Blog Archives

Queen of the Sea

7/21/2017

I have a funny story associated with the “Queen of The Sea” pattern. Funny in a sad, pathetic, kind of way. I have to wonder about some men.....

Many moons ago I was finishing the last details on the design when a middle aged man came in to browse the shop.   He saunters over to my work space and looks down at the drawing. He was totally enthralled and I kid you not…his breathing became laboured and his forehead broke out in tiny beads of perspiration.

For an uncomfortable amount of time he stared, mouth agape, at the mermaid’s, over-endowed chest. I couldn’t imagine the appeal, after all it was a flat drawing of black lines on white paper, and the nipples were very discreetly covered with starfish, really, nothing to get excited about…..

He kept standing there, practically drooling, so I did the only thing I could think to do to break the trance and asked “Do you think they’re big enough?”

I’d clearly interrupted his thoughts and I tell you no lie, he replied almost panting, “Huh?.....Oh....Ohhhhh yyeessss”. It came out a soft and slow drawl, almost a whisper, his eyes never leaving her bosom.

The silence turned awkward yet again and I assumed his eyes were mentally peeling away the strategically applied starfish from their perch.   I just couldn’t resist and asked, “What do you think of the octopus?” Referring to the big, two foot long octopus stretched out below the mermaid. His reply?

“What octopus?”
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Every design has a story and this tale is permanently attached to this one and I chuckle when I think of the man who lusted for my Mermaid Queen.

It’s a delightful scene of a mermaid mother holding her mermaid child who holds a seahorse. Lots of sea life surrounds them and a large octopus adores her from the ocean floor. The pattern is 45” x 31” and sports an Interesting, asymmetrical border. This lovely photo provided by Norma McWlhenny was cut off at the sides so I am not sure if she hooked the edges so I’m showing other versions that I have as well.

Norma said: Thank you. Christine. I couldn't wait for you to see her! She was so much fun to hook. She has her very special place to reside. She hangs in the master bath over the jacuzzi!

Hooked by Debbie Kelly. She won awards for this piece.

Hooked by Yvonne Murray

Hooked by Lorraine Burch

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Something to make you smile!

7/20/2017

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I have a funny story associated with our “QUEEN OF THE SEA” pattern.

A while ago, I was in the studio just finishing up a new design, when a middle aged man comes in to browse the shop.   He saunters over to my work space and looks down at the drawing of a buxom mermaid, sitting on a rock with a baby mermaid in her arms.

I kid you not…his forehead broke out in tiny dots of perspiration. He kept staring at the mermaid’s over-endowed chest for an uncomfortable amount of time, mouth agape. The appeal was lost on me. First of all it was a drawing, thin marker lines on white paper and the breasts were very discreetly covered with starfish.

It was terribly awkward standing there so I did the only thing I could think of to do and asked him. “Do you think they’re big enough?”

I tell no lie…he replied, “Ooohhhhh yeessss”. It came out breathy, soft and slow, almost a whisper.

And then I just couldn’t resist and asked, “What do you think of the octopus?”   Referring to the big, two foot long octopus directly below the mermaid.

His reply? “What octopus?”

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How to hook rope using three or six value swatches.

7/19/2017

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Hooked by Janet Delo

Since I’ve been working on the Nautical Stair Risers and hooking a rope edge as a constant to unite them all, I’ve been asked often how this is done so effectively. Hooking rope may look daunting but it’s incredibly simple. You can use either three values or six values or anything in between. If using three values you will hook only one row of the darkest value for the shadow in the crease of the twist and then graduate the other two values until the area is filled in. In these two examples of our pattern Grand Banks Schooner, the above picture was hooked with a three value swatch and the bottom one is hooked with a six value. Both are equally effective and beautiful.

Hooked by Anne Holmes

Once you have established the width of your rope place some cut worms to figure out how wide your strips will need to be to fill the space. For the size of my riser rope borders I use a #5 cut and they fill in perfectly. I do use more of the lightest value on the inside edge, giving it more than just the one strip to provide the highlight as if the sun is shining down on it.

Both of the schooner projects were hooked using "Ganache" for the rope; a fabulous caramel hue that gives an aged patina you’d see in old rope. This dye formula hasn't made it into any of our dye books so I'm sharing it with you below. For my stair risers I’ve used our new formula “Straw” from our dye book, DYE ME TO THE MOON, a bit brighter considering the risers are in the shadow of the tread end and I wanted them to stand out as much as possible.

