CONGLOMERATION ~ ~ ~

Yes ~ I sent this 'conglom-eration' to my fellow Blog Challenge participants and I've heard not a word yet!  I'm sure they're saying "what was she thinking?!".  Let me explain!  I included my favorite things to hook with and  it is a challenge ~ and as  a good friend  pointed out, this is the finale!  So, girls, this will give new meaning to the word 'challenge' ~ but I know you will all  rise to the occasion and humor an old lady and find a place for each one of these in your creations! 

Included are ~ several 1 yard pieces of lumpy handspun yarn,
a piece of my marbleized wool, a piece of wool with a stripe of sparkle, re-cycled sweater strips of light blue and navy sparkle, a strip of purple paisley, chenille yarn that I brought from England, a piece of  shibori ribbon that I bought from Shibori Girl  and some nice glass beads that are fish and a dragon fly (I used to go to the bead markets and have some interesting things that who knows why I bought them!).  So, this will be fun ~ I sure hope Maria, Ali and Kris think so!!  March 20 is the day ~ stay tuned!

Alice

"OUT ON A LIMB" ~ ~ ~

That's the name of this Blog Challenge # 3  ~ and it's done ~ fini ~ completed!!  I couldn't be happier ~ late Sunday afternoon, I decided I better get this under way since I had to have  the post about it done before we leave on our vacation!  Yesterday, I wasn't thrilled with the way it was progressing but by the time it was finished this evening, it was looking very good to me!

To refresh your memory as to materials ~ the roving in the picture was used for the circles in the sheep and for the big fluffy cloud in the sky.  I stripped it out into skinnier pieces of the length and hooked it right into the foundation fabric first, before I hooked anything around it!

The same with the curly yarn ~ that's the three flowers at the bottom and the sparkly craft thread makes up the flower stems!  All the limey green dyed curly fleece is at the bottom of the rug also ~ it looks like nice curly grass to me ~ enhancing the countryside!

And last, but not least ~ the TWIG which became the "limb"  ~ Out On A Limb ~ yes, that little sheep definitely is!  I hooked the tree in a light, natural color to complement the twig, laid the twig on the bare linen, traced it with a Sharpie pen and hooked in a temporary row to follow that drawn-in line.  Then, I hooked it with some junk wool and hooked all around it with the green hill wool ~ after the mat was done, I pulled out the hooking and laid the twig into that space and anchored with some linen twine!  It's not looking too bad, if I say so myself ~ and I do!!  To get a closer look, double click on the photo and you can see the rug in detail!

When I opened the box of bits and pieces that Kris Miller sent, the idea came to me pretty quickly ~ it was just putting the idea into wool, that was a bit tricky for me ~ but it worked!  Check out the Ali Strebel's  and Maria Barton's blogs on the 20th and see what they came up with ~ I can't wait myself!!!

Today is Sunday, February 20th and I'm posting from sunny Englewood, Florida!!  The weather has been spectacular for the entire 9 days we've been here ~ as if it were custom ordered!!  We've had the most fun ~ that's for another post ~ and I had a great time at the Searsport hook-in in Sarasota!  That's another post, too!  I met up with Tammy of Skip to My Ewe blog and Tere ~ a Wool Snippets rug forum friend ~ and my friend MJ saw that I got there ~ it was fun for her, too, as she was able to hook up with some Florida hookers!!  How many people can say that with a straight face?!!  We're heading home to winter in Ohio tomorrow ~ I think our wonderful friends and hosts, Diane and Greg, will be glad to get back to their schedule ~ they have taken us hither and yon to some very fun places!!  Talk to you soon!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ~ ~ ~

A little early, I know ~ but I won't be here on Valentines Day!!  I wanted to wish you guys all a very happy day and hope you have a nice sweetheart to spend it with!  I hooked this heart last week since I had all my reds laying out from the last blog challenge.  It really turned out nice ~ it's 12 x 11 and I will happily offer it for sale ~ $90 including shipping!  The background is a mixture of an overdyed plaid and some dyed solids to fill in because I ran short!!  I, actually, like when that happens because it challenges me to find something that fits in ~ just like the old time hookers made do with what they had on hand!  The heart is hooked in a 9 cut and the background in a ten!  I cut up half the piece before I realized I had the wrong blade in ~ it worked out swell!  And goes very fast!

The 1668 GEOMETRIC is almost done ~ only the orange paisleys left to hook in the Dresden Plate design.  It looks all whopperjawed (is that a word?) because I laid it on top of three different wools that I'm anticipating using in the border ~ so it made a big hump at the bottom of the rug.  My thought is to do a triple-corded binding ~ you lay cotton cording inside the wool strip and machine stitch ~ then I would add another row and do the same three times.  I'm not sure how it will go but I'm going to give it a go!!

