Monday, April 2, 2012

Are Ye' Patriotic Sneak Peek!


In honor of our democracy, and one of the most historic elections of our lifetime, I recently designed a simple pattern called "Are Ye' Patriotic?"  You may have noticed the small photo clip of it over to the right.  I’ve been steadily working on this rug, so it's time to start sharing bits and pieces of it.  But ……. before I begin sharing my approach to this rug, here's today's mind plexer:  what's wrong with the design of my rug?  Maybe by the end of the blog series you will figure it out if it doesn't jump out at you immediately.  I figured it out about halfway through the rug and had a good, hearty chuckle.  I will fix it in the final pattern which will soon be available as an inexpensive paper pattern in my Etsy shop. 

To achieve an old look, I intentionally outlined the animals and stars.  Outlining is prevalent in many antique rugs, as is BLACK outlining, so I went with black.  This is generally considered taboo in today’s rug hooking teaching.  But remember, I want an old look so I’m following the old rules, not the new ones**.  In adding the outline, it would have been best if I’d used a 4 cut, but I settled for a 5 because a 4 is a pain to hook (and a five is still bad enough). 

After outlining the animals, I worked on the elephant.  I added some off colors to help age him.  I am not sure of the darker brown strips; they may come out to be replaced by a lighter strips so they are not so obvious.  But I am pretty happy with the elephant so far, so I'm leaving him as is for now.  I can make more changes when the overall rug is further along.
 The donkey is OK as is, I’m not changing him; I may add some stain to him later to make parts of him look older. 

For the background, I used a neutral textured background but I am adding some other wool here and there.  I think it gives it a bit of a worn look and maybe a little stained as if it’s an old and well used rug.
Next session:  I'll tell you about adding the red, white and blue hit and miss bunting.  Here's the mock-up of the pattern so you see the whole design.  Can you spot the design error yet?  
** Did I tell you yet?  I don't like to follow the rules!


POST SCRIPT: ha, ha, ha, Lori from Not Forgotten Farm emailed me (grinningsheep@gmail.com) to tell me what she found as the potential design flaw!  Ha, ha, she found something besides the design flaw I found, but what Lori found isn't the design flaw I noted.  So keep guessing!  And as to Lori's finding (see comment below), well yes, technically she is correct, but remember this is primitive hooking!  Keep looking!


SECOND POST SCRIPT:  great guesses ladies, but no you haven't figured it out yet.  I'm upping the ante.  Whoever figures it out first gets a paper copy of the pattern via PDF file for their own hooking pleasure.  


THIRD POST SCRIPT:  See the comment below for many fine guesses, but Carol from Mesa AZ got it!  In our political system we hear about the parties as much on the "left" or the "right" as we do by their name Democrat vs. Republican.  So I was halfway through hooking the rug when I realized my boo boo on the design.  It made me laugh and think maybe the name should be "Come on Over to My Side" in order to end the great divide taking place in our country!  








Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...