A LITTLE PROGRESS ON MARY AND JESUS RUG

 I haven't hooked every day as I needed to dye some more wool or over-dye as needed. I also had to pause and think about how I was going to proceed to dye the color for the veil covering her head. I had some leftover Cushing dye recipes in jars in my dye cupboard and decided to use what I had instead of casserole dyeing. 

 I used some of the flesh color wool I had plenty of and painted it with a brush. At first, I was going to bundle some wool and tie it with string and let the color seep through but then decided not to go that route as the results might not be satisfactory for what I wanted. I'm all about using what is available if possible. 

The technique I used is painting the wool, which I never tried before, and I wasn't sure how to proceed. I decided on using the microwave for this technique. Again, this is a first for me. After painting the wool, I sprinkled the citric acid lightly to set the colors as opposed to the simmer in the pot method.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I wet the wool as required and layed it in a glass pan and painted the diluted barnyard red, then the diluted dark brown, then diluted yellow. I found it wasn't dark enough and repeated the process until I was satisfied. I dyed several darker pieces for the shadows. 

It's not exactly as in the picture and I don't think I could achieve the same look anyway.  My drawing is not even exact. I'm not sure whether I'll change Jesus's hair but it's a possibility as he looks kind of funny. For his hair, I used some worms from striped plaid wool I had left from my Julia Hen rug. Time will tell if I change it. I need to come up with a recipe for a blue dye for her mantel as I don't think I have any ready mixed. Not having the right colored wool can really put the brakes on a project.

I hope to have more to show next time or I may just do a wee tutorial on how I transferred the image on paper.

This is how some of my painted wool looked like once dried. Maybe there is a simpler method but I really enjoyed trying this type of dyeing. 

Another method I tried for the first time is cutting the wool and using matte scotch tape to attach all the worms as they come off the cutting wheel and marking it with an arrow and numbering each cut batches until the whole piece of wool was cut so when I hook, it has more of a pattern on the rug. I'm really enjoying hooking this rug even on Monk's cloth.

I celebrated a birthday this weekend and don't even feel any older. 

Thanks for visiting and leaving comments. I really appreciate your friendship.

Julia

MY TWEAKING RESULT

Happy Sunday everyone. I hope that you are all having a relaxing and pleasant day.

I wanted to show the little progress I did on my rug. I didn't spend much time hooking but did some tweaking and I feel that I need to do some more.

This is what I showed you in my last post.  Mary had a swollen nose and a bad case of swollen lips. She looked so miserable. Her eyes looked very black even though there is an outline of dark brown above her eyes. They didn't look up as they were supposed to. Even though I followed the line for the brow, it looked too thick that I had only one line for the right brow. I've never had lessons on how to hook facial.

This is hooked in a # 3 cut otherwise I would have to have the design a lot bigger just to get the details in.  Here is the before photo.

Here is the after photo.

I need to do some more tweaking on the lips and under the left eye. It will never be perfect, but at least, she is healing. 

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

NOTHING EARTH SHATTERING BUT I PICKED UP MY HOOK AGAIN

 It's was too damp and cold to work outside so instead, I worked in my dye kitchen. I boiled some onion skins and dyed some wool to be used as flesh color in my new rug. It felt a little strange at first as I've forgotten how to dye with onion skins. I need to dye some blue wool, next.

I strained the onion skin juice and poured it in a clean jar and put some more water in the pot and put my wet wool in and simmered for about 20 minutes. Some pieces that  I wanted lighter were removed first.

Notice the 4th piece from the left is two tones. I dipped the end in a stronger dye bath to give me graduation of color on the same piece.

This is what I hooked this evening. I need to do some major tweaking or surgery as it seems that the features have grown and no longer look proportioned. I had forgotten how more difficult it is to do hook a face that looks sideways. I should have chosen an image that was looking straight. This one is challenging as there are so many highlights on the face. I like to look at the image on the computer to see what needs to be changed.

I wasn't going to show my work until it was more presentable but anyone who has hooked rugs, knows that sometimes, things don't always work out as we plan and we have to rip up the work and try again. Anyway, it's a work in progress and it's been so long since I've picked up the hook. Lauren, Saundra, and Cathy are putting me to shame.

One thing I've noticed is that when I hooked my last rug, I used this monk's cloth and hated it. I was used to hooking on Linen backing and did not enjoy working with monk's cloth. This time around, it didn't seem to bother me. 

I chose this image of the Virgin Mary and Child from the public domain. I doubt that I can do it justice. Anyway, I'm willing to meet the challenge head-on. 

After the hard work, I treated myself to a small piece of pumpkin pie. 

Thanks for your visit and comments. Stay well and keep positive. Some people have bigger problems with all the flooding and landslides in British Columbia on the west coast.