Well, the GOOD NEWS is that my third Creative Blog Challenge piece is done!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!  I'm beyond excited!!!! I started it Sunday afternoon and worked on it in the evenings.  In my last post, I indicated that I wasn't thrilled with the results ~ but I'm thrilled now!  It turned out pretty good ~ can't wait to show it to you.  When I'm done with this post, I will do a post about that piece and put it into a 'draft' ready to be published on the 20th ~ so stayed tuned!!

I have clothes and suitcases all over the bedroom ~ trying to figure out the best things to take on our trip!  We leave tomorrow night for Columbus to stay at the airport ~ we have a 6 a.m. flight ~ Sonny says he stands a better chance of getting on the plane on time, if he has me at the airport the night before!!!  Fooey ~ that's not true at all ~ but who want to leave home at 3:30 a.m. ~  not me!!  Tad will be here with his sitter ~ bless her heart for taking good care of things here at home so mama can have a little respite from responsibility! That way there's someone here to answer the phones, feed Mr. Kitty, and generally keep our home fires burning!!

Another thing I have to do is get  a hooking project ready to take to the Searsport hook-in in Sarasota next week!  I've already arranged to meet Polly Minich, TereCatBird (that's her WoolSnippets name) and Tammy from Skip to My Ewe!  I wonder what other blog friends will be there! 

So,  that's it for now ~ I'll post again on February 20 ~ have a happy Valentines day with someone you love ~ until we meet again ~
Alice

ABUNDANCE ~ ~ ~

Living an abundant life ~ that's what I'm doing! And my friend, Sue, who is also a hooker and a customer added to that abundance last week.  First of all, notice her tote bag ~ she made that in our Funky Flower  Purse class last fall.  This is the first time I've seen it finished and if you double click the photo, you can take a close look at what a great job she did!  She and friend, Pam, came to shop one afternoon last week and then we all went to the new wine bar in our little burg ~ The Happy Grape ~ for afternoon tea ~ I mean wine!!  We had great little flatbread pizzas and some very nice wines and lots of laughs ~ a great way to spend an afternoon!  Considering that I eat like a truckdriver and drink like a sailor, I was shocked when we realized that Sue had treated us all to lunch!  That's the abundance part!  It comes in all forms, you know ~ if we pay attention and count all the blessings bestowed upon us ~ we all have abundance galore!  It was a wonderful day and I so appreciate having them both for friends! 

Does this look familiar?  This is Sue's grandchildren's hands hooked into a little rug, inspired by my Christmas Hands Rug that I did several years ago.  It is darling and  such a nice compliment that she wanted to create this because of something she saw here!  More abundance!

Such a cute little 'shrug' made  for me by my

customer Martha!  It's made out of a yard of fleece with knit cuffs sewn in each end for your arms ~ so cozy and comfy for lounging in front of the Tv on these cold snowy nights!!  So thoughtful of Martha ~ Abundance Galore!!!  
Both these gifts just made me so aware that people are kind and generous and many contribute to my abundant life!  Just like our friends, Diane and Greg, inviting us to stay with them this next week in Florida ~ I hope they're not sorry ~ we're going to be there 10 days this time ~ I'm going to try  to be good!!

I'm picking out clothes to take ~ packing ~ laundering ~ working in the office ~ and hooking on my blog challenge project that will be due while we're gone!!  Then I have to create a post about it so that it is ready to publish on the 20th!  I'm not as excited about what I'm doing as I was when I opened the package ~ I drew it on the linen and it looked great ~ now it's up for grabs ~ maybe when it's finished, it will speak to me ~ loud and clear, I hope!!! 

Have a good evening and when you have a minute ~ maybe you will think about the abundance in your own life ~ about all the small things that add up to having your best life possible ~ and maybe how we can all do something to add to the abundant life of others!
Alice

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

CREATIVE BLOG CHALLENGE ~ ~ ~

Kris Miller sent her materials for our third challenge project!! Love it!  Roving from a Corriedale sheep, dyed Wensleydale sheep curls, curly yarn, sparkly craft thread and a TWIG!!!  I, actually, have a good idea where I will go with this project!  I have to because we leave for Florida in two weeks ~ mine must be done and photographed and a draft for the blog done before we leave, so that I can post it on February 20th along with the others!!  Wish me luck!! Even Sonny boy was giving me his thoughts on what I should hook ~ this coming from a guy who acts like he doesn't know what I'm doing!!  Hmmmm!

