ROOSTER RUG PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

 This morning is Day 7 to hook on the Rooster Pair ~ how do like those purple feet?  I like them a lot!!  Every rug should have some purple in it!!  I hooked while I watched the re-cap of THE WEDDING!  At 4 a.m., I bounded out of bed to the sound of my phone alarm!  I was really tired ~ we went out for a bite to eat last night and ended up stopping at The Happy Grape (that's our town's new wine bar)  for a nightcap and found some friends ~ some old ones and some new ones!!  It was fun, of course!!  And so was the wedding ~ a wonderful respite from all the doldrums of life ~ every country should have a prince and princess or duke and duchess, as Will and Kate will be called now ~ it's uplifting! 

This is the overall picture of how far I've gotten ~   it looks  yellow ~ I don't like that ~ but in order to get it light enough for the colors to show, it goes yellow in the re-setting.  If you click on the photo, it will be enlarged and you can click again and see it really close up!  It's quite sparkly!!  I might add that this rug is 29 x 50 ~ it's going to be a sparkly whopper of a rug!!

I've left that rooster's tail for last because the left tail is so beautiful and I don't want to do the very same thing on the right one ~  I keep thinking my wools will inspire me so that it holds it's own when finished!!  Sometimes I think too much, me thinks!!

Yesterday, I spent another hour and a half at the dentist ~ getting this blessed tooth ready for it's permanent crown.  In three weeks, it will be ready to be applied for good!  In the meantime, I will be very cautious!!

Have a good weekend ~ hopefully, the weather has calmed down across the country and we can look forward to some beautiful Spring temperatures and flowers ~ but I think it is going to be more like Spring showers!!  Oh, well ~ rejoice in what we have!  Ta ta for now!
Alice

ROOSTER RUG PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

Yes, progress is being made!!  This is from yesterday's 6th day of hooking on the Rooster Pair!  I hooked for maybe an hour ~ I never know how much time I spend but wish it could be more.  These colors look kind of funky but when the whole rug is done, it's gonna be fabulous!! 

On the sidebar, I still have the 10 MINUTES A DAY HOOKER logo up ~ I should take it down because that rarely happens but ~ the progress I'm making with this rug shows me, very clearly, that sitting down at the frame everyday really helps get a rug done so much quicker! 

Morel mushrooms!!  Sonny and son Teddy went mushroom hunting last evening and this is some of their bounty!  I just took a picture of a few to show you but they got a really nice batch that Sonny floured and fried in butter ~ yummo, as Rachel Ray would say!  Teddy, Miki and the kids stayed for supper ~ we had to order pizza to round out our meal ~ but at least this year, the guys are so happy to be finding  enough at one time to make a little feast!  Years ago, before we built on this property, they were much more plentiful. I never ate wild mushrooms till Sonny started hunting them ~ it was always scary to me ~ I would let him eat them first!!  So far ~ so good!!! 

Another thing he's been finding and reading about is ramps!!  Have any of you eaten or cooked ramps?  There was an article in yesterday's paper about them so we might have to saute up a few of those ~ they're a leafy green with a bulb that smells like garlic!!  I'll let you know if we get that brave!!!

Off to have a manicure and pedicure and then spend another hour and a half in the dentist's chair!!  But compared to listening to the news and all the tornado devastation across the country last night ~ I'll face that little task with good cheer!!  Hope all you readers are safe and sound!  The wind howled here last night but that was all ~ we're very lucky!  I have to get a good night's sleep tonite because I have a wedding to attend tomorrow ~ I must get up at 4 a.m. to prepare ~ I think I'll wear my tiara and my best peach polyester ~ after all, it's going to be a very Royal Affair!!!  Ta ta and have a jolly good day!!

Alice

ROOSTER RUG PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

This is the 5th day of hooking on Magdalena's Rooster Pair, hooked last night  ~ I'm loving this rug and anxious to work on it!!  Today, I went down to take this photo and ended up hooking for a while ~ filled in the space to the left of the 'wild wing'!!!  The day before I hooked a row all around the border ~ I want to use that wool in the background but needed to see how much would be left ~ so even though it took time, it felt kind of ho-hum in terms of how much I got done.  Hopefully, there will be more hooking time later today and I can make some real headway!

I have two friends named Donna ~ hooker friend, Donna and non-hooker friend Donna.  Non-hooker friend Donna dropped off  this t-shirt with this lovely design on the front ~  a souvenir of her vacation!   I LOVE it ~ won't this be a nice addition to my already fashionable wardrobe?!!   

