A PORTFOLIO OF MY HOOKED RUGS AS PROMISED

It's looking more like spring although we are bracing for another snow storm tonight. As I was driving to town today, I noticed the river was open for a good stretch although it's still frozen in front of our house, but it won't be long before we see open water here too. I'm still on the lookout for my first Robin but I imagine it will be a while yet.

Today I scrubbed 4 calf gates, a chore which I don't enjoy but it must be done. I still have some time before returning to the farm to feed the calves so I thought that I should do a post about the rugs I designed and hooked. Some need binding and they all need labels. I haven't tried making my own labels yet.

My very first rug, Cow in the grass,  all done with recycled wool. I dyed a white and black plaid wool skirt and it turned out perfect for grass.  My daughter Jackie gave me some yellow and green dye powder she used where she teaches weaving.

This rooster was to remember the kindness of my many friends who supported me during my fight with breast cancer. Anne bought me a big crowing rooster and together with my woman church group they made me a huge basket of sunshine. It was filled with small gifts that I had to open one every day, for a whole month. I called it Sometimes you have to make your own sunshine.

I used all recycled wool and unknown fiber for the tail feathers.

This was a challenge from Sunnie Andresson Rug Hooking Daily. We had to use a ring, a rock, a forest and the color purple.  My first thought was to hook a king sitting on a rock with a golden ring on his finger but it didn't appeal to me so I went back in my childhood as I love the forest behind our house and I was a bit of a tom-boy, hanging upside down from trees.  The ring was an old tire swing, the rock is beside the tree and some little violets for the color purple. Everybody's rug was so different from each other and it was a most enjoyable exercise to get us out of our comfort zone.

My Childhood Memories rug was something I wanted to do ever since I took my basic rug hooking lesson as I saw one our teacher did but hers was totally different.  My first idea was to make a twisted ribbon border. It started out nicely but the ribbon got a bit wonky as I went along and I left it like that to show that the journey isn't always smooth.

This was another challenge from Sunnie Andress on Rug Hooking Daily. It was called My Grandmother's trunk. It was to depict what our grandmother left us.  I didn't inherit anything from my grandmother but her love of flowers.  The grey background was dyed grey to mimic the shingles on her house. It was done using a photo of my grandmother.

Sunnie Andress and I  became good friends on Rug Hooking Daily and together we started the group called Great Stash Deworming Marathon and it's still going on today. I made a hit and miss rug and this one went incredibly fast .

Still deworming my stash of extra wool worms I made this chair pad for my hooking room. Using only precut wool worms in my stash.  I even married a bunch of worms to get this green border.  Marring wool is to simmer wool of different colors or tone together so they all blend together.

I called this one, Ode to Joy because of the happy colors.
Still, on the same challenge of deworming the stash, I did this one using kitten's paws pattern and joined them with stems and leaves for my other chair.

I was inspired by a rug I saw in Rug Hooking Magazine and called this one, Geology.

My grandfather was done using a very overexposed black and white photo and I struggled with shading the face features.

Another challenge rug using only leftover worms from our stash. It was called All Around the town or something like that. I would have to go back and check the name of the challenge. All these challenges were subject to our own interpretation which makes these challenges so enjoyable.

Another challenge rug using a song theme. I'm dragging my feet on this one but I have some small pieces of wool to marbelize for the bottom, just not enough spare time to hook.

This was my very first primitive rug and it was a blogging giveaway from Lauren of Hugs and Pugs. She had included everything I needed to hook this cute kitty rug, including a primitive size hook.  Lauren is such a great blogging friend. This project went astoundingly fast as compared to my regular  # 5 or 6 cuts and I really enjoyed this little project. It is always beside my hooking frame to place my scissors, hook, and tweezer on to protect my table top.  Thanks, Lauren. It's a gift I really cherish every time I hook.

Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment. Your comments are very precious to me.
Julia

IT'S OBVIOUS, I'VE BEEN DRAGGING MY FEET ALL WINTER

When too much time elapses between post, I never know where to begin. I've noticed although I'm not getting many comments on my last post although I'm getting a lot of visitors who never comment. Is it because my blog is getting boring? If so, I don't blame you. I'll admit, my posts have been rather boring even to myself, but I still would like a tiny comment like  "Hello Julia".🙂

I don't have lots going on, I'm still recuperating from a nasty fall on the ice while working at the farm. I fell flat on my belly, hurting my rib cage and it interferes with my sleep so I don't get much done at home but I'm on the mend slowly.

 There was a thin layer of freshly fallen snow on top of the ice. I was wearing my ice grippers and carrying a pail with 3 bottles of milk in hot water for my small calf and the tip of my ice grippers hit a small bump of ice, I lost my balance and down I came, just missing smashing my face and eyeglasses on the hard ice. I had snow all over my glasses. I got all wet from the splashing hot water and went to feed my calves. Thank goodness it wasn't cold that afternoon and that I didn't get burned either.

On a happier note, my daughter Christine and her family are back from a winter vacation and cruise. She sent me some photos of the boys enjoying Walt Disney characters.

The boys actually had green eggs and ham for breakfast.  Look at those smiles of contentement...

They really enjoyed hugging these Dr. Suesses characters, He looks so cuddly...

The cool Cat In The Hat

More cuddly characters to make friends with, Winnie The Pooh and Eeyore

It looks like they had their dream come true, meeting with their favorite Walt Disney book characters.

Now to show you what I've been playing with... For those who don't hook rugs, this may be boring but dyeing wool this way always brings some surprises.

I tried an experiment to marbleized some wool worms to hook some grass on my Rock-A-Bye-Baby challenge rug using leftover assorted green wool worms. I tied the top of the worms and braided it and tied it several places. Put it in the pot with water without pre-soaking it following directions. It asked either use Tide powder or Borax.  I didn't have Tide powder so I tried Borax.

You can see the color bleeding out of the wool

I used a candy thermometer I bought at Walmart a while back and simmered at 195 ℉ for 15 minutes and turned the wool over and simmered for another 15 minutes. Then I added about 1/2 a cup of vinegar and simmered again for about 30 minutes. Care should be taken to not boil the wool as it may felt the wool and making it too thick to hook with. I turned the heat off and let the wool sit overnight as it was a bit late. The next morning I rinsed the wool well and squeezed the water out and blotted the excess moisture with an old towel and hung them on an old fridge door that doesn't work anymore.

For some reason, one color of the wool turned out brittle and had to be thrown away but the rest was fine. I won't be using Borax again. The colors don't show well in these photos but there is a marbleized effect on  the wool worms.

More marbleizing experiment using the same method but rolling and twisting different color wool pieces on top of each other, using dark and light and a neutral color like camel and laying some extra leftover wool worms in the middle.

Now if I could just get off the computer and hook a bit on my rug I might make some progress.
Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment. I hope the weather is sunny where you are. Here it's been a beautiful springy, sunny day with a few clouds. Spring is only a little over 22 days to spring.