Threads of Miz

Catching up...

2011-12-18T21:02:00.002-05:00

I realize that there are some people who are able to add to their blogs every day, but I cannot. So once in awhile I have to catch you up with things that have been going on in my life. I wanted to thank all of you who posted notes about our loss of Brutus. Your kindness and loving thoughts really helped. We miss him constantly and our cat Rascal has lost her companion so has been walking around the house meowing for her Brudy, but she can't find him. His ashes are in a wooden box on our windowsill.

I never completed posting from the ATHA conference, but at this point you have probably enjoyed seeing all the rugs on other sites. But here are a few you probably didn't see. I believe they were made by Heather Richie.

One of my classes was with Peggy Hannum, who makes amazing and beautiful rugs. She is donating a rug she made to the hooked Rug Museum of North America, and brought it to show me but I didn't get a photo of it. She had some kits for pillows and purses and I loved the colors she chose for this one.

Shortly after my return from Pennsylvania it suddenly became winter for a few weeks. This was how my world looked for Halloween!

My next getaway came quickly with the Alfred, Maine hook-in, which is a 3 day weekend held each Spring and Fall. It is a simple weekend with no frills. We stay in sparse rooms in an old building, but the hooking rooms are sunny and full of laughter. It is a great weekend of fun and plenty of hooking time with wonderful friends. Here are a few of the things people were working on:

I often feel badly for not posting the names of the people who hooked the rugs, but I will confess that I don't always record them and sometimes am just lazy and don't take the time. If you know the hookers and want me to add information please let me know.

I completed my "Friendship Squares" rug and although I enjoyed making it I am glad to have it off the frame. I will bind it with navy blue wool yarn during Christmas weekend.

I drove out to Vermont to spend two days at the Vermont Rug Hooking Guild "Hooked in the Mountains" show. It is always an amazing show and this year they outdid themselves. If you have not seen pictures of the show you can go to facebook and do a search as there are several places to enjoy the rugs.

Last weekend was our ATHA chapter Tin Pedlar's meeting and holiday party. It was quite nice with plenty of food, door prizes and a Yankee stylewoolie swap. I took few pictures but here is a nice one of Jackye Hanson opening her swap gift.

And of course there was an abundance of food. The set up committee did a wonderful job and everything looked festive.

I began another rug that has a quilt design based on Amish quilt squares. There are three sections and I am starting in the center. I think the colors I chose will look pretty together as they are rich jewel tones of wool.

Yesterday I went to the local Farmer's Market held at the Wentworth Greenhouses in Dover, NH. It was a chilly day and there was something wonderful about going into the large greenhouses with the warmth, humidity and lots of plants.

Since it is Winter they have one large greenhouse available for the market. The variety of foods is astonishing and you can get anything from meats to eggs and of course plenty of vegetables. Tonight we had roasted apple & camambert cheese ravioli with alfredo sauce and fresh string beans. I also bought some whole bean coffee roasted locally.

Loaves of fresh breads with a wonderful aroma.

The displays looked beautiful and these were tempting.

Yum...brussel sprouts...waiting to be roasted with butter and garlic.

Garlic...yes, here it is!

And there was music adding to the festive atmosphere. The chilly outdoor temperatures were forgotten.

Of course the greenhouse had many plants for sale including things we cannot grow outside in our climate. These lemons were a cheerful color.

"Tis the season for pointsettias, and one of their other greenhouses had thousands to choose from. I loved the soft colors on the pink leaves.

And of course there were artists and plenty of fibery fun. Basketmakers, glass beads and jewelry, gorgeous wood cutting boards and plenty more. Spinners spun pretty hand dyed wool.

Most of the vendors have farms and Riverslea Farm had hand knit items as well as wools and fiber to spin. Several years ago I bought a soft fleece for the seat of my chair.

And my friend Rae was overseeing the items from the Wool and Goods store she owns with Kathy in Rollinsford, NH. Everything looked beautiful, but the shop has so much more so stop by when you are on the Seacoast of New Hampshire and Maine. Their wools are luscious, they have a nice variety of classes and you won't meet nicer women anywhere!

So that catches you up with my life outside of work. The coming week will be a flurry of activity as I finish up some small presents and send out mailings, bake yummies and wrap. If anyone knows how to wrap an extension ladder let me know! If I don't connect with you for Christmas please enjoy a safe holiday full of love and the true meaning of the Birthday the holiday represents. God bless you!

Are there bones in heaven?

2011-11-14T08:35:00.001-05:00

For months we have been saying it's almost time. Late last night...the dreaded time came. Our wonderful, loving Brutus passed away peacefully with both of us sitting on the floor petting him and calming him as he went over the Rainbow Bridge. In recent years Brutus lost his hearing, and we had to go back to using a leash because he couldn't hear us call him back when he was running around in our fields. His athritis caused his legs to be stiff, and it took him a lot longer to get moving. We were patient, and I know he appreciated it.

He always loved to go upstairs, but our stairs became dangerous for him as they have no risers so we put up baby gates and were saddened that he couldn't go to his favorite place in the house. In his younger days he was always with us and loved to ride in the car or truck. Here he is helping two of our grandchildren put up a tent in the backyard.

He would go on vacations with me, and he traveled a lot and loved sniffing out new places. He attended hook-ins and loved sleeping on my wool. Here he is with my friend Mo at Maidstone lake in Vermont at camp. Sadly, Mo is gone too. Perhaps she will take care of him for us.

His favorite place was the couch, which he often shared with my hubby. He put his head on a pillow and totally enjoyed his couch naps when he was able to get the couch to himself. This picture was taken last Christmas after he opened his presents. It was comical to see a man, large dog and 12 pound cat vie for the couch. I didn't try to compete as I would have lost. Brutus was one of those dogs who just wanted to be with you no matter what you were doing, and we both loved sharing our lives with him. Thank you Brutus, for 15 years of love and laughs and wonderful memories. Big hugs Brudy...rest in peace. You will be missed.

Setting up the rug show...

2011-10-19T23:32:00.000-04:00

My day began early with the drive over to the Eden Hotel. I was one of the team who had volunteered to set up the rug show for ATHA. New partitions have been purchased by ATHA to ensure that this and future shows look professional. The assembly of the new partitions went quite well until we realized there were missing parts. Some dowels were found and cut and when combined with rubber bands sufficed to get the walls up by lunchtime.

When registration for rugs began they were each double tagged, and brought into the room where they were grouped by theme or colors. There were some wonderful rugs I wanted to investigate but at this point we were far too busy creating the shape of the display walls.

When the walls were fully assembled there were rods to place across the top to stabilize the display. Then we all began hanging the rugs. We split into teams, with a group doing the Magdelina rugs, and another doing large round rugs, and another doing the Red challenge.

It was like asswembling a giant puzzle with different size pieces, and colors were important. We had to find a proper home for every piece that would show it off.

There were quite a few items such as footstools, pillows and one beautiful hooked upholstered chair.

The vendors were incredibly busy on the outskirts of the rug show area as they brought in thousands of pounds of goodies. They worked very hard to make their booths attractive and easy for everyone to access. I know they hope to go home empty handed, and I'm sure we will all help them!

Shhhh! Here is a sneak sampling of some of the wonderful rugs that will be in the show that opens tomorrow. don't tell anyone!

This rug is called "Flight" hooked by Elizabeth (Liz) Marino. I love it and the picture does not do it justice. The reflection is amazing.

This is "Beyond Tradition" hooked by Ann Shamberger. It is an adaptation of a Hopi artist( Lomayesra?)

This is "Sorrow" by Ivy Collier. The colors are wonderful and I would love to know the story behind it. We all know that rugs tell stories.

Next is "The Fish and the Pond" by Barbara Twigg.

"Mater Gravida" by Debra Walland.

"All Cooped Up" hooked by Marcye Gough

"Heritage: hooked by Joan Strausbaugh. It would be very hard for me to pick a favorite rug of the show, but this would be in my top five. It's gorgeous!

I don't remember the name of the rugger that hooked this Mola, but the colors are vibrant!

That was your sneak peak into the ATHA rug show. I hope you can stop by Lancaster and see the rest of the rugs in person. If not, check back here as I will try to do updates every evening. After all the work setting things up with the "show girls" it was time to go to the local buffet. they are quite common in this area.

This Hooker has landed! (Rug hooker that is!)

2011-10-18T23:42:00.000-04:00

My departure from Maine towards the ATHA conference in Pennsylvania is something I have looked forward to for months. The day broke clear and the trip towards New Jersey was full of beautiful foliage. I stopped at dusk as I don't like to drive after dark unless I need to. I stayed in a lovely hotel that was filled with modern art. I will confess that the sharp lines of the architecture and white space didn't do much for me. This piece of art caught my eye. The flag of our country always does.

As I looked closer I realized it was composed of tiny high top toddler sneakers. I wonder what inspired the artist to come up with this?

The next morning I ventured toward Reading Pennsylvania, and was smiling when I saw this sign.

Yes, I can drive 65 mph and take a picture. I stayed with my dear Aunt Shirley for a day. Shirley is 87 and we had a lot of fun together. Cousin Jane stopped by and we reconnected after many years of not seeing each other. As kids I would see my cousins frequently when our family would go to Hershey to see the farm where dad grew up.

I'm on the left and Jane is on the right. Aunt Shirley and I went to her church where the peanut butter ball faeries were making the treats they sell for a fundraiser. Here is Shirley making the first step which involves balling the dough.

The next step was to take the balls and coat them in a nice thick layer of chocolate.

Then...a sprinkling of chopped nuts.

They go into the refrigerator for 24 hours, then into boxes. I left my Aunt working hard at the church to meet my internet friend Cyndi for lunch. We had never met before but enjoyed a good meal at Effies and quite a bit of laughter. I'm sure we'll get together again.

After lunch the wool part of my vacation began as I headed down the road to Rebecca Erb's Wool Studio. Rumor has it that she was having a party with 5 other vendors!

What a treat! The large place was full of wool, patterns and all sorts of fun things that wool-a-holics love. There were piles of lovely wool on tables being sold by the pound ($10.) and bolt and yardage, all at nice prices.

Luscious paisleys and basket liners were eye catching, as well as some towle painting on wooden chests and tables. I did not purchase much because I know the vendors at the ATHA conference will also have items to tempt me.

After leaving Rebecca's, it was a short 40 minute drive to Lancaster to my hotel. I was not able to get reservations at the conference hotel, but this one is beautiful and I know I will be pampered. Enough for tonight...the bed is calling me! Tomorrow will be a long day as I help with the registration and hanging of rugs for the show, and connect with more internet friends I have never met.

Textures and designs

2011-07-18T17:47:00.000-04:00

I have just returned from a family reunion in Georgia. It was the first time my family has gathered together since my Dad passed away. It was terribly hot and quite humid, but we had a good time together. I have the best family and love them dearly.

Whether I travel or am at home, I always notice textures in objects. I also notice colors, particularly the muted grays and browns that don't jump out at you. Subtle shading from nature makes me happy. Textures and colors inspire me to pick up my rug hook and create something. I thought I would share some of the things I saw in hope that perhaps you will be inspired too. I don't expect you to create designs from photographs, but to choose some things in your world that make you happy. Gather those things together and perhaps the artist in your soul will be inspired.

I liked the uniform round shapes of these caramel apples in a candy store. And the shapes of the stones might work as a scrap rug in muted tones.

I needed to look down to keep from tripping on the uneven stones, but enjoyed the patterns.

This was my favorite and I know it will eventually become a design for a rug.Textured walls were everywhere with uneven flaking paint. I don't know why I appreciate flaking paint, but I do. Perhaps I just like seeing imperfections. This oval window was also interesting.These plants (caladium?) had beautiful colors. The little lady is my neice Addy. Just after I took this shot she bent forward to smell the "fwower" and fell into the muddy planter. She was surprised and unhurt, and I was laughing!I have no idea what this is but talk about texture and color! Wow! It was fuzzy prickly spiny all at the same time!Pompous grasses always look so soft, and a strong breeze was blowing making them flutter and flow in the wind.This photo doesn't show the true deep lime green of this dock post, but you can see the beautiful patterning from the wear and wood grain.In the morning light the trees became sillhouettes. look at the top of the tree...see the bird?

