Sue, Glenna and Charlene came by to visit for the hook-in/hangout on Saturday, I mentioned I was planning to sell off my stash that's been stored in the bathroom.  I don't hook enough to warrant holding on to two shelves full of wool just on good intentions or because I loved the colour or softness.  Wool needs to be loved and used, not hoarded selfishly. And....there will always be more.... 


The two shelves that housed it all will go in the new space we are currently working on.  The mudding is done and Shane  primed the walls and ceiling this past weekend.     As for wool, when I need to hook the big one, I'll raid the "Great Wall of Wool" in the shop...ownership should have some perks right? 

So, there was a mad dash for the bathroom and we are all crowded in there drooling....except for me as I was tearing up to see my precious wool get ripped from the shelves....my little babies that I'd been coveting for years.  Parting is such sweet sorrow! 


So we were digging around in the piles when I spied a small piece of the  painted plaid peeking out at me. A strange coincidence finding it just as it's needed for this story, but the horseshoe never seems to far away.  
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I saved this piece of wool all these years and just found it today as the gals were over rooting around in my stash of wool. The picture of the wool on the table is very bleached and out of focus so I've added the insert photo to show the colours and pattern created. I dyed the base colour of yellow first and then added the design colours of turquoise and an orange/red..
I downloaded this list from the internet...I thought maybe someone might like descriptions for the various wools we come across. 

Wool Fabric Types

Beaver cloth is a heavy woolen overcoating, napped and pressed down to resemble beaver fur.
Botany/Merino wool is a fine wool fabric made from worsted wool yarn.
Broadcloth is an all woolen or worsted fabric with a velvety feel.
Challis, a light weight soft wool fabric in plain weave, has a printed or woven design or flowers.
Cheviot, usually Scotch wool is a soft, fine wool that is heavier than serge.
Chinchilla cloth is a heavy, spongy woolen overcoat fabric with a long nap that has been rubbed into a curly, nubby finish.
Donegal was originally a thick and warm homespun or tweed woven by Irish peasants in Donegal, Ireland. Donegal now describes the wool tweed that has colorful thick slubs woven into the fabric.
Felt fabric is a compact sheet of entangled, not woven wool or fur fibers. The felt is produced by processing a mat of fibers with moisture, heat, and pressure.
Flannel wool is a soft, lightweight fabric with a nap on one or both sides.
Gabardine is a tightly woven wool twill with a high sheen. This fabric is excellent for tailoring and wears well.
Glen checks are usually seen in menswear and originated in Scotland. It is characterized by a variety of small, even check designs.
Harris tweed is a hand woven fabric from Scotland with a soft feel.
Heather Mixture describes tweeds and homespun’s that have colors of heather and sand of the Scottish heather fields.
Herringbone wool is woven in a twill that is reversed at regular spacing, creating a sawtooth line.
Homespun is a loose, strong, durable woolen woven either by hand or machine with a coarse feel.
Houndstooth check has a four pointed star check in a broken twill weave.
Jersey is a knit fabric that is usually knit in fine wool but can also be found in silk, and man-made fibers.
Laine is French for “wool”.
Lambsdown is a heavy knit fabric that has a spongy fleeced nap on one side.
Loden fabric is a thick, soft, waterproof, windproof, wool used in outerwear that has a characteristic green color.
Mackinaw fabric is a heavy double fabric in striking colored patterns.
Melton, a heavy, thick, short napped woven fabric that has been fulled.
Merino wool is soft and luxurious, resembling cashmere. This term is also used to describe the finest wools.
Oatmeal Cloth is a durable, soft wool with a pebbled face.
Panama Cloth, a plain woven worsted wool, sometimes resembling the texture of Panama hat.
Petersham, a very thick, waterproof woolen coating, usually dark blue, is used for men’s trousers or heavy coats.
Pilot Cloth is a coarse, heavy, stout twilled woolen that is heavily napped and navy blue. Used by seamen.
Poodle Cloth is made with a boucle yarn and resembles the Poodle dog.
Rabbit Hair is used in woven wool’s as a substitute for vicuna to give a soft effect in the fabric.
Sharkskin is woven with warp and filling yarns of alternating white with black, brown or blue.
Tartan is a twilled plaid design, originally Scottish.
Tweed is a rough textured wool, originally homespun and slightly felted. This fabric is sturdy with a mottled color.
Worsted is made up of short pieces woven together, 3” or 4” long,      
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I feel vain posting this picture but I need to offset that heavier me with a more svelte version. I'm pretty covered with a scarf, wrap, long silk top and turtle neck, but I guarantee there is a waist under all the layers.
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Taxes....

4/26/2013

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Sorry I didn't post a blog today (Friday).  I was up so late last night (Thursday) preparing for my tax appointment today (Friday), I ran out of time.   Pretty much missed all day at work...sorry to the customers who came to the shop to find me gone.  Shane was there for the first time on his own...he has a lot to learn but he's a quick study and definitely smarter than a five year old. 

I'm pretty exhausted and mentally whipped by dealing with a week of numbers, so much so I couldn't deal with words.  After a  good night's sleep I'll be back to work on Saturday bright eyed and bushy tailed...happy to have 2012 put to bed, and eager to fully embrace 2013.  It's going to be a great year!  Lots of new things for the shop...more space, more stock, hundreds of new designs, new dye colours, innovative ideas and writing.  Stay tuned!



  
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Hot off the stove new colours!

4/25/2013

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Some monitors will show colours differently.
Today is the last day I have to prepare for my tax appointment tomorrow morning, so I don't have much time to write. 

After drowning in a sea of paper both day and night for the past week, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel!  I'm terrible at bookwork.  I know how to do it, considering I worked as an accounting assistant for 12 years in my former life.  But, the chore lacks luster so the fun stuff is always elbowing out the "work" and I do a lot of good intention thinking....I'll get to it soon.  But soon never happens...until the April 30th deadline looms heavily over my head and I spring into  fevered action, kicking myself for procrastinating yet again.

Next year, 2013 taxes will be different.  We are entering the expenses and the sales slips on a regular basis, or maybe I should say, Shane is entering them.  He's taking over more and more responsibility to untie my time for all that fun stuff, like design, and then maybe some more design.   I love to design! 

So I thought I would put up a bit of eye candy.  Shane has been dyeing up a storm and created four, brand new colours to add to our ever growing shop stash!

From top to bottom, the new green is called "Jade".  The fabulous blue is "Monsoon", the brown is "Walnut" and the yellow is "Saffron". 


Remember, there isn't a colour we can't match.  If you have a paint chip or a piece of fabric you want to colour coordinate in a rug, we can do it!  Our dye kitchen has a lucky horseshoe over the door!  Combined,  Shane and I have over 24 years of dyeing experience! 


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A completed Passion for Paisley

4/24/2013

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By Guest Blogger Charlene Scott
Resembling a twisted teardrop, the kidney-shaped paisley is of Iranian and Indian origin, but its western name derives from the town of Paisley, in central Scotland, a center for textiles where paisley designs were produced. Paisley is a term in England for a design using the boteh, a droplet-shaped vegetable motif of Persian or Indian origin.  Such designs became very popular in the West in the 18th and 18th centuries, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls.  The pattern is sometimes called "Persian pickles" by American traditionalists, especially quilt-makers, or "Welsh pears" in Welsh textiles as far back as 1888. 
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At the 2012 Rug School I took a course with Donna Gass on creating and using Paisley. So I spent a few days coming up with a design, drew it on the backing and went to school with the goal of colour planning the rug. By the end of the week I had a colour plan in mind and had redesigned the two end panels

In November, Mary Doig offered to help me further colour plan and dye for the project.  Mary was a guest blogger a few months ago and talked about the process we went through to dye for this project.

I started hooking the first week of November and finished the whipping the third week of April. It has been a long, slow road and I have learned a lot in the process.  I've discovered that you can have a plan firmly planted in your head at the start but that might not be the colours you end up wanting and using.

I have also learned that when hooking mirror images it is best to do them bit by bit at the same time. I did the first large Paisley completely and by the time I got to the second one, I found I had to rip  it out several times until it more closely reflected the first.

Woman's prerogative and all, I learned that it is never too late to change your mind. The end panel design was changed a third time as the second change did not work for me.  I learned that when using recycled wool you need to be aware of the consistency of how thick or thin it may be and of course, make sure you have enough. I was left with the equivalent of one strip of yellow for the background, which is why you don't see it used in the outside border.  Talk about sweating bullets, that was too close for comfort.

Using these lessons, when I came to the end panels I hooked all the flowers before filling in the background so they would all be fairly uniform. It isn't noticable in the pictures but if you look closely at the rug, the dark colour which started out as eggplant on new wool, became more of a blue purple.  As I ran out of the eggplant early, I used some dark purple I had on hand overdyed with eggplant. The shortage occurred as the colour placement evolved and I used much more of it than first envisioned.

And lastly, I learned to listen to friends and fellow rug hookers for advice. I had it in my head that I was going to whip the rug with a brown, a little darker than my outside rows. Everyone that I spoke to said no and I was told,  "You don't have that colour in your rug so why introduce a new colour". Then it was unanimous that the whipping be in the eggplant colour. So once again I visited my friend Mary and she helped me dye a skein of yarn so I could complete the rug.

I am enrolled in the dye course at the Nova Scotia Guild Rug School in May for a greater understanding of the process and gain a bit of independence in the colour department.  Thanks to Mary for the use of her dyes and time to make this rug the heirloom I hoped it would be.   

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The final dimensions of the rug are 47" x 34". It was hooked in every cut from 3 to 7.
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Wood hand stamp for block-printing traditional "paisley" designs, Isfahan, Iran
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Rug Hooking Bee continued....

