RUG HOOKERS UNITED FOR A HAPPY HOOK-IN IN FREDERICTON NEW BRUNSWICK.

 It was a perfect day for a rug Hook-In, in our beautiful capital city of  Fredericton, New Brunswick. The large room was filled with happy rug hookers from the surrounding areas of N.B. and there was a buzzing sound of conversation and laughter as everyone was happy to share with their friends around their tables. 

There were lots and lots of great prizes, big baskets overfilled to capacity with tempting goodies, a silent auction, muffins, and refreshments, take-out pizza and salad, and even a big cake. Krista had a vending room choke-full of wool and other supplies upstairs which I had planned to visit but decided to visit her at home later since I found out she lives only a few minutes from my home. It's a small world... What was so great about this hook-in, was that it was so close to home. No need to pack anything for overnight.

Kimm was very helpful and made me feel very welcome. I'm now a member of the Heritage Rug Hooking Guild and look forward to meeting with them in September.

Rugs were put on display but about an hour before the hook-in was supposed to close, I decided to take some pictures of the display. Not a good idea because no sooner had I started to take pictures than they announced for members to remove their rugs off the display as some of the rug hookers were leaving early and they didn't want them to forget their rugs behind. I'll take pictures earlier next time...

 I was scrambling to take as many pictures as I could but didn't get them all, and some of my pictures are not great but the rugs were all beautiful.

Please forgive me if I misspelled the names as sometimes it was difficult to read the script.

Windswept, was designed and hooked by Debbie Lassord  

No Name , designer unknowned, hooked by Heather Langille. 

Fine Shaded Flowers designed by Mary Grant, hooked by Caroilne Simpson

Two Crows Joy, designed by Ewenique Boutique, hooked by Linda Leslie

Cherry Picker designed by Michelle Palmer, Rug Hooking Magazine,  hooked by Shelley Lipscombe

Jacob Bean was designed by Christine Little, hooked by Caroline Munro

It looks like a Deanne Fitzpatrick but don't know who hooked it as I didn't see a name.

Squares  designed by Deanne Fitzpatrick, hooked by Heather Langille

Echinacea, designed by Caroline Simpson and hooked by Caroline Sympson

Unfortunately, I couldn't read the blurry label on either of these pieces. An amazing puffin sculpture.

                         I couldn't read the label on this one either as it's blurry.

                             The same story here. I just love that stool. What a magnificent job.

Garden, designed by Patti McGowen, hooked by Mary Grant

This amazing rug is so beautiful unfortunately, it was not fully visible as it was sitting on top of a bookcase. The display area was not equipped with an adequate display surface to take decent photographs but it was a beautiful display, nonetheless.

This blind lady is showing off her penguin's rug and next to it, Kimm is showing the unicorn that this lady was working on with Kimm's guidance. I can identify Krista on the left, our wool vender.

I didn't have time to identify the hookers and designers of all the rugs so I apologize. Maybe next year, I'll be more prepared and do better. The rugs were being removed from the display as I was trying to take the photos. My grandfather in the army suit. An other of the same rug taken from my files below.

Harvest Picnic was designed by All About Ewe, hooked by Linda Leslie

A lovely portrait rug, unfortunately, the label was blurried. 

The picture of my grandmother came out blurry so I had to dig this one from my files. Designed and hooked by me 

My grandfather in his army outfit. I couldn't get the three dimensions of his face from the over-exposed black and white photo and one of his eyes are bothering me but I never fixed it.

George Rooster was designed and hooked by me.

                         Julia Hen,  designed and hooked by me

Most of you must remember my Childhood Memories rug from a while back, designed and hooked by me. The uneven ribbon border to represent the bumps in the journey of life.

Oops, I had forgotten to include an update on Madonna of the street for Saundra. I only dyed the wool the night before and had to go and run with it. It will stay as is.  That's all I could hook on Saturday. 

# 3 cut is slow going.

There, you have it folks.  I hope you enjoyed coming along to view some fabulous rugs. Happy Memorial Day long weekend to my American friends. Thanks for visiting and leaving comments. 

Julia

THE BEAVER FINALLY GET THE MYSTRY SOLVED BY A BLOGGER FRIEND

 Finally a post... Last week I was as busy as a Canadian Beaver. I went picking fiddleheads four times. At first, the picking was very slim, but in a few days, the picking finally got better. I didn't bother counting how many hours I spent by the peaceful river. It was so peaceful and I just love picking this free bounty.  My back was in so much pain but I kept at it until all my bags were full. My husband George saw that I needed help to process all these fiddleheads and asked my son Vaughan if he would come and help clean the fiddleheads, with some fiddleheads as his pay. His answer was affirmative.

George and Vaughan are cleaning fiddleheads until the brown thin covering is removed and bits of leaves, twigs, and sand are gone and they are ready for blanching for freezing. It takes about three to four water changes for this. We worked as a team and I had two big pots on the stove for blanching and George was busy fillings the double sinks with cold water and cooling the fiddleheads as fast as he could. The fiddleheads need to blanch for two minutes in boiling water and then cool immediately.