Palms...such interesting plants.

If you are interested in seeing additional pictures of my trip please connect with me on Facebook (Lauri Troutman). I found no other rug hookers, spinners, needlepunchers, felters or knitters in Georgia, but I didn't look very hard. I did find many basket makers. I was there to enjoy the scenery, spend time with my family and relax. And I did!

Independance Day

2011-07-04T10:23:00.000-04:00

As a young child I was raised to appreciate our United States of America and our great flag. My Mother was born on Memorial Day and always said they had a parade when she was born. My spouse is an Army Veteran and we proudly display the flag every day. I learned as a child that the colors of the flag have significance. The white stands for purity, the red stands for hardiness and valor, and the blue stands for strength and vigilance. Did you know that a flag expert is called a vexelologist? I was taught that there are rules for how the flag should be displayed and respected. Some of them are:
* Never, ever let the Flag touch the ground
* The blue ground with stars should always be displayed to the left unless from a pole where it can be seen from all sides.
* The flag should be displayed outdoors only between sunrise and sunset unless properly illuminated.
* The flag of the United States should always be displayed higher or at equal level to other flags when in the U.S.
* At the first note of 'The Star Spangled Banner", our national anthem, everyone should show respect by facing the flag, standing at attention, remove hats and place their right hand over their heart. It makes me cringe when I see people at parades and ball games not getting to their feet to show respect for our flag. That's just the way I am.

As a child I attended many parades and enjoyed watching our Veterans, Girl and Boy scouts, Community Officials, Police and Firefighters show pride in our United States. Annually we would attend the fireworks at McGuire AFB on Independance Day. I read the Constitution and every day in school we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. I learned that our national motto is "In God We Trust".

Our Constitution has given us rights that many other countries do not have. I cannot imagine living in a country where I would be buried to my chest and stoned for showing my face or ankles or not wearing black all the time. Arranged marriages are common in many parts of the world, as young as 12 years of age. It is acceptable for a husband to beat his wife, even to death, but if she speaks one word against him or his family she will receive the death penalty. Can you imagine? We are so blessed to live where we can express ourselves as long as it does no harm to others.

There are times when I feel the actions of our government are in error. However, I will always feel proud that I was born and raised to feel pride for our country and honor the huge, huge sacrifices our soldiers have made. Being an American and enjoying the Rights of Americans is earned and not an entitlement. On this Independance Day, enjoy your families and barbeques and fireworks. But please remember that this isn't just a day off of work. This is a day for us to remember the intent of our Founding Fathers and remember that we are obligated to honor our flag and country. I'm so proud to be an American!

Where have I been?

2011-07-03T17:28:00.000-04:00

I've been busy! I will confess that although I enjoy having a blog, there are times when I have so many other things I want to be doing. This post will catch you up on some of the fun activities I have attended while I have been away from my blog. I attended the ATHA Region I hook in several months ago and it was an enjoyable day. Here are some pictures of the venue and some of the beautiful rugs on display.

After that I went to Jeanne Fallier's studio "The Rugging Room". She is elderly, and has been teaching for many decades in Massachusetts. She is selling many items from her studio including patterns, wool and the rights to her designs. She is an inspiration, full of knowledge and it was such a nice visit.

I also went to the annual Spa, Knit and Spin weekend held in Freeport at the end of February. It is a weekend when you just make your hotel reservations 6 months in advance and show up. About 400 other knitters and spinners will also show up. No one knows how many people attend because there is no registration. We all gather and take over the lobbys, eating areas, pools and all large spaces of 3 hotels that are a short walk apart. Of course every year there is a blizzard, and this year it was predicted for Friday so everyone showed up on Thursday. Cancelling is not an option! Here are some shots of spinners...

Several people brought antique sock machines and great wheels.

There is a fashion show and an Ugly Sweater contest. I loves this cape and the sweaters this year were...quite ugly!

And there were vendors. The SPA is set up by a handful of volunteers. Nothing is scheduled except the fashion show. There were also some needle felters...

Well, those are a few of the fun ways I have been keeping busy since you last heard from me. I will update you more in my next post, which I promise will be soon!

Eliot Hook in

2011-02-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

The annual Eliot Maine hook-in was a lovely gathering of rug hookers who needed a social day of respite from being housebound from the snow. We don't complain about the weather up here because after all...it's Maine. It's supposed to be cold and snowy in the winter! I believe this was the 27th annual event, and it was held in a new conference center across from the former church location. It had a touch of elegance and was far superior to the church. We have fond memories of abundant laughter in the church but it was time for something larger. You may be able to click on photos in this post for a closer view.

The main areas were carpeted, and the rugs that people wanted to display were placed on the wood dance floor. This isn't a large hook in, and this year many couldn't attend for one reason or another so I would guess about 70 were in attendance. The amazing talent of many members in this group certainly makes up for it's size.

I apologize that I did not record the names of the rug makers or their designers. I was intent on chatting, hooking, studying the rugs and a bit of shopping. I wasn't writing anything down. You may be able to see some information on some of the tags of the display rugs. I also apologize that my new laptop is flipping photo's and being uncooperative, so some pictures are sideways.

The following rug is being hooked by Millie Parks. I knew Millie for years as we are both in local chapters of Beta Sigma Phi, an International women's sorority. Then I found out she was a hooker! She makes fabulous large rugs and has been featured in Celebrations with a beautiful rug of a heron. She makes big rugs!!!

Jackye Hanson is another local with amazing talent. Her sculpted Waldoboro style rugs are a joy to see, and pure velvet to touch. She has been teaching new designs on how to incorporate stitching with alternate materials into mats.

This hook-in has vendors, and in the past they have been relegated to the basement of the church. But this year we were all in the same room so we could enjoy the day together. Luscious wools dyed in a variety of techniques tempted us, as well as many other items. I bought an ATC stamp from Kim Dubay that I have has on my list.

Isn't this panda pillow beautiful? I believe it was made by Angela Foote, who dyes unique and beautiful wools. I just love this!

I had to get a picture of the back of Diane's lovely wool jacket. I'm so sorry she's sideways!

This was a display of Artist Trading Cards, commonly known as ATC's. They work up quickly and are easy to design as they are small at only about 3 X 4 inches.

It was a nice day and I can't think of a place I'd rather be than with a group of rug hooking enthusiasts on a cold winter afternoon. And I do mean cold!

The GMRHG Summer Hook-in

2010-08-08T22:41:00.000-04:00

The Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild Summer hook-in took place in tha main conference room of the hotel. It was a large room and there was plenty of space to spread out. I met up with some friends who are members of Tin Pedlars, and saw many other people whom I have met before. A side table always had refreshments and laughter was abundant.

The thing I love about a hook in is being able to go around and chat with people about what they are creating. Everyone is open to share why they chose a particular pattern and how they selected their colors.

I believe you should be able to click on any of the pictures to get a close up view.

There are many talented people in this group, and there were informal classes given on the side of the room for anyone who wanted to join. I took a class with Rose Ann Hunter on how to make jewelry from wool. She partnered with a woman who makes wire jewelry, and showed us how to make closures for our necklaces when they were completed. They took on personalities of their own and came out quite well!

As with all gatherings of rug hookers there were rugs that were partially finished and some newly completed ones that were held up for the "oooh's" and "aaaahhh's" of the crowd. I'm sorry that I didn't get the names of the people who made these rugs or their designers. They were wonderful. but things were moving fast and I could barely focus my camera!

Isn't this a fabulous background?

And I love the colors in this one. I wish I had gotten a close up shot for you because the hooking direction makes the rug, but you really can't see it well in this photo. Try clicking on it!

Many people got up and spoke for 15 minutes or more on a fibery topic. It was great being able to sit and hook and listen to them. This next one was about teaching children to hook. These small projects were all made by children in an ongoing class. I believe the ages were from 10 and up. They each created their own design and made the entire project including finishing and sewing it together!!!

The colors in this rug are fabulous! These are my colors!!! I want them!!!

Molly Colegrove shared some of her whimsical sculptural designs and I had never seen anything like them. This hooked vessel was quite nice although the legs didn't do much for me! These are made with a wire base that is molded to the shape that you want, and then you hook through the holes in the wire. It is awkward but after a few minutes it isn't very hard. You need a small hook as you would use with a 2 cut! I like the beaded embelishments she used.

This crow was fabulous, and very detailed with lots of color that doesn't show in my picture. Her eyes are made up of tiny turquoise beads. You may be able to click on the photo for a close up.

Rose Ann Hunter gave a wonderful overview of the history of rugs. Prodded, proggy, shirred, standing wool, beaded, knit and crochet rugs were discussed. I have heard her speak several times before and taken classes with her, but each time she has new information that she has discovered. Here are some of the rugs she brought to show us. Most are made by Rose Ann as she was trying to duplicate stitches or rugs she has seen in museums. She is a wonderful rug historian. This one has knit or chrocheted strips, and then the strips were rolled up in jelly roll fashion..

The one on the right used the same technique, but a row of shirring was added for the ruffled effect.

I believe this next stitch might be called the straw stitch or something similar. It is created with a piece of straw and that is sewn over with wool yarn creating the loops. It is very dense and sturdy.

This was created by taking a long strip of wool perhaps 1" wide, and sewing a sturdy thread in a running stitch down the middle. With every stitch you give it a double twist. Then you pull on the thread and the wool puckers forming a plush long strip. That strip can be sewn into a circle mat such as this, or made into a necklace, or it could even become your Christmas tree garland!

This is a standing wool mat. They are actually quite easy to make and work up fairly quickly!

I'm showing the back of this rug because from the top I would have thought it was prodded, or proggy. But the wool strips are actually sewn and cut. I don't remember the name of this technique.

I sat in on the class with Molly as she taught us how to make the vessels. These last two pictures show her cutting the wire screening and then she made cuts on the sides of the screening like a dart for clothing. Then she pushed it into a sturdy bowl to create the shape, and the "darts" she had cut overlapped. She placed a slightly smaller bowl inside to firm up the shape. Then she tossed them to the onlookers and we began hooking! The vessels can be embellished with felting, beading or stitchery or whatever you want.I will show my progress in another post. This type of screening can be purchased at Dick Blick art supply.

I hope you enjoyed my post about the hook-in as much as I enjoyed being there. There will be a Fall hook-in too, but it is the same weekend as a spinning bee called "The Gathering" that is only held every two years. Both will be held in Vermont within 20 miles of each other! Arrrggghhh! So many fiber choices! Life is good!

Vermont for the GMRHG Hook-in

2010-08-08T09:10:00.001-04:00

I have so much to tell you! I will attempt to offer you several posts today in order to share my activities with you. Last weekend I headed over to Vermont to attend the Summer Hook-in for the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild. I feel a kinship and loyalty to that group as their rug show is what endeared me to rug hooking and prompted my journey into a wonderful new way of creating things with wool. Many members such as myself do not live in Vermont but enjoy the activities and amazing talent in their guild. Their membership enjoys some of the best rug hookers in the world.

Vermont is beautiful. I believe it is one of the prettiest States in our glorious Country. No matter where you look you will see rolling hills and beautiful sights. I had plenty of time so took the path less traveled. I came upon a lovely covered bridge back in the woods on a gravel path. I spent a few minutes enjoying the quiet and listening to the stream running gently under the bridge.

Vermont is celebrated for their farmland, and of course they have an abundance of cows. Isn't it curious how animals identify each other with butt sniffing greetings? I'm so glad that humans merely shake hands to greet each other!

The weather in the northeast has been wonderful and the crops are doing well. Cornfields are abundant and it looks like there will be a healthy crop this year. Most farmers plant a few rows of "pig corn" on the outer edge of their fields so that if thieves grab a couple of ears they will get the pig corn and not the good stuff.

