FINISHED ~ FINI ~ FINALE ~ ~ ~

Yes ~ it is done!! The Gene Shepherd blog hook-in rug is finished! It was started Sunday evening
and completed this morning ~ I hooked till 2 a.m. last night and got up and hooked the last little bit and steamed it this morning! It will go to the lake with me for binding over the weekend ~ whew! I feel like I've been in a marathon!

In January, Gene proposed a blog hook-in and I was the first one to sign up! And about the last one to get it done! Gene was using the free Christmas pattern in December's Rug Hooking Magazine that was designed by Connie Litfin of Mustard Seed Primitives with the notation that it could be tweaked to suit each rug hooker. The holiday pattern didn't speak to me, but when Gene posted Connie, the designer's tweaked versions, I liked them both! Gene put me in touch with Connie to see how she wanted to handle it and she drew them out for me and shipped them to me that week! I pulled wools I thought I wanted to use but it didn't excite me. I got really motivated last week, when a friend brought me some sparkly wool that just opened up the creative gates and the color plan was born ~ almost on it's own! The flowers are all various paisleys that I've gathered and there are other sparkly wools that I think, really set it off! And the combination of blacks and greens really gave the background a lot of movement. I'll be emailing my photo to Gene this morning ~ I hope it measures up to all the other beautiful rugs that he's posted thus far!

Connie is sending me a few of these patterns on monks cloth and one of another similar design but with stars ~ it can be ordered in linen if you like and the size is 18" x 22" - a little info that might be important!! If you would like one, let me know ~ I'll have them available! And ~ by the way ~ this rug is for sale!! If you would like this to come live with you, email or call me ~ it would be a good thing!

This has been fun ~ we're heading for the lake and I think I'll take a book to read and not hook this weekend ~ I'll get the Coxcomb Basket bound and see my lake friends that we haven't seen since February and just relax!! I hope you can do the same and have a Happy Happy Mother's Day!!!
Alice