4/23/2013

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In July, 1951, the first Hooking Bee was held on the green at Storrowton Village in West Springfield, Mass. It was supervised by Mrs. Winans.  Imagine the work it took to make this day happen; this history in the making; maybe even a record.   One thousand plus women and apparently, one man, all gathered together in the name of rug hooking.   Mind boggling!
           
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What an incredible masterpiece!  Imagine the time and effort to dye for and hook a rug of this size.  I see very little quick and easy background.  This rug is plastered with one delight after another, scrolls, flowers and stylized leaves.   The dedication!  This woman had to have a few burly men to help carry this piece to the hook-in!

I know for a fact that years ago, women were weren't shy about tackling the big rugs.   In our little town of Mahone Bay, many ballroom sized carpets were hooked by local woman for Percy Inglis, who designed the most amazing patterns.  He is the former owner of the Suttles & Seawinds building, and what used to be one of the largest single family homes in the area.  In my time we called it the Quinlan property, for Clara, the proprietor, lived there alone.  I'm not sure of the family history or how the name changed from Inglis to Quinlan but she is obviously a descendent, maybe a niece?  


When we moved into the house on Cherry Lane when I was ten, there was the remnants of a small convenience type store in the front.  I'm not sure if memory is serving me correctly but they might have sold material and threads and that sort of thing.  But there were also boxes of cereal and canned goods on the shelves.  By then no one did any shopping there as everything was old and stale. 

My neighbours kept an eye on her and ran errands so I would sometimes visit when my friend dropped off the mail or groceries.   We were always rewarded with candy, how many decades old is anyone's guess but I was warned not to eat it.  It was dried to a tooth breaking lump that flavour had long since abandoned.  

Clara always wore floor length dresses, big and full that fell off her hips and cascaded outward, possibly the result of a crinoline.  She was a big woman making it difficult for her to get around but I remember the swishing of her dress as she laboured from one area to another.  Her hair was always up in a bun, swirled around and fastened with hair combs.  I remember the way she looked at me, piecing me with her stare, maybe wondering if I was one of the little devils who taunted her.  Most kids were afraid of Clara, she was one of those mysterious recluses that kids dare one another to provoke.  She made me nervous too, the place was always dark and dingy, never any lights on at night except for this one small stained glass pane and during the day all you could see was her head in the large store front window as she warmed her daytime perch. 

Walking through the door was like taking a trip back in the past.  Nothing had changed except the accumulations of dust and grime.  You could smell the burning dust in the heat of the summer as light streamed through the unclad windows.  There was also talk that she never changed her clothing since the era they were sewn in nor had any familiarity with bathing.  There was a distinct pong that carried out the door on the wings of summer breezes and was present for every one of my visits.   When Clara was moved to  a nursing home they sold the contents of the house and the auction drew people from near and far. 

I attended that auction in the eighties, interested in crockery and a flax wheel listed in the paper and had my first insight into the mastery of hand hooked rugs.  I stood in awe to see men climb to the top of step ladders to hold up large rugs and unhooked patterns that Percy Inglis designed.  Back then, I didn't even know what rug hooking was all about but I can remember being suitably impressed as a succession of WOWS escaped my lips.   The auction left a lasting impression and when I started rug hooking I able to connect the dots to an even higher level of respect.  

One of the rugs displayed had  an amazing scalloped outer border with an abundance of intricately shaded roses and posies.  Cabbage sized roses in the center with magnificently hooked, curled leaves and scrolls, so much to see a few moments, the rugs were heavy to hold up and the bidding was swift, so there wasn't a lot of time to take it all in.  The finished rugs fetched high prices and now I know why.  I remember someone commenting that people had attended the auction specifically for the rugs. The large patterns sold as well.  I remember thinking I should buy one but I didn't know what I would do with it.  They were just so pretty, little did I know that in just a few decades, rug hooking would be a huge part of my life.   I'm wondering if any of the rugs or unhooked patterns are at the Settlers Museum here in Mahone Bay or at least pictures thereof.  When they open I'm planning a trip to check it out and I'll pass the information on. 

They also sold off box lots of pattern pieces and design elements that Percy was working on.   One day, a customer came into the shop and said she bought one of the boxes and asked if I would like to have it.  I was delighted and snapped it up and I've been able to adapt some of them into fantastic designs.  Percy's Geometric, Percy's Posies and Percy's Tulips to name a few. 

Patterns of yesteryear were done differently than we do today with red dot, at least this was Percy's way.  They used cut outs to trace around for simpler motifs and for larger clusters, the perforation method.  They glued layers of newspapers, magazine pages and tissue paper until it was thick and durable to work with for repeated use.  They put some sort of wash over the top to thicken it, a varnish perhaps, or maybe oil?  You can see the staining it created in the picture below.  Then they would draw the design on the side with the tissue paper and do perforations every quarter inch or so along the drawn line so when they use their marking element, I assume it was some sort of ink,  it would bleed through to the backing and then they would connect the dots for a filled in pattern.  Can you imagine how long it would take to create a pattern on a rug of size by first making all those holes and then dipping some sort of ink pen into each one to transfer the pattern and then connect all those dots??????? 


In the box was also patterns for large scalloped borders such as you would see on those full room sized rugs,  and templates for oval inserts of varying sizes.   If you would like to see more of the items I can take more pictures.   There are bags of small items, pieces of roses, petals, stems, geometric pieces, Chinese letters, animals and various shapes.  It is also interesting to have his handwriting on a lot of them, his thoughts for colour choices and placement.   Percy's past is a part of my town's history, and generations later he and I are connected by our love of rug hooking. 

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Some of the pattern elements in my little box of treasures from the Quinlan estate auction. You can see the back of one design showing newsprint. Each of these pieces is made up of many layers. The greenish one is a very thin tissue paper with a paisley pattern and the browner patterns is a tissue with a stripe through it.
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You can almost see a skip in this woman's step even though she's toting a heavy load. Imagine the excitement to join a group of rug hooking peers of this size, see old friends and make new.
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Taking notes at a lecture perhaps? Pretty serious faces there....these woman came to have fun but also to learn.
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Making an adjustment to the frame?
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So much fun to do a walk about and see what your neighbour is doing. How could you hook with so much eye candy to feast on? It would take days to meet and greet everyone and share their story.
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Hooking under the hot July sun covered with wool rugs. Hmmmm...now that's a woman dedicated to her craft!
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Gorgeous geometric designs, layers of them!
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A "Little" Bit of Italy.....

4/22/2013

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Last year, three of us went out to dinner to try a new Italian restaurant and the experience didn't quite meet our expectations.   

Newly opened they were ironing out a few bugs and that is to be expected, it's a lot to put a restaurant together, tweaking the menu and  trying to give the place a welcoming décor.  Like Casey, I usually give a restaurant three tries before they're out, after that there isn't much hope it will improve.  

I have this thing about  hating to pay for food when I know I can make it better at home.  If it isn't too costly that's fine, but when it's supposed to  be high end I begrudge paying the bill and the first strike is on the board. I inherited my mother's prowess in the kitchen so I know my way around a recipe and have come up with a few of my own, so when I'm out for a meal on the town I want to be wowed. I want to think...gee, I wish I could make that!  Or, I wonder what they used in this?  I want to get my money's worth that's all and if I can do it better it leaves a bad taste in my mouth in more ways than one. 

The restaurant we were sampling was still waiting on their liquor license and I was told when I made the reservation that we could bring our own wine and pay a corkage fee.  That's fine but when we all showed up with wine, the three bottles were swept from the table, opened and brought back.  Now I'm no drinker and we were out for a casual meal not a bender and when we protested we were told we couldn't take it back home so they would keep it until we came back another time, but of course that was presumptuous and once opened, wine goes off taste.  So it was doomed for the drain or we had to do our best to "drain" it.  Waste not want not right? 

The problem for me, one has to build up a tolerance to alcohol...over time...slowly.   I'm like a baby  in that one smell of the cork is enough to find me under the table or dancing on top of it depending on the mood or possibly the music.   So it hit me like a lead brick before the main course was finished and I don't remember tasting or seeing dessert at all.  Apparently we ordered a round of Tiramisu. 

One thing I do remember as I staggered along the sidewalk was making the announcement that I could make better lasagna with my eyes closed.  So I put my money where my mouth was and held a little dinner party the following Friday evening.    

Back in the day before opening the shop when I had time to play, I loved cooking, throwing dinner parties and making fancy garnishes, so  I thought it would be fun to add a bit of atmosphere to the table  which was one of the complaints at the restaurant.  Bare tables and not that much ambiance made the place feel cold and unfriendly.  We suggested they add a bit of checkered cloth, bistro the place up a bit, but that was met with a rather damp reply.  Maybe we were rude to suggest it but after all that wine our tongues had a mind of their own.


Later I was disappointed to find they'd ordered in dusty rose table cloths, that had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the décor or Italy for that matter.  Personally, I thought dusty rose died in the eighties and wasn't worth resuscitation. Sorry, I'm allergic to the colour and break out in a terrible case of nose-in-the-air. 

And I don't know about the others, but I was a bit put off by the owner/chef walking past our table to go outside for a smoke every twenty minutes or so.  He should have gone out the back door where we would never have been the wiser.  Although I am not a fan of cigarettes I'll I defend your right to smoke them, just don't walk back and forth reeking of them, tainting my sense of smell with their acrid odor.  I'm sorry it just seemed tacky somehow, and considering the couple wanted to present the restaurant as "higher end" it just seemed in bad taste...pardon the pun! 

So I went to the local fabric store and bought red and white checkered material and made the overlapping tablecloths and napkins.  I found a few suitable wine bottles and spent an hour dripping candle wax down the necks by hand; in this age of dripless candles I had to fake the bistro look!  It was "Little" Italy with crusty bread, grapes, Chianti a  broad spectrum of opera and  classical music (be still my heart, Pavarotti),  a whole lot of Parmesan and a menu fit for any homesick Italian.     

