New Rug: Grannie's Flower Garden

What a busy crazy month it's been at Bee Line - Townsend!  We've shipped out EIGHT Trunk Shows in the past three weeks, chock full of wool cutters, cassettes, tote tables, and our new frames, so things are really hopping out there in the hooking world!  That said, it has left me no time to hook. Boo!

Since my Iowa Vintage Postcard rug is done (yay!) and is awaiting steaming, I bought a new pattern from Nola Heidbreder at Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week to start.  It's called Grannie's Flower Garden, a Cactus Needle pattern, and is 19 1/2 x 27.  It's just a charming little pattern, full of bright colors and happy shapes, that is do-able in a shortish period of time so I can feel an enormous sense of accomplishment. 

Once again,  I wish I had a color planner in the office!  The background in the picture seems to be some variations on a dark brown/tobacco color.  I used a beautiful chocolate wool on my Magdelena purse, which I would love to use again, but ran out and I can't remember where I bought it.

Having a blank, unhooked pattern is a bit like having a new crayon box at the beginning of the school year - it's a blank sheet of paper, full of possibilities. 

I looked at the colors on the photo above, and then looked in my wool basket, and started pulling a few things out to see what works.  I'm trying to mime what I see....a punchy color in the  middle to center the piece.  Like colors somewhat equidistant from each other, or anchoring either side.  The same wool in the center of every flower for some consistency.

Hmm.  I like how this has started, but I think I want it to be a little more fun.  Maybe a bright red pomegranate background? I think I'll start hooking the middles in that lovely Dorr green plaid, and the non-red flowers, and see where it takes me.

Getting Ready for Sauder!

I was hoping to get the Iowa Postcard Rug done by Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village, but it isn't looking good time-wise.  So much to do before the Big Week!  But what better place to be to finish a rug?  Here is the shipment of Bee Line - Townsend product going to Sauder Village:

Over 1000 pounds of wool cutting equipment and frames in these two pallets.

Pretty excited to go.  If you're going to be at Rug Hooking Week, be sure to stop by the Bee Line table, see our new 14" Orbiting Floor Frames, and grab a Tootsie Roll!

I used my new navy blue wool from Wheaten Woolens on the outline of my letters, and I love how that turned out.  The navy really pops, but it coordinates well with the blue in the sky background.

Plus, I stopped by The Woolen Needle in Williamsburg (one of our fantastic BLT distributors) and Carla helped me pick out some black for the bird wings and some darker gold for the spots on the bird.  Then I stopped in at The Rug Hooking Store to see Janice Lee.  You can maybe see some lines in the sky above the barn - once again, I underestimated how much wool I would need for the sky.  The part under the Iowa is in a pretty marbled light blue, but then I ran out.  Janice found the blue I'm using above the Iowa, and told me to pull some worms out of the lower sky and incorporate them into the upper sky, and vice versa, so they'll blend.  I'm working on that now.

Here it is with worms out....

Here it is with worms in.

I can't believe how close the two blues are, and how well they blend.  Janice was helpful in not only helping me with my sky issue, but also with my "double wool twists" on the back of the rug.  But that is a topic for another post!

Hope everyone is enjoying cooler weather and maybe some RAIN!  The crops are certainly sad around here.  Have a great week!

Gimme An "A"!

I'm getting close on finishing the A, and in what is exciting news for me, I finally got an outline color for the letters!  Yay!  No more indecision!  This means I finally have all of the wool I'm using for this rug.  Oh wait...except the bird.  Dang.

Here is the rug so far - I'm loving how it's turning out:

Just a bit more of that Gene Shepherd Roman Sun and I'm done with the letters!  There is a small shadow outside of the letters and on the inside of the O and the A.  The picture that came with the pattern from Nola Heidbreder shows a light brown or burgundy outline for the letters, but I wasn't a big fan of that color.  I thought about taking the ruby red color from the side of the barn and bringing that in, but alas - not only do I not have enough wool to do it, but as much as I love that ruby it seems like it would be a little harsh against the letters and the sky.  Someone suggested the green, but I love the trees and don't want to detract from them.  What do you do when you can't make a decision?  Make someone else do it!

There aren't many rug hookers in the Quad Cities - if there are, I have yet to meet more than four.  So imagine my delight in discovering a new studio opening in Davenport - Wheaton Woolens, by Beth Anne Smiley!

