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Taking time to smell the lilies.....

7/26/2018

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Hooked by yours truly. 
Taking time to smell the lilies.....
It’s that time of summer when the garden is bursting with lily blooms.  Asiatic lilies alongside day lilies; all standing decadent and proud, exploding on their stems with a myriad of colour.  A couple of weeks ago the deer made an after dark raid on at least half of the tender buds but luckily they spared enough on every plant so I could enjoy a fraction of their beauty too.  Once the flowers bloom the deer tend to leave them alone, perhaps they are bitter, or their strong smell repels them, unlike the succulent new buds they seem to crave. 

My giant hostas took a beating again. Three of them were about five feet in diameter, lush and full one day and the next, all the leaves were mowed off as if a hedge trimmer went rogue.   My one side garden, the easiest to maintain and most visible coming and going to the house, I put in a bit of effort to keep some semblance of order and ignore the back yard and garden behind the house so I suppose the deer think its free range dining.  And fine, there’s less to remove the fall.  I’m way too busy getting our boat ready for the Nonsuch International Rendezvous to even consider the weed invasion happening out of sight and out of mind on the forgotten side of our property. 

I love lilies, not only the big flowering heads that are painted in the most vibrant of colours, sometimes several shades masterfully painted;  but I the like the foliage perhaps even more. Before the lilies bloom and after all the flowers have come and gone, I love the greenery that remains.  The way the plants grow in clumps and their tall thin leaves fan out in almost perfect circles.  It’s as lush as flowers and orderly.  Easy to weed around if I bend over to grab a few clumps while the pups play on the lawn.

Years ago I hooked a rug for the flower shading T-shirt.  I really liked the experience but decided that perhaps flowers weren’t for me.  I love looking at flower rugs, especially fine cut shaded ones, they sometimes make me tear up in their beauty but I’m happy with my nautical themed projects and the red, blue and gold lovelies that come off my frame. 

Speaking of blue, that’s my favourite so I took artistic licence and hooked my lily rug with our Blue Willow formula, six values with a bit of Monet’s Garden spot in the center along with the gold pistols and stamens.  The flowers and leaves are hooked in #8 cut, the size of drawings allowed to go big but others have hooked this rug in smaller cuts, perhaps even #3 and they look spectacular.  I’ve always loved this pattern with the lilies dripping downward, open and inviting the viewer to look into the depth of each flower head.  The pink and orange versions were hooked by others and are spectacular, just as they show in my garden.   A bit of nature inside during those gold winter months when the gardens are barren and buried under a blanket of snow.  
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Hooked by June Gorman Wilnot.   She added a fifth lily in the center which is a lovely upgrade!
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Hooked by Tanya McNutt.  
NOTE:  All of these lily patterns are identical in size but the photos taken were from different angles making them appear irregular in shape.  
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A few of my beauties!
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Two hot, new designs...

7/21/2018

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SERENDIPITY​ - ​​It's no accident (pardon the pun) that this pattern will be gorgeous when hooked! Size - 34 1/2" x 53"   $125.95
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The stylized Peacock feathers of this design decided what it would be called.  In Buddhist philosophy, the peacock represents ​wisdom and this national bird of India is a symbol of grace, joy, beauty and love.   Thence the name.  WISDOM & GRACE  30 1/2" x 47"    $120.95 
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Dyeing to mimic plaid

7/20/2018

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​I panicked when I ran out of a particular plaid that I’ve loved working with.  Approximately 16 years ago I bought 50 yards of this incredible wool and saved two yards in my stash for a future project.  If I had known how incredible it was, both to work with and how the colour would speak to me, I would have coveted more yardage but I snoozed and you know what that means.  
  
The wool sported a nautical flair with its admiral blue and shots of sea green, enhancing my first boat rug perfectly.  What was left over I used for the outer edges of the shop stair risers.  I’ve been counting the strips I need to finish seven more and I’m not sure if there will be enough so I use almost every bit, my tails are really short and any piece left over that will do a loop or two is saved and coveted like gold. 

I’ve put my risers aside for the time being and I’m hooking a second rug for our boat, one that will lie at the foot of the companionway steps and blend with the large compass rose rug I completed two years ago.  We are going to the Nonsuch Rendezvous in Halifax in August and I want the interior of our boat to boast custom touches. 

So I really wanted the wool I used in that first rug to be the border on the second rug and a possible third that will sit in front of the forward berth.  The blue plaid was manufactured over a decade ago and hopes of finding a spare yard somewhere was probably futile so I didn’t bother putting it out to the universe.  The only recourse, I presented it as a challenge to Shane to come up with dyed wool that would mimic the plaid. I didn’t expect a perfect match, any port in a storm would do as long as it was in the same ocean.   
 
I told him to use the Dorr Glen Plaid as the base as it provides lines throughout.  He blended our Monsoon formula of Majic Carpet with Kelly Green of Jacquard and abrashed the piece of wool on the stove top.  There were a few whitish spots and he put it in a pot and added a bit of lighter blue and magic came out of the pot.  I used it at the hook-in and by golly I think he nailed it.  He really has earned his title The Dye Guy!

I’ve put the cut strips of what is left of the original plaid on top of the material and it is a perfect colour blend.  The original plaid has darker lines than the new Glen Plaid (the old one had a black line through it and would have been better) but it is such a subtle difference it won’t impact on the overall look.  I am over the moon that my two rugs will blend and now I don’t have to worry about running when I hook the remaining risers either because I will blend the two to complete the set. 

My son is proving to be a very handy colour expert.  He cured my angst with his trained eye.  (A mother is allowed to brag!)