We ate by candlelight and my lasagne was supreme, at least I thought so and I think the evening was a success.   I love cooking and have pulled off Italian dinner parties before.  There was this one party  with ten friends crowded around our table and one guest watched  with amazement as I delivered the many serving dishes heaped with  Bruschetta, Cannelloni, Spaghetti Alla Cabonara,  All' Amatriciana, Lasagna, and Fettuccini Alfredo.  As I removed my apron and seated myself he asked, "My goodness that's a lot of good looking food, do you have Italian heritage?" to which I replied, "No.....an Italian cookbook."

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Poppy Spray by Margaret Tupper

4/20/2013

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By Guest Blogger Margaret Tupper
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Poppy Spray 33" x 25"
Once again I was delighted to open an email and find one of my designs in full hooked splendour!  Pink, and any variation thereof, is tops with me.  Throughout my life and during my brief obsession with beads I always veered toward anything pink.  I once read if you wish to portray the ultimate in femininity, frame your face with pink, either with clothing or jewellery.  

The hooking in this piece is definitely note worthy.  The curl ups on the petals were done to perfection.  Margaret really has an artist eye in that she understands the way light and shadows work to achieve a high degree of realism.   This drawing was simple and unassuming in it's line state to which Margaret added the colour in a highly effective way.  You would walk around this rug on the floor as not to crush the petals!    She has another one of my patterns and  I can't wait to see how she will breathe life into it.   All I can say is, "Margaret Tupper...you can hook my patterns anytime!"
 
Margaret 's message to me:

I hook with the Nicholsville  Rug  Rats,  You made mentioned on  your website that you would like to see completed pieces of your designs.  Here is a picture of your Poppy Spray pattern completed, I hooked the poppies with Cushing dyed wools; a combination  off Cherry, Garnet, and  Scarlet. The background was  one of your formulas,  Aubergine from the SkyBluePink With A Green Smell dye book.....a perfect background shade.  I used a number4 cut. A great  piece to work on.  I enjoyed it very much.  Hope I did it justice.  I also have your Tina's Roses pattern but have not started as yet.  Hope to see you soon. 

Your fellow rug hooker,

Margaret                                                       
   

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A first and the last......

4/19/2013

1 Comment

 
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Geez...the huge glasses....and count those dimples!
Back about 24 years ago I was dabbling with oil  paints, trying to create the great masterpiece that would catapult me into the art world. Most of the stuff I created ended up in the basement to scare the mice away but every now and then there was one that was worthy of a frame.  

I really liked the style of William De Garthe and tried my hand at ships coming out of the mist and men fishing off the grand banks but my painted oceans left little to be desired.  And then I discovered Joseph Purcell from Lunenburg who became my mentor even through he never met me.  I tried to  duplicate the haunting realism in his waves of the deep.  His slashes of a palette knife created surf that left me breathless.  The light shining through the pipeline of each wave curl, the frothy crest and the motion of heaving and rolling as if the sea was a living, breathing entity, captured my soul.  Tela Purcell, his wife, told me that women usually don't like the floor to ceiling painting of her husband's deep ocean masterpiece. She said they aren't comfortable staring into the face of so much water.  Well I don't know about the rest of the female species, but I loved it!  I could feel the motion and swells as if on a swing, rising high and then falling.  I was head over heels in love, but the huge painting had a  $39,000 price tag, so I decided a little crush was the better way to go and bought a small 8 1/2" x 11".  After a quarter of a century I finally had an original Purcell.  I don't know why I'm so drawn to his work and mesmerized by his oceans when I can't  swim a lick and have a life long fear of being in water  over my head.    

I've had a few experiences with near drowning.  Once at  the Mahone Bay pool in the early eighties.   I could do a bit of froggy paddle in the shallow end but watching the kids spring off the diving board into the deep, pop up and swim to the side in mere seconds gave me a false sense of ability.  So I dove off, sunk to the bottom and stayed there for what seemed like an eternity.  Apparently I have the floating skills of a rock and it wasn't a good time to find out.   I heard the whistle blow to clear the pool as I began to slowing inch my way to the top and by the time my head breached the surface I was just about gone.  There was more water in me than the pool and I was choking and spitting and thrashing wildly.  They threw in a life preserver which I had the where-with-all to grab and was hauled to the side like a beached whale.  It was family swim and all the little kids and moms were lined along the edge looking at me as if I was some strange, deep bottom creature, never before seen.  To add to the humiliation, I was lectured by the guard not to pull that again in front of an audience of preschoolers....not one of my finest moments.

Those who don't study their history are doomed to repeat it so one day at Sweetland beach I paddled a bit too far out over my head so when I tired to set my feet down, the distance between the bottom and the surface was over my 5' 7" height.  The depth  was probably only an inch taller than me but I  panicked and start drowning yet again.   I'm trashing around and screaming as I bobbed up and down totally ignored because I was so close to shore, but on my third trip under someone finally realized I wasn't fooling around and dove in to save me, well he actually just ran in a few feet.    Another one of life's embarrassing moments but hey, another story to tell.   

Out of three kids, none of us can swim.   Our father being the classic worry wart, who suffered debilitating cramps in cold water, never allowed us to have the full beach experience.  Any time the water reached our knees, he would be shouting from the sand, "Don't go out any farther, you'll drown and I won't be able to save you!!!!!"  The panic in his voice set up a mental block that water was dangerous so that ended any chance of learning to swim.  I know it's fear and not a lack of physical ability that impedes my aquatic skill because during the stupid teenage years, I had a few beers and was able to comfortably swim back and forth to the Clearland Lake raft.  I was like a stealth missile, smooth and confident, steering toward the target with ease. Now I don't recommend water spots while under the influence but I was young; just making a point that  psychological bonds can hold you back even though you are more than capable of breaking them.

Like all good parents, mine sent us for swimming lessons but they were taught in the early morning in the  freezing saltwater of our harbour and on top of that, or maybe I should say at the bottom of that, was a filthy brown sludge that oozed up between our toes.  All of five on that first day of class, as the murkiness and jelly fish surrounded me, I asked the instructor....."Julie, what's that brown stuff?"  She spared no feeling when she  simply replied "Shit".  Back in the day before our sewage treatment plant, all the toilets  emptied into the harbour.  Well that was it for me!   So later when the instructors at Brownie camp tried to throw me out of the boat to get my swimming badge I screamed and bawled like a baby until they rowed me to shore.  That was pretty much my last chance at swimming lessons.  So I'm a life jacket kind of sailor, with a heavy respect for the water.
  

Being content to be an observer, I tried my hand at creating its beauty through paint.  Try as I might, I just couldn't manipulate the paint to express the wild energy the ocean exudes.  So I decided maybe landscapes would be easier and took up painting farm scenes, trees and houses.  The above painting was called "Old Milk Cans" after the two rusted cans in the foreground next to a broken down wooden wheelbarrow in front of a deserted homestead with broken window panes and missing doors.  I painted in oils so I had several days of editing before the drying set in so I played with it until I was happy.   I also painted a scene with a rusted  abandoned truck living out its days in a field called "The Last Run".  I wonder what ever became of this as I have nothing to show for those days when I sniffed oil paints for a hobby. 

There was a charity event for a $200.00 and under sale at the Lunenburg Art Gallery and on a lark I submitted my painting.  I never intended to sell it, or maybe I just didn't think it was good enough, but I thought the experience would be fun, maybe rub a few elbows of real artists and learn something through osmosis.  
So  I attended the fanfare of opening night without any expectations.  No purchases were allowed  until the show was  officially opened but prospective buyers had been hovering around their choices as not to loose out.  So as soon as the curator of the gallery completed his speech a man pretty much ran to the wall behind me and grabbed my painting.  Everything was pretty much a blur after that. 

The man, Mr. David Crouse, said he was in the evening before during the preview and fell in love with it.  I was flattered beyond words and posed for the local paper to take pictures but it didn't seem real, thank goodness this picture exists to prove it happened.  Now, I don't want to take away from my shining moment but I did notice that my painting was the largest one hung in the gallery.  The other seasoned artists brought smaller pieces, like in the picture below my painting, a size to fit the price tag.  For the $199.95, my larger piece was darn good value as the frame had cost me $55.00 and the gallery took a hefty cut for charity, but that's okay, I was happy and got treated like a real, honest to goodness artist for the first time in my life.  It was a taste of things to come and I liked the flavour. 

Weirdly, it was the very last time I painted. I guess life got in the way or maybe starting out on top was a good time to make an exit.  I didn't have the self esteem I have today, and maybe deep down I felt it was a fluke and I didn't want to sully my new found fame with a line of failures.  It was convoluted but confused thinking.


I met my husband shortly after and life became filled with couple things, so the oil tubes and brushes have been gathering dust. I'll have to be content to enjoy nature in the flesh, in the flowering of my garden, and ocean view of my window....

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Morris Tapestry Lion by Susan Leslie (In her own words)

4/18/2013

2 Comments

 
Photos by Kent Nason
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“Forest Tapestry Lion”, designed by William Morris, pattern adapted by Christine Little, Encompassing Designs, Rug Hooking Studio, Mahone Bay, hooked by Susan Leslie....... 30” x 41” Hooked with #4, 5 & 6 recycled wool.

After many years of admiring and lusting after the beautiful hooked rugs produced by our Maritime artisans, I finally took a beginner course in 1995.  Instantly hooked, it has been a wonderful obsession for over the past ten years. I joined the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia that same year and have attended their Rug School six times. I work almost exclusively in recycled wool, most of it purchased at “Frenchy’s”, our famous Maritime used clothing outlets. This is one of the aspects of rug hooking I enjoy the most: turning cast offs into functional and decorative “works of art”!