I took a little walk around outside between showers this morning!  Flowers are really starting to pop up out of the ground and I can't wait to get out there and dig in the dirt!  Okay ~ I'm off to do something ~ either office work and put the wool back where it belongs down in the hooking room.  Last week, after the show on Saturday, everything got carried down there but nothing got put away because ~ I went to the Woolley Fox to hook!  And it still awaits me ~

Last night we had our first batch of fried mushrooms.  Sonny has actually found some nice ones this year ~ son, Teddy, also found some the other night ~  most years it's slim pickings here in our woods but he's been so happy with his 'catch' this week!  Hope there are fresh morels in your life! 
Alice

ROOSTER RUG PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

Yesterday afternoon, before we left the lake, I got to hook for about three hours!!  A perfect afternoon for me!  I finished the body of the left rooster and started filling in over the wing and head of the right one.  Even though these guys are dark ~ they're looking pretty colorful to me!!  Stay tuned!
Hopefully, I can squeeze in some hooking time on this rainy drizzly day!  For once, I have nothing looming large in my schedule ~ just day to day chores ~ it feels GREAT!!!!! 

I've noticed that I have a couple of new followers ~ I appreciate each one of you that stop by to check in and love it when you take the time to comment ~ thank you and come back soon!! 
Alice

HOPPY EASTER ~ ~ ~

We hope everyone had just the kind of day that you wanted ~ we came home from the lake and had dinner at son Ted and Miki's ~ ham and all the trimmings!  They just returned from spring break in Florida so they are nice and brown and have fun stories to tell about two ER visits with Luke!  One for a torn off toenail and the other, a badly sprained ankle!!  They do know how to have fun!!

I want you to take a close look at these eggs, done by friend, Sherry Davis.  She dyes them with silk scarves and ties ~ absolutely beautiful!!  I've known Sherry for years and she is one of most creative gals on the planet!!  Don't they make a great centerpiece?

Yesterday, we made a trip to the lake and went to the Moose Club for lunch.  They were having an Easter party for the kids and The Easter Bunny stopped by and had her picture taken with Tad! Such a cute and sweet bunny!

We haven't been to the lake since January and it was great just to be up by the water, if only until today.  Went out with our friends in the evening for a little libation and then on to Mon Ami where we danced and danced!!  It was fun ~ Darryl Gatlin playing all kinds of music that people our age just love!

I hooked on my Rooster rug ~ it's looking good!  And this week, I get to start on a fun project at the dentist!  I broke a tooth last week in Ligonier ~ now I have to have a root canal, a post and a crown!!!!!  Do you hear cha-ching?!  Yikes ~ I dread this but putting it all into perspective ~ I'm not ill ~ I'm not broken ~ it's just a tooth and FOUR visits in the dentist's chair  to get everything done!  That's the part that makes me crazier than the cost!! And I'm just guessing he's not looking forward to it either!!  I'll keep you posted on the rug and my tooth!!  Will the fun never end?!!  Have a good day tomorrow!
Alice

LIGONIER VISIT ~ ~ ~

You must meet Posie ~ the Woolley Fox mascot, so to speak!  This is Barb's wonderful Maine Coon Cat, who was just a kitten last year at this time!  Everybody in our group LOVED this cat ~ she lays on the color planning table, the work table the hookers share ~ actually, Miss Posie lays anywhere she wants to!!!!!!

Julie is hard at work and Heidi is explaining something very important!!  We had a great time and got started on some really great rugs! We also got to meet Robin, Barb's daughter ~ what a ball of fire that girl is!!  She can cook, draw patterns, organize, ride herd on her doggies ~ if you look up multi-task in the dictionary, I think her picture might be there!!! 

Peggy and Cyndy hook away while Barb explains something really important to us!  We had lots of great food ~ wallowed in the wool ~ and generally, helped the local economy by shopping in the little shops in town!

Peggy got started on Jonah and the Whale ~ the border consists of lots of theses beautiful paisley designs that would confuse the daylights out of me!  Peggy spent some of the  time 'bon-ding' with the cats and dogs that reside at the Woolley Fox ~ I wouldn't have been surprised to see one of them in her car when we left!!

 This pattern might be called Hunter Weathervane ~ something close to that!  Heidi is hooking it mostly in paisleys from her personal collection ~ which is a nice one, by the way!  This rug is going to be so beautiful ~ it is already!

Burnt Hills, a Warren Kimble pattern, is being hooked by Cyndy ~ perfect  soft colors that    personify Cyndy to a T !!                   

   

Julie can hook up a storm ~ I'd love to tell you that she hooked this all this week but that wouldn't be quite true.  But she hooked a lot of it in the last three days ~ she puts her head down and hooks while the rest of us are talking, ambling about the room, petting the pets, etc.!  This rug is HUGE!!  The pattern is Magdalena's Farm with Lollipops or something like that ~ the name is as big as the rug!  Can't wait to see it finished!

