Happy Natal Day! Hope you are enjoying our wonderful civic holiday! I am!
 Mahone Bay will be overrun with pirates today. Young and old, male and female sporting eye patches, fake swords and growling Arrrrr. I was in the grocery store last evening and a little boy was running up and down the aisles hollering out "Arrr matey" brandishing a make believe sword. All but four he seemed quite familiar with the swashbuckler's jargon. I usually try not to share opinions about things like politics and hot button issues so I don't offend or appear to take sides. For blogging I stick to topics that relate directly to me and massage it with self deprecating humour but for some reason I can't seem to hold my tongue about the pirates. I don't know why they irk me so. Maybe I'm a direct descendent, possibly of a sea admiral, overpowered, bludgeoned and thrown to the sharks by these ocean going savages. Even driving into work this morning I saw a bunch of made-up pirates hanging around the wharf and for the life of me, I just don't get the appeal of this frenzy. Pirates were dirty, thieving, violent cut throats, probably the reason the coin was phrased. They are a very black part of our history, raping and pillaging their way through the centuries without an ounce of conscience. Pirates made death an occupation, roaming the seas obliterating anyone that crossed their path so they could take their possessions. Why is that honoured?....really I wish someone could explain this so I understand. These blood thirsty villains were worse than any serial killer or possibly all of them combined, but we won't ever be having a Ted Bundy day! Well, I hope not! Why the pirate is glorified I can't fathom. Maybe I'm just a stick in the mud who doesn't know how to have fun, and I don't know why I take such verbal offense because I'm usually just sitting on the fence minding my own business. I suppose Johnny Depp had something to do with the craze, but truthfully I didn't get those movies either. Cover that handsome face and what is left? The violence and body count in that movie had to be in the thousands. Why do we want to pretend to be the blood thirsty and the immoral. What does that say about us? Even amongst the pirate den of thieves there was no loyalty, shiver me timbers alright, one had to be afraid to turn their back or there might be a knife stuck in it. So I'll admit I'm a killjoy over the topic, so tie me to the mizzenmast and let the sun bake me bones and gulls pluck out me eyes Rrrrrr. In a time when people jump on a soap box protesting violent cartoons, giving Wile Coyote a hard time because he blows things up on the hunt to catch the road runner, well, all I can say is at least he's after food, not killing for the sake of killing, or worse, for something as trivial as a farthing. Somehow the pirate has managed to worm his way into favour, with that blackened toothed smile and rum soaked breath. I don't find them sexy, they don't turn my crank....."Ahoy matey, no matey with me!" So I've tried to put my feelings aside and get inspired for the festival. I said to myself, "Myself, who am I to rain on the pirate lover's parade?" If pirates are fun to the masses, maybe they know something I don't and you have to be open to new things. So I designed and hooked a Jolly Roger to commemorate the event and made up a few kits for the skull and cross bone enthusiast. And I'll say Arrr...but it's more of a sigh. I'll keep my mouth shut so people don't say, "Thar she blows! " There I said my peace....hope the town doesn't make me walk the plank for having a contrary opinion!  Arrrr...a basket of Captain Kit's treasure. Hook me if you dare!  Arrrrrr...the sheep have gone over to the dark side. They're tired of being peed on and the next dog that lifts its leg, the owner will be forced to walk the plank! Argh! By Guest Blogger Brigitte Webb  I saw this pattern when Christine sent me a picture taken of her shop while attending Rug School in 2008. "A Bit Of Egypt" was hung on the wall behind her cashier table and I fell in love with it and asked to purchase it. Christine told me it would be a one off, that she would not be reproducing this pattern again. She does sell a smaller version of the same design but this was the biggy and a one-of-a-kind. Hearing the size and then actually seeing it was two different things. When I received the parcel in the post I laughed as I really had no idea how large it would be. Until then I had only hooked about three or four small rugs and all of them combined didn't come close to the size of this Goliath. I only had a small non gripper rug frame that I had been given as a gift and I just looked at the wonderful pattern thinking I am never going to be able to hook this, but of course I did. It took me a long time to decide what colours I would use but when I finally made up my mind I started sending for them from The Dorr Mill Store as I could see the colours on their site and choose the ones I thought might look good together. If memory serves me correctly the background wool alone took about eight yards in total. It turned out to cost a great deal of money to make this rug, to the tune of £2000 but I was still working at the time so did not feel too guilty. It was an absolute joy for me to make. I hooked it in 4, 5 and 6 cuts using the Bliss machine, a small cutter that had suction with a short arm for cranking so there were a lot of turns of the handle, not a great favourite of mine. I now have two Bolivars which I love. Anyway I started hooking the center of the design from the middle outwards as the book tell you too and really just tried to place and balance the colours in a way that spoke to me of Egypt. I had to hook it across my knees. It took me about three months from start to finish, which probably does not sound long considering the size of the project but I was absolutely keen and still am doing something so enjoyable. I guess one would say I'm hooked! One of the first things I loved about rug hooking was that you see results of your efforts immediately. I love this design and the finished rug was definitely the wow factor in the exhibition I held in our town. At present it is safely rolled up and protected from light and moths, waiting to go down on the floor in our home extension some day/year!! I forgot to say, apart from recycled heather wools, most of the materials used were new "as is" wool straight off the bolts. Someone asked if I would sell the rug and I had to say I could not, I would never recoup the time and money it took to complete and I love it too much to part with it.
