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.

Gone to the Dogs Again!

Me and dogs.  Love them!  While in Tyler TX at the Star of TX Camp, I met a  hooker who also loves dogs.  Kathy from Fort Worth TX saw some of my patterns at camp, and this led to some new pattern developments.

Kathy loves hooking dogs and her canines are well represented as are her grand-dogs too.  To personalize the patterns for Kathy's family, I converted the Magdalena Menagerie pattern to include German Shepherds.

Magdalena Menagerie with German Shepherds by Kathy Clark
www.briarwoodfolkart.com all rights reserved.  Colors for illustration purposes only

After a couple weeks Kathy contacted me and asked me to make up another pattern of her grand-dog, two Akitas and a black Lab mix.  Here are the two prototype versions I worked up for Kathy to choose from.

Akitas and Lab mix with a Magdalena flair by Kathy Clark
www.briarwoodfolkart.com all rights reserved.

Another version is this one and its the one she selected as the final pattern:

Akitas and Lab mix in a simpler background so the dog dominate the pattern by Kathy Clark
www.briarwoodfolkart.com all rights reserved.

I think Kathy is going to have a busy summer hooking all her dogs, but she'll have fun doing so.  Thank you Kathy for sponsoring my business and love of making dog patterns.

If you wish to pin pictures for Pinterest, please respectfully credit The Grinning Sheep Blog for the photos.  All rights reserved on original artwork in the patterns shown.

Little Scrappers - Stash Buster Cuties

By the time this blog is posted, I will be knee deep teaching in Texas.

When you are flying to camp it's hard to take rugs along for show and tell.  When I've attended camp and the teacher didn't bring rugs along, I was a little disappointed.  But I fully appreciate why teachers leave rugs at home if they aren't driving to camp.  It's hard to trust your rugs to the airline baggage check or shipping them.

A couple weeks ago I had one of those 3:00 a.m. moments and I decided to hook some small mats I call  "Little Scrappers." They are only 8 x 11 inches and made entirely from wool scraps vs. new yardage.  I can easily add the mats to my carry-on bag for air travel.  Each was hooked with a teaching point in mind to discuss old style techniques and/or finishing.

These little mats are so darn cute I am hooked on making them.  And they hook up fast.  I'm almost of the opinion I could go on a one year sabbatical dedicated to only hooking little mats.  Maybe that would use up my stash of worms, worms, worms.

Here are some examples of my Little Scrappers stash buster mats which I am also offering as pattern panels from smaller pieces of linen left over from making larger patterns.  I also include ideas for hooking and finishing off the mats with the pattern panel.

Antique Roosters

Little Scrappy Dog

Peacock

Two Cats

three Cats

Hit and Miss Hens

If you see something you want, just let me know (briarwoodfolkart@surewest.net) and when I get back from camp I'll make you up a panel.  I'm only charging $9 per mat (plus shipping) and making them in two, three or four mats to a pattern panel.

I also hooked this round mat I'm calling "Can You See Me Vintage Birds" to test some muted background colors and some intentional and extreme higgly-piggly type hooking (high, low, medium loops all mixed up instead of one consistent loop height).  I had a good thing going with the high, low, medium mix in the blue outside circle, but when I pressed/steamed the rug it flattened the loops to an even height.  So much for that experiment.

I want to point out something about this rug that I did intuitively and later found that my intuition was spot on.  I try to understand contrast in rugs because getting the contrast just right to make a rug look old is tricky.  I needed to give the birds some contrast; they were melding right into the muted beige background (which happens to be one of my favorite wool choices for a vintage look).  I didn't really want to outline them, but I'm not adverse to outlining because it was a frequent feature of old rugs.  But I also didn't want a very noticeable outline.  So my gut said to use the opposite of blue on the color wheel.

Can You See Me Vintage Birds mat by Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art

I'll have some camp pictures for you when I return from Texas!

If you pin a picture from my blog for Pinterest, kindly give credit to the blog and Briarwood Folk Art.  

