More Fine Finishes

Linda Long of Texas sent me pictures of two rugs she hooked during our time together at Star of Texas Rug Camp in Tyler, June 2013.

This pattern is an antique rug adaption.  Linda brought lots of color to the pattern and her bears are toasting cans of Coke vs. bear (oops, beer) steins.  Isn't all the use of color fun in this rug?  It is very joyful.

Dancing Bears antique rug adaption by Linda Long, Texas.

Linda is about the fastest hooker I've ever met and she had the bear rug finished by the 3rd day of class. She went on to finishing up this rug, a variation of my Gazing at the Milkey Bones pattern where I customized the pattern to include her two dogs.  Are these doggies sweet or what?

Gazing at the Milkey Bones, customized dog pattern hooked by Linda Long, Texas and pattern from Briarwood Folk Art.

This rug gave us a real challenge:  how to hook a night time sky with a black dog in the rug.  I dyed a painted sky of sorts for Linda to give it an evening look but light enough that the black dog shows up.  This is such a sweet rug.  Too bad they aren't real bones as these cuties look pretty hungry and appreciative of the bones filling the night sky.

Thank you Linda for sharing and the pleasure of working with you in class.  I hope to see you again soon.

New Rug Update

I haven't had a lot of time to hook lately.  There have been a lot of other responsibilities taking precedence, so progress on this rug is slow.

Here's a quick update on the rug in progress:

Peaceful Valley by Kathy Clark, www.briarwoodfolkart.com

I have had to work a lot on issues related to contrast in this rug.  The chickens fading into the grass and field background areas; the small gray lamb's legs fading into the grass.

The middle size lamb's ears had to be reworked.  They were too short and stumpy.  They are better now, but I'm still not sure about them.  They may get reworked again.

The painted sky is time consuming.  I don't do the traditional straight lines across the rug with a painted sky.  I move the colors around more than straight lines.  

I will have to rework the drawing for the final pattern once I'm finished with this prototype.  I can't say I like it yet, but this often happens to me and then, in the final 5 minutes as I finish a rug I finally like it!

Fine Finishes

We are back from Texas and had a wonderful trip to the Lone Star state.  Before sharing about the trip and rug camp, I want to pay homage to two fine hookers who sent me pictures of their finished rugs while I was traveling.

A couple posts ago I showed you Ellen's rug in progress and she has now finished the rug which memorializes her Oda Mae Cardigan Welsh Corgi.  Ellen elected to make the sky a sunset in this rug as Oda Mae died suddenly and unexpectedly after Ellen ordered the pattern from me.  The pattern is a rendition of an antique rug which I customized to include Ellen's Cardigan Welsh Corgis.

Here is Ellen's beautiful rug; Oda Mae is the brown dog laying down in the rug.

Ellen Eckerd, memorial rug for Oda Mae.

My rug in progress with my Pembroke Welsh Corgis.

I also received a picture from my good cyber pal Trudy Johnson who has hooked a couple of my dog patterns.  I love the way Trudy hooks primitive and often would rather have her version of the rug than my own!  Someday I hope Trudy and I can hook on a pattern at the same time, in person, together to yak, yak, yak about our choices for wool in a primitive rug.  

Shep's World by Trudy Johnson.  

My version of Shep's World.

I love seeing patterns I've drawn as hooked by others.  It is rewarding and fun to see how each hooker puts their spin on a rug.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these fine finishes.  I'll share all about Texas soon, once I can catch my breath from moving, travel, camp, fun, fun, fun and getting back home!

Please Note:  if you download pictures for Pinterest purposes, please kindly give credit to my blog and or website for the pictures.  Thank you.

A Fine Memory of a Cherished Friend

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of receiving an email from Ellen who is hooking a pattern I drew  for her with customized dogs in honor of her Cardigan Welsh Corgis.  Ellen saw my Pembroke Welsh Corgi version of this rug in progress and requested the pattern to include her Cardigans.

Here is Ellen's rug in progress.

Oda Mae (foreground) memory rug in progress, hooked by Ellen Ikerd.  Size is roughly 36 x 26.

In the foreground, the brown / brindle dog is Oda Mae.  The sad story is that Oda Mae died suddenly and unexpectedly before the pattern reached Ellen; she was not ill at the time the pattern was ordered.

Still, this has not stopped Ellen from hooking the rug and doing so has facilitated the natural grief process.  Ellen decided to hook the sky as a sunset instead of sunrise.  The project has given her lots of opportunity to reflect on Oda Mae and experience grief inherent to losing a cherished pet.