  This is the picture I sent to Brigitte of Rug School 2008 where she spied the floor to ceiling "A Bit Of Egypt" hanging on the wall. It took days to draw, a ton of straight lines and large motifs and the reason why it's a one off. Occasionally I do a monster design just for the heck of it but never do the pattern twice. Of course if someone sweet talked me, I might do another one....maybe.  It’s definitely a small world and getting smaller every day. A woman was outside my building this afternoon and I noticed she was taking pictures of the sign and the rug hanging on the open door. Then she came into the store for a panoramic click of the interior. She told me she has a friend in Calgary that would be jealous she'd discovered a rug hooking store and was scouting it out to send the information back home. I gave her a rack card and low and behold, this evening I heard from the friend in Calgary. It's almost uncanny how the world is connected by a few words, a picture or two and a click. There’s the speed of sound and the speed of light, but they might need to add the speed of social media to the wonders of the universe cause it’s as fast as Billy The Kid on the draw. I had a bit of a shitty day. Literally, not figuratively, the kind that sticks to your shoe and gets walked all over the store. Some unsuspecting soul stepped in do do again and walked it all over the carpet in my shop! Another dog was allowed to park his butt on my front patch of grass next to my step and left a little deposit that wasn't scooped up by its owner. Then it got walked all through the shop, mostly on the carpet runner and of course not seeing it, I carried the torch and walked it all around the shop as I flitted from one area to the next. So after a lot of scraping and scrubbing I carried the big bundle of paper towel outside to throw in the composter and it was no where to be found. All I could think, who in their right mind would take a stinky green composter? The garbage man had come earlier in the morning so it should have been out front if not in its usual place beside the building but it wasn't. So I popped into the convenience store next door to ask if anyone could shed light on this mystery. Some nuisance kids carting away the cart would not be missed, those carts are noisy to roll and no one ever walks down the sidewalk with one in tow. Vandals seemed the only answer so I came up with the bright idea that it was probably chucked in the Maggie Maggie River behind our buildings as a prank. We searched along the bank and down by the bridge but no cart. All I could think of was great! First of all they cost $75.00 to replace and secondly, it's just one more thing I don't have time to deal with. So now I’m as black as the crap scraped off my shoe, (a sure sign of being fed an iron rich diet), and I’m waiting for Shane to come back from lunch so I can go over to the town hall and be advised what to do. Then the convenience store gal came a knocking to say that the owner of the store two doors down had asked her son to retrieve their composter from the sidewalk and he took mine instead of theirs. Mystery solved but that’s a half hour I’ll never get back. I have orders to get out and a festival to prepare for, there is no time for foolishness or working myself into an unwanted sweat…it was hot today and digging through the bushes was a pain. I've been working a lot of nights, I'm a bit frazzled and will be happy when this week is over.  Despite the little distraction, the day was beautiful, a perfect example of summer. The sun was shining and the tourists were smiling, flowing in and out of the shop filling my head with lovely compliments so that it swelled beyond the normal largeness. The day flew by and in no time it was five o'clock. On my way home for dinner, I was once again taken by the beauty of the Mahone Bay Bed & Breakfast. The yellow painted, white trimmed building is the most photographed house in our little town and rightly so. The architecture and surrounding gardens are a feast for the eye. I’m sure they won’t mind if I give them a little plug. Their website is below if you're planning a trip to this area. I hear glowing accolades from customers who have stayed there. It‘s a little piece of Mahone Bay charm. Check out the website to see the lovely appointed rooms; I was delighted to see the owners share my penchant for blue and white china. Even though I live a short distance down the road, I often think I should check in for a weekend just to get away, be pampered a bit, sit out on that lovely veranda in one of their cosy white wicker chairs and take time to smell their roses........ Click the link: http://www.mahonebaybedandbreakfast.com  Hooked by Jean Morse Come and visit our beautiful town. |
Christine Little has been ranked #5 out of the 60 top rug hooking bloggers by Rug Hooking Magazine!
 
Max Anderson, Australia, recipient of my Nova Scotia Treasures rug. An award of excellence for promoting Canada through his writing.
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