Ganache (Using Majic Carpet Dyes)

1/4 tsp Yellow
1/16 tsp Chocolate Brown
1/16 tsp Seal Brown

For a 3 Value swatch, mix in 2 cups of boiling water, pour off 1/3 for the lightest value, 2/3 for the medium value and the 1 cup remaining for the darkest value.

For 6 Values use 1/2 cup replacement method. This recipe makes around 7-8 sets of 3" x 11" size pieces, so you would have to alter the formula by dividing it in half for 4 sets and again for 2 sets.

The first thing you will assess is where you want your light source to come from. One side of the rope will be the shadow side and that will be consistent throughout the entire length. Usually the darker side is best put on the outer edge of the rope but it would depend on your design and what elements are in it. For example if you are hooking something with a sun, then your shadow on the rope would be at the farthest point away. I always like my borders to be darker than my center colours and the shadow on the outer edge will help for the eye to detect the graduating darker edge and flow from the darkest to the lightest bits from the outside to the center.

The values run from dark to light, 6th value being the darkest. The first line hooked is the 6th value and runs along the inside bottom of the curve of the rope. It starts under the rope segment before it and all the way to the bottom where it joins with the next segment in the line.

Now hook the 5th in the same way. When hooking the 4th value don't take it directly to the bottom, stop short a few loops which will allow the lighter values #3, #2 and #1 to be on the outside of the curve and act as the highlight.

Here is a template to use by right clicking to save to your computer and then print off and blow up to the size needed, then repeat the pattern to cover the area.

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We're international!

7/14/2017

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Yesterday was wildly exciting. I posted hooked rug photos on FB of our designs from Turkey and Japan. How exciting for us to be international! To date I’ve had photos sent to me from United States, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Scotland, Finland, Germany and England and now I can add Turkey to the list. It’s like my children are traveling the world and I'm a puffed chest momma!

Currently there is an art show in Turkey and Lale Caglar is displaying her pieces. There are lots of hooked rugs, cross stitch and paintings and among them sits our “PATCHES” pattern, hooked beautifully in yarn. It sets my heart ablaze! Much love from Mahone Bay and thank-you so much for sharing Lale!

Our Happy Hooters Bell Pull patterns made their way to Japan and two of Chizuko Hayami’s students hooked them masterfully. I don’t have the rug hooker’s names but perhaps they will add them in a comment on my blog page. Hooking is rich in Japan, remember the bus full of Japanese rug hooker’s that visited my studio and other shops in the Maritimes a couple of years ago? Chizuko hooked this beautiful rug to commemorate their trip with all the wonderful rug hooking studios they visited. My shop is the one on the left! I feel so blessed!

I’m off this morning to work on the boat. So much to do in four days before hubby has to leave for his daughter’s wedding in Ontario. I can’t go because of Honey. I would lose what’s left of my mind if something happened to her while I was away. We are taking it one day at a time and she’s holding up her end but the stress of mom being gone might be too much for her. My heart would ache and my eyes would weep rivers thinking she died feeling alone and sad while I was away. She’s my top priority right now, all else pales in comparison. Besides, this is the second round of marriage for my step daughter so I don’t feel too guilty; we attended her first.

So it’s off to South Shore Marine for the morning and then back at the shop later today. I’ll be wearing many hats in the coming days. Always a nurse cap for my little girl first, then the ball cap with sun brim to clean and wax the mast and wishbone and paint the bottom, topsides to wax, cabin sole floor boards to varnish, then there is work at the shop that wearing the designer, colour planning and paperwork hat, hooking and blogging from home and last but not least, my big, floppy brimmed hat for gardening. I finally broke down and hired assistance with the one big garden. I couldn’t have cleared it out in a month of Sundays on my own. I desperately mind the heat so I hide indoors the really hot days so there’s lots of time lost as the summer has been wonderful. When I did manage to work, the grass and weeds were a tough pull, then carting the wheel barrow away to empty exhausted me quickly so I had to take lots of nap. I’m only a girl for goodness sake, not a back hoe. The bulk of the weeds were cleaned out by Grass Roots, Christine and Larry, and I’m cleaning out the small stuff but now it’s up to me to maintain because if I turn my back for a second it’ll get out of hand all over again. Mother Nature can be vengeful; she certainly makes us work for our gardening hobbies, weeds shoot out of the ground like fireworks on the fourth of July. And too bad the deer, those midnight thieves with ravenous appetites, didn’t like the weeds as much as the tender shoots of the good stuff.