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Comparing it to the risers edges.  there is a bit of a textural difference but the colours jell.  
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A creepy story for Friday the 13th....

7/13/2018

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Since I’ve been working on the boat I’ve been sleeping like a baby….well, some might say that’s not a very good analogy, some newborns don’t sleep a lick, so let’s say I’ve got a bit of a Rip Van Winkle thing going on.  I don’t need to read, I just need to lie my body down and I’m in dreamland.  Hard work, long hours in summer heat will do that and although I’m tired when I go to bed, I’m refreshed each morning like a starched white shirt because there’s eight hours of revitalizing sleep. 

But, there’s a con to all pros or so it seems.  My new sleep regime doesn’t wake me every hour on the hour like before.  A mouse fart would have had me conscious and on alert.  Now I sleep through everything, including my own snoring, the dogs shifting, the loons calling and the creaks and cracking of our old house.  The downside?  Being immersed in that kind of deep sleep makes me vulnerable, a target of the long, dark night when things creep in the shadows.   

The other morning I got up, stretched and met the day with vigor.  Did the bathroom thing, put the pups on the floor and sauntered downstairs to take them out to pee.  Hubby had gotten up a few minutes earlier and had coffee waiting so we went outside and sat on the cement steps marveling at how blessed we are, taking in another beautiful day, the soft wind, the sun dancing over the water like sparkling diamonds and the sky as blue as our Copenhagen dyed wool.

I took a sip of my coffee and felt something shift from the side of my mouth to the back of my tongue.  A big hunk of something or at least that’s what it felt like.  Perhaps steak from the night before?  I’d flossed and brushed my teeth but a rogue piece of meat wasn’t impossible  and what I fully expected to find when  I put my finger in my mouth and fished out the lump. 

……….the thing was black and a bit mangled with a few legs missing, but the antennae were still there to identify the item as a bug.  A BUG!  The body was larger than a housefly but in its mouth mauled state the species was unidentifiable.  YUCK, ICK, UGH, YECH, BLECH, PHEW, EWW AND TRIPLE GROSS!!!  

They say everyone swallows spiders while asleep, as many as ten in their lifetime.   But I say how does anyone know this?  Really?   So now the unmentionable has occurred and it turned my stomach for a few minutes until I stored it in the garbage section of my brain where I hope the heck it stays. I wouldn’t want it to be the catalyst that brings back my old nemesis, insomnia!

Hubby started reciting the old children’s story, There was an old woman who swallowed a fly……not funny but pretty much my story don’t you think?  Too much like life imitating art. 
 
Years ago I took that children's story and switched it up to “She Swallowed A Hook” and designed a pattern. I hooked it and the rug hangs in the shop.  It’s a fun one and I loved hooking it in the gorgeous blue plaid background, blues, chartruese and yellow palette.   I added this saying in the background, because some rugs really need words along with the artwork to complete a story. 

"There was an old woman who swallowed a hook.  She ate some burlap and wool and burped up a rug."

2 Comments

What I've been up to....

7/11/2018

0 Comments

 
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The fun has begun.  I’ve been splitting my days and evenings between the shop and the boat, juggling the house, meal preparation and the gardens and trying to fall into bed at a reasonable hour for a decent night’s kip.   With all this work, especially in the draining heat, I have no problem falling asleep, barely acknowledging my head hitting the pillow.   I like being physically tied, I feel like my body is being used as it was made to be, working muscles that lie dormant for most of the year.  It’s a good weary and the aches and pains are a reward of my labour.   
 
So bye, bye fingernails, smooth hands and unblemished pasty skin… accept of course for the farmer tan that I’ve been cultivating, my legs remain as pale as a cadaver under my jeans.   I’ve already nicked the fleshy part of my thumb with a chisel, abraded the top of my hand, and sandpaper…..well it’s a finger’s nemesis; there isn’t enough hand cream in the world to touch pantyhose without shredding it to bits.  I have a five inch scar just above my ankle from what sailors refer to as a boat bite and because there have been so many cuts and scrapes, for the life of me, I can’t recall what caused it now.  My hips and thighs are dappled with bruises, tenderized like a tough cut of meat. But do I care?   Not really. I tackle the work for the boat as if I’m a mother with a newborn….whatever it takes and I do it with love.  And I suppose it’s good that I feel this way because there’s a lot more work to accomplish, especially all the stripping and sanding prep to refinish more teak.  I can’t explain the rush I get applying that first coat that soaks in and seduces the patina out of the wood, and then, I’m almost euphoric after many coats create that mirror finish.     
 
I had a good look around the boat at all the jobs to get her ready for the rendezvous in August. This is a big one.  It’s not just the annual provincial chapter gathering per the usual; it’s the International Rendezvous so folks are coming from all over North America.  So on top of the regular yearly maintenance there are extra jobs to do and our lists have lists.  Of course our boat is beautiful already, with just a thorough cleaning and some wax she’d be good to go but we’ll go that extra mile for the reunion so Catalyst can float proudly beside her peers.  It will be a thrill to have twenty or more boats of her kind in one spot, their proud owners sharing stories, adventures and misadventures and of course, maintenance tips. 
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In my spare time I’ve been picking away at a second rug for her cabin, to lie alongside the one I made for her last year.  These one-of-a kind rugs, richly saturated in nautical colours will really add to her beautiful interior.  I so love that I can marry my two passions into the perfect union….and….is it a coincidence that the Rug Hooking Guild of Nova Scotia and the Nonsuch Sailboat will both celebrate their 40th anniversary next year?  I think not!   

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    Christine Little has been ranked #5​ out of the 60 top rug hooking bloggers by Rug Hooking Magazine!

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    Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug.  An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.  
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