Shep's World by Connie

Connie Phelps of Illinois sent me this series of pictures from her rendition of my pattern Shep's World.  I love how Connie hooked this rug.  It makes me want to start the rug all over again (and folks, this is a big rug).

Connie went to town with color in a very Magdalena style.  I love the free abandon of color that she used.

I know with this kind of hooking it's not as easy as it looks.  You really have to think about your color changes, background contrast with motif(s), etc.  I asked Connie how she color planned the rug and this was her response:

"I should tell you that I actually pulled a lot of color out!!  I have always loved color so have to edit sometimes!!  I started with the dog and used Magdalena style for my inspiration and when I was at a Fiber event in April I actually bought wool geared for this rug.  I used a neat gray-blue plaid for the background around the dog because I was told that it made a great sky.  I really wanted to use reds throughout and hooked with a lot of the wool I had marbleized.  This rug was so much fun because each animal was a joy to hook.  I got the pink pig wool with it in mind.  It is a pink/coral color and so pretty.  I went from animal to animal and filled in a bit of the background as I went but found out that after they were all done it was way too busy with my blue~green~purple marble wool.  I wanted to use them all and it just didn't work!  It might be too busy now but I like the colors.  My cat in front of the pink pig is "owlish" so I call it a Cowl!  I would lay the rug on the floor and stand on a chair and squint just like I would do when I would paint.  I then saw that I needed to balance light and dark backgrounds around the animals to give it more movement.  I really don't know what I am doing but go by my eye and I am learning with each rug that I make.  I really did love doing this one but still do not enjoy all the hand stitching on the binding!!  Does anyone?"

Here are pictures with detailed closeups.  And for fun of comparison, I show Trudy's rug (featured previously on this blog) and my rug at the end for examples of other ways this pattern has been hooked.

Good work Connie!  Now, please hook one just like it for me????  Pretty please????

Shep's World hooked by Connie Phelps.  Pattern by Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art

Love how the sheep has polka dots of gentle color!

Check out the color of the pig!  The blue Mallard is Connie's husband's favorite animal. Wonderful!

Shep's World by Trudy Johnson of VA.

Shep's World by Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art

If you wish to pin these photos on Pinterest, kindly give credit to this location for the photos and the pattern design by Briarwood Folk Art.

Another Magdalena Menagerie

My friend Martha has been busy lately.  It's probably because she knows she will see me at the Star of Texas rug camp in Tyler in less than two weeks.  Perhaps this reunion is sparking a deadline for her hooking on the Magdalena Menagerie pattern.

A prolific hooker, Martha is very tuned in to the hooking of Texas.  Texas, as you know, is a big state and there is a lot of hooking that goes on there.  If there is a hooking event in Texas, you can count on Martha knowing about it and probably being there.

I had the pleasure to visit Martha last August.  As a humble gift of appreciation for her hospitality, I customized the MM pattern and took her one which includes her two dogs Rose and Abbey.

We got a bit of a start on the pattern while together in Dallas last August, and now Martha is working on the pattern again. Here's her progress last week:

Abbey

Rose

The girls with one crow completed so far.

Cute huh?  I just love seeing this pattern hooked up with various dogs.  It is so much fun.

Martha also clarified for me, Abby is a Chiwennie and Rose is a Jack Russel/ Rat Terrier.

If you'd like your dogs included in this pattern, feel free to email me for details:  briarwoodfolkart@surewest.net

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.

Lulu's Happy Dance

The Shep's World rug is now ready for binding after applying three border rows with some little color highlights in them.

Lulu absolutely loves this rug and immediately claims it for herself as soon as it hits the floor.  Here is Lulu doing the happy dance on her rug.  She is crazy for Shep.

I don't want to tell her Shep will probably reside on the wall someday.  So far none of my rugs go onto the floor, but I haven't told her this yet.  Why spoil her fun?

Here's a pic of the rug with the border rows added.  Next I'll be binding this puppy!

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.