Along the road I passed by Queechee Gorge, and had to take a break from driving so I could take a walk and see the beauty of the gorge. The first picture is a shot straight down from the bridge so you can see the height. Some nearby teenagers dropped a large stick over the edge and it took a full five seconds to fall to the ground where it shattered into mulch. The second picture shows one side of the gorge and Queechee river going into the distance.

After I arrived at my hotel I met up with many rug hookers, and will show some rugs and more about the gathering in my next post. I drove around a bit to watch the sunset and take some pictures. This is from the parking lot of the hotel.

I came across another breed of cows that I have seen before. They have shaggy red coats and wonderful horns. I believe they are an English breed and if cows can be cute...they are!

The sun was setting so I headed to a high spot to get a few shots of the magnificent sunset. I didn't have to go far as these pictures were taken in the K-Mart parking lot!

I headed back to the hotel to unpack, and enjoyed a relaxing jacuzzi by the pool with some women from New Jersey who were visiting their sons at nearby Castleton College. It was a relaxing day and I looked forward to the hook-in the following day with anticipation.

Garden Party in Searsport

2010-07-22T19:57:00.000-04:00

I was looking forward to a day of rug hooking at Searsport Rugs and meeting up with a few friends who live several hours away from my home. Of course I encountered heavy traffic (dang tourists!) until I got above Freeport as traveling on a Friday night on the Maine coast during the summertime is not advisable. Heavy thunderstorms added to the traffic as it was obvious that some people can't drive on a wet road (dang tourists!). Thank God that they seldom visit when snow is on the ground. Once I hit Augusta I took a favorite back road and left all traffic and storms behind.

Here is a nice shot of the beautiful Searsport harbor.

Saturday morning brought a heavy fog that burned off and developed into a hot day. A tent had been set up on the large lawn behind the store and numerous chairs were nearby. There was also a hooking space available inside the building. Kat and Merideth and I chose to sit a bit away from the crowd under the shade of a beautiful tree. Within a few hours everyone in the building came outside because of the heat, and the tent was unbearably hot so everyone ended up sitting in the shade of the trees.

A gentle breeze developed and it was quite pleasant.

Kat was working on a wonderful primitive rug that is a memory rug for her dog. It has two dogs on it and a fabulous tree that she hooked using a variety of subtle colors that really give the tree life. Hopefully she will post a picture when she gets it finished.

I was working on a rug that I began last year and had not picked up for 6 months. It is a Patsy Becker design and I am using some bright colors on the five center tulips with a dark teal background. Behind me you can see the "chairs deemed unsuitable for hooking" area. They were too high, or too low, or too hard, or too soft, or the arms were too high.

Of course the shop was open and is always a pleasure to go through. It is in a large rambling house with rooms dedicated for different items. For example, one room held mostly books and kits. Another room is full of patterns arranged by type such as geometrics, and there is the dye room. And the largest room holds luscious bolts and cut pieces of wool. Numerous samples decorate the walls and entice you to purchase patterns or kits.

This sweet kitty caught my eye and I liked the colors

Here are some of the beautifully dyed wools in the main wool room.

Last year I had purchased this pomegranate pattern but have yet to hook it as I need to finish some other UFO's. I took this photo to give me some ideas of what I like and might not like to do when I pick up the hook and begin my pattern next winter. I like the interior colors but might choose a light golden brown for the border background. We'll see!

And yes, there was food. Glorious food. Delicious quiche, warm popovers, pickled asparagus, fresh salads, and delicious deserts including cakes and a fabulous hot peach turnover in syrup. After lunch we waddled happily out to our tree for a couple more hours of hooking.

I totally enjoyed the day and was quite surprised that I actually knew about half of the women from other places such as Tin Pedlars or the Alfred hook in. It was a relaxing day, and it prompted me to put away my spinning wheel for a bit and pick up my hook. It felt good.

Spinning Bee

2010-07-20T19:44:00.001-04:00

I recently attended a Spinning Bee at Tare Share Farm. This homestead was built in the mid-1700's which is the same time frame as our home. It is also a Cape home like ours. The difference is that this home has been kept as authentic as possible over the years, and is historically correct.

They had tents out on the lawn for the spinning wheels and I would guess about 50 or more spinners came to enjoy the day. It was hot, but there was plenty of shade and refreshments.

The owners of the property set up several games for people to play. The niddy noddy contest involved placing measures skeins of yarn on a swift and on the mark everyone tried to spin the yarn off the swift onto a niddy noddy the fastest. After narrowing the field the winners were announced and they won lovely fibery prizes to spin up. I have it on video but am not sure how to post a video here!

My favorite part of the homestead was the Spinning Barn. Yes, they have a barn dedicated exclusively for their collection of antique spinning wheels and spinning tools! Almost all of the wheels are from this local area and they have an extensive collection. This photo shows the large loom in the barn. After all, you have to make something with all of the yarn you are spinning!

The loft area held some nice old wheels that had a wonderful patina. These wheels are in working condition.

The barn also had several walking wheels, chairs made of spinning wheel parts and an assortment of tools. It was a very interesting place to spend some time!

Another loft held yet more wheels. They were everywhere! I wanted to spend all my time investigating all of the antique wheels but also had to spend some time spinning, watching competitions, eating snacks and of course checking out their house.

Since it is a working farm they had some critters. These colorful little friends were underfoot and seemed to like the sound of all the spinning wheels.

Of course there were sheep...quite a variety. Thi one caught my attention because of his fashionable hairstyle. I don't think he could see much!

There were red cows with long horns but they were shy and every time I attempted to take a picture they walked behind trees. The inside of the home had small rooms and the original fireplaces. It is furnished in period furniture, which is mostly primitive in the style of the home. It was a great way to spend a day and make new friends. And it was only a couple miles down the road!

I've been busy!

2010-07-19T20:10:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry that I haven't posted for so long, but I've been busy! Here is a month in my life...which includes a bit of everything! My dear better half enjoys ripping things apart, and luckily he is quite adept at putting them back together. Our barn windows had probably been broken and crooked for 50 years, so he fixed them. First he took off the entire top side of the barn. Then he framed out the windows.

And as I said he knows how to put things back together with a fresh look! My role in this is to keep a cold beer in his hand and keep the phone handy in case he falls off the roof or

does damage to an important body part!

We attended the wedding of our friend Bob and his new bride Evelyn. They were both recently widowed, and we think they compliment each other quite well. It was a quiet and lovely ceremony.

Sometimes we all are able to make friends on the internet. I have been writing with Debbie St. Germain for a few years and she and her husband paid us an unexpected visit for a few days. While I was working during the day they enjoyed the area and went kayaking and beach walking. Each evening we all sat outside and chatted until it was dark. They stayed in our cabin you have heard me speak of and I believe they will return in a few weeks. Don't worry Debbie...I won't post pictures of you! But here is the cabin:

I went to my favorite auction house and although I bought little I always enjoy the scenery. This is a shot I took by Mt. Chicorua as the sun was setting.

In the winter they run sled dog races and ice sailing races on this large lake.

My friend Laura and I both love music. I couldn't tell you how many concerts we have attended over the past 34 years since we met. This time we went to Gillette Stadium to see the Eagles, Kieth Urban and the Dixie Chicks. Now when a stadium holds 75,000 people you can't expect great seats or great sound. You go for the experience of having that many people all singing the same songs at the same time. It was such fun!

Living quite near the coast gives me the chance to see the ocean every day at work, and there are certain places that those dreaded tourists haven't discovered yet. Here is one of them, but I can't tell you where it is other than the town of Kittery Maine. Lovely view, isn't it?

We celebrated the 14th birthday of our wonderful dog Brutus. He still does pretty well, although he has lost his hearing and his legs just don't work so well all the time. We used to let him run in the fields but since he can't hear us calling him back he has to stay on a lead now.

His name is tough but he's our loving, ever loyal and non-judgemental baby.

Some other friends arrived from Tennessee for a couple of weeks. Steve and Rosie are such fun! They come up each year and make our cabin their home. We all went to a camp and had a big lobster bake with some friends. It was a relaxing gathering full of laughter.

Yup...when in Maine you have to have lobstah, steamers, mooseburgers and fresh corn.

I also spent some time in my "Gardens of Weedin". I adore my gardens but seldom have them all looking nice at the same time. My lupine looked really nice this year.

And this little garden is called "Mo's Garden" after my dear friend who is now an angel. She and I purchased the lilies together at a local garden place that only sold varieties of lilies. The hummingbirds love them.

We also attended another wedding. It was for AnnMarie and Eric. They planned it for a year, and had the most beautiful flowers. AnnMarie personally made all the invitations, centerpieces and candle gifts for all her guests. She also made the bouquets at the end of each aisle with garden hooks found at the Christmas Tree Shop, canning jars and some wire. She's so clever! They had a fabulous chocolate fountain too!

It was a joyous celebration.

And three weeks later...she's expecting their baby!!!

I have also been spinning a lot in the hopes that I will get good at it. I'm improving! I figure I can make yarn during the summer and knit it up during the winter. Of course I have been rug hooking too, but lately that has taken a back seat to spinning. This is my spot to spin overlooking our back field. Often deer and other critters come out because I don't make any noise while spinning.

Here is some spindle spun Blue Faced Leicester that I worked on during that concert:

And this is my first try at blending fibers. This is a mix of Coopworth wool (from my favorite sheep named Dolly) blended with angora bunny. I am proud that I was able to make it thin and rather consistent. I must say that blending angora is a bit of a pain because of static. I know there must be a trick to make it easier but I don't know it yet! However it is worth the effort as this yarn is butter soft and lovely. I am going to spin up another batch for a pair of fingerless gloves.

And this is a skein of my lovely thick and thin yarn. It has character, doesn't it? This is actually my first full skein that I dyed, spun and plied. I just like looking at it!

So that catches you up with many of the things that have been keeping me away from blogging for the past month. Oh...and did I mention that I work full time? Yup...I've been busy. But don't feel neglected. I'll be back really soon! Hugs to you and stay cool!

Auction treasures

2010-05-30T11:57:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to an auction and came home with some wonderful old hooked rugs. I will attach some pictures to this post. One is an amazing large rug almost 7' wide. I had to hang it on the side of the house to get a good picture. It is in very good shape considering the burlap backing is stressed from age and the size of this piece of art. It only has one edge that has about 8" chewed and the rest is still stable. The rug was finished by folding over the burlap and hooking through both layers. The colors on the front are similar to those on the back so there has only been a little fading or the kept the rug face down at some point to protect it. The exception is the aqua wool roving as seen in the second picture. On the back the true color is lime green! I will also add a couple of close up pictures.

I will contemplate donating that rug to the Nova Scotia Hooked Rug Museum as I think that's where it belongs. Another sweet rug has some damage and pulled loops, but I just love the way the lettering was hooked. My photo in the sunshine doesn't do justice to the pretty flowers. I believe I can closely match the loops that were pulled out and replace them, and then back it with linen. I can lay the rug on linen and then baste through the layers every inch or two so it will be secure to a new backing. It should hopefully prevent it from further damage for awhile. I also got some stair treads that are faded but have a certain charm. And a couple of other small rugs. I love the hit or miss one, and the simplicity of the others. Finsing hooked rugs at an auction in Maine is such a joy! Thanks for enjoying them with me!

Ballooning high over Pennsy

2010-05-02T13:39:00.002-04:00

It has been such fun to leave the husbands at home and enjoy a vacation with a friend. But here comes the really cool experience! We all have what is now referred to as a "Bucket List". Those are things we would like to do before we "kick the bucket" at the end of our lives. My list is long and I have tried to do things on the list before I am too old to enjoy them. Once in awhile I will take something off my list because it is impossible or no longer worth the risk or money, such as having a child or climbing Mt. Ranier. Today my friend and I went up in a hot air balloon. That has been on my list since I was about 10 years old.

