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!

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"!

Animal Purse: Still Not Finished!

Oh boy.

I'm going to say this purse has been a learning experience.  I did not get it done in time for my sister's birthday, but I did get the hooking done in time for New Years'.  I still need to steam it and make the liner and get the handles on.

However - I made a rookie error.  I didn't buy enough wool for the background!  I had this really beautiful dark tobacco colored wool I bought from Charlotte at ATHA Biennial whose store name I can't remember to save my life, which is unfortunate because she was lovely and the wool is terrific.  I got very lucky in that I had most of it hooked, so I filled in the background on the bottom with a black Dorr wool I had,  but it was definitely a learning experience:

Always Buy More Wool Than You Think You'll Need!

I am really happy with how the animals turned out - this is technically my third finished project, so while I know there is a lot of room for improvement, I know I can can do it.  That's kind of a relief!

Here is a photo of it before it was steamed:

I'm always amazed by how much steaming does to improved the project.  It's like magic!  I'm counting on the iron to correct the err of my ways.

On to the liner - it's time to dust off my sewing machine and get 'er done.

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



Fun in Nebraska

Hello all!

I haven't done much hooking lately, as my hooking space is in my basement at home, which currently looks like this:

We are finishing the basement , and there is now an egress window where that dryer vent hose goes through the plywood window, and all the walls and ceiling are down and the mess relatively cleaned up, so there is progress, but my little studio room tucked in the corner that used to look like this:

Is now covered in a layer of dust because the egress window guy came and I didn't shut my door.  All of my lovely wool, which is now filling those cube shelves, is covered in dust as well.  *sigh* 

One of the best things about my job as Marketing Specialist for the Bee Line-Townsend cutters is my chance to travel to hook-ins and shows.  Two weeks ago I was supposed to go to the Autumn Valley Hook-In in Stillwater, Minnesota, but my lovely teen was asked to Homecoming for the first time, so I had to fulfill my role as Annoying Picture Mom.  I certainly did miss seeing everyone in Stillwater, though!

Last weekend I drove to Valley, Nebraska to attend Janice Lee's Eastern Nebraska Hook-In.  It was fun and really informative, as there were terrific presentations throughout the day.  Great talks by Janice about sheared mats, Kathleen Salak's hooked dolls, and Carol Oslage's baskets, all great, but I was really taken by Jan Goos' Halloween pattern:

(Used with permission from www.goosnest.com)

She did this as both a hooked rug and as a wool wall hanging.  It was interesting to see it in both incarnations, and it is so fun and festive!

A rug I stared at a LOT and wish I would've taken a photo of was being hooked by a young woman at the table in front of my booth.  I believe the pattern was called "My Pal" and it was a dog in the middle, which she was hooking in a primitive style and beige and tan wool.  The background was originally drawn with primitive, irregular rectangle shapes in it, but the hooker was hooking the background in large spirals in varying shades of blue, which to me was reminiscient of Van Gogh's "Starry Night".

Picture this without the yellow and white.

The hook-in was a great deal of fun.  Here is the event just as it was opening and people started their rounds around the vendors:



Here is the crowd when Jan Goos started speaking:

Here is a nifty idea for carrying cassettes without damage - this is an old Crystal Light container:

The good times kept rolling when I visited Janice Lee's shop the next day.  It is a really cool place:

It's even better on the inside...

Here's a close-up of that fantastic horse rug on the table - I love the four-leaf clover in the horseshoe in the middle:

And here is the lovely Janice Lee herself, in the middle of her Queendom:

What oh what should I purchase from Janice's candy shop?  When I was at Sauder, I saw all of the amazing Magdelena Briner Eby rugs and Evelyn Lawrence's interpretations of them.  I also bought the book on Magdelena's rugs by Evelyn and Kathy Wright.  So it only made sense that this was the pattern that was to come home with me:

It's called Magdelena's Animal Purse, from Woolley Fox via Janice Lee. 

I can't wait to start it!

This week I'll be traveling to the ATHA Biennial in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  If you're at the show, be sure to come over to the Bee Line - Townsend booth and say hi!