Julia

WORKING ON MY TO DO LIST

 As I'm getting older, if I didn't have a To-Do List, I'd get nothing done. 

I could no longer ignore my upright freezer.  It needed defrosting badly as the ice has been building up and reducing the efficiency of the freezer.   I put everything in a big box and covered it with heavy blankets and throws and everything stayed frozen while I placed pots of hot water on the shelves to speed defrosting. 

I've been wanting to do this but kept putting it off, but I couldn't ignore it any longer as the ice was really taking up a lot of room. I really regret buying that freezer because frozen packages often slide off the shelves and things get mixed up pretty quickly, especially when I'm in a hurry. So now, I've put frozen food in plastic gallon ice cream containers and labeled them so I can see at a glance what veggies I have and nothing is sliding off the shelves anymore. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of this new system but I like it a lot better.

The cardboard box holds the cold in and frozen food stays frozen longer with all the layers of blankets.

Another thing that I finally got done today, is mulching my daylily debris. It took me all afternoon with a little break in the middle.  Now I'm left with cleaning up the gazebo area, where I did the work. I'm always mindful of any debris falling on the carburetor as it could potentially cause a fire. I got 9 bags of mulch which I plan on using in the spring.

I've been getting a design ready for my new rug,  and when things slow down, I'll dye some wool so that I have something to work on when the snow flies. Sorry, I said that "s" word... but I'm still in yard work mode. 

The photo doesn't show all 10 bags of mulch, but that is how many I got from only the large bed. It was nice yesterday and I got a lot more done so I'll have less to do in the spring.

Thanks for leaving a comment and have a great day.

Julia

 

WE WILL REMEMBER🌺

 November 11 is Remembrance Day.  🌺  A day set aside to remember and be grateful for our hero soldiers who fought for our freedom and paid a dear price for that freedom which we see being eroded every day. They paid with their lives and limbs and emotions and left their families behind to serve their countries. We are grateful for their supreme sacrifices and we honor them as well all those who served alongside them. May we never forget.  WE WILL REMEMBER 🌺

Julia

I BIT THE BULLET AND CLEANED OUT THE LARGE DAYLILY BED.

 My hands are very sensitive to cold for some reason and I have to wait till it warms up a bit in the afternoon to work outside. I've been using disposable clear vinyl gloves as I wore out all my gardening gloves this summer. I still have lots of work left to do to put the gardens to bed but when my back gets sore, I come in.  We have a good stretch of sunny days left to come, thank goodness so I should be able to clean everything up. We've had heavy frost two days in a row. This morning it was -2℃ or 28.4℉. 

November is letting us know that it has arrived. I should go outside and blow some bubbles to see them freeze.  I think it would be pretty cool. Pardon the pun. 

I was cold during the night as I keep my bedroom on the cool side. I went to Walmart to buy a new blanket to replace that synthetic blanket that was falling apart but I only saw some duvets and comforters. The parking lot at the mall was almost full so I decided not to continue shopping and bought some socks and came home without a blanket. I might have to shop online. I'm just not a shopper.

The long daylily bed has been cleared. There are still a few weeds left to pull.

I cut down the daylilies and sundrops in this bed and now I can see the creeping Charlies making their way in the bed. 

The hosta will be cleaned out this afternoon. The frost really did a job on them to make it easier for me to do my job.

Even the skunks were busy last night looking for grubs along the path. They sure can make a mess in no time. 

Where someplace are still basking in beautiful autumn colors, our trees are bare all along the riverside. 

Not much color left around our place but there is still a bit of color left along the road to the city.  

This is what is left of our overgrown hedge. The next-door neighbor told my husband that he wanted to trim the hedge but I had no idea that this is what he had in mind. I was shocked, and it took me some time to come to terms with this.  I thought that he was going to pull the stumps out but he said no, they will grow back into a hedge. I don't know about that but I'm getting more sun on that side. I can no longer trim the hedge because of my shoulder injury from my falls on the ice. 

This picture was taken a few days ago and already today, all the leaves are yellow and wilted. I tried to remove the photo but I couldn't replace it with a more recent one. 

November is the month for the dead and a month to visit cemeteries. This is our daughter Nicole's grave and we miss her all so much. November is also my birthday month. 

I sewed up 16 heating pads that can be heated in the microwave or put in the freezer and used as a cold pack. These were made for our upcoming Christmas Craft sale but the event was canceled due to Covid.

I made some for my three great-grandkids this spring and they just love them.  

I came upon a molasses pie recipe the other day and I decided to try it. It was surprisingly delicious and tasted more like a cake and was not too sweet.  The husband loved it. I also learned that it was also called shoo Fly Pie. 

Thanks for your visit and your comments. Have a great week everyone and is well.