We began our day long before dawn when we were picked up and taken to a large park where the wind was checked to see direction, speed and where it might take us. We really didn't want to be landing in Philadelphia! Not good, so we drove to another field further away. Better! So the trailor that contained the balloon, basket, tanks, huge fan and generator was unloaded. Vince is our Pilot, and Doug is the Crew Chief. The balloon was laid out on the grass and the fan began the initial fill as it was held open. Since Kim and I didn't have anything better to do we got inside the balloon to check it out. The balloon is 57 feet in diameter and over 72 feet high.It holds 89,510 cubic feet of air. It's big.

After we got out the balloon was filled with light air (helium) from the tanks and began to float up...being held down by the bumper of the truck. At that point we gracefully lept into the tall basket. Thank God no one took a picture of that!!! Our pilot Vince checked the gauges. There wasn't much room to move around as we are large women, and with four air tanks in the corners and our lifeline pilot it was cozy.

Here we are getting our first sensation of floating. It gets better!

The ground gently floats away and we begin to move up, up and away with the breeze. Our flight should last perhaps an hour.

The sensation was gentle movement as we were caressed by the breeze. Surprisingly, a fear of the height didn't occur to either of us. There was too much to see to be afraid. Sometimes we were as high as 4,000 feet, but it was actually more interesting to fly lower and see the details below us. We floated over residential areas at first.

We floated over rivers, bridges and streams.

We floated over farms. Notice the farmer on his tractor plowing the field for the Spring crops.

We headed over farms, forests and parks. Amazing is the only word that can describe it. Floating like a gentle bubble. In several of these pictures you can see the shadow of the balloon. Then it was time to look for a place to land.

You have to be selective where you land a huge balloon. You can't land it on a field that has just been planted because the farmer gets cranky. You can't land it on a horse farm because the balloon will spook the horses and they might injure themselves. You can't land it on a dairy farm because...well...the pastures are full of fresh manure and you might land on a cow!

The entire time we were up our personal chase team was following us, or driving ahead trying to anticipate where we would land. They were in communication with Vince via radio so he could tell them where the higher elevation breeze might be taking us. There...I see them down below!

Lovely forest, but not a good place to land.

Once in awhile I would look up and be reminded at how huge the balloon above us was.

Looking straight down we could see homes and cars but not many places to land. Remember we were floating with the breeze and had to go along with it. You can't really steer a hot air baloon much!

We floated low enough to check out the sheep, geese and critters in this yard.

After two hours of floating the perfect field appeared and Vince brought us down towards it. With a few bumps we were teniously on the ground. Our chase team arrived just before us to ask permission from the farmer to land. The farmer was in the barn so it took a few minutes, and meanwhile Vince was struggling to hold the baloon in place. Doug ran across the field to let us know the farmer wanted the balloon moved (against the wind) a couple hundred feet to a cornfield! Not happening...the wind was picking us up! So the vent on the balloon was opened and we were unceremoniously dumped sideways in the basket. Kim and I crawled out as instructed but of course that made the balloon a few hundred pounds lighter and it tried to float away again. We were often reminded that ballooning is a sport. Physical activity. It's a sport...don't ever forget that! Luckily we were paying customers and didn't have to run across big fields, pick up 700 pounds of equipment or hold down balloons.

The crew deflated and packed up the balloon and gear onto the trailor. At this point it is custom to deliver a bottle of champagne to the farmer which they did. Actually he preferred sparkling apple cider when given a choice. We invited our crew back to "our place" to partake of the champagne instead of standing in the field enjoying a drink.

So we all went back to the veranda of our Victorian Mansion to partake in a couple bottles of bubbly mixed with some OJ. After all, it was past time for breakfast! Our spinning class has started inside an hour earlier and we had anticipated we would be back on time. But instead we showed up over two hours late, slightly snookered and grinning ear to ear.

This was a special day I will always remember. I feel like we made some new friends and had an experience of a lifetime. Hot air ballooning? Off my list. Check!

Here is the Ballonist's Prayer that Vincent recited as we toasted:

The Winds have welcomed you with softness.

The Sun has blessed you with it's warm hands.

You have flown so high and so well that God has joined you in your laughter and let you gently back down again into the loving arms of Mother Earth.

Spinning Retreat

2010-05-01T13:00:00.000-04:00

My last post showed the beautiful Bed and Breakfast estate where our three day spinning retreat was held. The retreat was conducted by Beth Smith of the Spinning Loft in Michigan. Her parents own the B & B. This post will show you what happens when you put a group of fiber-a-holics in an elegant setting! The "perfect cop" above was spindle spun by Naomi.

Beth and her daughter Chelsea had brought all sorts of fibery goodness from her shop for us to caress. Our workshop involved lessons about individual breeds of sheep, and we received fiber from that breed that we could card and spin to become familiar with each breed. I always thought a sheep was a sheep, but Beth showed us that each breed's fiber is different and we can choose a fiber that compliments our goal yarn.

Yes, we really made a mess. But we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The following picture is a Charkha wheel. Remember seeing pictures of Ghandi? He used this type of wheel to spin cotton for weaving garments. He also used spindles all the time. I wanted to give it a try but was afraid I'd break it as it looked delicate (but really wasn't). I love the portability of it in the box.

My friend Kim had never spun before and learned to draft beautifully during the weekend. Here she is focusing on her "park and draft" method. It's so relaxing.

Here are some pictures of busy people making yarn samples.

Of course we had to purchase some of the fun fibery goodness and toys that Beth and Chelsea brought from Michigan. After all, we didn't want them to bear the horrible burden of taking too much back home with them. So we lined up and and were happy to be doing a good deed.

Here is Chelsea working hard. I think we might have put her through college with what we spent! Well, perhaps not but we made the effort!

Here is fun Michelle showing off her new hat. Notice the neat knitted water bottle cozy.

That is water, isn't it?

Our classes were held in the morning and in the afternoon we received lessons about tools and other things. Here is Beth giving us information about drum carders.

Our delicious meals were held in the formal dining room. It seated all twenty of us quite well. Notice the fabulous carved buffet on the side of the room.

It was so relaxing to sit and spin and learn, and leave our trails of fibery goodness all over the house. But as most fiber enthusiasts are also packrats (in a good way) we took everything with us when we left. There only remained bits of fluff on the carpets for Cookie to vacuum. And she did, returning the estate back to normalcy by Monday afternoon. Thanks for putting up with us Cookie!

Elegance and Relaxation in Pennsy

2010-04-30T11:06:00.000-04:00

Often we need to plan our vacations so that they are just that...a time away from the things that are common to us so that we can take a breath and be fresh when we return to our lives and routines. That is what I have done on my vacation this week.

I traveled from our home in Maine through New Jersey where I visited the town where I grew up...Cinnaminson. Then I went to stay for 5 days at the lovely Shearer Elegance Bed & Breakfast Inn located in Linfield Pennsylvania. This post will show photo's of the beautiful Inn.

My friend Kim drove up from Virginia to enjoy the long weekend with me, and it was a thrill to see her. We live so far apart that our ability to get together in person only comes once every few years. Our large room was sheer bliss. It had a lovely gas fireplace and a large four poster bed. Each room had a private bath and ours had a sweet old claw foot tub that was dripping with lace curtains and stenciled.

Each room of the Inn had special collections of the owner Cookie. Ours had two wall cabinets full of ornate beaded purses. It also had a large glass cabinet full of antique perfume bottles.

This was my favorite part of the room where I enjoyed many hours of reading. The wallpaper was actual fabric and the rugs were custom made to suit the unique shape of the room. Tall ceilings with chandeliers added an extra elegance to the atmosphere.

This shows the bed in another room at the Inn. Each room was large and elegant but comfortable.

This room is the small dining room and was about 20' X 30'. I spent most of my evenings sitting on that pink chair spinning on my spinning wheel and it felt quite natural to be spinning in that environment.

This is the main hallway of the Inn. The door at the back leads to the former servants quarters and kitchen and is where the owners live. Coffee, tea and cookies or cakes were always available near the back of the hall.

The woodwork in the home was fabulous and I always appreciate the work of master craftsman. This view is looking up from the stairs at the ceiling below the stairs.

Each stair landing was large enough for Cookie to create a lovely sitting area full of cozy spaces and antiques. There are three floors at the Inn.

This is the main living room. I was staying at this particular Inn to attend a spinning workshop. In my next post you will see these same rooms full of spinning wheels with fibery fluff all over the place!

There was quite a lot of stained glass in the windows and most of the doors of the home.

When I left home the daffodils were just coming up and there were no leaves on the trees. The gardens at the Inn and warm temperatures had me enjoying much of my time outdoors. The property is 3 acres that is beautifully landscaped with gardens, sculptures and water features such as a coy pond. Blossoms were everywhere.

Beautiful, isn't it? This magnificent and well loved Inn is currently for sale. Since it is in a very small town surrounded by "normal" homes the asking price is a mere $700,000. And it comes furnished!!! It is a successful and thriving business so if you are looking to find a dream home and welcome guests for weddings or vacations or workshops this is a bargain. Or if you are near Reading PA and looking for a lovely place to stay while you explore the area this place is perfect. http://shearerelegance.com/

Alfred Hook-in

2010-04-28T22:17:00.000-04:00

Twice yearly there is a gathering of rug hookers in the small town of Alfred, Maine. This event began 25 years ago when Ethel Hills was inspired to bring a small group together for 3 days of making rugs, chatting, eating and lots of laughter. The lovely sheep rug above was hooked by Carolyn H. of New Hampshire.

I was negligent and didn't get the names of all the designers and makers in order to give them proper credit. But if you know that information please let me know and I'll update this post. I believe the following was being worked on by Barbara D. This shows only a small part of the design, which I believe is a Vermont Folk Rugs pattern.

There were artist trading cards, and although I don't need another project I signed up to participate in a swap. After all, they are small. Of course to conserve linen you really need to make at least four at a time! I am thinking of something with a sunflower, or perhaps fiddlehead ferns. But who knows...it might be a spinning wheel or hot air balloon! Embellishments and 3-D items are encouraged. These are mailed and traded with others and you can gather quite a collection!

I loved this interpretation of one of Deanne Fitzpatrick's patterns. You may be able to get a closer look by clicking on the photos to enlarge them. Check out the eyelash yarn on the dress, as well as all the details including the fancy shoes! I believe Sandra Porter was finishing this off during the weekend. Fabulous ladies Sandra! Diane and I will be taking Deanne's "Big Boned Girls" workshop in September and this rug heightened my anticipation of the class and trip!

These are my favorite colors all together. I wish I could remember who was working on it!

This village rug was designed and hooked by Pam Bartlett of New Hampshire.

I wanted you to see the beautiful detail and colors of the corners with the fish and rowboat.

The details on many mats were very well done. I examined this binding and it was about as perfect as you can get. I like the three rows of alternating loops on the border.

Aren't these roses beautiful? They are framed to hang on a wall.

The colors in the next rug were fabulous! It was hooked by Lisa Larrabee I believe.

Pam A. was working towards her McGown certification with this Jane McGown Flynn pattern that she was given. Her contrast is great and I love the mouse!

These hydrangeas were being worked on by Betty Evans. It is a Jane McGown Flynn/ Charco pattern.

This magnificent peacock was being hooked by Karen B. of Maine. She was using some sparkly threads that made the perfect accent.

I couldn't stop looking at this next rug. Every time I thought I had seen the details I would notice something new. It is a family story rug made by Sandra Porter. It has taken several years to make and is magnificent. Remember that you should be able to enlarge the pictures. Here is one part of the large rug:

And another:

And another part:

And here is the rug on the floor with Sandra (blue shirt) explaining how the rug changed as she went along. She added grandchildren and pets and many details. I love it!

This lovely example is progressing quite nicely. It is quite large!

The next rug is designed and hooked by Lynda Hadlock. This rug of our solar system must have taken an incredible amount of time to design while thinking about the sizes of the planets, where they would go on the rug and then the color planning. Hopefully I will see it completed at the Fall hook-in.

This comical rug was completed by Victor. It is a fun rug, and I believe it was hooked with wool yarn. He typically uses yarn for all his rugs and is a prolific hooker and makes most of his own designs.

