Animal Purse: Five Days Left

I mentioned before that I purchased the Magdelena's Animal Purse, a Wooley Fox pattern, from Janice Lee's store, The Rug Hooking Store and Black Horse Antiques, in Valley Nebraska when I was there for Janice's Hook-In.  My sister lives in Omaha, and she was with me in Janice's store and liked the purse, so I bought the pattern intending to make it for her birthday, which is on Dec. 22.

People who have December birthdays get really irked about getting combo birthday/Christmas presents, so I made sure this purse had no Santa's or reindeer on it.  This is what the finished purse looks like at Janice's store:

Look at the even loops!  The lovely colors!  The finished product!  Janice's purse was more of a black/gray background with some navy and burgundy worked in there.  My sister's purse has a tobacco/mahogany background.  I worked on it some on the way to ATHA Biennial, and a little tiny bit at ATHA, but that show was so busy I didn't really have time to hook.  I took it out at Green Mountain in Vermont, and got some of the animals done.  I really like the fox:

Here is the other side of the purse - I've been able to make some progress at work because I've been test hooking 14" Orbiting frames!  I love days when I get to hook at work!

That rabid-looking Yorkie thing at the bottom will end up being a raccoon - I wish I would have given him bigger eye patches, I think I'm going to have to reverse hook the eyes and make them more raccoon-y.

Here is what I have yet to hook:

So.  I need to get this all hooked, make the liner, and find some handles, and it has to be shipped by Monday to get to her on time.  My in-laws are coming for our first family Christmas this weekend, so not sure how much time I'll have for hooking then, but I feel a hooking marathon night coming.....

In the interim, at Bee Line- Townsend we do have some of the original Townsend 14" Orbiters for sale on eBay.  We only had 19 available for sale, and these are the last of the Townsend models.  We'll be launching our own frames in the spring, but if you need a great frame now, this is the way to go.  I've been hooking on the one we decided to keep for the company this week, and I am SPOILED.  Here is the link to the frames if you are interested:

The Townsend Orbiter 14" Frame



The Rest of Green Mountain

Here are the rest of the photos of some of the amazing rugs I saw at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.  There isn't enough room on my camera to get  all of them on here, so know that the pics below are just a representation of the rugs at the show.

This was part of a larger rug, hooked almost like a patchwork quilt.  I love this "patch", to Hans Jensen.  I believe her name is Dorothy Jensen, but I was so besotted by the love letter that I forgot to take a picture of her name!

I have such a thing for dogs, and then a friend has a Bernese Mountain Dog, so I love this rug.  This is called "Father and Son", hooked and designed by Barbie Beck-Wilczek.

This is called "Feather Hearth Rug", hooked and designed by Kathleen Harwood.  She says the design is inspired by the classic feather quilting pattern used on antique American quilts.

I thought this was a tranquil scene - don't you just want to be there?  This is hooked and designed by Chris Daley of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

This rug is really interesting in that it has a sculpted element in the blackbird.  It's called "My Favorite Season" and was designed by Joe Luszcz, hooked by Diane Luszcz.   Diane noted that the felted acorns were made by her friend Lynn.

The name on this rug originally caught my eye because we had just sent an order to her the week before the show, but the rug is really outstanding.  It's called "Lincoln Commemorative", and was hooked and designed by Ivi Nelson Collier.  It was a 2009 People's Choice rug, and it's easy to see why.  Not only does it have excellent lettering, which I have tried and know to be tough, but it has that amazing picture of Lincoln hookedin almost as a watermark.  Ivi noted on her card that she likes how "Lincoln stands behind his words." 

More pictures on Friday!