In 2003 at the annual Rug School put on by the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia, teacher Doris Norman gave a presentation on the William Morris Class she would be teaching at the next Rug School in 2004.  When the application forms came out I signed up and was lucky enough to get my first choice. I briefly considered designing my own pattern, but my friend Christine Little, who owns Encompassing Designs Rug Hooking Studio in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, was in the process of designing several William Morris rug patterns.  She convinced me to hook the “Forest Tapestry Lion” and she also supplied me with the Majic Carpet Dye formula for the lion: “Max Brown” from her then unpublished dye book, “SkyBluePink With A Green Smell”.

Several years ago I attended a class at Rug School on hooking scrolls and another one on fine leaf shading at Spruce Top Rug Hooking Studio, so I was familiar with the concept of “turnovers” on leaves… and painfully aware of how many there were on this pattern!  I had learned that the easiest way to achieve the definition required for a good turnover is to use two different swatches.  In this case I used Majic Carpet Dyes, 6 values each of the “Sage Green” and “Spruce Green” from Susan Logue’s Past & Present Antique Colours & Spots”dye book.  I dyed each formula over two pieces of white, two chartreuse, one light beige and a light beige tweed. The resulting six values of each colour gave me more than enough wool to work with, a good separation of values and just the right definition for the turnovers.

The navy background came from several different medium and dark navy skirts married together and set in the dye pot.  The flowers and the lion’s mane were all hooked with wool left over from
various projects and the border was hooked in one of the “Max Brown” values left over from the lion.    

During class I referred to all the visual aids our teacher, Doris Norman, had on display.  With her help and encouragement I started hooking the acanthus leaves although I spent the bulk of class time working on the lion’s face.  Never having taken a “fine cut animals” class, it was serendipity to have just such a course being taught down the hall, and I visited it to look at their visual aids and to pick the teacher’s brain a little.

Over the next two months I finished the rug at home and I was very pleased with the way the lion’s face turned out.  After gaining confidence hooking the many leaves, I decided to “un-hook” the first few I did and give them another try.  The finished rug hangs in a place of honour in my den where I hook every day.


By Guest Blogger Susan Leslie

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Susan R. Leslie
1957 - 2007


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Remembering Susan.......

4/18/2013

1 Comment

 
"People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were traveling abroad." --Marcel Proust
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This is just a little something I threw together for Susan's memorial gathering.  I'm not much for speeches and just couldn't send her off without a few words.  The border represents pieces she's hooked; most are her designs and a few are mine. 
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Armenia Corkum picks a "Bushel of Love"

4/17/2013

2 Comments

 
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Armenia Corkum isn't just another rughooker.  She is special beyond words...with infectious good humour and sweetness of character. She is my little rug hooking pet and considering how much I love my puppies, that's a pretty strong term of endearment.  

She's been coming to my shop almost from day one.  I remember the first time she walked through my door  to check out the new kid in town.  We clicked immediately and that's never changed.


She's been a regular at our hook-ins but now finds driving at night difficult so if she can't catch a ride with another hooker, she drops by for the Saturday gathering to  catch up, hook and chat.  We always end our time together with a hug and I love you. 

This is Armenia's lasted completed project. She's quite a prolific rug hooker although she wouldn't describe herself as such.   She can be a bit down on herself because a few of her friends said she wasn't a very good hooker and I tell her I'll spank her if she says anything negative in my presence, but maybe I should just spank her friends!  We laugh, but I'm serious!  Armenia is a beautiful rug hooker!  All her pieces are  immaculate and special.  She's sold a few of her finished rugs but mainly hooks for the joy and socialization it provides.  She gets around that girl...hooking with several groups;  the Riverport group, the Hebbville group and  my Main Street Hooker gang. 

This pattern was first designed for Jean Morse many years ago. She hooked it for a family member and it was lovely, but I think Armenia's is just a bit more colourful and vibrant, just what this pattern needed.   Armenia was waiting for me to custom design a lily pattern but decided to do this one first, to welcome in the feeling of spring and sunny skies after such a dreary winter.  It was in my closest for some time, folded and forgotten along with a few other, not up to par, patterns so I offered them to my group as freebies.  This Bushel of Love pattern had been stained pretty badly when I accidentally spilled black dye over it so and I couldn't hang it on the rack. Although it didn't impact on the design it was messy looking and I have my pride!  Armenia liked this pattern and I said "it's yours" and we started talking colour! 

There is a lot of whimsy going on here.  The girl is picking hearts from the tree to fill up the bushel basket on the ground, thence the name Bushel of Love.  There are some fallen hearts on the ground and the border is a swirling heart garland, all connected by a line from heart bottom to bottom and are  hooked in several different tones and textures of red for depth.  The hearts on the tree and in the basket were hooked with a spot dyed formula called Geranium.


The outside border is a dark navy plaid that tied in beautifully with the blue sky and lush green grass.   The tree trunk is a mixed blend of leftover brown spots, solids and textures hooked vertically to enhance the length.   The stylized curled branch gives the tree a bit of whimsy and holds three, nested, little baby birds crying for a worm.  The sky was done beautifully with a swirled effect and a custom dyed abrashed wool.  The hat of golden yellow adds the perfect hit of sunlight.

The girl is on tiptoes reaching the branches and the wind has caught her dress and hat ribbon for a bit of movement.  Armenia did a grand job hooking this piece and I loved watching it come to life through her skill and colour choices.  A simple design that tells a story and creates a smile all at once.   One wonders who the girl will give these symbols of love to, maybe it's Valentine's day and many men await her heart.    This pattern and its celebration of love was the perfect fit for Armenia as she loves everyone, especially a good looking man.  She thinks Shane is the cat's meow and we love to joke with her at the hook-ins when she speaks of a some male in her family or community.  We all ask in unison "was he good looking Armenia?" and she says, "Oh yes, he was handsome", in that devilish way of hers. 


After all these years Armenia is still effervescent and bubbly. She loves life and treats every day as a gift to be enjoyed.  I challenge anyone to spend time with her without having it rub off.  Too bad the pharmaceutical companies could bottle what she has!  To me Armenia is tops and it's just too bad the world couldn't take a page out of her book, it would be a friendlier and safer place to be...... 

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Reaching for love in all the right places! Standing on a bed of Meadow spot it is a perfect compliment to the abrashed sky.
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Three little birdies with mouths open waiting for momma bird to bring home the bacon!
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A gorgeous spot called Silver Brown gives this wooden basket a sense of realism. The hearts on the tree and in the bushel basket were hooked with a spot dyed formula called Geranium.
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A bundle of Heart Red dyed over Hound's Tooth, Herringbone, Glen Plaid and solid made up the hearts on the border. Geranium was used for the small hearts on the tree and in the bushel basket. The Meadow spot was perfect for the grass mixed with a bit of this and that leftovers. The sky was a new abrashed created just for her.
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A close-up of some of the heart garland border. Textures and solids all over-dyed with Heart Red to add interest. From left to right, the first is a herringbone, the second is Glen Plaid and the third is a solid red.
This pattern is available on the website for purchase under Christine Little Signature Designs
The Size: 24 1/2" x 32"     Burlap - $41.95   Linen - $56.63
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Life Magazine  - July 1951 Rug Bee

4/16/2013

1 Comment

 
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All gathered in the name of rug hooking!






















I was doing some research into old fashioned rug hooking bees when I came across these photos from an article in Life Magazine July 1951.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the published text but I think the photos speak for themselves.  

Can't you hear the chatter as the ladies saunter from frame to frame to admire one another's handiwork.  Talk of designs and colour, sharing suggestions and telling the story of the piece they are working on.  People from near and far sharing the love and tales of rug hooking. 

I wonder what the large pieces are in the middle on the grass....maybe partially hooked room sized rugs?  Maybe unhooked patterns for sale?    A mystery!

One picture had a caption that said there were a thousand plus women and a few men attending this summer day outing in a church yard somewhere in the United States. I can only imaging how far down the block the cars were parked!   Can you imagine that many people under the sun all sharing a passion for rug hooking?   We'd think we died and went to hooker heaven! 

Most rug schools around here average 100 people converging on a venue so ten times that amount seems astronomical.   We don't even have that many people living in Mahone Bay....I think the last census put us at 963 but some have come and some have gone so I'm not sure what the head count is now. 

Seeing this picture greased some wheels that had been seized  for a bit. In the past I've entertained thoughts of organizing a similar function here in Mahone Bay.  Why not?   If all goes well, make it an annual affair!  We have a fabulous venue that could handle large volumes of people and bring more attention to our beautiful seaside town.  

And there is a lot of rug hooking support in our tiny community.  Two rug hooking shops, Spruce Top and Encompassing Designs and the North American Rug Hooking Museum is only down the road a bit.  Our area is richly saturated with rug hooking so there should be a great turn out and maybe people from other provinces and the states would mosey on by for a little get to know you,  put faces to names and do a bit of hooking hobnobbing.  Any excuse to play with wool right?  We have a hook-in this Wednesday evening and I’ll call for volunteers to head up a committee to look into the viability of holding a one day, old fashioned Rug Bee.  Fingers crossed and I'll keep you posted. 
 
Most rug hookers would crawl naked over glass to get together and share their passion, do a bit of show and tell and maybe swap a piece of wool.  A day of pure fun.  Of course it would great to be outside but weather is always iffy so it’s best to plan for inside and hope for great weather for an outside stroll, or maybe even haul your frame under a tree and pull loops under a blue sky.  I’ve been saving ideas for this sort of thing and now the creative juices are cascading out of my insomnia, riddled brain.   If any of you have any suggestions I'll throw them into the mix and if/when this idea gets off the ground, we can pull off the best darn Rug Bee there ever was.

