OH NO...DARN IT...

As you know, on the 15th I posted my Grandmother's Trunk  Creative Challenge rug and then started to hook on that little primitive kitten rug kit that I won from Rugs and Pugs. I was happily hooking along and as I was swiveling my frame, I notice that there was a bit of resistance and I torqued a bit to turn it and the little piece of wood that holds the swivel ball cracked and fell to the floor. Now what... I was totally in shock. How could that have happened???  So I took my frame off the stand and glued the little piece of wood back together and put it aside to dry for a day or so feeling very disappointed that I couldn't work on the kitty rug.

Here you can see the little crack still visible but totally mended. My husband drew the pattern on a piece of cardboard and will make a replacement piece out of aluminum on his metal lave.   I hope that the piece will hold for a while.

Here you can see the piece from the other side. 

Since I couldn't hook, I decided that now was a good time to make a cover for my frame since I tear my hands so often on those sharp gripper bars. An octagonal  frame has so many sharp corners. I thought that the worsted wool plaid skirt that was unusable for my fine cuts would be just the right thing for my cover. It's soft and since it has some measured squares it would be easy to work and keeping the fabric straight.  I used the frame as pattern and cut the fabric 4 inches from the outer edge, but then I took off about an inch of fabric from each side that was close to the bottom bar for a better fit. 

I cut two identical pieces and I trimmed off some more fabric from the center so the hole would be bigger when sewed together so that I would have a larger work area and at the same time just cover the sharp gripper strips.

I folded and pinned the inner edges together and sewed all the way around as neatly as I could. I'm no seamstress and I'm just feeling my way through this project.

Here is a close up of the inner seam.

Since  worsted wool tends to fray a lot I decided that I better zig zag the edges since I don't have a Serger sewing machine. You can see the two pieces divided. I zig zag both pieces.

A close up shot 

Now I folded and pinned the two sides together and carefully sewed around the outside edge leaving about an inch opening for the elastic band.

I then sewed another seam about 3/4 of an inch wide all the way around this time  to accommodate the 1/2 inch or 10mm elastic band.  I place the cover with the elastic face down under the frame and the smooth side face up.

Now I only have to be careful when I put the cover on my frame that I don't slice my hands on the sharp corner wires. I'm so pleased to have found a good use for this wool. I also used a piece of this wool to extend my little kitty may that didn't fit my frame and it holds better than jute on the frame.

Now today I finished hooking my very first primitive kitty rug and also my very first round rug.  All that is left to do on this is to whip the edge and add the binding tape.
I hope that this will help you make your very own frame cover if you have been hesitating to make one yourself.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave your comment.  JB

MY GRANDMOTHER'S TRUNK CREATIVE CHALLENGE AT LAST

Finally, I just got done wrapping a side of beef and thank goodness my husband helped me or I would still be wrapping until midnight.   As promised here are some photos of my new rug done in haste and still needs tweaking, I even forgot to put an accent on the word Grandmere.  Grandmere Cherie translates to Darling Grandmother.  You can click on the picture and hopefully you can see it closer. I need to fix a few little  details as usual.

This rug is designed  and hooked by moi, Julia Bourque, on jute burlap, is 24"x18" 100% wool except a tiny bit of very dark green between the yellow flowers.  All hand dyed wool except the hair and the blue sleeves and darkest green. I used a sheer gold ribbon given to me by my daughter as I couldn't find a narrow ribbon at the mall or at the fabric store.

This  challenge was to get us to do something that we remembered from our grandmother and we had to use two different brown and some wording. Although it was called Grandmother's Trunk Creative Challenge we were free to interpret this in our own way.  Everyone's rugs are totally different.

Thanks for your patience...

This is the picture that I used to draw the face and because my grandmother said that it was a windy day that day I changed her hair just because she would approve.  She always like to look her best even though she was poor like a lot of the folks at that time.

 Here is a rough drawing. I had even forgot to add the words on the design.   I used some pastels and wiped the dust off so it looks kind of washed off.

This was taken at night with the light on so it looks darker.  Notice the eyes are not even as per the photo. 

This is a close up of the necklace hooked with a ribbon that I had to sew folded and because of the color nuances in the ribbon it also shows nuances in the necklace. In this close up, the colors are more as they are on the rug.

Here is a close up of the face

I dyed most of the colors except the hair and the blue on the sleeves and the tiny bit of dark green.
I really enjoyed doing this piece but I think that if I would have more time to think and prepare, my rug would probably would have been of a different design.  I thought that since I painted faces on ceramics, I should be able to do the same on my rug.   I choose flowers because my grandma had those flowers growing in front of her house. It's where I got my love of flowers.

Today I also started another first, I started my first primitive rug.  This is the one I won from Rugs and Pugs a while back.  It didn't fit my frame so I sewed a piece of wool to make it fit.

This is what I managed to get done this afternoon. I took this picture in the dark a few minutes ago.

I hope that you will understand a bit how I went about to do my Grandmother's trunk Creative Challenge.   Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  JB