Ellen, thank you for sharing your photo; I love the colors you've been using and I can't wait to see the finished rug.  I feel honored that you shared it with me and gave me permission to show it on my blog.  Your work is wonderful.  I love the strong colors.

My hope is that additional time will give you the gift to smile every time you look at the rug rather than experience any sadness at the loss of your treasured Oda Mae.

Please note:  I have opened comments to the blog again as some of you might wish to express your comments about Ellen's rug and I've received several private emails from people wishing to comment on various posts.  Comments had been turned off due to unnecessary cyber bullying and I am hopeful that any bullying type person will kindly restrain themselves from the need to be unkind.

Shep heads for Arizona

I finished up the Shep's World rug in time to take it to AZ for the class I'm taking and the rug show that is part of our class.

The finished rug measures 36 1/2 by 28 inches.  It is hooked in Townsend cut, hand cut and hand torn strips that average 8.5 - 10 cuts.  Some small accent colors (especially black and the rust/orange) have been hooked in a narrow cut averaging from a 4-6 cut.

As a last minute addition I added some random and narrow cut black lines in the rectangular background area around Shep.  The more I looked at the finished rug on the floor I decided the narrow black lines would give the rug more balance to enhance other black tones in the rug.  Here are two pictures showing the rug with the lines and without the lines.  I think I prefer the lines added, but I may still end up removing them.  

Shep with black lines in rectangular background area.

Shep with no black lines in the rectangular background area. 

I had an interesting piece of selvage from one of the wool fabrics used in the rug so I gave Shep a collar.  It is hand stitched on.  I also tweaked his mouth a bit to give a small dark lip line.

Note the addition of a collar strip on Shep's neck.

It is hard to tell from these photos, but the wool selections used in this rug are much more harmonious together than they look in the photos.  This is one rug which doesn't photograph well.  It has a good primitive appearance in person, with far less contrast as it appears to have in the photos.  Here are some closeup shots of the other barnyard critters Shep watches over.

The brown hen below recedes into the background quite a bit on the rug and after hooking the hen I didn't use this color again because of the contrast challenges.  But I decided to keep her in the mix of animals as she is because I like the fact she doesn't stand out a lot which makes the mix of animals more quirky.  

The brown hen is a little hard to see and make out in the overall rug, but this adds to the antique style charm.

Several people have emailed me and commented about the wool used for the cats.  It is an old Pendleton plaid and unfortunately I seem to have used it all up so I cannot photograph it to show what it looks like as fabric.

This rug was a lot of fun to hook.  It is more muddy in primitive style than I usually hook and that was a good exercise for me.

I've received a few requests asking if this rug will be available as a pattern.  Yes it will be available but due to my impending move (fingers crossed all escrows close) I'm postponing pattern making until mid March.  I've taken my website and Etsy shops down for the time being.  If you are interested in the pattern please feel free to email me at briarwoodfolkart@surewest.net and I will keep you posted about its availability.

I am scheduled to be back from AZ on January 21st and I will post pictures of my AZ adventures then.

Thank you for watching my progress on this rug.

Closing in on a finish!

Shep's World is coming along and nearing completion.  It is always satisfying to finish a rug.  This one is in the running for binding before mid-week because we are running away to Arizona for 12 days.  We leave on Wednesday.  I will be binding in the car as my husband drives.

While in AZ I will be taking a class with Sharon Smith of Walnut Creek, CA.  Now being from CA, and only about 2 hours from Sharon you may wonder why I would go all the way to AZ for the class.  Good question.  Well, AZ is especially nice in the winter months and we are very fond of the state.  It's a great get-away place for us and I've made many hooking friends there from attending classes and teaching there last October.  Taking a class with Sharon will be lots of fun and a very exciting part of the adventure is meeting up with my friend Loretta (aka, Hooked on the Lake blog).  Loretta is coming in from Canada to take the class. I met Loretta last March in AZ in a Karen Kahle class so here we are rendezvousing again!

Shep's World before the border is added.  

I hope to finish up hooking on Shep today by adding my border rows while at my first Saturday hook-in group .  I have a quirky border in mind and can see it in my mind's eye, but will it actually turn out the way I want?  I will only know once I've hooked it.

I've got my wool cut for the border area, and guess what?  I made a mess cutting wool and it's OK to make a mess for the first time in 4 months!  This is because we received an offer on our house last weekend, we are in escrow and the public showings are over with!  Making a mess doesn't cause the same pressure as it did when the house could be shown at a moment's notice.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us to close escrow in early February.  We've made an offer on a home in our desired community and it will be a good house for holding hook-ins because there is no organized hooking group in the community.  If all goes well we will be moving in mid-February.  I'm afraid to be excited till the check is in hand, but it feels like everything is going to work out this time.