So I have a full plate with lots of delicious items on it! Off to work I go……

"Treasure Spots" in Nova Scotia & P.E.I. by Chizuko

Name of the spots are.....
Top- left to right; Anne's Green Gables, Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Pastime PEI
Center; Hooked Rug Museum of North America
Bottom- left to right; Encompassing Designs Rug Hooking Studio, Plum Tree Studio, Darlene's Rug Hooking Shop, Spruce Top Rug Hooking Studio

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Aches and pains.....

7/13/2017

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The other day I opened my jewelry box. It’s a neglected mahogany box that doesn’t serve a lot of purpose in my life; I rarely notice its existence. Basically it’s there for Larry to dust and take up half of the dresser top, but every now and then I open its lid and marvel over the forgotten treasures and spend a few minutes separating the chains that like to merge and tangle, a phenomena I can’t explain any more than where the socks go in the dryer.

I have a lot of jewelry. There are bangles, cuffs, rings, amber, earrings galore, odds and ends and then my homemade, one of a kind stuff. Someone will have a lot of fun when I die, discovering treasure after sparkling treasure. It’ll be my hubby’s next wife or Shane’s wife Ashley, depending on the chronology of hubby’s and my demise. But whoever gets to open the treasure chest will be rather delighted that I hoarded bling.

The thing is, I might have it, even go so much as to say I covet it all, but I don’t wear any of it. I’m not sure why, but I will put a piece on, look in the mirror and immediately take it off. It seems out of place on me, I’m more of a plain Jane than a fashionista so I feel more comfortable blending into the background. It’s weird and defies explanation. All the beautiful jewelry I made with artisan beads, expensive, exquisite beads from all over the world that I lusted after and drooled over while in my hand, never made it around my neck.

I have a collection of rings that I’ve picked up over time. Inherited, Christmas gifts, previous beaus, purchases I had to have because I thought I couldn’t breathe without, acquired and then forgotten once the cover is lowered on my fancy Bombay company jewelry box, the pieces then lie in wait in the darkness for the lid to open, to be picked up and caressed. I’ve mentioned before how my mom used to call me “crow” and it’s a deserved term of endearment. I like sparkly things and what better sparkle than gold, sterling silver and semi-precious stones, faceted and beaming in the light.

If I go out for an evening I might slip on my collection of bangles, all metals grouped together complimenting one other. Rose gold, yellow gold and silver, twisted ropes and cleverly crafted designs. I like the clang they make, like a halyard against a mast drumming out a metallic tune in an afternoon breeze.

Perhaps I should have it all melted down for a custom made piece, or sell it to add to the retirement fund, a worthwhile acquisition, bring hubby home from the wilds of Alberta permanently.   Now I don’t want to give the impression there’s that much to sell, but I have an average share of adornments that could be better served than always waiting for me to show it some love.

The point I was trying to make when I started this blog, was that I picked up a gold pinky ring that I almost forgot I owned and tried it on. It didn’t fit. Gold doesn’t shrink so the problem had to be with me. I examined my finger closely and noticed the knuckle was looking rather large. I had to force the ring on and it hurt a bit. I stared at my hand noticing other a few other areas a bit exaggerated and slightly twisted. How did this happen without being noticed? I like to pride myself on my observation skills but this fact alluded me. I squeezed the bulging knuckle and it was sore, sore to the touch but not noticeable when moving it. I was dismayed at the revelation but then I realized the silver lining, at least the ring would no longer fall off as it did before, now braced in place by the calcified ligaments. Hmmm…...

My legs started hurting a week later. I was standing at the shop working on a kit when a burning sensation began in the back of my knees and spread quickly down my shins to my ankles, burning like liquid lava pulled by gravity. It came on faster than a freight train. Not sure what the heck happened, I sat in a chair for a few minutes waiting for it to subside. But, it didn’t. I stated searching for an explanation. I’d bought a cheap pair of Dawgs at the drugstore (a cheaper version of Crocs) thinking they would be handy for the boat and walks on the beach when we anchor offshore. I’m not sure why I wore them to work, laziness I guess but they did match my outfit. They had as much support as an abusive husband, like cheap flip-flops that I haven’t worn since I was ten.   I’ve never been great with footwear that is lower in the heel than the ball of the foot. I think years of stuffing my feet into high heels wreaked havoc on my calf muscles. I usually wear a slight wedge to elevate my heel for comfort.