Magdalena's Rooster Pair is be hooked by moi!!  Lots of sparkly wool  and a crazy hit-and-miss style back-ground that I've never done before!  It's similar to the background I did in Karen Kahle's style but you hook in  a more colorful wool  on the squiggly lines and hook a variety of background wools in between those.  I think I'm going to like it a lot!  I have a place for this rug already ~ if I don't 'chicken' out ~  the place that needs this rug is in an area that gets some traffic ~ so we'll see when when it's all finished if I have the chutzpah to let people walk it!!!!  Do you notice the purple chicken feet?  Love that!  I love it all really!  Barb and I create some great rugs together ~ I value her opinion and I think she values mine!  I'm ready to go down and hook away on this thing ~ wish I could ~ but I can't right now!!  Will keep you posted!  

Easter weekend is upon us ~ Spring has sprung ~ the deer or the little rabbies are eating the hostas ~ I'm going out and sprinkle cayenne pepper on everything green as soon as I'm finished posting.  Yes!  Spring has sprung alright!!

Thanks for stopping by ~ and thanks, too, for all the nice comments on the quilt show pictures!  It's my way of taking you along!  Have a good Easter weekend!
Alice                                 

NOT YOUR MAMA'S QUILT SHOW PART 2 ~ ~

 This has to be one of my favorites of the quilt show,

if not my very favorite!  Does this look like a quilt?

I would call it a thread painting ~ if you click on it, it is spectacular!  You should be able to see the detail and it's just hard to believe that this is all fabric!

Such a cute piece ~ I love faces and people sculptures ~ this one just speaks to me!

Unbelievably ~ this is all YO YO's ~ imagine!! loved this one, too!  A very creative fabric artist put an incredible

amount of thought and time into this work of art!

 The colors in these pieces spoke to me ~ Loudly!
Love them both!

 Again, people's faces ~ and look at those nice cows!

 I loved the moon quilt ~ and the others were beautiful, too!












This one was fun and I just liked it  lot!  Heidi and Donna and I just loved this show ~ it was inspiring ~ I call it a feast for the eyes!  I think seeing all this art and all the beautiful booths helps to make us more creative.  This morning, on a blog, I read this quote that she got from somewhere else ~ ART WASHES AWAY FROM THE SOUL, THE DUST OF EVERYDAY LIFE!  Isn't that a wonderful and comforting thought? 
This was taken at the show yesterday ~ this was before the show began ~ by the end of the day, after we loaded up in the rain ~ we didn't look quite so chipper!!  It was a nice day ~ saw so many people we knew ~ and talked and laughed all day ~ even sold some wool!!  Went to dinner afterwards with our friends, Vivian and Lou ~ came home and unloaded the truck and car ~ and crashed!!!

I've been up since 5:45 a.m. ~ doing laundry and blogging ~ and now I have to pack some clothes and most importantly, pack up my hooking tools and at 10 a.m. this morning, my friends and I are off to Ligonier, Pa. to hook and eat and laugh for three days!!!!!!!!  It will be fun ~ it's just getting it together to get there that's the crazy part!  So, I'm off ~ talk to you at the end of the week and I'll have pictures of our rugs for you! Ta ta for now!
Alice

GATHERED TREASURES SHOW ~ ~ ~

 Tomorrow, Saturday, is the Gathered Treasures show at the Richland County Fairgrounds in Mansfield ~ if you're into primitives, this is a great Spring show!  Of course,  I always have lots of wool to sell ~ my own hand-dyed and as-is wool, patterns, frames, hooks, scissors ~ everything you need to hook a good rug! 

But I have a few other things, too!  Like these Funky Flower Pins ~ some of the things I saw at the Quilt Show  that inspired me to put these together! 

There's this vintage Easter Egg holder that I picked

up last year ~ very cute!

 Two vintage hooked rugs in excellent condition and a really LONG hand woven runner!















There are two David T. Smith pottery luminaries and a

couple of neat pottery apothecaries with sculpted

birds on the lids!

I'd love to see you ~ we're going to set up this afternoon so I'm heading to the hooking room to pack and organize the wool.  I'll finish putting the pin backs on tonite ~ along with some other things!!  Some new wool came in the other day that I'm 'dying' to throw in the dyepot this morning!  Along with that I have checks to write to Uncle Sam and get those in the mail!!  A full plate, as usual!

Come see us, tomorrow!!! 

NOT YOUR MAMA'S QUILT SHOW ~ ~ ~

 Last week, friend Heidi and I went to Cincinnati to the International Quilt Festival ~ it was held downtown in a big event center, whose name escapes me, connected to the hotel with a skywalk.  We dropped the car at valet parking (well worth the $) and didn't get back in it till we left the next day!  This booth, Country Threads, greeted us as we walked in the doors on Preview Night!  Many of the booths were beautifully decorated and just made such a great presentation!