As clear as mud!

I've been working on an antique adaption for several weeks, hooking a bit here, a bit there, but not much in big spurts.  Over Christmas eve and Christmas day I indulged myself in making a mess and cutting lots of wool to make significant progress on what I'm calling "Shep's World."

Here's the progress to date, depicting a dog and all his farm yard buddies that he continually watches over.

Shep's World and yes Shep is a dog, not a sheep.  Rug in progress, subject to changes.

I'm rethinking some of the color changes in the background by pulling out the darker wool around the white sheep in the lower right corner .  None of the colors in the rug display well in these photos, but in person the colors blend together much better.  The camera flash makes them either too bright or intense than in person.  Still, I think I like the lighter background best so the lower right corner will be changing.

Here are more pictures of the rug in progress.

A pig from black/gray plaid.

A gold/brown chicken that doesn't show up much due to low contrast.

A funky chicken and birds with lots of mixed background.

The size of this rug as drawn is 33" x 25" and the border will add another 1-2" depending on what I do to finish it off.

I've intentionally worked to make this rug look muddy in colors for an aged look.  I don't work in muddy colors a lot, but I always admire primitive rugs in the muddy tones and low contrast.  I don't know why I find it hard to adapt to a muddy style of primitive hooking.  Its something I'm practicing more, as you can see.

The cut sizes in this rug are 8.5-10 with much of the wool being hand torn or cut.  There is a mumble-jumble to this rug in lines being off kilter, color changing, but that is all intentional.  It really blends more in person than in the pictures.

Trudy from VA is going to hook this puppy too and I can't wait to see what Trudy does with it.  I love how she adapted the Magdalena Menagerie pattern so I look forward to seeing her progress on Shep's World.  To Trudy:  thanks for stepping up to hook another one of my patterns!

Maggie likes this rug a lot too because Shep is a kindred spirit.

A Cyber Rug Challenge Across Borders

A couple of years ago I made a cyber pen pal friend with Theresa of London, Ontario Canada by meeting on one of the internet rug hooking sites.  We shared compliments about one another's rugs and then began emailing privately to discuss our interest in making our rugs look old and antique.

Over time our discussions increased to include husbands, jobs, insomnia, mid-life crisis and the like - you know, womens' talk.  We emailed each other at all times of the night as stress and responsibilities woke us from a sound slumber.  Theresa's emails helped usher me through a very difficult time in my career when I worked for a truly crazy woman who was trying her hatchet job on me.  I hope I've helped Theresa through some hard times too, in order to return the favor.

After several weeks of sharing very enjoyable emails, I asked Theresa if she would do a rug challenge with me to replicate an antique rug.  And so the cross border challenges began.  We've actually completed two challenges in the past few years, but life often gets in the way and our most recent challenge got postponed due to other responsibilities.

Theresa and I have had the next challenge rug selected and in waiting for over a year.  This time it was my life getting in the way but we recently agreed to start the rug.  Loretta from Godfrey, Ontario Canada is joining us this time and we are hooking the following antique rug, circa late 1800's.

And with the drum roll please let's have a peek behind the curtains:

Oh we need more than that little peek,  please let's see more; oh, I see it's a celebration with up-raised glasses:

Aha, there's still more to come:

Oh my, it's a pair of dancing bears toasting one another!

Antique rug, circa late 19th century.

Isn't this rug a hoot?!  I wish I knew the background behind it.  I bet it could tell stories, don't you think? 

I started my rug last night and will share pictures of it in progress when Theresa and Loretta are also ready for sharing pictures.  Until then, standby for some beary good hooking fun.

PS:  I was asked if Loretta has a blog and the answer is yes:  here is the URL - http://hookedonthelake.wordpress.com/

As far as I know Theresa does not have a blog.

Please note:  research indicates antique rugs created before 1923 are no longer subject to copyright law. This is why many antique rug patterns are popular to replicate and are made available by commercial rug hooking vendors.  Before replicating any antique rug pattern, please attempt to determine the date of the rug's origination to be consistent with copyright law.  

Achieving "Old as Dirt"

My Magdalena lollipop bouquet is coming along and is close to being finished.  I have hooked quite a bit since last Tuesday's Maggie's Girls meeting.  Even though I'm retired, it is hard for me to find lots of free time for hooking, but I did spend some concentrated time on this rug through the weekend.

I have had some mixed feelings about the rug, but I am increasingly feeling better about it and am most happy with my efforts to get an "old as dirt' look.  I think I've said this before, but sometimes I don't like my rug until the final 5 minutes of hooking it.  Or sometimes I don't like a rug until it's bound.  Funny huh?!