 Vaughan's job was to spin them dry in the salad spinner and then we both filled ziplock bags. I weight the bagged portions. My portions were half a pound and his portions were a pound. So he got 2/3 of all the fiddleheads. Not a bad deal for a night's work.

This is a lot of fiddleheads to freeze. I have no idea how many pounds I picked. I just didn't have the time to weigh and count. When all was processed and the kitchen cleaned, the floor mopped and everything put away, it was past midnight. I went to bed and slept like a baby.

 The next day, was busy as well with cutting the front lawn,  spreading soil on the front lawn, seeding it, and rolling it down so the seeds would make good contact with the soil and it was so dry that I had to water it three times a day. Although I spent a lot of time watering, the wind kept drying the top of the soil. I also had to water hundreds of seedlings out on the back deck and was planting in my back garden, and also planting potatoes at the farm. This time I got help again.

These two rows are about 100 feet long each.  I've started some of my potatoes in little pots and most were already growing leaves and needed to be planted.  This is what Vaughan is doing.  George and the hired hand are digging the trench 8 inches deep.  I planted the rest of the potatoes and covered them with three inches of soil. The next day, we had rain and so the potatoes are growing well. I had to hoe the taller one already on Saturday.

 Sometime during the day, I opened the front door to see if the newly reseeded lawn needed watering again and I found a large framed portrait of Madonna of the Street with glass, in between the doors. An old dirty lawn chair was propped up against the screen door to prevent the portrait from falling out.

 I was embarrassed that my husband had put the old dusty lawn chairs without cleaning them first on the front porch as he doesn't care for presentations. lol... Nevertheless, I was speechless for a few seconds. There was no note to let me know who left me this most splendid gift. I was almost giddy with joy. A gift from heaven it seemed.

 I tried to guess who would have left me such a nice gift as this. I figured it had to be a blog follower because I only showed my rug on my blog and to my rug hooking group. I had one person in mind but it wasn't her.  Then the next day, when I checked my emails, there was an email from Cynthia from Karotine blog explaining that it was her who left the portrait on my porch. 

She had bought it for the frame but it was too large for the intended project. After she saw my  Madonna of the street on my blog, she thought of me but didn't want to ship it fearing the cost and the possibility of breakage. She was coming to Scott's Nursery a few minutes from our place and dropped it off but I was away at a funeral in town.  Cynthia, I really am grateful for your thoughtfulness and generosity. Thank you so much. It's a perfect gift.

Upon, examining it,  I noticed it's a little different than the picture I got from the public domain. I noticed the headscarf goes all the way to the baby's cheek and the color is more greenish than blue and the background also is a bit different. I like the antique look better.  I'm now stalled for the background. I may have to wash the rug in a coffee stain to change the color,  but I'm not sure if it will do more harm than good. I haven't had time to dye wool anyway this week.

Here is the rug with the framed version of The Madonna of the street. On the rug, the headscarf ends at the madonna's throat, and in the framed picture, the headscarf ends in the middle of the baby's cheek. There are other minor differences.

My spring flowers, Azelisa are blooming and so is my crabapple tree but I'll spare you the pictures for now. I may post more photos next week if I can find the time. The new lawn seeds are growing fast and the bare patches are starting to disappear. A woman's work is never done.

Thanks for visiting and reading my ramblings. I hope that you leave a comment.

Pray for peace and love. It is so needed at this time.

Hugs, Julia

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers. May you be treated extra special today.

I hope the sun is shining bright where you are. Remember all those Ukrainian mothers who are worried about their families' well-being and those who mourn their losses.

Blessings on your special day.

Julia

I'M READY TO GIVE UP, IT'S GETTING WORST

 Saundra from Woodland Junction has been hounding me for an update on my rug. As bad as my rug was, it even got worst, just like a nightmare you can't wake up from. The more I worked on the shoulder, the less I like it.  It looked OK when I was working up close but the minute I lay it all out to view it as a whole, it hurts to look at it, lol... The shading is all wrong. But all in all,  I had a lovely time pulling loops when I was with our hooking group and it was therapeutic having someone to talk to, so I guess it was worth it. Maybe I should dye some wool for the background and wait to be inspired to resume the blue area.

Saundra, on the other hand, when she ran into a problem, decided to put her rug away until she gets professional help with it and is working on another rug. Smart girl...

Yesterday, in between raindrops, I trimmed my very thorny rose bush. The only way I can pick up these branches is with leather gloves. 

This is what it looks like now, but it still needs to be cleaned up and weeded.

It's a lot of work but I always cut the branches so I can burn them in the stove. I'm always afraid that some poor animals will get hurt by these sharp thorns.  Can you imagine a crown of thorns with these? It would be cruel.

My peonies are poking out. A good thing is that they are deer resistant. There's a herd of 7 deers that are foraging in my yard. Maybe I need to get a big dog.

They nip the tulips as soon as they come up and my hostas. Naughty creatures.

The rhubarb is up. Soon they will be ready for harvesting. I remembered to put compost manure on them last week. Then it started to rain so the nutrients are starting to work their magic.

Thanks for reading my poor neglected blog and leaving a comment.