Usually the "hookers" are the only ones utilizing the buildings during the retreat. But this time there was a gathering of rug braiders at the building next to us. They came over and checked out our rugs, and we went over and checked out their rugs! Here is a shot of a braid being sewn onto a rug:

And here is the actual braiding:

And just like rug hookers, they lay their rugs out on the floor to show off their skill and receive accolades from their peers. I loved the rug in the foreground in shades of purple made by Barbara Broadbent. Notice the five row edge...not easy to do at all! The shapes and colors were wonderful and I hope they share the compound with us again.

It was a great weekend full of friendship, chatting and food. Life is good, isn't it?

Inspiration at Moshimer's Studio...

2010-04-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

If you attempt to accomplish all the things you need to do without finding a moment of peace or inspiration for yourself, you will find it hard to smile and enjoy the everyday blessings. My life is busy, but much of it is my choice because I choose to open my eyes to activities and inspirations that surround me. Sometimes that takes an extra hour of my day but it is important to me so I will take that time once in awhile. I need a breath of fresh air after work and find it by going to places that inspire me, or sometimes while sitting at my computer enjoying wonderful blogs, internet groups and websites.

The weather today was unusually beautiful for early April in Maine. So I decided to go to Joan Moshimer's Studio in Kennebunkport. It isn't far and an alternate drive towards my home. The studio is in an old home, and the walls are full of beautiful rugs and mats. Shelved full of lovely dyed wool, bolts of wool everywhere, and many hundreds of patterns from Frost to McGown. Many of the rugs were impeccably hooked by Joan, and most of the patterns can be found on their website. http://www.wcushing.com/index.html

I wanted to pick up a few Cushings dyes for my next rug and gain some visual inspiration for flowers. I certainly got my inspiration as the variety of rugs are like a breath of fresh air to me. I had no intention of buying wool, but of course I did buy a little.

This amazing Lion rug was hooked by Joan. It is 48" X 58" and quite detailed in about a #4 or #6 cut. There is a companion piece that Joan began but was not able to complete before she passed away.

Many of the mats have lovely braided edges, and I love the look. Making one is on my "Bucket List" of things to do before I "kick the bucket". The wools in the edge braiding are the same as the ones used to hook the center. I believe the shading in this tulip mat may have been what I was looking for as inspiration. I am not able to visualize how to shade a flower petal or leaf in my mind. I need to see something that someone else has created, and then I can take that information and create my own image. Mental notes for myself...create light near the petal edge to contrast with the background, and create dark veins. Blue and green can be used together in a leaf. Orange and pink can work well together. My mind is full of mental notes, and sometimes I actually put them on paper!

This amazing table wreath was done in the Waldoboro style of hooking. It is called that because it was done quite a bit in the Waldoboro Maine area and seems to have originated in that town with a group of women who gathered in what we would now call a guild. It is formed by using small cuts (#3 & #4) and hooking very, very tight so the hooked area hoves up. Then the area is trimmed or sheared. The result is a velvety sculpted mat. The Spring colors of this wreath are beautiful and my camera didn't do them justice.

This pansy rug was hooked by Joan Moshimer and measures 36" across. Notice the variegated yarn that was used to both bind the mat and create the fringed edge.

Some of the displayed mats are intricately shaded art made with 8 values of each color. But there are also examples of simple and primitive shading that are cheerful.

Chair mats are usually quick projects and the variety of patterns is endless. Most are 14" in diameter or smaller and can be primitive or detailed.

I do not aspire to make an oriental rug, but love to look at the designs. This was one of the simple designs and I really liked the way the colors play off of each other.

Joan's "Persian Blue" cat pillow has been widely published, but of course it is better seeing it in person. Thie cat belonged to her grandaughter LC. Look at the luscious colors on the rug behind it, and notice the scalloped edge.

And of course the Studio is known for their amazing dyed wool. Long ago they only carried their swatches that consist of 6 or 8 values, but have expanded to offer marbleized and dip dyed wools too. I like their Cushing dyes and enjoy the colors I get. I also use them to dye basket reed when I make my baskets.

It was a nice way to spend an hour, and on this beautiful day I am reminded how beautiful it is to live in this area of the country and so close to the ocean. Although it is still early and we might still see snow here, the marshes and grasses are ready to turn green with a small amount of encouragement from Mother Nature.

So my lesson for today is for you to take some time for yourself and live a more inspired life. It doesn't have to take money or very much time. Open your eyes to what is around you in your personal world that can inspire you. Take a walk...get mud on your shoes. Visit an art gallery. Meet up with a friend and enjoy a 'cuppa something with fresh scones. Visit a local farm and watch the sheep being sheared or baby lambs at play. Go to a bakery and enjoy the smell of fresh bread. Curl up with a good book. And then get back to me and let me know what inspires you...rejuvenates your spirit...opens your eyes...gives you confidence...and adds a breath of fresh air to your day. Enjoy your Easter weekend, and God bless you!

Spindling and Gripping Yarn

2010-03-20T11:12:00.000-04:00

I find that I wander while on the vast internet. Do you? My quest might begin with the search for some wool, and through a blog or website I will click on a link to another spot that interests me. From there I will meander and discover other interesting sites and people.

That happened when I was looking for information about supported spindles for spinning yarn. I came across the blog of Lisa called "Gripping Yarn". I wrote to her to ask a few questions about some spindles she showed on her blog. I found that she makes her spindles, and I ended up placing an order for two of them. I asked her to take some photos so I could see how they were made and share with all of you.

This wood is called red heart, and I chose this because of it's rich natural color. Lisa starts with a rough blank and begins carving as her machine spins the blank. Here are some of her tools. I store my garden tools this way with a little motor oil in the sand to prevent rust.

She tools it to a smooth dowel so she can begin shaping it to the piece she wants.

Obviously this isn't an indoor job, and shavings go everywhere! But aren't they a beautiful color?

She crafted another supported spindle for me made of bocote wood. I love wood, and bocote is a prize for me because of the strong graining lines.

I enjoy seeing how a craftsman can form a smooth and delicate shape from a rough chunk of wood.

After she creates the spindles on her lathe, she sands them amazingly smooth with 12000 grit paper. Then she hand rubs them with oil and gives them a light beeswax polish. There is a lot of work involved and it is obvious that she enjoys creating them.

Thank you Lisa for sharing your photos with me so I have a better understanding of what was involved in making my spindles and the safety equipment you are wise to wear with all the splinters and dust flying around! You are beautiful!

My task ahead is to work with my supported spindles more. I met up with Barbara Clorite-Ventura on the NETA group and just purchased her DVD "Spindles Around the World". With that as my guide along with some YouTube videos I have been able to spin some yarn on my spindles, and will consider this to be my "Learn something new" project for this year. That mantra is my New Year's resolution each year, and I think supported spindling will work quite nicely as a skill to learn and improve.

SPA, Knit and Spin

2010-03-14T13:52:00.002-04:00

As an avid knitter and new spinner, I was thrilled to be able to attend the recent SPA, Knit and Spin weekend held in Freeport, Maine. Although not far from home, I chose to kidnap my friend and spend the weekend with a couple hundred other fiber enthusiasts. No classes, just informal gathering and chatting. The weekend is set up by a group of people in NETA (New England Textile Artists). It is an casual weekend where you pull out your spinning wheel, spindle or knitting wherever you are and just relax and be creative. On our kidnapping weekends my friend doesn't know where she is going until we arrive. It's such fun, and I think she had a good time.

The top pictures were taken in the main lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport. Although we had had a bad storm the night before and Freeport was without power for many hours, the power came on in time for us to have a warm and well lit weekend. Many of us left our spouses in the dark at home while we enjoyed our weekend. Tee hee!

Saturday night many of us went over to the Haraskeet Inn for the Ugly Sweater Contest and the Fashion Show. It was snowing heavily outside but the 3 hotels were within walking distance, and Freeport provided a shuttle for those who didn't want to walk. Here are two sweaters from the Ugly Sweater Contest. I didn't get a good photo of the winner, which was a well made man's sweater with an ugly fish on the front. The gentleman was a great sport and proudly wore his purple crown all evening. He had chosen the pattern, and his able wife whipped it up for him in three weeks cringing as she knit each stitch.

This wouldn't be an ugly sweater except for the long sleeves and bright color. I've made worse!!!

The Fashion Show was a time for everyone to show off items they had made during the year. All weekend we saw men and women wearing their handmade items, but this was "Spotlight" time. This is but a small sample of the beautiful work as my camera took many blurry shots as the models were moving fast and I was laughing and cheering a lot!

There were some amazing shawls, and I have the inspiration to make one. Now to just find the time...

This group of women had all used the same pattern to make their sweaters. Look at the variety you can get from one pattern using different colors and types of yarn!

This Jimi Hendricks jacket received a standing ovation for how well it was done. Tess Baumberger knit the sweater and she designed it for her son Nick. She used images from the web (with permission from the artist for the one on the front side), gray scaled them and copied them onto charts that reflected her gauge. It was a great design and just fabulous!

There were many wonderful vendors with samples and fiber and eye candy. They had spinning wheels, books, fiber, rug hooking, handmade garments, bags, accessories, music and DVD's to listen to and of course fiber...lots and lots of fiber!

Beautiful carved and turned crochet hooks, knitting needles, nostepinnes, spindles and more with lovely inlay of stones.

There were many others but I was too busy shopping to take many more pictures!

It was a fabulous and relaxing weekend. Thanks to the Town of Freeport Maine and the hotels that we subjected to our trails of fiber. They patiently put up with us and managed to staff the town for tourists amidst a crisis of power outages and downed trees. And I think many of them enjoyed our laughter in the middle of a dreary winter weekend. The tough part was returning to a home without power on Sunday afternoon!

Succession of presents...

2010-03-04T19:31:00.000-05:00

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction."

"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

Howard Zinn

Dallas inspirations

2010-02-07T11:50:00.001-05:00

Last week I went to Dallas, Texas on a business trip. Our conference was held ar the Hilton Anatole, and it is a beautiful and massive complex. This view is from the 10th floor, and my room was directly across from where I stood to take the picture. Looking down you can see one of the three open areas at the hotel, and this is where we ate our meals. They would begin setting up an additional 40 tables for breakfast at 4am. Looking up you can see the skylight roof that let natural light in. When it rained, the sound on the roof was thunderous!

I often felt like I was in a museum as there were statues everywhere. Many were oriental in nature, but they provided a lot of calm feelings between our busy workshop sessions. The sculptures above were 5' tall. Many sculptures similar to those below were in alcoves around the massive lobbies.

There were a variety of carved Fu dogs at the entrances and doorways. I believe Fu dogs symbolize family. They always come in pairs that should never be separated. One always symbolizes the female with child in her paw, and the other symbolizes the father with a protective weapon of some sort under his paw. Magnificent.

These green horses might have been made of jade or some other green stone. Each one was about 20" across so they were not small, and took up an entire wall.

We had to walk a lot as the complew was huge and actually 3 buildings. These huge elephants stood at the crossroads to the three buildings. We were soon giving directions by saying "Turn left at the elephants" or "I'll meet you by the elephants". You certainly couldn't miss them!

Outside there were also statues and a beautiful garden with jogging path.

The walls of the buildings had amazing art carved into the brick. During the day they were barely noticable, but at night there were lights that formed shadows and showed them beautifully. I found this one expecially striking. This photo only captures part of the image as it filled the wall and was perhaps 20' X 30". They must have used a jackhammer or something to get the design of the leaves, and a full arch of vines was carved around this tree.

It was nice seing green plants as our ground at home has been covered with snow for months. Nature can have some beautiful designs and colors!

Everywhere there were fresh flowers to enjoy. Our meals for the 600+ attendees were served buffet style, and each buffet table had a colorful arrangement.

Even my fabric shower curtain in the room provided some inspiration and I could see the design and colors in a future hooked rug.

The lobbies were bare of rugs, but the carpets on the upper floors were beautiful.