As I've mentioned in prior posts, I'm incorporating some alternatives to wool into this rug.  So far my dyeing efforts on plain cotton have failed miserably and I do appreciate several comments I've received on how to improve the dyeing efforts.  But in the end, I'm not sure it's worth the effort to try to dye my own cottons, so store bought quilting fabric seems to be the best alternative. 

Above, I have added some Sari Silk to the rug in a few areas.  It doesn't shine when you see the rug on the whole.  I selected a color that is muted in tone more than bright, as Sari's can be.  

Above, in keeping with olden times when materials on hand were used, I have incorporated a mish-mash of wool selections into the background around the circles.  The wool is all of similar value, so it blends together well.  I believe this type of hooking adds to an old and aged look.  The yellow appears a little brighter in this photo, but it actually blends in well when you see it in person.

Above, here is a closeup of one of the cotton fabrics I've hand torn and hooked into the rug.  I like the tattered look but the strips of cotton are a bugger to hook compared to wool strips.  The antique rugs I own have lots of homespun and cotton fabric in them.  Remember, whatever was on hand was used.  Our fore-mothers were good at being utilitarian in purpose.

Above, another few rows of cotton fabrics hooked among the wool fabrics.

Above, the pinkish tone is the flour sack dish towel I tried to dye rust color.  The cotton only took up a bit of the color, but it has blended nicely with my other background wool selections.  Actually hooking with the dish towel fabric has been my favorite of all the alternatives to wool.

So, now you know most of my secrets!  Are you going to try them too?

If it's Tuesday it Must be Magdalena Day!

The Maggie's girls met yesterday and nearly the whole group was present.  We've been a little fragmented lately with various schedules and this will continue for a few more weeks at least, but we're trudging onward to finish up round one of the Magdalena style rugs.

Betty is finishing her lollipop bouquet with whip stitching and cording.  Denise is still working on her background but she has made significant progress.  Sandy is working on a non-Magda rug since she finished up several weeks ago and I'm working on my Magdalena Meow Mix Cats with Leaf.  Here are the pic's from yesterday's meeting.

Denise's rug.  The background is fascinating on this rug!

This picture will show you more of the background.

My Magdalena Meow Mix Cats with Leaf.  I've made a few changes since the last post.

At the last guild meeting we shared Betty's rug and the group was shocked that she hooked it.  Betty the fine cut hooker swayed by Magdalena's lollipop bouquet.  We asked the group whose rug it was and preliminary guesses were that it was mine.  But once we told the gang whose it is, there were a few shocked faces!

Hope you enjoy these!

Respect for our Ancestors!

Today I must work on transferring designs onto primitive linen for pattern orders.  Two of the patterns are the Magdalena Menagerie with Pugs and the Corgis.  I am delighted to make this pattern available in different dog styles.  It is fun to hook and it will be even more fun with other dogs in it, I am sure. 

Whenever I transfer a pattern, my mind wanders (as it often does) to an imaginative era about our rug hooking ancestors.  The women who pioneered rug hooking 100+ years ago had little to no modern conveniences to work with as they designed their rugs.  They probably had few drawing materials for adding a design onto rough burlap but they had nothing compared to the permanent markers we use.  They had no way to enlarge or resize their patterns through technology and photocopying.  So my first question is "How did these women do it?!" and my second question is "Aren't you happy you live in this modern era rather than the past?!"

I have a hard enough time transferring a pattern with the modern conveniences, and still I find it to be a challenge.  Getting border lines straight, proportions on borders, scale of design to border size, it all makes me a little crazy. 

Rendition of antique rug with
dog carrying a basket in mouth.

I like to think of our ancestors when I hook, especially when I hook an antique rendition.  It provides a great mental escape and it is another creative venue along with the hooking.  I often wonder about the creator's motivation:  why she decided on a particular motif, why animals are doing silly things (like the momma dog holding a basket in her mouth) or why is the size of the animals or other motifs larger or smaller in scale to other parts of the rug design?  I find the naive folk art of our ancestors  enchanting. 

Original Antique Rug of Hens at the Hen House

Several rugs ago, I used the hooking opportunity to create an entire alter ego for my rug by imagining the original hooker as I replicated an antique rug.  It's the rug I call Henny Penny, and you've probably seen the original antique version or a hooked replica of it.  It's been a popular rug to replicate by many hookers.