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Totally engrossed her in work this woman is doing a traditional stepped line in hit and miss fashion.
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It almost looks like a lecture theatre behind this woman as she gives a demonstration for dyeing wool. The pieces on the makeshift washline are definitely odds and ends of recycled wools.
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Possibly an interested buyer. I'm sure these events attracted a number of interested rug enthusiasts. There just might be a bit of haggling going on.
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A sweet little girl is busy making a rug....possibly for her trousseau. This pattern has all the classic floral motifs, the center medallion and the border of scroll shapes that lock together. We've all seen similar patterns.
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The same girl examining a strip of wool. This is a great shot of her set of bars, made to fit her body length. Comfort is always key.
    “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” Ryunosuke Satoro
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Today is rant Monday!

4/15/2013

3 Comments

 
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off"  Gloria Steinem
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I just found this blog in my draft folder.  I'd written it awhile ago when I was still puffed like a threatened cobra.  I've pared it down and cleaned it up and left just enough to get the point across without all the venom I felt when it happened.  Every now and then a good rant cleans the pipes. Life is filled with ups and downs and when you're in business sometimes you see a bit more of the shadier side of life.  
 
Two customers came into the shop and spent an hour looking at every pattern in the store.  Not to buy, to copy. Once they found "the one", they wanted to get the feel for the size before they went home and copied it off the internet.  I was listening to their comments and I gathered from their conversation that between them and one another partner in crime, they'd recently copied at least seven of my designs.  One of the three was on her third copy of a particularly fetching pattern, hooking one each for every child and was  now considering doing the same for the grand kids.  I'm not some ostrich with my head in the sand, I know people are copying my designs, but how many grey cells do you have to lose before you say it in front of me like it’s perfectly natural to pass them around like a free for all?
  

I felt pricked, as if they stuck my soul and every bit of passion for this business drained out of me. After they left I stood in the middle of the shop  deflated, wondering,  why the hell am I doing this?  I  swear I try to think of all the wonderful customers who are honest, and I try not to let the negative ruin all the positive energy you’ve helped me build but.....and there's always that damn but....for some reason this drags me down into a pit so dark that I just want to slam the door shut and post a note that says,  Closed!  Good-bye!  Adios!  Hasta la vista baby!  Sayonara! Les adieux!  Au revoir!  So long!  Farewell! Auf Weidersehen!  And good bloody night!! 

So I stomped upstairs, sat at the computer and wrote down my thoughts.  Hoping for a bit of release from the lump expanding in my throat.   My fingers were like bolts of lightning, hitting the keys with contempt as I poured out my heart and anger all over the screen.  Let me tell you, it was scathing!  When I finished I felt as if I'd run a marathon.  I was exhausted! 
  

I read what I'd written and something said, don't post, step back, wait five minutes until the boil turns to a simmer.   Don’t be too hasty as people don’t want to hear anything negative about rug hooking.   So I walked away from the keyboard like a smoldering gun and managed to get on with the rest of my day.  
 
You are probably wondering what I said to those women?   Well, I'd like to say I kicked them out and  asked them never to return...but surprisingly I said nothing and I'll tell you why.  I can read people and these weren't women to educate or mess with.   They may have been seniors and I could have taken them both with one hand behind my back, but they had a collective chip on their shoulder that I wouldn't have been able to knock off.   The one bickered over paying the price for a $2.50 scrap of burlap and the other one accused me of trying to rip her off when she asked for a yard of linen and I said it was $32.95.  She eyed me suspiciously and said, "How come my friend was just in and she only paid $16.00?"   It was said like I was some kind of crook, making up prices as I went along.  I told her that it was probably burlap, not linen.  She didn't apologize for her  sharp tone, just said a begrudged "oh" and then hummed and hawed over paying the price for linen.  Her friend said, "Linen ain't rough, ya know ya hate burlap."  So she handed over her credit card and we completed the sale and she grabbed up the bag haughtily as if the entire experience offended her.  

I could tell  my little copyright speech would have gone in one ear and out the other, not making an ounce of impact and I also sensed I might have come out at the shitty end of the stick.  They had an edge like the world was out to get them and they were ready to come out guns a blazing if someone crossed their path.    And they  both acted like they could cut the head off a chicken without blinking and I was out numbered......  I think their last names might have been Hatfield and McCoy?   
 
Anyway, I’ve been complaining for years I don’t make enough money to pay myself a salary.  The business has overhead and employees to support so there was never anything leftover for me.  So I can't help thinking.....if I had all the money for the patterns that have been copied from the website or duplicated and passed around off legitimately purchased ones, I might have been able to financially compensate myself for all the hard work I do.  And maybe my husband wouldn’t have to bail me out at year end because I’m in the red again.  My accountant says, I always cry when I get my taxes done even though I don't have to pay in....well I would give anything to pay a crap load of taxes to the government…it would mean I'm making profit!!!!.  

The rug hooking business might look glamorous and pardon my bias, my shop is beautiful beyond words, but in thirteen years it hasn't afforded me any kind of monetary gain.   It’s a craft business in a small population based area, not a large center with unlimited people crossing the threshold.  If I wanted to work 24 hours a day and do everything myself maybe I could draw a pay cheque but I can’t physically do it all so I work for the occasional slap on the back and please know I'm not bitching about this, it is what it is and I love my shop and what I do!   
  
Anyway, this is the scaled down version, edited until unrecognizable from the initial, internal explosion.   I couldn’t let the incident go by without ranting a bit but I tamed it for those who still believe the glass is half full.  I'm in retail so I'm on the slightly jaded side of things after thirteen years in business witnessing curl your toes moments......maybe I'll slip a story out every now and then just to be scandalous but not mentioned any names to protect the guilty and least deserving.
I always tell it like it is and can’t stop now and even though I get upset when something happens I still like to make it into a humorous story because that's the way I compartmentalize stress.  Isn't that how most comedians get their shtick? 

So I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to anyone who has done this, plans to do this or knows someone who does this....please, please, please…if you are copying my patterns or anyone's for that matter, please stop!  The shops can only survive in this business if they are supported.  Every pattern copied is a shovel of dirt on their company's grave.    To those of you who come by patterns legitimately,  every rug hooking shop and designer salutes you!

And then low and behold, a gentlemen emailed me the other day to ask what I would charge if they copied some elements of one of my designs and incorporated their changes.   I almost fell off my chair!!!  This was the first time anyone in thirteen years had asked the question.  I was floored and didn't respond for two days because I had to get my head around his complete and utter honesty.  We chatted and settled on an arrangement,  and then believe it or not, two days later someone else contacted me with a similar question.  Maybe being on Facebook and writing these blogs is making me more of person than a faceless retailer.......maybe in this case familiarity breeds respect.       
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A book to remember...a memory to cherish!

4/13/2013

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Copyright 1925 by The Platt & Munk Co., Inc. 28th Edition

As a small child, a book just like this one captured my heart.  The classic stories were page turners, but more interestingly, the same book had captivated my father’s imagination as a boy and then lay tattered and dusty in my uncle’s attic, waiting to be rescued and loved once again.  

All of five at the time, we were visiting my Uncle Howard who was really our great uncle but that was a mouthful so uncle he was;  although I will say he was great in every sense of the word and by far my favourite relative. 

On beautiful summer Sundays, my family would pile in the car and head to the old homestead on the outskirts of town.  My uncle's property ran along the Great Ridge and overlooked  Mahone Bay town center and mouth of the harbour.  As a small child I stand on the crest of the hill and overlook the countryside feeling amazed at how very big the whole world was.


Visiting my uncle was like finding a time capsule and crawling inside.  He lived with the bare minimum his entire life, by choice not necessity and very little had been added or updated since the house was built in the late 1780's  He didn't own a refrigerator let alone indoor plumbing which was an adventure in itself.  You haven't experienced life until you've peeked down the holes of a three seater outhouse.   Amazing stuff to a child who only knows the miracle of the one seated flusher. The drive home was always full of questions and I guess I obsessed over the workings of the outdoor toilet enough to leave a lasting memory although I don't recall the answers. 

Like why is there more than one hole?  Surely two people didn't sit together at one time, let alone three?  Must have been crowded and stinky, or did different people, one at a time sit at a hole until the pile got too high and then moved to the next?  Or were the holes of a particular size to fit the different bottoms, small, medium and large?  And where was the toilet paper? And why was there always a catalog or magazines with missing pages?   Why all the flies?  We never visited my Uncle  in the winter and I couldn't imagine sitting out there as the cold wind howled through the large cracks in the walls.  The small building was also tilting precariously backwards like a leaning tower of pee..sa.  Sorry......

The house was wired but only for lighting and a wood stove heated the place and cooked his meals, even during the humid part of summer.  He would fire up the stove and fry us a hotdog and heat a can of beans for dinner and I thought it was the greatest place ever.   I would sit on his lap in his rocking chair and if I close my eyes I can still smell the smokiness of his shirt  and hear his laugh. There was a cold cellar where he kept beer for my dad and milk for us, chilled as cold our fridge.  All the comforts one could need and adventure to boot.

What a treasure trove for an imaginative kid like me. 
I wasted little time asking permission to head up the stairs to wonderland so that I could rummage around in the bootee left from  my father’s childhood and even my uncle's as this was his family home.  Out of financial necessity, my grandmother had accepted board with my uncle after our grandfather, his brother, had been killed in the war in 1943.  She raised four small children in this crowded, one and a half story Cape, with no convenience, no insulation and no running water or bathroom facility.   


