TIPP CITY RUG PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

 This morning, I took some time to go to the hooking room and start on the background of the Tipp City rug.  Karen Kahle does lovely striated backgrounds and I'm trying to recreate that only doing it in an 8.5 cut. Karen uses a much narrower cut and gets a great effect ~ I usually hook in a 9 and a 9.5, which is very chunky compared to hers.  Last year, when I was recreating another of Karen's background styles of hooking small bits of various wools, it worked out well. She suggested to me that I not change my style but try to make it work with what is typical for me.  So I'm doing the same with this striated background.

The second picture is a close-up (blogger wouldn't let me move the picture).  You can see there are lots of colors that equate to black ~ same values of different colors ~ I might be learning something about value after all  ~ it's a hard concept for me!

I do wish I had hooked the outline of the entire rug before I did the designs ~ should have used whatever I had with me and then rehooked black when I returned home ~ lesson learned!   It's making for a wavy outside line ~ since there is a generous border of linen outside that line, I may design a geometric border to make this a bigger rug.  Stay tuned and see just where this goes ~ we're both going to be surprised, me thinks!!!

Look at this beautiful cabinet that our friend, Marge, GAVE to us!  She's 84 and just kind of cleaning out things ~ no children ~ so she's giving things to people who appreciate them.  Evidently, years ago, Sonny and I both admired this cabinet and she remembered that ~ neither one of us did!!   The guys brought it home last week and set it in the garage where I attacked it with a vengeance!!  I scrubbed it twice with Murphy's Oil Soap ~ buckets and buckets of it ~ and waxed it twice with Howard's Feed and Wax (love that stuff ~ bought it in Ligonier).  It had been in their basement for years and it definitely didn't look like this when it arrived!  I got it done in one day and they got it set in that night!  Houseguest Jackie was arriving from Pa. and I wanted it all done before we left town.  The Ethan Allen hutch that resided there moved to my son, Teddy's house ~ they were having a party Friday night and Miki was anxious to get it in place for their gathering!! We were motivated women!!! 

On Monday evening, we had Marge over for dinner so she could see how great her gift fit right in at our house!!  We took the doors off ~ they are hand beveled ~ great doors!  But, I couldn't display my redware and pottery and with the doors open, it just overwhelmed the space.  So, they're in the basement, marked so that when we're old and dead, someone will know where they belong! 

This is it ~ things can go to pot around here in a hurry ~ we have unexpected house guests ~ just went to Subway and ordered a gourmet meal ~ yikes!!!  I think it might be cocktail time!!!  Talk to you soon!

Alice

TIPP CITY CLASS ~ ~ ~

 Last Thursday and Friday, I was in Tipp City, Ohio ~ north of Dayton ~ for a two day class.  The theme was "The Shape of Things" and we were given templates to design our own geometric rug ~ this is mine!  We were all given the same size foundation fabric ~ we worked within the outline of 17" x 22".  We took some of our own wool and purchased some from the teachers.  In this rug, I took the corner template and put it end-to-end to create the design on either side of the rather wild center circle!!  The blue wool was in our packet and I really wanted to use it somewhere in my design ~ hence, what looks like an eyeball with a blue pupil!  Somehow, I think this looks rather artistic ~ hopefully, not as I described above!

These lovelies are our teachers ~ Karen Kahle, Alice Strebel and Nola Heidbreder!  They work really well together and have lots to  offer in terms of color planning and creativity!  I swear ~ I wonder if I'll ever learn what 'value' is ~ they talk about it a lot!! Even their mode of dress is creative ~ and has lots of  ''value''!! 

Pam, Sue and Charisse are friends and customers of mine that live in our area!  I have lots of fun with them and admire the friendship they have with each other. Each one is very special in their own way!!

Two new friends are Valerie and Barb, on either side of Nola!  They're new friends that I met ~ they've been friends with each other for many years ~ very fun ladies!!

 Jennifer came all the way from Nebraska to join us!  Such a sweet gal ~ we all enjoyed her a lot!  She joined us for dinner, too ~ I think our reputation from last year preceded us and they put us in a private room!!!

This is Jackie from Pittsburgh!  We met last year at this class and she has been to my studio for a couple of classes since then ~
 this year she stayed with us on the way to Tipp City and back ~ I call her Princess Jackie ~ she's a little high maintenance but we like her anyway!!!  We had a good time and I think she enjoyed hanging out with Sonny and I here at our house!!!

