Tuesday, January 20, 2009

IT'S A GREAT DAY ~ ~ ~

It's a great day because, finally, my 'Christmas Hands' rug is finished!!!! I drew the ten grandchildren's hands at Christmas 2005 and started it right after the holidays were over! And then, it ceased to be fun ~ hooking with basically two colors wasn't very challenging, I guess. Or maybe it was too much of a challenge ~ but not until someone on the Wool Snippets forum started a challenge for unfinished rugs (UFO Challenge), did I get interested in finishing this project!!

Last year on the Minick and Simpson blog, Polly Minick had a little contest to which I had the correct answer ~ and the prize was all this wonderful red, white and blue binding!! Since my colors were based on her blue and white star rug, I thought using her binding for this rug was perfect!! This close up shows lots of hooking 'holidays' ~ I guess they don't concern me a lot as I look at the how the rug lays from the front ~ if there isn't a low place in the way the rug lays, it works for me! How do you handle 'holidays'??

And this is the room that I hooked this rug for ~ a guest room predominately blue and white ~ perfect! The quilts are all antique except for the two on the foot of the bed on the right ~ they are Amish pieces that I purchased quite a few years ago. The washstand was from my mother's things and the bowl and pitcher were from my former mother-in-law. There are also an authentic Amish child's cape & bonnet hanging on an old shelf ~ but it didn't get in the picture!! Above the beds are pieces from my cross stitch days ~ that's the year my eyes went to pot and I had to get glasses!!

This is the room where Miss Luci and I have our tea parties ~ the small quilted pieces are Amish, too ~ as well as the painting above the table. As you can see, the Christmas Hands rug fits right in with the simple decor in this room.

I have to say that finishing a rug that was started three years ago really pointed out to me how much I've learned in those years! My hooking is higher! And I never would use now the light weight white wool that is used to separate the various blocks! As I started the rug, I left spaces unhooked in each block so that other blues could be used to fill in. A solid blue was not going to have much interest and as I picked this up again, that was very apparent to me. I even picked out other blues from my strip basket to fill in ~ in some of the blocks, I thought maybe I even got to carried away with trying to create 'interest'!! All in all, I'm happy with the result and more than happy to have it finished. I have two rugs I'm working on now ~ one is the sheep rug commissioned (I love to say that!) by my friend, Melody ~ and the other is the American Fish that I started in November ~ new things to post about!!!

And it's a GREAT DAY TODAY in our country because we have a new President!!!! I was glued to the TV most of the day watching history in the making for our country and no doubt, for the world!! President Obama is a commanding presence ~ we trust that he will guide the United States back into a place of prosperity and respect that we deserve!! Today was a very uplifting day!!! Tonite I'm going to hook and watch the inaugural parties on TV ~ sounds like fun!
Alice

9 comments:

jane augenstein said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jane augenstein said...

I should reread my remarks before posting! LOL Repeated myself, duh!
Beautiful rug, Alice! I can see where it might not be challenging because of the color; but it looks really good in the room you have it in! Good job!
:-)

JoJo said...

The differences between people are remarkable! I turned the TV on when I first got up...on The Weather Channel. But at 7, when Good Morning, America came on, I watched perhaps the first 15 minutes and then turned it off for the rest of the day. The spring pool session started last night and I was too busy doing other things to watch coverage.

I love your hands rug -- what a wonderful memento for you to have. And the bedroom you have it in is done in my colors too!! I do envy you living in Amish Country. I'd so love to make a trip and do nothing more than spend time shopping or sightseeing in your area. But I assume the only time I'll get to Amish Country is when we go to Maine and then hubby's in too much of a hurry to indulge me with Amish shopping. :-(

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

Thanks, JoJo ~ One of my sons asked early on if that rug was for him!!! Hopefully, someone will want it ~ my want is to hook each child's hand individually and give them their own little hand for a keepsake ~ but I'm making no promises there!!
There are a lot of Amish around here ~ when I was a kid, they went to school with us until they built their own school ~ that was in a different area from here. But when we go to Amish country, we head over to Holmes county ~ you know ~ everything is better if you have to travel to see it!!!!

Julie said...

Congratulations Alice! It must feel great to finally have that rug complete. Now you can enjoy it!

jane augenstein said...

Tag you're it! Check out my blog to play! :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice!! Your "Hands" rug turned out so nice!!! And the room is perfect for it! : )

I agree..I was so happy to watch the celebrations all day as we installed our new President!!!!! Of course, no one can solve every problem...but I certainly wish him and all the new "position-holders" well!!! Now let's all get to work!!! : )
Hugs to you, Sunnie ; )

Jacque. said...

Hey Alice...WOW! I am so impressed by the work you did on your Christmas Hands rug. Looks great...and what a nice feeling to have it finished. Lovely room, too.

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