The little rabbit rug is finished and steamed ~ just the binding is left and then I'll post.  Thanks for all the nice comments about it from my last post! And for all the nice compliments about the heart pillow!  I make a career about second guessing myself and thinking that I'm in over my head, but I'm feeling like I'm holding my own ~ Maria, Kris and Ali are all so talented that I'm just happy to be hangin'  with the big girls!!

Last night, I had the most fun Skype conversation with my old friend, Gwen and her daughter!  Wendy and I were instant messaging on Facebook and she said her mom was there with her ~ I asked if she had Skype and within 5 or 10 minutes, she had it installed on her computer and we spent an hour or more talking, face to face!!!   It was great!  Gwen and I have been friends since we were 13 years old ~ well over 50 years!!  We've been friends longer than many of you reading this have been alive!!!  Wendy gave me a virtual tour of her condo and we chatted like we sitting together in her living room!  Can't wait till we do it again! And speaking of friendships ~ we really need to nurture them and keep them going ~ sometimes it takes work ~ we have to make an effort to stay in contact because people's lives get so busy.  Gwen and I went to school together one year ~ in seventh grade ~ and we've stayed contact almost all of those years ~ there were a few where we weren't ~ she moved away and lived in many places thru the years ~ me, I'm pretty much in the same place.  So cherish your friends ~ keep them close ~ I try really hard to do that!

Oh!  The new dishwasher is installed ~ it is so QUIET ~ unbelievable!  And the dishes looked so CLEAN this morning ~ that old one was on it's last legs for a long time ~ good grief ~ why did we wait so long?! 

Okay ~ I'm off to make something happen ~ even if it's wrong!  Have a good weekend, peeps!!
Talk to you soon ~
Alice

RABBIT RUG & PUDDINGSTONE ~ ~ ~

 Happy hooking ~ that's what I'm doing ~ I'm happy as can be when I have time to hook!  This is a smallish rabbit rug that I drew on linen and as I go, I'm adding bits of handspun green yarn ~ it's wonderful lumpy stuff with lots of texture ~ it kind of livens up the background and is mixed with a green as-is wool and a hand-dyed green, as well.  The rabbit is a 9 cut  and the background, a 9.5 ~ so it's moving pretty fast!!  Should be done in a day or so!

Sonny took this picture a few days ago down in the woods ~ it's a big puddingstone rock covered with snow!  Puddingstone is left from the glacier that was in this area many eons ago ~ it's kind of like the garbage that the glacier left as it moved across the landscape.  If you double click on the photo, you can see all cracks and crevices that were formed.

This is an outcropping of puddingstone  across the way from the one above.  I was actually thrilled because Sonny took these pictures and said he thought I might like them for my blog!!  He doesn't really even read this thing so I was shocked that he wanted to provide subject matter for it!  These are two of the biggest examples on our property but there are other smaller ones here and there.  We love it ~ we don't really know of anyone else around us  who has this and we enjoy telling people about it.  A retired geologist, who was a guest here quite a few years ago, enlightened us as to what these really are! 

I'm kind of excited today because I just made plans to attend a hook-in Sarasota while we're there in February.  Searsport Rug Hooking is hosting their first annual hook-in with several vendors that I haven't seen before and it will be a chance to network with different  rug hookers.  A new friend, MJ, who took a class here this fall, invited me to join her and it coincides with our visit, so, finally, I made the decision to go.  The hardest part will be missing out on being with Sonny and our friends for the day ~ I told them to not plan anything fun until I get back!! 

We had a fun weekend ~ Sonny boy turned 67 on Saturday and we went to dinner with friends and intended to stay and listen to a band from Put-in-Bay that was playing there.  But ~ my son and his wife and other friends were at the new wine bar in our little burg and called and texted and called some more until we finally went to join them!  It was great fun!  We knew almost everybody there and a good time was had by all!  We went out with other friends on Friday night and ran into Sonny's daughter ~ she secretly told the waitress that she wanted to buy the bottle of wine that was on our table ~ which was great ~ except it wasn't our wine!!!  Our friends were surprised and so was Sonny's daughter, the next day!!  Oh, well ~ her intentions were good!!  And our friends enjoyed it immensely!!

That's it for today ~ I'm working on tax things and other fun stuff ~ have to head to the office supply store shortly!  The second new dishwasher arrived a while ago and Sonny was here to check it out ~ so by tonite, my dishpan hands can take a break ~ maybe! Thanks for stopping by ~ hope all is well in your world!