My father and his three siblings shared the larger bedroom in the  upstairs,  which also doubled as their play area.   I remember listening to stories of pee freezing in the chamber pots and  cuddling together stave off hypothermia in the  middle of winter.  This room was a link to my father’s past, where everything remained as it was abandoned.  I was a fledgling archeologist, uncovering the mysteries of the past and unearthing childhood treasures of another time.  The attic was  peppered with metal toys, old dolls, shabby teddy bears, skates, baseball bats, balls, sleds and last but not least hundreds of old books and magazines.  Cartons of them lined the eve walls, used as insulation against the cold winter winds, untouched since the day they were packed away.  I rummaged excitedly through those musty boxes intent on what I might discover. 

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Chicken Little on of my all time favourites!!
There it lay, sandwiched between a math text and a book on etiquette, a very special book indeed, one that  would become my constant companion. Sadly, I can't recall it’s title, but it was hard bound and covered with a blue material.  The pages were filled with  popular children’s stories of that time which aren't politically correct for today.  To name a few, The Three Little Pigs, The Little Red Hen, Chicken Little, The Story of Little Black Sambo, and my all time favorite,  The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  With only minimal assistance I was able to read the simple wording while my eyes drank in the wonderment of the brightly coloured artwork that adorned each page.  At night, while I was supposed to be sleeping, I would read and reread each story, either huddled under the covers with a flashlight or by squinting with the aid of the moonlight streaming through the bedroom window. Before long, I was able to recite each story by heart, never tiring of revisiting each tale and the  surprises they held.  While I slept, my precious book rested with me, hidden under my pillow with my picture of George (story from a previous blog) to ensure that they would both be the first things to greet me in the morning.

Through constant handling the pages were dog eared or torn, and my older sibling ripped off the front cover in one of her tirades, leaving the book in a sad state of repair.   It was old and worn but still held the wonderment and magic to enchant me.  I can't remember what fate it might have succumbed to but it probably got thrown in the garbage as its condition worsened. I dragged it around like a tattered old security blanket so it was probably weaned off me with a quick chuck in the bin.  Unfortunately, mother is gone now, and with her the answer to my question, but the wonderful memories of reading those fanciful stories will always be with me.  

A few years ago, I searched for a copy of this children's tome in every antique book store I came across and spent many hours on the internet trying to track it down.   The  search was difficult when I couldn't offer the actual name of the book, only the stories between the covers.  And then, one night my search landed a result on Little Black Sambo.  Someone on EBay was selling a close representative of my beloved book!   It was slightly larger in size and it was covered in a green cloth instead of blue with a picture of kittens on the cover, but inside, the artwork was the same, the stories were the same, except for the addition of The Kittens Who lost their Mittens but let me tell you, I wasn't quibbling over an extra story.  I bought the book on the spot and haunted the post office until it arrived. 

Once the book was in my hot little hands, it was obvious it was a different printing than the one I had but everything else was the same including the inside cover artwork.  You can't imagine how I felt, rediscovering such an emotionally significant part of my past.  I was gleeful, just like that first time when I discovered it in my uncle's attic. .  I went to bed early and curled up with my precious book and read it from cover to cover, out loud to my pups. wishing I'd had it to read to Shane when he was a boy....ah...maybe grand children someday.... 

The stories were still inside my head and the words
so familiar!  I welled up a few times as the memories flooded to the surface.  I remember crying as Little Black Sambo said "Oh, please Mr. Tiger, don't eat me up", and then screeching and clapping as the tigers chased one another around the tree until they turned into a big pool of melted butter for their pancakes. 

I screamed for Peter rabbit to run as
Mr MacGregor chased him down, and I so feared the little Gingerbread boy wouldn't make it back home...calling hurry, hurry, hurry home.   They sure don't write em like they used too.......

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The Story of Little Black Sambo
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The Gingerbread Boy
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The artwork inside the front and back covers.
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Peek a boo...peek a boob nightmare........

4/12/2013

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I’m a hooking fool!  How many people do you know that would keep on hooking as pain sears across their chest like a space shuttle entering the atmosphere? The answer would probably be just one....and it would be me!   

I’ve mentioned how hard I fell that first time I hooked, seeing the sun come up three days in a row as I obsessed my way through that first rug.  Well, that’s just the way I roll.  When I’m hooking I’m in the zone and little can distract me from the deed.  Everything I do gets 110% and not much can get in the way, accept maybe a potential heart attack.  
 
Back in the day, before the shop, when the passion of rug hooking burned like a fuel soaked fire, I worked feverishly as everything else around me fell to ruins.  Dishes piled up,  beds weren't made or sometimes slept in and the house looked like a bomb exploded.  And it may sound strange, but sometimes through the excitement of it all, I'd forget to breathe properly, being reduced to short gasps of very shallow breaths.  You can only do this for so long before the cramping starts.  I had a bad frame that didn’t tilt or move and as it rested on my lap it was on a slight decline so the part closest to my body was higher than the part that rested on my knees.  So I was sort of up over the frame to get to the work.  Not a comfortable position for the long term and being overly endowed meant a bit of weight in the wrong place, cutting off the ability to breath which spelled a recipe for disaster.  
 
So I feel this bit of a dull ache begin to form and I complained to hubby that I was feeling uncomfortable.   Of course I continued to hook so the feeling  grew and began moving across my chest in a pronounced tightness with a sharp pain.  So I complained out loud again while I massaged it a bit.  We were both watching TV and I can't blame his lack of worry when I continued to hook.  The discomfort persisted and gradually got worse and then I noticed that my breathing was coming in short gasps and I started to cough between each one.  But did I stop?  My chest is really hurting now and the coughing was annoying.....I couldn't hear the show. 


So I stopped for a few seconds, sat up straight  and took a few deep breaths that seemed to help just enough to extinguish any real concern and I went back to hooking. 
 
Well, the pain starts back up again, progressing faster than before and I
'm getting more uncomfortable by the second....and worry is creeping in.   This had never happened before, maybe I’d suffered through a bit of discomfort from my tight bra strap but a little loosening always fixed it.  This was different, up a bit higher in the chest and when I started to feel like I was choking I decided to get up and stand and then went to the sofa to lie down for a bit.  Hubby looked at me seriously now, I'd stopped hooking, nothing short of a house fire could tear me away from my rug.  He asked if we should call a doctor and I whined a bit but felt sure I would be okay after a short rest.

Well that didn’t happened and fear started to worm its way in.  Slowly at first as denial tried to push back the advance but my breathing was raspy and strained and my chest was on fire.  It was time to wave the white flag so I croaked to hubby…I think I’m having a heart attack.  Take me to the hospital.  
  
So we get in the car and I suffer all the way to emergency. It was like a bad case of gas but far worse in that it hurt to breathe as well.  That was one long drive and I wondered if I would make it, if this was it for me.  Well, obviously we did and admitting took my information and my clothes from the waist up, stretched me out on a bed and hooked me up to the heart monitor.  So far so good, I was in the best place if it was an attack, although I hoped I wouldn't be hearing any Code Blues.   
 
I was resting comfortably and starting to feel secure when everyone left to deal with an influx of patients from a traffic accident.  People were running down the hall and I could hear loud talking.    It was a full moon and customarily a busy time for emergency.   I was now forgotten.
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A crowded triage department is no problem if one is covered up or concealed behind a pulled curtain.  I was left out in the open with no Johnny shirt or blanket to hide my naked chest.   I have no call button and I’m mortified to see people walking by, not medical staff either, but  visitors for patients in the unit.  I do my best to cover my bare chest but I was told to lie still and really, my skinny arms could do little to cover the size of my chest.  It would have been like trying to hide an elephant behind a sapling. 
 
I didn’t think it could get any worse until a custodian walked by pushing his bucket and mop, for a clean-up at bed two.  A jolly sort he had been whistling as he approached but that stopped short as he glided past my bed and took in the unexpected peep show.   So I’m in pain, humiliated into fifty shades of red and wishing a heart attack would strike me dead right then and there.  I’m not a carefree, strip to the buff kind of person so I was not a happy camper.  
  
In those days, I use to hate to complain so when the nurse finally came back all smiley I said nothing and prepared myself for the news, good or bad.  She started removing the electrodes and told me that my heart was fine.  Actually more than fine, not a bit of plague to be found. My chest pain was probably the result of a little muscle cramp from whatever activity I was doing.  A muscle cramp?  From rug hooking?   They were telling me I had exposed my naked chest to half of Bridgewater because of rug hooking????
 
So I went back home a bit deflated and took my frustration out on that lousy frame which made fabulous kindling!   The good news, I would live to hook another day but the frame wouldn’t.  
It had to go, I would never have been able to look at it again without seeing that janitors face as his eyes popped and his jaw dropped.  So hubby and I got to work and designed a better frame.  I now have one that tilts, which helps maintain proper posture and turns 360* so I can access every part of the work without having to reach beyond a comfort level.  After that weird experience I never had a twinge or an ache and I could hook for hours at a time.   
 
It seems that I do nothing easily.  Every lesson I’ve learned has come at a cost but on the flip side,
it gives me a plethora of stories to tell.   Sorry no pictures with this one!    

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A Nova Scotia icon revisited

4/11/2013

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By Guest Blogger Lorraine Burch
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In preparation to hook this wonderful old Garrett pattern, I went to watch the Bluenose documentary at the Fisheries Museum  so I could have a better appreciation of  this  ship and all it has meant to Nova Scotia. 

My Dad grew up in New Glasgow  and went to school with Cammie Garrett; I remember him taking me to Garrett’s when I was very small.  My parents have a velvet
settee made by Cammie Garrett's grandfather.          
 
I took my Mom back to Garrett’s this fall when they announced that Garrett’s by the Bridge was closing for good….what a trip down memory lane!  It was still full of beautiful antiques, but the building was literally falling down around the furniture; there must have been a dozen buckets upstairs. I am sure they had to keep moving the valuable antiques to stay out of the drips. I bought a little  glass  doll sized sugar bowl as a memento. 