This is a picture of Beth Anne from her website, www.wheatonwoolens.com - here she is actually at The Wooley Fox, enjoying a camp.  Beth is opening her studio in this adorable 1860 stone barn on her property.  The other hooker I know in town, Julie Bohl, was at the studio as well, and she and Beth Anne took a look at my rug and made a number of suggestions as to what color would go well with the rest of the rug.  We finally settled on a beautiful navy blue - I'm hooking it in now, and it is really giving the letters the "pop" they need without overpowering the whole thing.

Beth Anne is holding rug hooking classes in her barn, so be sure to check out her website for more information.  The more the merrier!  I'm going to the Omaha area to see my mom for her birthday, and fortunately I'll be within 10 minutes of Janice Lee's shop, The Rug Hooking Store and Black Horse Antiques, so I think I'm going to finally get some "closure" on that Magdelena Eby purse I hooked last fall.

Only two weeks until Sauder!  Be sure to go to their page on Facebook, "Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village" to stay up-to-date on what's going on!

The Trouble With W

I've been working on my Iowa Postcard rug in hopes that I can get most of it done by Sauder Village, but let me tell you, hooking these letters has been a challenge.  Here is the rug so far:

So maybe....MAYBE...I'm getting toward being 50% done, but these letters?  They just might kill me.  Things that I can hook in a swirl, or a line, or an outline - no problem.  But hooking in a diagonal line on a somewhat horizontal stripe???  Yikes.

It may not look SO bad from this picture.  In pictures of my face from a distance you can't see the wrinkles either! :)  So let's zoom in a bit:

Here is the W a little bit closer.  NOW you can start to see the caddywhompus rows and loops.  I notice the right side looks a little better than the left side.  I think that's because on the right side, I hooked in straight rows, and then filled in later.  On the left side, I just tried to hook row next to row, moving loops over as needed to fill the space.  Overall, I like the look of the right side better, and may end up unhooking some of the left side of the W.  I'll need to get away from the letters for a bit and then re-visit it.  Now for the REALLY honest picture:

Oy.  Here is that left side of the W, warts and moles and all.  I'm using Gene Shepherd's Roman Sun wool, so there are four different shades of this lovely yellow-orange color. 

I'm hooking them in stripes on the letters.  The color is fantastic, but my rows can certainly use some help.

If anyone has any great tips or methods for hooking on a diagonal, I'd love to hear about it!  In the interim, the next section is waiting to be hooked on my Bee Line 14" Orbiting Frame (which I love, and will have at Sauder Village).  I hope I get an "A" on it!

In The Clouds

June is flying by here at Bee Line - Townsend!  We finished our 14" Orbiting Floor Frame, now available on our website at http://www.beeline-townsend.com/, or from one of our fantastic distributors.  I've been so busy getting that on the market that I haven't had time to actually hook on it lately!  My poor Iowa rug has been sitting in my cubicle, lonely, waiting for me to pick up my hook.  This week, that all changed.

I finally got some hooking done!  I wanted to finish the letters first, but in yet another rookie error, I let my worms get mixed up.  You can see on the right side of the "O", the wool looks a little lighter.  I think I accidentally hooked the lighter wool for the bottom in that layer, so I'll probably need to pull it out.  I got frustrated about it, so I thought I would hook a nice, calming cloud before I moved on.

I used Nola Heidbreder's "Snow" wool for the cloud, and I like the bits of blue/gray in it that brings just a tiny bit of dimension into the cloud.  I was trying to hook in a way that brought a little bit of "cloud-like motion" into it, not sure about my level of success on that front! 

Once again, I'm going to rely on steaming to save the day!

Now that my head is out of the clouds, I'm going to go reverse hook that poor "O".  I'd like to have this rug done by Sauder Village, because then?  I can buy new stuff!  Yay!

The "I"s Have It!

I posted last week that I opened my wonderful packages of wool from Nola Heidbreder and Gene Shepherd, and even though it was so lovely I was almost loathe to cut it, I still did.  Cut it.  With my Bee Line - Townsend Cutter, of course, with a #7 cassette.

Worms!  Worms!  Worms!

I started hooking the letters to see how the colors worked together.  The reason I purchased this Roman Sun collection of wool from Gene Shepherd is because I wanted the letters in the rug to have a variation in the color without having definitive layers of color.  I wanted it to look less "candy corn" and more like an Iowa sunset.  I started at the beginning - the I in Iowa.

While I can still see some color layering, it isn't as obvious as the photo that came with the pattern.  I wanted the orange, but I wanted the colors to blend a little bit more.  The color in this wool is so vibrant and fun, it brings a lot of energy to the rug.

The other thing I like about this wool is that it looks a bit like some Iowa corn.  Obviously I don't have the straightest rows or most even loops - that's for a few years down the road, when I can look back on some of these early rugs and chuckle to myself and say, "Oh, I remember when I really struggled with uniformity!"  ...That does happen, right?... but for now I'm enjoying the actual hooking and seeing where it takes me. 

