Saturday, February 5, 2011

RABBIT RUG AND OTHER THINGS ~ ~ ~

 It's been a long time since I've posted ~ just too busy to sit down and write!  The Rabbit Rug is done and sent in the mail and delivered to it's new home!  My friend, Cathy, is the proud grandma of her first grandchild, born in December ~ in her words "I've waited 63 years to be a grandma"!!!!!  I replied "ever since you were born?"!!!  She is beyond excited and I wanted to honor her new little Jacob with something special!  She loved it and took it to the new parents, who appreciated the thought very much!  The rabbit is hooked with camelhair wool from a retired jacket of Sonny's ~ I don't use much recycled wool but this was perfect for a furry little creature!  I mixed hand-dyed and handspun yarn into the background and handspun into the star.  I like the results ~ again, I drew it freehand and it just kind of developed as I hooked along.

The Tipp City rug has been finished for some time, but the bird needed some attention.  I appliqued it onto the foundation fabric and then hooked around it ~ but in doing so, the bird fabric was kind of wrinkly and just didn't lay flat, and the stitching definitely got lost when the hooking was done.  Betty Young, a long-time teacher, was at a hook-in that I attended and suggested that I stuff the bird to fill out those wrinkles and I took her up on it.  I slit the backing ~ stuffed it with only a small amount of fiberfill, stitched it back together and sealed it with white glue and covered the ugly mess I'd made with the label!  I also added a bead for the eye and some beads to the wing.  It looks good and the stuffing made a lot of difference!

 Now, the "Tipp City Bittersweet" resides under "Tom" and they look great together.  I toted that rug all over this house and this seemed to be the right spot.  There are lots of windows in the living room and this rug, apparently, needed all that light to show off the various shades of the background.  When I tried to find a place for it in our bedroom, where the colors looked great, it just had no life to it at all ~ now, it's found it's proper home.

 It was a pretty productive week for me ~ amazing!  Since I was labeling the Rabbit Rug, it was a great time to make labels for some of my other finished pieces.  I've been using a printable fabric that can be run thru the copier and then ironed on to a backing. I hand-wrote several labels onto paper and copied those on to the fabric, pinked the edges, ironed it on felt, pinked the felt edges and then hand-stitched that to the rug.  It gives a more finished look that what I was doing before!  You can buy the printable fabric in office supply stores and probably fabric shops, too.

One other little project I started this week is a heart mat with a variety of reds out of my stash.  It's going to have a really dark background ~ a black and red plaid that is overdyed with black.  I'm headed down to the hooking room now to finish this and START my blog challenge piece!!  A perfect Saturday ~ hooking all day!  Sonny went to a tool show in Columbus and I'm going to be an all day hooker!!!

Ta ta for now!!

Alice

12 comments:

Jacque. said...

LOVE all your projects...that bunny rug is perfect. The solution offered for your bird was perfect! The place you have your rugs hanging is perfect. The heart will, no doubt, be...well, perfect! Happy to see all of your projects! Have a great weekend.

The Barn Door said...

Alice...love the bunny, so cute!!!

Rugs and Pugs said...

Alice ~
Sweet little bunny! You have been busy and I've wasted most of the morning on the computer. You'd think I'd learn...gggggrrrr!
I need to label a few rugs (it's on today's to-do list!) and I may try your technique. Thanks for showing it!
Happy hooking :)
Lauren

Cathy G. said...

Alice.. I love how you have your rugs displayed so nicely on the wall! They are so wonderful they deserve to be where you can see them daily! The labels look so nice too. You have a fun weekend hooking and creating!
Cathy G

Linda said...

Hi Alice..........as usual another informative post from you. I try and soak up all the info you post about rug hooking! Have a good day.
Linda

Sheila said...

Loved your post and all your work as usual. Have a great day hooking!

The Eveningstitcher said...

Love the rugs, Alice! The bunny rug is so sweet. I was going to go to Ault's this morning for their hook in, but decided not too..thank goodness...we are have another snowstorm and it's coming from Ohio...I may have been stranded in rug hooking country..how awful would that have been!


Bobbie

Plumruncreek ♥ said...

Nice rugs! Have fun hooking!

acorn hollow said...

wow you are busy. Love them all. My name is Cathy and I was a a grammie for the first time in Dec also. funny but I am a few years younger than she is. No I will not say how many.
I love the bitter sweet perfect place for it.
cathy

Sassafras and Winterberry said...

What a cute bunny! I really enjoyed hearing the process on the bird. Neat idea. The finished rug is great and looks fab on the wall. You've been very busy. Thanks for the info on the labels. I've got to get much more fierce with myself about labeling!
Courtney

April DeConick said...

Alice, I really like this heart. The texture and color is wonderful.

Kim said...

Love all the project updates. The Tipp City rug looks great in its new spot.
I have to be on the look-out for that printable fabric. I would like to label some of my rugs but have never figured out something that looks right.