The first two quilts here are by Susan Shie from Wooster!  The quilt show was large and for the most part were art quilts!  This one was heavily embellished ~ about 20" x 36" ~ for sale ~ I had to ask the price ~ I still haven't recovered ~ talk about sticker shock - $14,400 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

This next one is Susan's as well ~ her quilts were presented as a One Woman show type of display ~ air-brushed ~ teeny tiny writing on them ~ each one it's own work of art!

There was everything at this show ~ the creativity of these quilters had no bounds!  And the quilts were literally from all over the world!  There were very few quilts like we grew up with ~ like we see down in Amish country that are pretty and very functional.  These would hang  on a wall and claim their very own place as a work of art!

This one intrigued me because the people to the left of the quilt were like little fabric sculptures ~  created as though they were walking into the 'scene' ~ very creative!

This one had lots of embellishment and heavy wool applique ~ if you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you'll be able to see the scope of their work.  There were several wool booths there ~ beautifully presented.  I've done shows for years and these were the top of the top, in my opinion!

Loved this Andy Warhol style of quilting ~ it looks like a painting, doesn't it?

I loved this black and white cityscape-type of quilt ~ it had lots of sparkly on it ~ and you know how I love my sparkles!


We shopped all the vendors on Thursday night and Friday morning, we toured the quilt show.  I had to be back home in the afternoon because I had my class the next morning!  But, we found we were right on target in doing the Thursday night thing because the next morning, the show was crawling with thousands of people!  I didn't buy a lot ~ some Pro-Chem dye, which I've been wanting to try ~ some sari ribbon like we used in blog challenge # 2 (which I'll package into smaller bits to sell) and just some odds and ends of things.  I got some good ideas and saw some things that sparked some good ideas.  I'm going to be making some funky flower pins ~ wish I could get some done for Saturday's show!  Going to make a cute apron to wear for shows ~ it was such an inspiring place to be.  If you are a quilter, it would be like going to fabric heaven!!!!!!!!!!!!  It will be in Cinci again next year ~ I have it on the calendar already ~ April 12 - 15th!  Friend Donna met us down there, too ~ and we just all had a spectacular time!!
 
There are more pix for another posting ~ I'm washing wool that came in this week ~ packing for the Gathered Treasures show Saturday, here at the fairgrounds ~ and I'm on my way out the door to breakfast with friends!!  No wonder I don't get anything accomplished ~ but if you know me, you know I love my friends!!  Have a great day ~ Spring has sprung!!
Alice

PRODDY CLASS ~ ~ ~

 A good time was had by all!!  At least, that's what they conveyed to me at the time! MJ, who just flew in from wintering in Florida,  is looking over Dawn's shoulder and Pam ~ my wonderful lunch helper ~ is looking on!  They all worked on my Lexington Proddy Sheep pattern that is at the top left of the sidebar.

Linda, MJ, Pam and Jackie show off their progress at the end of the day!  We really had a lots of laughs ~ Linda was especially glad to get here after being lost on these twisty, turning country roads with no markings!  We were sure glad she found her way here! 

Lauren and Dawn thought they were so cute hiding behind their work ~ Deb was very proud to show her face!!  Lauren really got a lot of her proddy done ~ she picked  beautiful background and border wools.

Here's Lauren's face ~ she's taking a picture of me

taking a picture of her.  Deb is very serious about her work ~ she was doing a great job on her sheep and flag background.  Linda is also doing a flag background on hers ~ love that!

I wanted you to see a close up of Deb and Jackie's

sheep faces ~ they're doing them in Leicester sheep fleece that I had in my stash!  So cute ~ they're going to be very fuzzy faces ~ one with hooked ears and one with proddy ears!  Jackie and MJ really stepped out of the color box and chose purples and teals for their sheep ~ I hope they like them as well when they're done as they did that day!  Of course, you know I was crazy about the vibrant colors!

Jackie is modeling her Funky Flower purse that she made in our fall class ~ I was so glad she brought it along to show everybody!  She and Deb came from Pittsburgh bright and early that day and Dawn from Indiana ~ bless their hearts for travelling so far ~ Linda and Lauren travelled a distance, too ~ they want to plan a class for summer ~ I have to get my thinking cap on!! 

I do try to give the gals a great experience while they're here ~ they get a nice lunch ~ a house tour ~ great wool to work with ~ and I try to teach them something new so they leave here feeling their time was well spent!  Thanks to each one of you for a day of fun and sharing!

My next post will be about the International Quilt Festival that Heidi and I went to ~ what a great time that was!!  We're already planning on it for next year!! 

I'm getting ready for a show this Saturday at the fairgrounds in Mansfield ~ Gathered Treasures ~ a great primitive show ~ come see us!  The info and link to their website is on my sidebar!  Then on Sunday, we leave for the Woolley Fox for three days of my favorite pastime ~ hooking!!!  What a week I've got going!  Ta ta for now!
Alice