I'll be back when I have a full set of four Iowa letters!  Have a great week!

Under The Roman Sun

Buying wool online is a little bit like Christmas - you know what it looked like on the website, and you THINK it's going to work in your project.  The box arrives, and there is a moment where you get to open it and it's so exciting because you get to see the wool and touch it.  Non-hookers will think this is a creepy sentiment, but y'all know what I'm talking about.

Last week I got TWO boxes of wool!  Lucky lucky lucky.

The one on the upper left is called "Snow" and the beautiful marbled one is "Turquoise Jade Spot" and both are available from Nola Heidbreder on her website: NolaHooks.com.  The turquoise particularly is so intense and deep, it's just spectacular.  I don't know what I'm using it in, but I'm saving it for something special.

The next box I opened came from Gene Shepherd.  I'm still hooking my vintage Iowa Postcard pattern, also purchased from Nola, and I've been looking for a multi-hued orange wool to do the Iowa letters.  On Gene's website, I found the perfect wool - his set called "Roman Sun".  It was pretty on his website, so I went ahead and took the plunge since I'm an impatient person by nature, and the nearest shop where I can buy wool is nearly two hours away.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I opened this box and it was like opening a box of sunshine.  Really beautiful wool, the colors were just spectacular.  It just makes me happy to look at it.  As an added bonus, it's incredibly luscious wool, and ran so beautifully through my cutter. 

This piece looked like flames were literally jumping off of the wool.  It was just lovely.  I almost didn't want to cut it....ALMOST.

I tend to use a #7 cassette.  I can't really explain why.  I started with the #7 on my first rug because our top sellers are the #6 and #8 cassettes, and I always cheer for the underdog.  I really like the #7, so I've stuck with it.

And now I have THIS on my desk!  Do you know how hard it is to work with these piles of beautiful worms staring at you, saying, "Julie....you should be hooking...."  I've been working on my letters for about a 15-30 minutes in the morning and 15-30 minutes at the end of the day.  I'm almost done with the "I", and I'm liking the effect of the varying shades of orange in it so far.

Shari, my cohort at Bee Line Townsend, and I will be going to the Hopkins hook-in up in Minnesota in a few weeks to join Martha Reeder from GoingGray.  I'm hoping to be done with my letters so I can buy an accent wool to hook around the shaded parts of the letters.  Of course, I will need to buy too much wool.  It's part of my job description, right?

Compartmentalizing

I'm going to reveal a little part of my psyche here - I can't outline a box and not fill it in.  There is something about incompleteness that nags at me.  Which is really funny if you've ever seen my desk or house, because those entire spaces are studies in incompleteness.

On some days?  This is clean.

When I started my Vintage Iowa Postcard rug, I wanted to outline the entire thing first, because I've heard other hookers say that's how to start your rug.  But I can't do it.  I can't have that big outline and not have it filled in right away.  I find myself MEANING to outline the entire border, but then I'll start the trees and next thing you know, that small part is outlined and then filled in.  I start the cornfield, and then it's outlined and filled in.  Then the barn.  You get the drill.

 
It's a little tougher with the sky, because it's so big.  I can't really outline the entire sky, nor do I want to, so I'm outlining chunks of it and then filling in with swirls and wavy lines.  It's interesting, because as much as I want to think I'm consistent, each "chunk" turns out different.

Once again, I'm packing, and once again, I'm counting on the magic of steaming to work out some of my issues.  I just bought some wool from Nola Heidbreder to use on the clouds (you can see it on my desk - there is this fantastic turquoise/jade color, and the "Snow" wool is underneath it), and am waiting on some orange wool from Gene Shepherd to fill in my letters.

Onward....

Signing the Card

One great thing about learning to rug hook is that the rug hooking community is so supportive and willing to teach the newbies.  I find I learn a lot from looking around at other people's blogs and websites, and it helps me to reflect on my work and see what I can do to improve.  Some of my favorites are Gene Shepherd's, Susan Feller's, Rug Hooking Daily, and The Welcome Mat.

The other day I was perusing Gene's blog, and I saw some signed rugs, and I thought, "Egad!  I haven't signed anything I've hooked!"  Since Bucky Bee is technically Bee Line Company's rug I wasn't too concerned, but my sister's Magdelena purse (hooked, but yet unfinished, I have until Dec. 22 to get it to her before her next birthday) is not signed, and my Iowa Vintage Postcard is also unsigned.  I worked to fix that immediately.