I began hooking this rug August 22 of last year and finished April 10th in between making two mats for new granddaughters.  This rug represent my first commission from a very dear friend who loves everything Bluenose and is in fact,  quite a Bluenose historian.

The pattern was purchased at an auction and not being sure of its age, I retraced it on linen.  The pattern was number 2024.   I loved hooking it and as I pulled each loop, I often thought of the brave souls who go  down to the sea to make their living. 
      
I used a combination of new and recycled wools.  The sail are tea dyed in three shades.  Ocean is Deep Ocean spot dye.  The sky is made up of three parts of a blue blanket  over-dyed with #13 in Past & Present (minus the black).  The spars and tiny border  are shades of  Antique gold.  The Heart Red below the waterline I picked out of Christine's scrap basket; it really sets the ship off.  Of course the hull and border are the traditional black.  Even though some believe the name 'bluenose' infers the hull is blue, it is actually a term coined for the early settlers and seafarers of Nova Scotia.     

I loved hooking the people  and the gulls  and find it amazing how just a wee bit of wool can be made to look like a person  or a bird. 
I think the proportion of the ship to the rest of the mat gives it a majestic impression. 
      
I am a proud Nova Scotian  and was so pleased to hook this provincial marine heritage icon


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A first prize for a first rug!

4/10/2013

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Linda Ruth Beck began hooking at age 15 and there was no starting at the bottom for her, she landed a first prize ribbon at the South Shore Exhibition for her very first hooked rug.  After acquiring the proverbial T-shirt and with no where else to go, she quit while she was ahead and took a long break  before doing it again.  

Of course there was no slowly getting back into it, she just slid into first base again, designing and hooking jaw dropping masterpieces.  Too bad for that long hiatus, one can only imagine what she would have created during those hookless decades.  She told me she was an obnoxious teenager, not quite sure what that means but I think she had a mind of her own.


She said after winning the prize, her Aunt Lena had Simmy Ernst build a set of hooking bars just for her but she never hooked again until about seven years ago and did so on a modern gripper frame.  Aunt Lena was Linda Ruth's foster mother who lived in Sweetland.  She was the one who taught Linda to hook the old way, in straight lines.  Lena's bars were always up, and her work was prolific and neat.  So even though they weren't blood relatives, Linda didn't fall too far from the tree in the talent department.  

Years later, after the birth of her son Tracy, the winning rug was placed under the bassinet in the nursery.  (That's him sleeping)   I asked what became of the rug and sadly, it somehow got misplaced in a move. 

Linda Ruth owns and runs Come By Chance Antiques in Marriot's Cove, and in her travels picking inventory to stock the huge, three story barn of  furniture and treasures of bygone days, she would come across hooked rugs and old hooks to remind her that someday, when time allowed,  she would revisit the craft.  Seven years ago the Olympics were on and she was stuck at home with a sick dog who needed an intravenous so she decided the time was finally right. 

The old Bluenose pattern originally came as a set with a boy and a girl but Lena drew the little boy duck for Linda's winning submission and six years ago, Linda came across a copy of the pattern in Yarmouth and was delighted with the memory of her past and decided to hook this darling little piece once again.

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The old Bluenose pattern #2069, customarily coloured in for simple colour placement.
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Linda Ruth's updated version of the pattern that began her love of rug hooking.. What a sweet little design. Those eyelashes are adorable.
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Small bathroom gets a big look.....

4/9/2013

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The bathroom is to the right of the picture behind the blue and white lamp. Sitting in the larger part of the living room, behind the camera, and looking over you would never guess there was a powder room behind the wall.
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My mother-in-law Wynn and Jim who is now gone.
We have the smallest bathroom ever...I've hook bigger rugs!  But it does the trick and that's all that matters!  The room is so small it was difficult to take a picture so you can't see the beams in the ceiling or the hardwood flooring but now that it's all said and done, we don't know what we ever did without a downstairs facility. 

Although our house has a very large full bath upstairs and an an ensuite off the master bedroom, we didn't have a powder room downstairs.  We're still youngish and hoofing up and down a full flight of stairs didn't raise an eyebrow until my mother-in-law was coming for a visit.  Panic set in as to how we were going to handle the situation when she can't do stairs with her bad knee.  We bought a twin bed that covered the sleeping arrangements but the question of a bathroom facility had to be addressed.  The choice came down to washing up in the kitchen sink and a  commode chair,  a chamber pot or a chemical toilet and although she said it would be fine, none were appealing to me, as they all required some kind of emptying.  How well do you need to know your inlaws?   I've worked in a nursing home so I'm no stranger to cleaning up behind (pardon the pun) the elderly, but maybe that is why I'm more adamant about not doing it now.  So, I called a plumber and a carpenter and in one week we had this little powder room up and functional.  

We have a large L shaped living room and we took a corner of the top of the L, and you would never know that there was a bathroom there.  Friends have come by and couldn't find it.  Our house isn't very large so I was happy it didn't jump out as who wants a bathroom in the living room no matter how cute it is! 
  The plan someday is to build a downstairs bedroom on and then that part of the house will become a hallway to the addition and it's perfectly suitable to have a bathroom off a hall. 

The layout had to be well planned.  We had a pocket door installed so the toilet and sink had to be the right distance apart to open the door and enter.  I had to do a lot of measuring to come up with the size of 60" x 28" which is the inside dimensions for the room, making it so small you have to step outside to change your mind but enough room to take your elbows in and your knees don't touch the sink when sitting on the john.

Because of the confined space,  I tried several very small pedestal sinks but they were still too big and in the way.  Finally I spied this very expensive corner number that fit perfectly although I found it weird the smaller the sink the higher the price.  And then on top of that, the facet had to be a certain size and a one holer, so that turned out to be rather expensive as well but you only go this way once and it's only money.  

We don't have any wallpaper in our house but 22 years ago I found this delightful blue and yellow print that I hoped to fit in somewhere and bought three bolts of it.  It was a perfect match to the Blue Willow themed fabric I'd been holding on to for the last few decades so it was time to bring them out of storage and get our money out of them.  The paint on the wainscoting was a match to one of the blues in the skirt.  Paint samples can sometimes fool you.  I tried three different cans of paint before I found the perfect match.  They  all looked good on the sample but on the wall it was three strikes and out! 

The little Blue Willow pattern cross stitch pieces were done by me once again, twenty or so years ago.  (I get the feeling I was a shopaholic in my thirties)  and I dug them out and had them framed. Small room big art.  The mirror was the only  one that would fit over the high chair rail.  Once again it's an oversized piece for the area so that makes it work even better.  It pivots like a Cheval mirror, doesn't have a frame but is beautifully beveled.  A yellow and blue tassel completes the look.   I wanted the wainscoting extra high because of the size of the room.  Exaggerated elements  fit better in  a smaller space.   My opinion and I'm sticking to it!

I looked around for an antique wall cabinet to house the toiletries but there was nothing that could be modified to fit the space so I design what I wanted and had a chap make it up.  I painted it a soft yellow and then crackled the outside areas with white paint over top.  This was my first attempt at crackling and I think it turned out very nicely.  I bought some large knobs from Lee Valley that matched the colour theme. 


If you lift the sink skirt you'll find reading material and a waste paper basket.  There is a cute little stool next to the sink with an antique blue and white  chamber pail that also holds an extra roll of toilet paper.  Speaking of which, the room was too small for a wall dispenser so I bought one of the free standing ones and it's tucked nicely by the sink. 

When my mother-in-law arrived she was so surprised and probably relieved.  Of course it wasn't painted or pretty like it is now but it functioned beautifully and all she had to do was roll out of bed and there it was.  And in case you are wondering what she did for showers, we took her to the pool every second day for Aquasize so she used their facilities for bathing.
  At 94 she exercises at the pool three times a week at home in BC.  She believes exercise is key to optimal health in older age and she's living proof it works, accept for that troubled knee she's in excellent health!  
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This is the rug I designed for the floor.  The actual yellows and blues blend perfectly with the decor so the photo is a bit off.  I took elements from the Willow fabric for the design and added the big central Chinese Shou to tie in the cross stitch Oriental theme.  

Done in all yellows and blues the rug will be a perfect match for the room.  I've hooked the Shou and the background and now it is time to get started on the birds.  I'll probably hook one to work out the colour pattern first and then work at the other three all at once.   It is a very light rug so I don't think I'll put it on the floor unless company pops in, just leave it curled up on the toilet tank top until it's needed. 
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Working in a #6 cut it is making for fast going. I stylized the tail feathers to incorporate the border for more interest.
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Show & Tell night at Encompassing Designs!

4/8/2013

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Last Wednesday, Encompassing Designs hosted another fun hook-in.  It was a bit of a show and tell evening with finished projects strutting their stuff and newly started patterns with a promise of great things to come.  

Linda had the most to show off, she's been a very busy little hooker! This winter's snowstorms had canceled a lot of our gatherings so we hadn't seen one another for some time but Linda Ruth kept on trucking.  The rug on the left is her latest master piece.  This only took her too weeks to this point with only the borders left to put on.  I've said it before, Linda Ruth is the most unique rug hookers I've ever met, not only does she not use a pattern she just starts hooking and sees where it goes!   I will be writing a featured blog on this rug when it's completed so I'll save the story until then.

You may also think this stunning rug is finished, but Linda Ruth is the border queen and has several inches of hooking to go, right up to one inch of an edging to whip with.  She dropped by yesterday to show me what she came up with so I've had a
sneak preview of perfection!  Stay tuned, it's worth a gander! 