As I worked on this whimsical rug, my imagination took off  on why the hens became a focal point for this rug.  By the time I finished the rug,  I concocted an entire story about the woman who originally created the rug. I had a lot of fun with the story.  I know it sounds sort of crazy to do this, but I enjoyed imagining her, her lifestyle and her motivation for the rug.  

My Rug:  Henny Penny

Please understand, I am not delusional or hearing voices when I get on one of these creative benders.  I am merely having fun through imagination.  After all, we use imagination and creativity as we hook, so why not go the extra loop and think about the woman who originally created the rug in the first place?  After all, don't we owe it to our ancestors to have a little respect and appreciation for them since they defined the art of hooking?! 

So next time you are happily hooking away, give a little imagination to our ancestors and maybe a fine spirited hooker will join you in pulling a few loops and telling you her life story! 

Please note:  research I've conducted indicates antique rugs created before 1923 are no longer subject to copyright law and this is why these rug patterns are offered for sale by commercial rug hooking vendors.  Before replicating any antique rug pattern, please attempt to determine the date of the rug's origination to be consistent with copyright.

Dog Day Blues

I wanted to post a blog yesterday and tried to come up with something clever to post, but was rambling about the house, accomplishing nothing, and especially nothing creative in nature.  In truth, I was mildly depressed and couldn't exactly put my finger on why..... I just was.

Sunday was my mother's 91st birthday and she gave celebrating a valiant effort.  She is struggling since her health took a turn 4 weeks ago.  Her abilities are fading away more and more and it is evident the light in her soul is beginning to dim.  I think this reality was hanging over me all day. 

I would describe yesterday as a day when I had "the dog day blues" which is my spin-off from the saying "the dog days of summer"  which I always feel in late August when the heat has grown old, the days are long and boring and I'm ready for a change of season.

I thought about hooking, but didn't feel creative; I thought about putting together a new rug hooking pattern to perk myself up, but I have two rugs to finish before I can indulge in starting another!  I still have the huge border to do on the MM rug and my Karen Kahle rug from my class in AZ last month.  I want to finish those projects before I escape into another project, so I let the emptiness of the day stay with me, without fighting it.
 
As evening approached, I was resigned to the doldrums, and settled in to watch TV with a corgi on my lap.  As a form of entertainment, I started searching for antique rugs on the internet, via my iPad.  It did help perk me up:  the hunt for pictures, the fascination of old rugs ..... and then I found it!!!! 

Have you seen this Magdalena rug, circa 1870?  I have never seen this rug and it isn't pictured in the wonderful book Rug Hooking Traditions with Magdalena Briner Eby, so I was shocked to find it.  It is huge at 45" by 115" or nearly 4 feet by 10 feet! Finding this picture was like finding a lost treasure.  Isn't it amazing?!   

I cannot get over Magdalena's enthusiasm for hooking and if I found my roots are tied to her in genealogy, it would make sense to me why we are such kindred spirits:  her prolific hooking, her love of folksy representations of animals.  I cannot get over her repetition of animals with exact similarity between each of the animal rugs.  The dogs are all the same obscure shape; the horses the same fun hit-n-miss hooking, the cats are little blobs and the birds are the same shape.  The scale of the animals is always fun to observe in Magdalena's rugs.  Isn't she amazing? 

Whenever I think of an artist whose work was only discovered in popularity after their death, I do so hope that they somehow know how much it is cheering people on earth, how much it is valued and how much it has influence others!  Thank you Magdalena, and please say hello to all the other fine artists behind the pearly gates too! 

POSTSCRIPT:  two people have left me messages via comments that The Woolley Fox will be making this pattern available, so I guess it has been in the rug hooking world's awareness for awhile.  This is great!  Have fun hooking it! 

End of Year Hooking Reflections

Hello Friends!

I haven't created anything new these past two weeks, but I'm posting pictures of animal rugs I completed in the past few months.  Diane from Florida purchased these four rugs to add to her collection of animal hooked rugs.  Diane is very active in animal welfare, so I am happy she has my dog and cat rugs as a true animal lover.  Thank you Diane for supporting my rug hooking efforts!  I am grateful people like Diane purchase my rugs, as it gives me an opportunity to hook more rugs! 

 As I pulled these pictures up for posting, I realized that I hooked at least twice as many more cats and dogs in 2011 that are not shown here.  Most of the rugs are smaller mats that have sold in my Etsy shop.  I love doing animal rugs.  I have many more planned for my 2012 hooking adventures! 

Please note:  research I've conducted indicates antique rugs created before 1923 are no longer subject to copyright law and this is why these rug patterns are offered for sale by commercial rug hooking vendors.  Before replicating any antique rug pattern, please attempt to determine the date of the rug's origination to be consistent with copyright.