Numbers and letters aren't exactly "my thing" yet, but I can read them so at least I'll know when I hooked this piece.  Provided I get it done in 2012, of course!  It looks a little more like a child's vintage needlework sampler than the beautiful, flowing letters I see on some hookers' work, but it'll do.

It's a wonderful thing that Bee Line Company has recognized the importance of having a rug hooker in the company, and so I'm able to do some hooking during the day.  I get PLENTY of ribbing from people walking through my office area while I'm hooking, but I know I'm pretty lucky, so I only have a sharp retort for the fourth or fifth person who comments. :)  Great restraint, I know!  Today was one of those lucky days when I have a little time to get some hooking done. 

I finished my barn and the patch of sky next to it.  My barn is a little slopey, but hey, so are a lot of barns in Iowa!  It's unintentional realism, people!

It's fun seeing the rug start to take shape and get some color in it. I love the pop of red from that barn, and am still in love with that pomegranite wool from LeAnn at Camp Wool in Maine.  When I took my rug off of the frame to take my picture, I realized there is still an issue:

Oh dear.  Once a packer, always a packer?  I certainly hope not!  Looks like I'll be relying on a good steam again for this rug.

Looking Skyward

When I hooked Bucky Bee last year, I did a blue background because it is one of the colors of our company, and it is the color of the sky, where Bucky would technically be flying.  Back then, I was just happy to be hooking at all, and to have a rug completed.  Looking back, there are of course a few things I would change about the rug.  One of them is the direction in which I hooked the sky.

I hooked Bucky in a #7 cut, so the loops are fairly big and can be seen well.  You can see that I did overlapping outlines of Bucky - his shape, repeated in about seven rows.  You can definitely see that effect in the finished rug:

The rest of the sky has a nice, swirling marbled effect, but Bucky's outline definitely eminates outward from him.  If I could hook Bucky again, I would make the area behind him go out straighter behind him, like wake.  If he's flying through the air, he won't have his "echo" coming off of him, he will be moving through air like a duck dives through water.  Again, I have Susan Feller to thank for making me think about these things.

On my Iowa Postcard rug, I'm trying to think about that as I hook.  I had already hooked a border line on the sky area, but I didn't want to hook my sky vertically, I want my sky to have a more horizontal appearance, as I think it does in nature.  Here is what I've done (and yes, it's the same wool from my Bucky rug!):

My question to you, Gentle Hookers, is would you have left the vertical border line, or would you have pulled it out and made it all horizontal?

Speaking of Susan Feller, I've found a new way to keep tabs on her - through her blog!  You can find her at http://www.artwools.com/ , where she has photos of her works in progress, including this amazing treeline, called....wait for it...."Mountain Treeline":



Isn't it beautiful!?

I can't completely tell, but it almost looks like the edge of Susan's piece has a vertical line of loops going up the sides for the border, and then different patterns and directions on the actual mountain.  It's harder to tell because the wool is darker than mine and has that terrific pattern in it.

This brings me to a question I've had about hooking borders - some people say you do your border/outline first, and then hook the pattern.  Some people say hook from the center out.  Some people say Do Whatever You Want.  What do you do?  Do you have a tried-and-true method you use when starting a rug?  What is your reasoning for doing it that way?



Lessons in Unhooking

I feel like I hit another hooking milestone today - I have begun unhooking.

When I first started hooking, I couldn't understand why people would ever, EVER pull loops out unless there was a major crisis.  As a rookie, I work so hard to get those loops in there that the mere THOUGHT of pulling them out makes my heart hurt a little.  But yesterday, that all changed.

I hooked my tree line in this beautiful green wool that I love so much, only to discover halfway through the tree line that I don't have enough wool.  DRAT.  I had already hooked the outline on the trees, so I knew I was going to have to pull some of it out.

I'm going to blame a lot of my rationale for what happened next on Susan Feller, from Ruckman Mill Farm, and author of the fantabulous new book, "Design Basics for Rug Hookers". 

Susan may not KNOW I've been stalking her a little bit at shows, but I have.  The secret is out.  I've watched her do tours at Sauder Village, and give advice to other hookers on color choices and hooking styles, and it's because of Susan that I have pulled out a lot of loops in the last 24 hours.

You can sort of see what I'm talking about here.  I love the dark green trees, but ran out of that wool.  I had already outlined all of the trees in the darker wool, but I have this other wool with some lighter tones, so I thought "I'll go crazy and mix it up!" I pulled out the loops (gasp!) along the top outline and replaced it with the lighter checked wool.  I thought I'd stick with the lighter green on the left side, because that looks like the side that has light, hence the shadow on the barn.