It seems that since I began rug hooking and began learning from artistic internet friends I look at thigs with a different eye. I see individual parts of patterns instead of merely looking at the whole unit. The flower pattern in the rug above would be lovely as a repeat on a table runner...perhaps a simple row of three flowers on a dark background. I like the way the petals are edged in yellow. Or part of the scroll could be used as a border on another piece. The corners inspire me to make a penny mat. Everywhere we look there are inspirations if we open our eyes to them. Stay warm everyone, and enjoy your day!

Fuzz Festival

2010-01-31T10:30:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I met up with some friends to attend the first (and hopefully annual) Fuzz Festival in Exeter, New Hampshire. The event was sponsored by the 212 year old Exeter Congregational church. They put the word out that they were looking for fiber artists to demonstrate their art, and they could sell their merchandise. And fiber artists came. This gentleman was showing how you can spin angora right off of the bunny, and the bunny was enjoying all the attention.

I had planned to attend the Annual Hook In held in Eliot Maine, but decided to support this new event. It appeared that they had a great attendance and had a nice variety of demonstrators. Rug Hooking was noticably absent, but possibly due to the hook-in. One woman was demonstrating the many things that can be crocheted, including plastic bags, string, cotton fabric and tulle netting. She also showed how old patterns are perfectly suitable for today.

Since I love antiques I was fascinated by this old knitting machine. It would knit fine yarn or thread into a cylinder or tube. It still worked efficiently and was quite fast. She said it was probably from the 1920's or 1930's era.

Several vendors were selling their wares, and there was a nice variety of fleece and fibers for spinning and weaving enthusiasts. This basket of silk cocoons caught my eye, and although I am enjoying spinning I would have no idea how to get the fibers off of those little balls. I'm sure the vendor would have instructed me had I spent more time with her.

Weaving was beautifully exhibited, and anyone could work on a small loom if they chose to try. Items such as beautiful vests, jackets, tablecloths and eyeglass cases were available. There were also demonstrations of loom dressing, a Scandanavian tape loom, an artisan carving canes, wheel spinning, drop spindles and needlefelting.

One vendor took her scraps of fuzz, yarns, ribbons and fibers and formed them into large balls. The balls are to be hung outside so when birds are building their nests they have a nice source of soft fibers to pick from. Wouldn't it be lovely to see bits of fibers from your projects woven into nature by birds in your yard? Every nest should have a bit of purple and red, don't you agree?

Many vendors had varieties of fleece to spin...batts...balls...dyed and natural. I purchased a fleece for my favorite crafting chair to make it even more inviting and comfortable.

This vendor had beautiful turned wood items. I purchased a wood necklace scissor holder that is magnetized. I can wear my scissors close at hand in a beautiful turned holder. Cynthia's website is http://www.woodbyc.com/ She might begin making rug hooks and other items, but for now is focused on crochet hooks and other tools.

There was a "human loom" demonstration where people were working with strings to weave a mat as a group. Notice how everyone is bundled up? It was 8 degrees outside when we arrived...chilly!

Another artist was demonstrating making baskets. I enjoy making baskets and it reminded me that I should pull out my reed. I have so many interests that although I spend many of my non-working hours on my crafting I don't have time for it all. I am currently focused on rug hooking and spinning, but when the seasons change again perhaps my focus will also change.

I was pleasantly surprised and the nice variety of demonstrators, and it seemed that they had great attendance. I am sure that there are many people who now have a new appreciation for fiber arts, and have possibly found a new addiction. Surrounding yourself with fiber is a great way to spend time on a chilly winter day.

Binding and completing...

2010-01-16T11:49:00.001-05:00

I am almost completed with my holiday tasks. The tree and decorations have been cleaned. and safely stored for next year. My handwritten thank you notes have been sent, although I will admit that I don't do as many as I should. I have eaten most of the chocolate and delectables that people gave us. Such a chore!

Several friends sent beautiful handmade gifts to me and I wanted to share some special ones with you. The punchneedle bird pillow is precious, and was gifted to me by Debbie St. Germain. It has a special place on my craft hutch in front of my antler handled awls I use for making baskets and proddy tools I made from a moose rack. It is very special and was the perfect gift for my tastes. Thank you Debbie!

This hooked snowman was gifted to me by Diane Tanerello as part of the Secret Santa swap on the Wool Snippets group. I love the wool scarf and he will be able to "hang out" for the rest of the winter. I enjoy seasonal gifts as they can be on display much longer than the month of December. Winter is 4 months of snow and cold up here! Thank you so much Diane, I love him!

My friend Laura recently learned to knit, and has been learning quickly and her needles are flying every evening. She made me a special pair of butter soft socks in my favorite colors. I am saving them for when I go to spinning group, because when you spin on the wheel you never wear shoes. It will be a perfect time to show off Laura's skill as a knitter. Thank youLaura!

My next hooking project was begun at the N.Y. Sheep and Wool festival in a class. One of many UFO's (unfinished objects). I wanted to practice my circles so am doing the body in a circular pattern with gently mottled tan wool. Currently the background is a large void, and I want to add something but am not sure what it will be. Perhaps a tree, or a design within the background wool. I plan to complete the sheep and see where my mind takes me with the background.

The border on the Old Glory rug is completed, and it is hanging on the wall behind my hooking/ crafting chair. I will show you the steps I took to make my binding, but have found that there are many ways to do it. Since this was to be hung on a wall I decided to put cording within the binding. I have heard that if you put cording in the binding of a floor rug it will wear faster as the cording takes a lot of wear. Others say the cording protects the loops from wear and takes the brunt of traffic abuse. Different schools of thought.

I had zig zagged the edge on my sewing machine, trimmed it and folded the backing over the cording towards the back ot the rug. Then I pinned it with long quilting pins all around the rug, taking special care to miter the corners on the back as I pinned them.

I used Candide yarn doubled and a large curved needle. Holding the binding tape right up against the loops, I inserted the threaded needle through the backing, behind the cording, and brought the needle back out through the binding tape. I pulled the tape away from the loops in the picture above so you could see how close I was getting to the loops. I did not stitch through the binding tape on the loop side (right side) because it is secured when I bring the yarn through it on the left, and also by the wrapover of yarn as I bind. With each stitch I made sure that the yarn did not twist, and did not pull tight, just gently snugged. When I have pulled the loops tightly in the past I seem to have an uneven edge.

Before I do corners I make sure the backing and binding are both pinned nicely before I get to the corner. I am able to hold the binding tape in place with my hand on a straight area, but not on a corner. On corners I use almose twice as many stitches in order to cover the curve and am very attentive to not crossing the yarn. Sorry, I didn't get a photo of the corner or back. I bought myself a new camera and was challenged a bit at getting photo's on here today! After I bound with yarn, I basted the loose edge of the binding tape to the backing with heavy thread on the back side of the rug. I don't mind using the yarn and find it relaxing. But basting without catching the loops is tedious for me. If you catch the loops they will pull out. You want to only catch the backing threads as you baste.

Although I am still new at binding a rug I find that if I take my time and pay attention, it all works out just fine. I know that with time and more experience my bindings will be even better. Hope you have a wonderful day! Happy hooking!

Old Glory

2010-01-02T05:12:00.001-05:00

I finally finished pulling the loops on this rug! The pattern is by Monika Jones of Folk Art Landing. This is 32" x 32", cuts 6 - 9 and done in hand dyed wools. I added the wavy border which is done in re-cycled wool. The eagle was a challenge for me, particularly the neck feathers as they kept coming out square. I consulted the Rug Hookers Bible and found a lesson on "fingering" which helped a lot. Thanks Gene and Jane! On my monitor I can see many things I should change but I'm always learning and expect my next rug to be better. Don't we all expect that? Just don't examine my loopy loops too closely! And now...off to bind it!

Fiber Slutting

2009-12-30T22:46:00.000-05:00

I was invited to spend a relaxing day at the home of someone who worked with my dear friend Laura. Her friend Sue wanted to gather some friends for a day of "Fiber Slutting". That was a new term to me! It was to be a day when we sat and worked on our crafts with no outside interferance. And it was!

We had a nice snowstorm going on outside and were entertained by a squirrel just outside the wondow trying to get into the bird feeder. Sue has two cats, one mellow fellow and a frisky kitten (who loved fiber!) They also enjoyed looking at the squirrel.

We all had different projects...wheel spinning...knitting and drop spindling. No one brought rug hooking but perhaps I will the next time! Pot luck food was in abundance and we enjoyed creamy pasta, a delicious breakfast casserole, lunch meats, fresh fruit scones and more.

Sue's kitten helped re-arrange our yarn, and her dog supervised the affair.

It was a lovely day and I made some new fiber loving friends. I also revealed to Laura that another "kidnapping" is being planned for the end of February. Once or twice a year I give her dates and tell her to reserve that time. I let her know what to bring as far as clothes, but I don't reveal where we are going until we get there, and she doesn't ask! Of course I ask her husband's permission but he always lets me kidnap her. We have enjoyed kidnappings to the Shelburne rug show, Fiber Frolic in Maine, Brimfield Antiques Festival and other fun places. She will love where I'm taking her this time! Girlfriend's Getaway!

Remember His message...

2009-12-25T11:44:00.000-05:00

Wishing all my friends and family near and far a blessed and peaceful day. Take a moment during your celebrations with family to remember that this day is based on Christ's birth and his messages of generosity to those less fortunate, forgiveness and love for all. Try to bring the true spirit of the holiday's meaning into your life this year. God bless you and take care of you. Hugs, Lauri

The sheep in the picture was a gift from my friend Diane on Wool Snippets and it's precious! I made the "feather tree" from wool that I dyed. I am planning to spend a quiet afternoon rug hooking, and within a few days should be able to call my "Old Glory" rug complete. We shall see!

Not a creature was stirring...

2009-12-24T23:10:00.000-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...not a creature was stirring...except me!

Snow Dye experiment

2009-12-23T12:15:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...here I go experimenting again. I hear about snow dying, and we have an abundance of snow on the ground and a day off of work. My disclaimer? I don't know what I'm doing. So here goes...

I soaked white wool with a little dish detergent to open the fibers and get it ready to take the dye. Then I placed a piece rumpled up on the bottom of my old dying pan. I had three salt shakers in which I placed non-iodized salt, and one color of Cushings dye in each shaker. I used 4:1 ratio with salt to dye mixture. Then I sprinkled it all over! I was wearing gloves to protect the dye from getting on my skin, and was doing this on a day with no wind so I wouldn't be breathing any nasty dye.

Next I added a layer of snow, and then another piece of wet wool. Then I sprinkled the salt-dye mixture again. I did this four times with wool, dye mixture and snow layers.

I ran out of my mixture for the top layer, so it is covered with plain snow. We'll see what happens!

After a few hours in the sun the snow partially melted, and the water merged my colors together. It didn't look very impressive! But the wool had soaked up the dye and there were no areas without color.

I took the frozen mess inside and used tongs to rinse it under cool water. I rinsed off all the salt and remaining dye until the water ran rather clear.

Then I took each piece of wet wool and rolled it in plastic wrap. I microwaved it until it was hot, and then let it sit for a few hours.

I must say I was surprised by the results. The photo doesn't do it justice, but the wool is quite pretty and the colors merged beautifully for nice marbled effect. What I don't understand is why it came out so light? Nice pastel colors, but I didn't expect pastels. Perhaps the colors would have held stronger if I had heated the wool with the dye on it without rinsing? Or if I had baked the wool in the oven instead of using the microwave? I don't know, but it was a fun experiment and I have four pretty pieces of wool for another project. Is it too early to be thinking about Spring?

Colors of Fall...

2009-10-27T18:49:00.001-04:00

Colors intrigue me. As I walked today I found colors I could not name with one color name, as the colors blended into a different color. It doesn't matter though. They are all beautiful.
Greens...

Gray, white

Brown, rust, gold and cream...

Orange and yellow...

Red and burgundy...

It was a very nice walk and I thought I'd share some colors of Fall with you. Enjoy!!!