Anyway, that was the only change so I assumed it was the shoes and suffered the pain until I could get home and kick them off. Once it started there was no relief. The discomfort persisted for days no matter what footwear I donned. And in bed at night my legs kept me awake from the aching and burning. When I rose in the morning and put my feet on the floor they felt normal for a few minutes but relief was short lived and the discomfort began again. Only a few short weeks ago I was bragging and knocking wood how I didn’t have any aches and pains and within a matter of days I was becoming an old woman! For goodness sake, I’m only 58, I thought there was plenty of time left to morph into the crippled older woman but apparently not. My arthritic finger is pointing the way to the inevitable. My dad had arthritis in his fingers, I guess I’m a chip off the old block in more ways than the humour, skinny legs and flat head.

I spent a couple of hours looking up my symptoms on Google, trying to avoid a real medical appointment but they didn’t fit any particular illness. So I am hoping I stressed them with terrible shoes, you can’t expect much support from a $18.99 piece of plastic spit out of a mold.

Yesterday my legs stopped hurting and coincidentally I bought a pair of Crocs at Costco with an elevated heel that felt like putting my feet into a gauntlet of massaging hands. I wore them all day and felt no pains or aches and got up this morning almost forgetting the distress of the past week. I’m blaming the incident on bad shoes, although I think my age had something to do with it as I’ve worn bad shoes before without a bad experience…so I'll knock on wood until it no longer works...

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I'm #5 out of the 60 chosen rug hooking bloggers!

7/10/2017

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If I say I had a crappy weekend, take it literally. I’ve suffered a bout of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and it still lingers since Saturday evening. After two accidents and a lot of sitting, I’m drained, and it's not just my bowel that's irritable. Too much information you say? Well I do have a reputation of telling it like it is, and that’s the way it was....

Sunday I missed out on a wonderful sail with friends due to being tied to the throne. The weather was divine and I watched the boat leave and return, admiring the beauty and feeling sorry for myself. I’m missing out again this evening as I was invited out for dinner on the water and I sit looking out the window waiting for the boat to glide by, pushed by an ocean breeze and wonder why did this happen? There seems to be something afoot to keep me housebound, with Honey being sick I’ve not left her side for months. I’m not the most social person in the world, but when I get the urge to break out of the doldrums, I’d kinda like to go. Honey was welcome on the boat so it would have been win, win. Thank-you to my elimination system for imposing house confinement and ruining my weekend!

My company left this afternoon though lingering hugs and tears. Friends from BC, Rene and Vicki, always a pleasure to see them and hope they return soon, next visit hopefully our boat is in the water so we can sail and have sleepovers while anchored off some island. Vicki has fallen in love with the water, losing her sailing virginity at the Lahave River Yacht club last week. Then they were out for a sail on Felina Sunday, the one I missed out on, and it further ensconced a desire to own a boat of their own.

Hubby has been gone for two months and comes home Wednesday so we can start work on our boat and hopefully get it launched in the next week to capture what’s left of the season. There’s so little time left we might skip the annual wax and polish. Usually he has the summers off but this year it didn’t work out so well and we are in no position to turn down work when last year there wasn’t any. Hopefully the fall is wonderful and gives us an extended few weeks of great weather so we can maximize our time on the water.

I haven’t been hooking much over the weekend even though Vicki worked on her first piece while we chatted in the evenings. I was tired and the piece I’m working on needed a close eye for the detail. I’m matching my Wind with the Waves so the two have to join perfectly even though they have a tread between them. If I’m feeling better tonight I’ll pick it up and I might even get it finished as there is little left to do.

It’s 5:30 pm and I’m still in my jammies, not feeling 100% yet. Needless to say I’ve not made it to work today. It’s hot as hades outside so the house is closed up with the heat pump blowing spitting out cool air. It’s the first time I’ve blogged since I was ranked #5 out of the selected 60 top bloggers and websites for rug hooking chosen by Rug Hooking Magazine. YIPPEE! It blew me away and caused my head to swell so my ears are getting chaffed going through doors. They sent a medal to post on my website blog and I proudly printed it off to display in the shop. All those blogs, hundreds and hundreds of them, four large binders full, sometimes pouring out my heart, sharing tidbits and wisdom I’ve picked up along the way to make hooking easier. Posting rug projects I’ve hooked and ideas I’ve had. At times I was told my blogs were a waste of time but I’d defend my passion for writing, lovingly sharing my life and work, enjoying the comments, making you laugh and sometime cry. I’ve ranted about injustices, or defended myself against the witless wankers that wheedle their way into my life, hitting like a hurricane and leaving mental debris. I love having a voice to tell my side of a tale so I don’t have to hold it in until I explode. You have been my confident, my therapist and my friend. They only thing to do now is to work my way up the list.....