Our other table-mate, Lanna, got away before I could get her picture!  She's a very creative gal in her own right ~ designing a pattern line and making great wool pincushions!!  We had lots to talk about, too!

So it was a fun two days ~ it went fast!  Saturday morning, Sonny and I drove to the lake and vegetated for the weekend ~ really, just rested ~ not something we do a lot of! It was great!

The next post will be of rugs that the gals brought to show ~ that's always one of the best parts ~ to see what others hook and how creative everyone is!  I'm looking forward to the nice weather that's coming our way ~ need to do my outside fall decorating ~ I'm a little behind!!! 

Have a good week wherever you are!

SATURDAY'S CLASS & TIPP CITY RUGS ~ ~ ~

 These four gals came from Pittsburgh and Indiana to take my Funky Flower Purse class and I was so glad to have them here in my studio!  This is what they accomplished in a 6 hour class plus we took time out  for lunch and the 'house tour'!

Heidi, Charisse and Sue are local gals ~ they didn't have to travel too far to join us! I give them a choice of the purse background wool and all do basically the same pattern (my design) but have the choice of all kinds of materials that are here in the hooking room.

I teach several different hooking stitches, needle felting by hand and with my felting machine, proddy and wool applique!  We crammed a lot into our time together and as dear friend, Heidi, said at the end of the day "she was on overload"!!  It's a lot but they all hung in there and covered a lot of ground!

There were seven students and friend, Pam (in the pink shirt) came to hook and to help me serve lunch!  Thank goodness!  So nine of us in the hooking room was quite comfortable ~ it helps me to gauge how many I can take in a class for the future ~ and I think a couple more would make a nice full classroom! 

Most of the girls were from the class in Tipp City, so I asked them to bring their projects finished or not,  so I could share them with all of you!  This is Jackie's piece ~ she used the same bittersweet motif that I did but all her 'berries' are done in quilled wool, rolled wool, cats paws ~ whatever you choose to call it.  She added felting and some roving ~ it really is a great example of using alternative materials to make a design into a very artistic

rug!

Sue, wearing her lovely SKIF sweater (Nola brought these fabulous sweaters from St. Louis for us to purchase) , made her project into a pillow and used Karen Kahle's idea of prodding the edge to bring the hooked side and the wool backing together.  She did a great job ~ it looks just like Karen's finished project!!

Charisse did a mirror image of the turkey design along with oak leaves and acorns and she's doing a

crochet edging, which she left a little unfinished so she could show us how to do that.  It looks great, by the way!!!!!!!

Pam,  the lunch lady, brought hers along to work on ~ I love the purple turkey!  She did a great job on her stone fireplace, too ~ although, I think she mentioned that was a challenge to get it just right ~ and I think she did!!  Thank you, Pam, for being a good helper that day!

Here's my pal, Heidi ~ she hasn't worked on hers since we were in that class, but I wanted you to see her cute squirrel ~ if you click on the picture to enlarge, you can see that she used yarn for his tail ~ it's really quite cute!  And a spot dyed wool for the tree ~ really nice! If you remember, we were given paper patterns with various fall designs and then we made up our own rug pattern.  So all these rugs came from the same class but are vastly different ~ very interesting results!

Sue wasn't in our class but this is the rug she's working on ~ my friend, Maria Barton's pattern ~ it's a bigger pattern than I realized from just seeing a picture.  Sue will do a great job ~ she's a fun gal and a nice addition to our class that day!  When these girls finish their purses and send photos, I'll post them here for you to see ~ I think that they'll all be different but yet the same ~ I can't wait!!  They had so much fun, they're coming back in the spring for a proddy class!!! 

On Tuesday, MJ came to show me her 'first rug' done in a class here not long ago!  She did great ~ I love the texture in her crow ~ and we planned a chair pad for her next project!!  She's going to a hook-in and wanted approval that her hooking was good enough to do in public ~ I assured her it was!!! 

A long post today ~ I hope you're still hanging in there ~ it's been a busy week here, as usual!  Tonite we're going to our Homebuilders' annual charity auction and I have no gift to donate!! So, I have to head out of here and find some nice Christmasy type thing to take and hope they'll bid high ~ we adopt needy kids at Christmas so we need lots of high bids tonite!  Tomorrow, Heidi and I go hooking with the group in Akron ~ tomorrow night is the opening party for The Art Center's Holiday Fair and Saturday, I think we have a plan with Sonny's daughter!  Yikes!!  I better get out my roller skates!! 