The Festival begins...

2009-10-25T12:24:00.002-04:00

The day of the NY Sheep & Wool Festival opening dawned bright and crisp. The birds at the hotel were happily feeding as I headed to my car for the drive to the show. Upon entering the fairgrounds I noticed that the bustle of the previous days activities had subsided and there was an air of anticipation about the place. The sheep were being prepared for judging and most of them seemed to be used to the idea of being shorn and washed. They felt wonderful to pet and seemed to appreciate the attention amidst all the noise of the fair and snipping clippers.

The alpacas were also getting prettied up for the judging. Their owners don't make their money off of the fiber they produce. That money doesn't even compensate for their feed. But they make their money off of breeding good stock and selling them. Alpacas are gentle animals and not very large so can make good pets. They are also social animals who are happy when they live with a pack of two or more. They live over 20 years and cost about the same as a medium size dog to keep. They like to go for rides and will get into a minivan and lay down just like a dog!

There was a carriage on the grounds to take people around and give an old fashioned feel to the place. But the driver chatting on his cell phone banished any notion of old fashioned!

This festival was all about wool and most of the attendees were showing off items that they had made. It was cold, so there were shawls, sweaters, hand knit socks with Birkenstocks, fingerless gloves and hats. One woman was wearing this shawl and I asked if I could take a picture of it. She proudly said yes! I did notice that there was no coordination to match the items to the rest of the outfit, so you might have seen purple and green socks with a red plaid tartan skirt and a peach wool sweater. Woolie geeks!!! It was wonderful to do some people watching. Of course the husbands and sons had been coerced into wearing their hand knit garments too. It was obvious that most of the hand crafters were women. We need to work on that so men are not the minority!

Wonderful vendors were spread throughout several buildings as well as barn like structures. I didn't get to see them all. Fiber was everywhere from full fleece to rovings and batts and handspun and hand dyed fibers. Of course bolt wool was also available for penny ruggers and hooked rugs.

I mentioned in my previous post that minature punchneedle was represented, as well as several wonderful hooked rug vendors. Spinning wheels, accessories, drop spindles, looms, hooks, backings, needles for needlefelting, rug punchneedles, and everything you could possibly need for any fiber art was represented. I was surprised at the number of vendors who had hand made garments for sale such as shawls and sweaters and socks. Most were made in the USA by people like you and I, and were low priced for the work involved. For example, a delicate shawl made of hand spun and dyed wool would average about $175.00. It probably took 100 hours to make it!

Of course there were also the imports that were much lower priced and of much lesser quality. Guatemala, Peru, and Uraguay were the common countries of origin. They were still handmade and warm and lovely, although the machine knit pieces were there too.

I loved the felting that I saw displayed. This vendor had some wonderful hats that were handmade. She incorporated lace, beading, feathers and an assortment of other items into the numerous designs for adults and children. I believe you can click on any of my pictures for a closer look.

Baskets and containers were in abundance because you have to have storage to transport all of your wool goodies as you move from place to place. Some were handmade in the USA or Canada, and others were imports from South America.

This vendor brought their own yurt! It was covered with an assortment of carpets and was probably one of the warmest vendor spaces to enter, although quite small inside with their displays.

There were also the animal areas and many shows to see. The sheepdogs did herding contests which I love to view. The dogs would need to move a flock of sheep to a certain area being directed only by hand signals or low whistles from their owners. They could smoothly move the flock over obstacles and through gates with little direction from their owners. They knew their role.

There was a strong presence of 4-H, and there were sheep, llamas, angora rabbits, alpaca, and goats who presented for best fleece and best of breed.

And there was this guy...and I have no idea why he was there!!! They certainly don't produce much fiber!Perhaps it was because I had said last month that I had never seen a kangaroo in person when I was hooking a kangaroo for Mary Shepphard Burton's Ark project. His appearance was a bit late to be of any help to me!

I enjoy looking at the fleece at shows and learn a lot about the crimp, color, texture and breed of animals by looking at the winning fleece (optimum) and comparing it to what didn't win. The judges will note why a fleece didn't win, such as no luster, or too much fecal matter, or lack of crimp or softness. This was a winner:

I had to buy a fleece before I left and chose this second place mohair that is sooooo soft. I loved the color and will wash it and spin it up using the new techniques I learned in my class. If I do it right I can use it to make the fingerless lace gloves pattern that I bought at the show. I behaved myself at the vendors and actually bought very little.

I spent the night and headed home early the next morning. It was a wet and snowy drive for most of the trip turning a five hour drive into seven hours. But I'm used to driving in foul weather, and since I had new knowledge, and new wool to play with I was relaxed and happy. Now it's time to get back to reality and work.

Sheep and Wool Festival

2009-10-23T22:42:00.001-04:00

An escape from my routine was welcome last weekend, and I ventured on a five hour drive to New York for the Sheep and Wool Festival. I had signed up several months ago for a spinning class, and have been looking forward to learning more and improving my abilities.

It was a good day for travel, and I arrived in Rhinebeck without any problems. I stayed at the Beekman Arms hotel, which was founded in 1766. I was thrilled to find a large antique market with 40 vendors next door. Nice village with lots of shops to explore.

The Inn has a wonderful history dating back to the opening of the original tavern in 1700. Although the price was high for my budget, I wanted to stay in the old building full of antiques. The Inn was built about the same time as our home, but more formal. Needless to say I was given a room in a separate building with little character. On a positive note it did have a beautiful four poster old bed that filled the room so much that I couldn't get a photo of it. And it was quiet and private compared to the main building. I had a decantur of brandy waiting for me and I partook a few sips as I unpacked.

Here are a few shots of the main building, which is rather dark just like our house! Every old fireplace needs a firearm above it in case of a raid or wild critter.

The library was comfortable, but I was just browsing through.

I loved this large corner cabinet. It had a lot of wear and you could tell it would have some wonderful stories if it could speak.

Being a strange person who likes to hook rugs I can envision patterns in everything. This is part of the pattern of the bedspread, and would make a nice design for a little table mat.

The next morning I headed to the festival grounds for my all day spinning class. The teacher had gotten the flu and cancelled all her classes! Luckily the people running the show were able to find someone who was able to teach the techniques for the classes, and was willing. The problem was that she was from Michigan! She drove all night (11 hours) to make it to our first class.

The area we were in was similar to a large garage, and was barely heated. And it was only 35 degrees outside! Spinning is done barefoot, or in your best hand knit socks. But on the cement floor it was cold! Our class was about spinning from the fold, and long draw spinning which is holding the fiber in one hand to spin. It was a good class, but we all had to use both hands quite frequently. I enjoyed the class and met some great women. I love looking at the different wheels and their wood and how they are made. We spun with sheep wool and mohair. Love, love, love mohair to spin with!!!

After class it was almost dark so I retired to my room and hooked on my rug all evening. The fairgrounds were only a mile from the hotel. The next day (Friday) was a free day as the festival wasn't starting until Saturday. I headed back to the fairgrounds to meet up with Linda R. as she was setting up her punchneedle supplies for her vending space. She and her better half had taken a class on making Shaker boxes. She made one, but he continued with his new skills and made a beautiful set of stacked oval boxes that he showed me. This is the smallest, barely 2" long but fully detailed. It was amazing. The tacks are actually pins as tacks would have been too large.

I later explored the antique shop by the hotel and found the prices to be extremely high. I checked out some other shops but a 'nor easter had come in and it was raw, pouring and windy. Back to my room!

Saturday dawned with sunshine but it was cold. I'll share pictures of the actual festival on another day.

Peaceful motivation

2009-10-11T11:38:00.001-04:00

An abundance of warm thoughts go out to all of you who left a comment on my last post and sent me many, many personal messages on my e-mail. One of many quotes that were sent to me seemed very applicable. "The babbling brook would lose it's song if you removed the rocks". Our river of life often hits some rough spots but with the help of our fellow river droplets we keep going through the turbulence to a smoother eddy. Thank you!

A photo of the "Ark Project" is included in this post. Mary Shephard Burton had a dream many years ago of completing a large Noah's Ark made of three dimensional hooked pieces. With the strong motivation of her aid Leonard Feenan and a lot of rug hookers from around the globe...the ark is complete! It was premiered at the recent TIGR and ATHA conventions in Louisville Kentucky. I believe the base is over 6' long, and beautifully hooked on all sides. Each two sided animal was hooked by a different artist and sewn together and stuffed. Beginner and experienced ruggers took part so each animal has a distinct personality. Leonard is the talented artist who drew the patterns. I made the kangaroo and am honored to have been a small part of this collaborative effort.

I have joined the Ten Minute Rug Challenge and find that if I pick up my rug hook I will work for more than 10 minutes. I have been working on my "old Glory" rug again, and have started using a variety of overdyed recycled wools for the border. Although it is curled a bit from my frame I think that they will look nice for a wavy border. I still intend to change the "square" neck feathers and a few other things, but for now I am just trying to make some progress...even if only for a little of each day. I am finding I am in a cocooning mode right now and rug hooking helps me to process things about my life. I have given myself permission to peacefully motivate on my crafts at home instead of being busy socially and with the other things I am usually involved with.

I will be attending the New York Sheep and Wool Festival later this week. http://sheepandwool.com/ I have signed up for two classes. One is a long draw spinning class with Janel Laidman, and the other is a rug hooking class about colors taught by Sue Charbonneau. I am looking forward to the drive to the show, as the foliage colors here are peak and it will be beautiful.

I worked a bit more on the shirred mat and it is about 8" across. I intend to keep expanding it until it is large enough for a chair pad. The mat is made up of 1/2" wide strips of wool that are sewn together with thread in a way that the stitches are invisible and the mat is secure. I enjoy making the little rolls and do not know where this design is going to go. But that is what makes it enjoyable. I will leave you today with a few pictures I have taken. The little chipmunk was hanging around on the stone wall as I drove out of the driveway and posed for me. Enjoy your day my friends!

Forever and always...

2009-10-05T19:40:00.001-04:00

July 15, 1928 - September 26, 2009

Dad...thanks for all the energy and love you have put into your life and family for so many years. You taught me well, and I will carry on those lessons. I will miss you always and forever, forever and always.

From your daughter with love.

Jessie Turbayne

2009-09-12T15:30:00.000-04:00

Today I attended the Tin Pedlars meeting, which is our local ATHA chapter. We all enjoyed a wonderful animated lecture by Jessie Turbayne. Jessie is a rug conservator who restores between 200 and 400 rugs each year. In addition, she has written some wonderful books about rugs and each is full of photographs of amazing rugs. She brought numerous rugs in order to show some of the types of rugs, bindings and techniques used to make them.

I asked if I could take pictures of her rugs, but since they are published or will be published in a book she declined permission. In her lecture she was able to banish some commonly held beliefs. One rug was from 1850, and was made on old pillow ticking and had bright colors. Several from the mid-1800's were hooked on fine linen like your mother's best tablecloth. Most of the really old rugs were not wool, but had nylon and cotton fibers. The cotton showed the most fading. It was obvious that people used what they had for both backings and materials and frequently mixed materials. She had a lovely Waldoboro rug with it's sculpted flowers. She passed all of the rugs around the room and we were able to touch and examine them.

She had several Frost patterns, some partially hooked. She said that it is best not to try and complete a rug if you come across a treasure like that or it will lose 90% of it's value. The stress of hooking into old burlap would be too much. When she must make a repair into burlap, she will go down a cut on the strip width. For example, if the rug was hooked in a #6 she would use a #4. She had a Frost duck pattern rug, and it had been repaired. She knew it had been repaired at Ralph Burnhams in Ipswich Mass around 1910 because of the backing that was covering the stitches and the way it was done.

She had many Grenfell mats, which appear to be needlepoint and are Tiffanys in the rug hooking world. She spoke of Dr. Grenfell as being an extremely handsome man, which is part of the reason women flocked to be a part of his rug producing industry. It was like an assembly line, where one woman would set up the backing, another would do the pattern, and then 6 backings would be handed to a rugger to complete. They were to be completed exactly to his specifications. If you ever find one where a person has veered from the conventional and hooked a purple polar bear, it is quite valuable! When the rugs were turned in the women were given vouchers for food, clothing and health care.