So I put the lighter wool in, but then I thought about Susan.  She talks about movement and what would things be doing in nature?  Would this lighter tree have a dark splotch in the middle of it?  Possibly, but it would look more natural without the one row of light green wool going vertical.  So I pulled it out.

I re-hooked it with darks, and then some dark patches in the light.  Close-up I'm not sure I love it, but from a bigger perspective it seems a little better.

I think I like it better.  I will probably need to add a little bit more of the light green to make it look less choppy, which is still a shame because I loved the trees with the dark green.  But now is not the time for regrets, but for moving forward.  I thought one should only pull out loops in a major crisis, but I've realized that not completely loving or at least believing what you hook looks real does constitute a major crisis that requires the pulling out of some loops.  This is all an experience in my journey to learning to hook. 

I'm off to finish hooking a row on the border today.  Not sure about the clouds - would you hook those in white?  In cream?  Other suggestions?

On The Learning Curve

It's been the best of times, it's been the worst of times.

Last year, I hooked during the entire Oscars broadcast and got most of my Bucky Bee finished during four hour show:

And my shoulder and neck killed me the next morning!  But it felt like the pain of VICTORY! :)

This year, I forgot my hooking at work and the Oscars started and I thought, "Oh NO!  I can't hook during the show!"  It felt like three hours I could have planted the Iowa fields in my vintage Iowa postcard rug.  However, I have been able to get a bit of hooking done - and learned some valuable lessons.

I used this beautiful green wool for my treeline, and it made the most gorgeous trees:

Aren't they pretty?  I was so proud of them!  The green below is the grassy field by the barn.  So I kept hooking and outlining and filling and outlining and outlining and then....I realized I don't have enough of my beautiful green wool to fill in all those outlines! 

So guess what is getting pulled out tonight?  That's right. Trees.  I'm going to be a logger and cut them all down.  I have a nice lighter green plaid that will probably fit the bill to finish these trees out, but oh how I hate to pull out those loops! 

Before my logging expedition, I started planting corn.  Again, I got really lucky on the wool I have, and this golden pattern does a nice job of looking like fall corn, ready for harvest, or maybe a nice field of hay or wheat.  Here's a closeup of my crop:

I'm hoping to get some work in on it today yet - work project! - and see if I can complete my field and figure out those trees.  In addition to my proclivity toward packing, I see that I am dangerously optimistic about how much wool it takes to fill spaces in rugs!  I like to buy my wool in person, and I don't have many opportunities to do so, so next time I am going to OVER BUY the wool I like.  Consider yourself warned, husband who does Quicken - wool budget needs to expand.

Another Barn in Iowa

I am loving my Iowa Postcard Rug from Nola Heidbreder (http://www.nolahooks.com/).  Loving. It.

I'm so obsessed with it, in fact, that it is making it difficult to work.  I've promised myself that I can hook from 4-4:30, because, "Hey, it's my JOB, right?"  I have it set up in my cubicle, but I can SEE it all day, and it whispers to me, "Julie....Julie....put those marketing figures aside and let's play!"

This picture is taken from my chair...

that's the arm of the chair in the bottom of the photo. 

So. Hard. To. Resist.

The other day I was hooking trees with The Perfect Wool, that I happened to have in my bag.  Today, I am hooking a barn with The Perfect Wool, which I happened to have in my bag!  How lucky am I!  It must mean I'm supposed to hook more during the day!  This perfect barn red wool is a piece I was lucky enough to snag from LeAnn Hodgson at Camp Wool (http://www.campwool.com/).  I believe she used it for some pomegranates, but I loved the color so much I had to have some. 

Here is the wool:

Isn't it pretty!?  Of course, the picture doesn't do it justice,

but you can see a little variation in the lights and darks.

For an Iowa barn, you need to have the look of weathered barn boards,

and this wool does just the trick.

Love it!



It's 2:43 p.m. here.  Still one hour and 17 minutes until I can give myself permission to hook!  I don't take it home with me at night because I have it all nice and tight on the frame here, and I have the Magdelena Animal Purse to finish at home.  I've steamed it and I'm making the liner right now, so hopefully after this weekend, in between two orchestra concerts for my kids and a basketball game, I'll have it done.  Then I can REALLY go to town on this Iowa rug.  Plus?  The Oscars are coming!  Prime hooking time!

I love discovering the right colors of wool to use in my work.  I'd really love to take a color planning class at some point, there are people who just "get it" and I'd like to pick their brains.  So far I've been lucky - I'd like it to turn into "skill"!