On the hooking front, I’ve drawn off my sea serpent stair riser and Shane has invented a new formula which is suitably called “Sea Serpent”. Six values of a luscious rich green, with yellow undercurrents; the colour I envision a sea monster to be. I’ve decided to hook the serpent green, the Kraken red and the lobster blue. I feel like I’m in a Dr. Seuss story One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.....so much fun!

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To the miserable thief that robbed me....

7/4/2017

22 Comments

I am absolutely pissed off right now. Capital PISSED OFF! My face is crimson, my blood pressure is boiling, my fists are clenched and smoke is billowing out of my ears. I've been violated and I'm stomping mad. I’m ready to fight and let the bodies fall where they may! If only I knew where to find you!

My credit card has been compromised! Never before did I full understand what that meant but now it has hit me harder than a baseball bat, a steel one at that, or perhaps I should say “steal”. Some sleazy criminal in Florida charged several items to my business Visa. Thousands of dollars! Yes I’ll get the money back, the credit card company assures me that all will be fixed but the inconvenience of an fraud investigation and waiting for a replacement card for two weeks hurts. You sleazy bastard, if only you’d spend as much time following legal pursuits you would be successful, but no, you feel entitled, like something is owed to your sorry ass and you have no conscience executing evil deeds. I hope you rot in hell!

Before today’s event, the most annoying experience from using a credit card came by way of ordering a Christmas present for hubby online, from what I believed to be a reputable company. Almost instantly the sex garbage starting clogging up my email inbox. The company must have sold my email address so now I get at least 30-50 ads a day about penis enlargement, someone wanting to be my F@$% Buddy, Girl on Girl action, Penisole...whatever that is, pills to enhance my sex life, male Viagra, female Viagra and things to let me experience what I’ve been missing. What I’ve been missing is peace of mind with all this crap coming into my life. I don’t like spam! (Not you Monty Python!)

It’s frustrating living in times when so much corruption, greed and illegal activity is plaguing us. Sometimes listening to the news at night I want to stick my head in the oven. People are skilled at hurting one another, that’s a given, turn you back for a second and feel the knife between the ribs. You have to walk around with eyes in the back of your head and a gun in your pocket. Say what you want about the United States gun laws, at least you can own one. Here in Canada you have to go through the wringer, and be forced to join a rod and gun club and then follow a strict storage regime to get one. If you said you wanted it for protection they’d laugh you out of the registration office. It’s easier to adopt a baby than own a hand gun in Canada and I want one, no not a baby, a gun!

Our laws don’t back up the person trying to defend and protect their family, their property. If someone breaks into your house and they have a knife and you have a gun, and you cause bodily harm to the person intent on hurting you, then you can be carted off to jail. Force has to match force so if you own a gun, you’d better hope the person breaking in intends to shoot you so you can fight back. It’s crazy!

I’d love to be packing heat. I like guns, I like the protection they offer, I like that they mean business and you can protect yourself without getting too close to the person that wants to hurt you. Knives are messy, too up close and personal and they can be turned on you. Call me a redneck if you like but I’d love to shoot the “light fingers” off the person that did this to me. Blow his digits into the next county. Actually, there are a lot of people I’d like to shoot like child and animal abusers but I digress.....

Karma’s a bitch and tonight I’m going to put it out to the universe and go to bed with a mental voodoo doll that I’ll be sticking with pins, one for every hundred you stole from me. You’ll look like a porcupine when I’m finished with you...you miserable piece of excrement.

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Wind & Waves Risers

7/3/2017

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I’ve been working on the Wind & Waves portion of the riser designs for the shop staircase. I thought it would be interesting to incorporate a two rug riser design, one stacked over the other to tell a tale. It brings a bit of artistic whimsy to the fifteen risers, adding a touch of distinction from the other singular designed patterns.   I am toying with doing a second double riser design with a Peggy’s Cove lighthouse and red sky at night but we’ll see. I can envision that beautiful sunset sky, with reds, pinks and oranges streaked across the rug and the lighthouse sending out its beam of light to keep sailors safe.