Hope you've all had a good week ~ and get rested up because the holiday season is approaching at warp speed (my new saying)!  Take care ~
Alice

TIPP CITY RUGS ~ ~ ~

Here's a progress photo of my class rug ~ actually, there's more done than this now but I didn't want to run down to the hooking room and take another picture.  I like the way it's coming along ~ I'll show you more soon!

I love this quilt ~ it's a block-of-month project that one of the gals from deep in the South was working on.  All wool, it's a Maggie Bonanomi pattern and the colors are so soft and antique looking.  The stitcher hasn't put it all together yet but laid it out on the floor for all to admire! I have Maggie's books ~ wish I'd get one together ~ her work is all so appealing!

 This lovely rug is Linda Gustafson's class rug from last year at Sauder Village.  We were in Jule Marie's class so I was really glad to see her finished rug.  Linda loves color and this is a fine example! She also has a rug in this newest Celebrations book!   I wish I had taken a photo of  the rug she started at Tipp City ~ a really nice pumpkin that is that slate blue that we see now in the pumpkin world!

I don't know who the rug hooker was but I just love the colors  here ~ I do remember that it is a pattern of Rhonda Manley's ~ really antique looking!

 I think these, too, might be Rhonda Manley patterns ~ there were several displayed together on the floor ~ and they all had these great old colors.  I think a group of gals must have been out there taking class from her and brought their work for us to see!  I love looking at rugs ~ we hookers just never tire of see what everybody else is working on!  Elinor, who hooked the yellow house rug, just emailed me that particular pattern is Sally Kallin's pattern from Pine Island Primitives ~ thank you, Elinor!!!

 The rug to the right was done by Alice Strebel, one of our teachers ~ a combination of stitching and hooking ~ kind of a story rug, I believe.  The turkey may have been teacher Nola's and the stitchery box and other little piece look like they were Sue Spargo inspired.  I know some of the gals had been to classes with her, too.

Teacher Karen Kahle's "Bird Party" rug just speaks to me ~ love the colors!  I intended to buy this pattern and totally, forgot!!  I would probably do it just like this one!!  I'm not very original, you know!

 The next two photos are the work of the Nola, Karen and Alice ~ examples of what we could do with the paper patterns given to us in class and how each one of them interpreted those pieces.  You can see on this pillow that Karen Kahle used a proddy edge for the finish.  She showed us how to do that and it sure eliminates trying to stitch the backing right up to the last row of hooking ~ I'm going to try it sometime ~ when I make a pillow ~ which I've never done!!!

Love these chicken pillows!  In the top of the photo, you can see their interpretation of the pattern that I used ~ I think it is supposed to be bittersweet. 

All their work is so unique and individual ~ they brought lots of things to inspire us!

These rugs also belong to some of the students that were there day.  The top one with the ladies surely has to be a Deanne Fitzpatrick pattern! And the rug in the right corner is a pictorial showing rug hookers working in the out of doors ~ hookers need fresh air, too, you know!!!!!

The last rug is one of Karen's, too.  If you click on it, it gives you a good idea of how she mixes colors and does a hit-and-miss style of hooking but not in straight lines like most of us do!  We get very hung up on perfection and matchy matchy colors and having just the right wool. I'm trying to grow in my hooking style ~ we'll see!

Last Saturday, Sonny and I went to Kelley's Island for the day ~ a beautiful fall day with our friends!  We went over early to meet with friends who have a house there ~ Sonny has a project to do for them ~ then we met up with our lake friends and went to the annual Chili Cook-off at one of the local establishments!  I had eight kinds of chili ~ and it ends up that the one I liked best and that won overall, belonged to our friend, Robin!!  I was so glad ~ I wondered what I would say if I didn't like her chili ~ but I wouldn't know that because they had numbers on them ~ not names ~ but hers was absolutely  the BEST!!!  We ran in to people we know from home that Sonny built a house for several years ago ~ so, that was fun!  Our Kelley's Island friends loaned us a golf cart so some of us rode and the really athletic, skinny ones walked until Sonny ran the cart shuttle and picked them up!  It was fun day that ended with a little evening snack at our local Moose Club back in Port Clinton ~ and guess what I had?  Chili cheese fries!!!  Wouldn't you think I'd had enough chili for one day?!

Tad and I are off to get our flu shots ~ after having that cold for three weeks, the last thing I need is the flu!  Have a great week ~ this weather is gorgeous ~  enjoy it while we can!!
Alice