RUG HOOKING BLOG

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I'm a mother of four grandmother of seven and great grandmother of three. I live with my husband in the house that we built with the help of my brothers and will have been married for 57 years this February.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

WHAT I'VE BEEN UP TO

I didn't do a lot on my Childhood Memories Rug but I connected four winter scenes and started a summer scene.  So far the only wool that I've dyed especially for this rug is the light grayish pale blue for the snow.  The evergreen trees and the green in the big tree comes from the free green color wool palette that I got from April De Conick give away when she launched her new Red Jack web site.  
http://redjackrugs.com/


I see that there's a bit of tweaking to do on the snowman's arm but I think that I'll wait until later. I tried to make the snow a bit more pop-corny around the snowman by changing the direction that I pulled my loops. One of the newer technique that I tried for the first time. I'll have to dye some blue for the water though. 

When I was young we swam without bathing caps as we swam in the brook in the deep end that we called " La quarerieme"  in french, meaning  "The Fourth" which was one of the  fourth deepest swim hole in the brook. So when I hook the head it will be wet hair. lol...


Yesterday and today the St John River in front of our house has been very calm and you can see some clouds reflection the water. All the leaves are off the trees and every thing looks kind of drab except the sky and the water.  The stump that you see on the right bottom  of the photo is a tree that was uprooted in the high wind this week and it's floating on the river's edge.

This photo was taken directly in front of our house  looking toward the North. At a distance, the white thing you see is  a section of the Princess Margaret Bridge being repaired. It's covered with some protective canvases  as the men work to repair the damage from years of use.  Just beyond the bridge is Fredericton City Center. The sun was low in the sky when I took this photo. Notice the white stick attached to the tree. This was put there by our elderly neighbor several ago to measure the rising water each spring.  


We has a lot of wind this past week and a big branch broke off from one of the big pine tree in our lane and I decided that I would save the smaller pieces to put in my empty flower pots outside in the front.  Now I need to decorate them. I still have some fall decorations hanging between the screen door and some fall leaves in my big black milk can.  I'm noticing that our place is beginning to look run down. There's moss growing on the window sill and the cement is pitted badly and the house needs painting. I need a new door too etc, etc, etc. 

Notice the little pet door on the bottom right of the door. About 10  or 12 years ago, I went on vacation at my mother's place by myself for a week and while I was gone my husband got tired of opening the doors for the three cats and decided to install a pet door so he would not have to bother letting them in and out.  I was quite disappointed when I got back to discover what he had done.   Our cats were bringing, chipmunks, mice, moles, frogs, and anything they could bring in and let them loose in the house and they would chase them around and play with them. I taped the door shut and added another piece of white styrofoam  on the inside so the door couldn't be seen from the inside. 

I bought this brand new roll of 25 yards wide red waterproof ribbon for outdoors for $1.99 at Value Village this summer. I tried to make a multiple loop bow for the pine decorations  but found the ribbon a bit stiff to work with. I need to get some florist wire to make my bows. I'll give it another try later.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  JB

7 comments:

  1. I love your rug and you have inspired me to at some point to do one for my daughter. I bought ribbon today at a yard sale put on by a flower shop. I use to work in a flower shop so I have made thousands of bow. How lucky you are to live on the water. that is our big goal. we want to be on a lake near family.
    Thank you for sharing.
    Cathy

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  2. Wow that is such a great post! You are a incredible rug hooker. Your loops are perfect and when you are done I bet it look like a painting. I love the picture of the river in front of your house. It is so pretty. So glad you posted pictures.

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  3. Hi Julia - love your memories rug. It is really going to be beautiful. I just got back this evening from a 3 day workshop with Cynthia Norwood. I will be posting pictures - what a wonderful time it was and so many beautiful rugs being worked on. A wonderful teacher producing beautiful color plans for her students.

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  4. Acorn Hollow, I'm glad if I've inspired you to try your own Childhood Memories rug and you're right that we are lucky to live by the river. Every spring I pick fiddleheads along the river bank.

    Kim, (Farm Girl) you are making me blush. My loops are just look perfect at a distance. I'm using burlap for backing and it's not the best to work on. I'll finish using it until it's all gone and then I try linen backing.

    Doris, I'm so glad that you could get away for three days workshop to be with friends and I'm looking forward to seeing your photos. JB

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  5. I really am impressed by the way you are blending all the icons together. When I first looked at your sketch I wondered how you were going to accomplish that but it looks fabulous.
    Great way to recycle those broken branches also. I bet you have your yard all decked out for the holidays! (I'll be jealous) lol

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  6. Thanks Kim, So far so good. I just have no idea how I'm going to do the rest and I deal with the crisis as it comes, lol. I just wish that I had a lot of wool for shading so the sky and snow would just blend in but it's just a rug and I'm using what I have. No, my yard is not all decked out for the holidays. The only thing I usually put out are those dangling tiny lights in front of the house and a wreath on the door. I used to decorate a medium size spindle tree in front but it was cut down several years ago because I was afraid that my grandson would fall to his death on the big rock below. The branches were very brittle and he loved climbing on it. It was also bug infested.
    I'll post my decorations as I go along. I won't do it all in one day. JB

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  7. Hi Julia,I love your rug. Your loops and colors are perfect. Keep the pictures coming.I had a fun weekend.My husband and I had our 35th Wedding
    Anniversary . We went to Los Angelas fought the traffic and saw the Getty Museum. I have always wanted to see it and it was an interesting experience.It's perched on a hill and you take a tram up to the Museum. I will always remember this Anniversary. I especilly liked the Monet and the Water Lilies. I am off to dig in the dirt. Cheri

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