I didn’t want standard, more simplistic patterns for this project. Not that simple is unattractive, I just wanted something more detailed and interesting than anchors or ships wheels. I wanted special art pieces, with stories to capture interest. Not that a trio of nautical items would be simple, the artistry is in the hooking, not the drawing and any object shaded distinctively could be aesthetically pleasing, but I visualize a staircase with unique adaptations of things in, on or around the sea. These rugs are small, 5” x 29” so there isn’t a lot of space to be creative, but I am trying to pack in as much punch as I can.

I have so many ideas for risers and I’m wondering if there will be an end to this line. I’m nautically oriented, love working with the primary colours that scream boats, navigational symbols, marine life and the sea. The designs could go to infinity but for my purpose, I only need 15 to complete the shop staircase although I’ll end with 20 to match the count of the County Charm Riser Line. Actually when I got to work I see that I only need 14 as the first step has a shortened riser with a quarter round all along the bottom, cutting into the 5” depth by 1 ¼”. Guess I won’t be hooking one for there.

For this particular set, the waves are whimsically stylized and exaggerated, so the blustery sky and wind needed to be complimentary. I had a lot of fun hooking these two pieces but there was a bit of work to make them show a continuous flow from one rug to the other. They had to match up perfectly so I have to line up the waves finished rug on my frame under the wind to select the right wools so they blended well.

It took a lot of wool to pull off those waves. There are three base colours....turquoise, a rich blue and an aqua green, then variations of each within them; some bright, other’s dull and all else in between. There are 24 different coloured wools all together, eight in each wave. For such small motifs, it took a wool village to hook one wave. I outlined them with a #3 cut of navy to accentuate and separate them. It really makes them pop this way.

I hooked the sky simply, following the curves as they blew from the Wind God’s mouth. Then all the surrounding areas followed suit. The sky colours were three shades lighter than the waves, making it all cohesive tonally.

The Wind God was a test in working with low contrast lights of skin tones, grey and highlights of white. He could have been washed out but with a few strategically placed darks for shading, he popped.

I should be able to knock off the wind this evening and then I’m torn deciding on the next project. I really thought the Kraken was next but then I designed the Sea Serpent which tantalizes a fraction more, bringing this creature to life will be titillating.   It’s not an original design, I actually carved this monster for my boat in wood, the pattern was offered in a book that was copyright free.

I’ve been playing with this design in my head and I’ll have spent hours thinking of it before I sit in my favourite hooking chair to begin.   The right green is key and I have whittled it down to two choices, Lime or Green with Envy, each will tell a different story and either will be marvelous but I have to make a decision between the two and soon. I’ve asked Shane to dye both for me in six value swatches so when I’m ready the wool will be available. I might have to do a eeny, meeny, miny, moe, it’s that close.   I want the serpent to be luminous; to glow from its position on the stairs. I want it to steal the eye and hold the viewers gaze before perusing the others. Hopefully I can achieve this effect, especially when the Kraken is going to be a tight contender for attention. I’m not going crazy with detail, shading to the ninth degree, after all they are only carpets for the stairs, not museum quality pieces, so I’m working mostly in #5, not the detail oriented #3. I don’t have the time for that kind of fine cut business if I want them hooked this year. My goal is for maximum impact with minimum effort.

Now that there are almost seven finished, with seven more to go, I will have to start thinking about positions on the stairs. For now they are randomly placed with no particular thought to how they will be displayed and perhaps I’ll wait until they are all available to see which ones play best next to each other but I should be sewing on the Velcro as they are just laying up against the risers and beginning to curl and slump. That’s a lot of finish work at one time so I should address each one as I do them. I need to sew the folded edge of the burlap (yes I hooked them on burlap) down to the back of each rug, for the moment they are only steamed pressed to hold. I could use glue but that feels tacky, pardon the pun, I don’t want them gummed up with hard bits of melted goop. I’ll figure out a way to keep the work to a minimum, they say give a job to a lazy person and they’ll figure out a way to do a job faster and easier so I guess I’ll don my thinking cap. Any suggestions for an easy finish are appreciated.

Sorry about the poor quality pictures. They were taken with my cell phone at night.

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HAPPY CANADA DAY 150!

7/1/2017

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A tribute to my beautiful country. Traditional hit and miss flag.

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