I also have another blog coming about Linda Ruth's first prize winning rug at the tender age of fifteen and then hooking the same design again in the past few weeks.     

The studio was abuzz with excitement.  We're a fun gaggle of geese all talking and laughing, usually at the same time!  If you would like to drop in to hook with the Main Street Hookers we meet the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month at 7:00 pm.  If it's cancelled I'll post it on here but it seems the weather is finally a bit more conducive to nighttime driving.  

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Geez Louise this rug is a stunner! Charlene Scott is on the last bit of border so we'll soon have a completed picture to drool over! And for all you paisley fans, the pattern will be available at that time!
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Anne in the back is almost finished her rug for a show and tell; Armenia with only the grey head and hand showing is working on her new lily piece and Deanna, is laying down her first loops on a seashells pattern.
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Pam whipping on of her flea market finds. Good gravy she's lucky!!!. She picked up several hundred dollars worth of kits and hooks for $6.00 at a yard sale! When she stand up, I'll bet there's an indent of a horseshoe in that chair!!! Also, here is The Happy Fishermen, newly completed! Great job Pam!
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Now our Sue is really the hooking golden girl. Fresh from holiday she's tanned browner than fried grits, which is apparently on the menu everywhere in SC. She's on the last leg of whipping "Beached", another in her series of Women of Abundance.
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Ah ha! A traitor among us! Aunt Audrey must walk the plank for her evil knitting ways! Well, I guess we'll forgive the hooking snub, family should have some privileges.....
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The pièce de résistance was Linda Ruth's finished Beck that is now in the private collection of Sue Cunningham. Congrats to both of you! I still think that rug is perfect for my studio grumble, grumble!!
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Grin and bare it all.....

4/6/2013

5 Comments

 
Original design by Cheryl Rafuse called Edith On Wash Day....for her mom who loved doing laundry.  
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Bernice Thomson was in the shop yesterday to pick up some rug binding for her newly completed rug.  I zig zagged around the edge and as I was cutting it out for her I thought I should share this bit of whimsey so I asked if she was camera shy?   The answer being no, here it is.   
This fun design is a gift for her daughter, Terry Lynn. Of course my first question was "Is this the way she visits the clothes line?" but, pardon the pun, it's just a bit of fun.  

The rug is hooked in all new wool and had many little bits and pieces to give it a bit of sparkle and fun.  The voluptuous bum is sculpted and I tried to capture that in the pictures below but I think maybe the one where Bernice is holding it up shows the roundness best.  Too funny!  The hat and feather add to the whimsy and the wonderful red rubber boots are fabulous.  After the rug is bound she plans to add the little pins on each piece of clothing which were purchased at Michaels. 

There is an outhouse on the right side that was initially meant to be a building but an outside pooper fit better with the fun theme.  She added fleece for the clouds and there is a gold toned chain for KK's collar that was found at a flea market.  She used thin gold threads to outline the wash basket and other objects for highlights. There is as rhinestone button that came from a shirt sewn on the purple pants, and curly mohair on the full body underwear to the left.  The sun is sculpted with a vibrant yellow.  What a lovely sunny day to hand wash!  


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Rock-a-dye baby..............

4/6/2013

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Rock-a-dye baby.....in a rockin' cradle! 
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Tudor Manor hooked by Janet Delo

4/5/2013

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Colour planned and hooked by Janet Delo 36 1/2" x 71"
Inspiration comes from many places. People ask all the time if everything  I draw comes from my head?   And although I would love to say yes and have an avalanche of adoration reign down on me, I have to confess that more times than not, I do use references.  

It seems like a lifetime ago when I used to draw dogs and children's portraits and I always felt that I was cheating using a photo as a reference.  Dogs and small children don’t pose well, so a photograph freezes a frame so you aren’t waiting on a still moment. But for some reason, I felt that I  should have been able to look at the moving subject and freeze it in my head. 

I assumed I was a no talent kind of artist, a shameful duplicator; until many moons ago when I signed up for a life drawing class at NASCAD.  (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design) The priceless bit of knowledge I took from the class was that all the great artists worked from references; consisting of multiple sketches, models and the world around them.  Not that I'm comparing myself to the greats, but hey, if it's good enough for them, it should be good enough for me, right?   I learned it was okay to use a reference for perspective or detail, so I felt maybe I did own a bit of raw talent after all.    

So where does inspiration come from?  Sources are everywhere, maybe in a greeting card, one that maybe has a marvelous sunset, and then you see a magazine ad with a wonderful tree, and then there’s this building in town that has always peeked your interest so you incorporate that as well  Now these elements are forming a picture, pieced together to create a unique design.  Each element on its own might have little appeal, but together they are the building blocks of an heirloom!  You work with these inspirations and make something original to call your own.  
 
This leads me to my friend Michael Wilson, who introduced me to the world of antique wallpapers and borders.  Back in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries grand rooms and halls were adorned with the most spectacular paper art imaginable.   Some of the geometric borders were phenomenal and not only was the main focal paper art in itself, but then they added multiple borders and corner pieces to make the ceiling and walls a monumental showpiece.  Layers upon layers of complimentary design and colour gave Victorian parlours a taste of opulence as if royalty dwelled there.   Michael knows I love to design and he brought these borders to my attention to use and create patterns for rug hooking and because copyright no longer applies, I developed this particular border into a pattern with an Oriental flare. 
 
Janet Delo colour planned and hooked Tudor Rose.  She dyed the colors to match the decor of her home. 
Great job Janet!

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If I remember correctly this border was from the 17th century and the one that inspired this pattern called Tudor Rose.   I moved borders and mirrored the design. The moment I saw this picture I formed the design in my head.   This design can be made smaller by removing some of the horizontal sections.  Contact me if you wish to have the design adapted to suit your requirements.    
 

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What opulent splendour! Those Victorians really knew how to pimp a room!
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I've wallpapered plenty back in the day and I can't imagine papering a ceiling when gravity wants it to fall to the floor! Very impressive!
Tudor Rose, 36 1/2" x 71"  is available for sale, click on the link to view it on the site. 
http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/signature-designs.html

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The Happy Fishermen by Pam Haughn

4/4/2013

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This is one of Susan Leslie's most popular patterns and one can easily see why.  The whimsy and folk art feel to this piece is just what the doctor ordered.  If you can't look at this rug and smile, you need a prescription!   

So many times I hear rug hookers tell me that this was the most fun piece they've ever worked on, sometimes landing itself as a favorite in their portfolio.  This rug also inspires a palette of happy colours to match the jovial name.  Pam delighted us with a show and tell at last night's hook-in and got plenty of oohs and aahs from the crowd. 
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Guest blogger Pam Haughn

I rediscovered the pattern at our "Art Under Foot" gallery show that our group,  The Main Street Hookers, hosted last March.  I loved Sue Cunningham's version of it and just had to have the pattern.  

I hooked minimally last year due to renovating and my daughter, Heather's wedding but got it back out and put a push on in January to finish it. 

The rug is mostly a #6 cut with new and recycled wools. 


The fishermen's jackets are hooked in Travis Gold (or variation of it) dyed by myself. 

The sky is a combination of purchased abrashed wool from Encompassing Design called Overcast Blue Sky, and wool bits left over from other projects. 


The water is a mixture of recycled and left over wools from other projects as well.

"It's a happy rug that makes you smile."
This pattern can be viewed for purchase by clicking the link  
http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/susan-leslie.html
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Personalizing a design.....

4/3/2013

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Over the years I’ve been asked to adapt and personalize already existing designs with university logos, family crests and all manner of emblems that mean something to the recipient.  Here are two examples of adapted designs that blend a bit of tradition with a personal touch. 
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Jean Wentzell hooked both of these pieces for relatives.  Both have to do with education/graduation.  The backgrounds are the traditional part that appear to lie beneath and frame the symbol.   This particular pattern is called Backroads.  Almost any pattern can be changed to accommodate an emblem or an advertisement. This rug sports the Pharmacy Caduceus symbol, RX symbol for prescriptions, and a mortar and pestle. 

The mortar is a bowl, typically made of hard wood, ceramic or stone. The pestle is a heavy club-shaped object, the end of which is used for crushing and grinding. The substance to be ground is placed in the mortar and ground, crushed or mixed with the pestle. Sometimes referred to as an "Apothecary Grinder" by individuals unfamiliar with its use, the proper historical name is "mortar and pestle". The mortar and pestle is usually utilized when cooking and when crushing ingredients for a certain drug in pharmacy. 
 
  
The background of this particular piece is a very traditional geometric series of repeating shapes. I called the design Backroads because it reminded me of unpaved country roads, twisty and winding.  I felt the symbols and background suited one another for the perfect marriage for what Jean had in mind.  The colours differ but blend  the two themes together and clearly tell two separate stories.   It appears that Angela, graduated in 2007 is lucky on two counts;  a bright future ahead and the gift of this very special rug that will accompany her on the journey. 

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Katie Morrison graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS with a Bachelor of  Commerce
in 2009.  The gift of this rug is such a great way to commemorate all her hard work and I'll bet it caught attention well before the framed degree on the wall. 

This pattern is one of my designs called Tip Toe Thru the Tulips, a play on words inspired of course by the choice of flower and Tiny Tim, a singer from the 50's until his death in 1996, who delightfully entertained us with a high falsetto and a soprano ukulele. 

This design was a great choice for an adaptation.  With permission of the University, we applied the crest in a central position and then added the wording just inside the  border.  The center circle was a perfect nest for the Dalhousie crest, leaving the intricate floral border intact.  The background is interesting with abrashed grey and charcoal squiggles and then black for the border.  This rug is striking.  Another great marriage of a rich blend of colour coupled with a very balanced design, makes me believe that if perfection did exist, this rug would be a candidate. 



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