After lunch many members had rugs (new and old) that they had brought for Jessie to appraise. This photo shows Jessie appraising a rug brought in by Lee Ann Hodgkins. Several mats had been framed under glass, and she explained how fabric needs to breathe and should never be put under glass. Sadly, several of the mats had been glued to the frames. But Jessie said that she deals with far worse all the time. Once she received a rug...in three boxes! It was only scraps but she was able to use family photographs and put it together again. I am a history buff and truly enjoyed the knowledge she shared with us today. She is an expert on hooked rugs.

She spoke of cleaning rugs too. She said to never, ever vacuum a rug as each time it stretches the backing slightly, and over time it will just fall apart unexpectedly. Don't use Woolite, as it pulls colors from the fabric over time. Snow washing is good! And she said that you can get a dishpan with Dove detergent and gently sponge the back of a rug to see if it will bleed or do damage. If it doesn't, you can use it on the front of the rug to try to clean it. Cotton will not clean well and will always appear dirty. But she said that if you had lain on the floor for 100 years you'd look rather faded and dirty too!

She is currently working on three books that we will see in the future. One is Hooked Rugs of the South, and another is Hooked Rugs of the Deep South. She said there are fine examples of rug hooking in Alabama and Mississippi but the style is different than what we typically see. And the other book will be Pacific Coast hooked rugs. I will look forward to seeing them when they are finished. All in all, it was another great Tin Pedlar meeting and a great day. Tomorrow...the big hook in that I have been looking forward to. I'll bring my camera!

Independence Weekend

2009-07-05T21:05:00.008-04:00

Although I have been planning to have a yard sale for 7 weeks, our weather in Maine has not cooperated. My better half is doing renovations on our barn, and that brings the necessity of reducing my collection of "stuff". The back of the barn no longer has a floor! I am a packrat, and proud of it. If anyone needs anything, all they have to do is ask and I can probably come up with the item. I know, it's a bit of an obsession but it's my only vice (cough, cough!)

I had asked at work to borrow the sweet little 10' X 12' tent as I knew we would get rain. That was unavailable, so they (as a joke) gave me the 20' X 30' circus tent!!! Little did they know that I spent 10 years working with large tents on a show called Riverfest in Manchester NH. The two of us had that little baby up in less than 45 minutes. Even I was impressed! And it gave the impression that something interesting was about to happen at our home!

The weather held each day until late afternoon. I spent all day Friday hauling items out of the barn, and pretty much filled the tent. The pictures were taken about noontime. We live off the beaten path, so good signs are critical. I planned to run the sale 8am to 7pm Saturday, and Sunday until 1:00. I put the signs out Friday evening and was asleep on the couch by 8:00.I love going to auctions, and often come up with large box lots of old vintage linens. I sorted through and put older items and items that were not in pristine condition on my drying racks. I keep the perfect items to gift to friends and sell where I can get a bit more money. As I sorted through the linens, I came upon some hankies that made me laugh. Each figure is about 4" tall and is hand appliqued in detail. The boobies and buns are gently padded from the back. They are really well done and in perfect condition, and I kept the 6 hankies with thoughts of framing the set. The linens they were with date to the 1930's and 40's. Here they are:They made me smile when I found them. Early Saturday morning a lot of people arrived and started handing me money and taking my things away, which both pleased me and made me a little sad. The antique items flew, as the dealers get out early and love to see "Barn Sale" signs. I had a wonderful day socializing with people. You see, where I live you seldom meet your neighbors as the homes are not close to each other. I even showed some people our filthy home. Our kitchen table was buried all weekend in laundry and things I had pulled out for the sale, and because of the rain the floor is filthy. My work schedule has not enabled me to do cleaning. Oh well! I met some great people. Saturday afternoon we had a thunderstorm with hail, but the tent was wonderful. This afternoon some Freecyclers took away the items I didn't sell and no longer needed, and the tent is back in it's massive bag in my car.

I worked a bit on my Old Glory rug this weekend, but have been tired and hope to get more done on it this week. I will change a few things like the neck feathers, but it's coming along nicely. Oh...Rae? You know that red wool I bought from you? I found my stash of your hand dyed beautiful red right after I got home that day. Doesn't it figure?

I hope you had a great weekend and celebrated the choices and freedoms that we enjoy in this country. God bless America and our honorable soldiers who have protected our freedoms and the rights of others.

Playing with raw wool...

2009-06-20T21:01:00.010-04:00

I have been busy with wool as usual. I finished my bee skep and it turned out cute. I'm glad I chose to weight it with a stone inside wrapped with strips of a sheet surrounded by fiberfill. It feels plump and solid.I purchased a raw fleece awhile back because I knew I wanted to seriously try spinning this summer. I love my rug hooking, but it gets too hot to sit with a rug on your lap. I washed the wool, which was a bit of a challenge for me as you cannot agitate it or it will felt. Here are some of the billowy puffs drying in the sun. I ended up with 7 full big baskets from one fleece.I returned to the home that had had the wool yard sale, and purchased their drum carder. I have never used one, so I searched the internet and found some wonderful spinners with blogs full of information. My house needs dusting and cleaning, but this is more fun!I had some silver gray angora...very soft. I dyed some of the wool with a light wash of silver gray and blue to get close to the color. The angora is on the right.After the fiber was dry I carded them together, and made my first batt! This picture doesn't do justice to the color, which is a soft gray that has sparkles of white and blue. I was amazed at how a batt grows and expands when you take it off the drum carder. I have spun two batts of this and am getting better at spinning. It is still lumpy bumpy and uneven so I will not show it to you yet, but it is sooooo soft! I believe they call it designer yarn when it has such an uneven texture? I will ply my singles together and see how they turn out. Today I dyed more of the wool. I was pleased that even after washing and dying the wool it still had it's nice crimp. This is obviously the red batch. Since you cannot move or agitate the fiber when it is wet the dye is uneven. But I believe this will spin into a pretty yarn. Perhaps a scarf or a pair of mittens? I am often inspired by nature, and in looking at my gardens I found my peonies and lupine blooming.Ane here is the wool that I dyed while attempting to match the pretty colors of the flowers. I made this by putting wet fiber in a pot, then poured the dye over it in 1/3 segments. I used Cushings plum, royal blue and red grape. I didn't touch the wool, but then simmered it covered for 1/2 hour with vinegar and let it cool down all day before moving it. I love it!

Tomorrow I will get some housekeeping done, but have planned a few hours to practice my spinning. I will also pull out a hooked rug that has been hidden away and begin to work on it again. After all, even in the heat of summer you need to have something on your frame! May your coming week be full of fiber and creativity!

Frolicking with Fiber

2009-06-07T10:24:00.019-04:00

This was a beautiful day to head to the Maine Fiber Frolic in Windsor. Fiber enthusiasts from all over New England gathered for a relaxing day of petting bunnies, hooking on rugs, spinning under shady trees, shopping and enjoying workshops.It was all about texture, and everywhere there were bins, bags and baskets of fiber. Sheep fleece in all colors was available, and you could buy angora rabbit, goat and alpaca fiber too. I learned a lot from the vendors and exhibitors about the quality of fleece, lanolin content and staple length for spinning.There were demonstrations of shearing, sheep dogs in action, and everywhere there were artists relaxing with friends creating beautiful things. Many animals were exhibited for the show and many were for sale from the vendors. Anyone want to buy a llama or alpaca?Or perhaps an angora rabbit? They were soooooo soft and sweet to cuddle. Their fur was white, black, chocolate and tan. Many were being trimmed for spinning, or shorn for either felting the fiber or spinning the locks. Toenails were cut too. They didn't seem to mind the spa treatment.There were many breeds of goat and some had curly hair, some straight, and some were just for milking. Lots of kids around, both two and four legged!My friend Laura almost brought home a sheep herding pup, but since she doesn't own sheep I couldn't let her. What would her hubby say!!!One vendor had some large wool felted rugs and mats and I found this one quite pretty. This rug hooked rabbit was quite clever and well made. She was sitting in an antique crib along with a basket of hooked mats and pillows.If you are not motivated to knit your own socks there were several vendors who offered numerous styles you could choose from. Most of them had spun and dyed the wool from their own flock of animals.There were some cotton rag rugs and they would be soft and durable.Most people were making things by totally hand, but there were some knitting machines around too.There were amazing displays of hand spun yarn in glorious colors. I refrained from purchasing any, as I attended the Fiber Frolic to take a workshop on hand carding so that I can spin and dye my wool fiber. But it certainly was tempting, and I gathered a lot of business cards for future reference.

We had a fun and relaxing day and I gathered a lot of information that connected little bits of knowledge that I had in my brain about fiber. I'm off to play and see if I can do some of the things that I learned about. If I'm successful you'll see another post from me soon about blending and carding wool!

An All Wool Yard Sale???

2009-06-01T19:32:00.016-04:00

My dear friends have been growling at me because it had been so long since I have posted to my blog. I'm sorry. I've been quite busy at work and at home, and although I could have posted... you know that I always like to add some photos so that you can actually see what I have been doing.

This week we have some friends visiting us from Tennessee. On Saturday Rosie and headed off for my favorite auction house in lieu of hitting yard sales. The men headed in another direction to tour the scenic Maine coast on Harleys. About 15 minutes from my house we decided to stop at one...just one yard sale. For those of you who know me...it was a treasure sale!

An elderly couple resided in the home and they have both apparently spend their adult lives spinning yarn, weaving, hooking and braiding rugs. They are in their late 80's, and the wife is almost blind, cannot walk and can no longer make the things she loves. Their large old home is stuffed to the rafters with wool and they decided to downsize. I helped!

Their driveway and garage were covered with items. They did not have anything out that was not wool craft related. I made my pile, which quickly grew to include bags of clean roving ready to spin and bags of washed fleece ready to card. The pictures show about half of my purchases. I have three bags of handspun yarn in balls, and a conewinder and a nice needlepunch set with all the needles. I filled two large bags with nice worsted and sock weight cones of wool yarn. And yes Laura Lee, the purple is for you! They had yards and bolts of wool, and I added about 8 yards to my pile along with a big box of wide strips perfect for hooking. Some bolt wool was too heavy for rug hooking, and I seldom braid rugs. Everything was clean and smells fine. They have 2 room size looms and one 4' wide...and will probably sell them soon. They are holding a nice drum carder for me until later in the week and were encouraging me to buy their "picker" too...for a price far too low to consider passing up. When we left my large station wagon was totally stuffed. The price? Only twenty dollars. Tee hee!!! Rosie and I had to drive back to the house to unload before we again headed on the hour drive to the auction.We had a great time at the auction and I came home with a beautiful antique chair that is recently upholstered. This is my new crafting chair in the living room. Rosie bought about 80 wonderful salt & pepper shakers, as she had to purchase little items that would fit into their car on the trip home later in the week.

Here is another of the projects that took up some time recently. I had purchased an old hutch at a yard sale for $10. last year, and finally had the time to sand it down and paint it gloss black. This hutch is my studio and contains my active projects and tools.

I have also been spending a lot of time outdoors in the gardens. Although they always need weeding, you can get an idea of how much time I spend with my plants when I get home from work and on weekends. I have a vegetable garden back in the field, but the black flies are ferocious tonight so I don't have a picture. I call the above garden my shade garden. The garden below looks messy now but it's still early here, and when it blooms with peonies, purple phlox, lupine and many perennials it's quite pretty.

This garden is behind the house and has a lot of lavender and strawberries, as well as pepper plants and sunflowers. And our cat Rascal!This little garden has the prettiest lilies, and coriopsis, purple coneflower and a few other things. Notice the pile of wood in the background? That was one of the trees that came down in the ice storm. The chainsaw has been busy while I'm at work. My job is to split it, and the splitter is under the blue tarp. This garden we call "Pee pee's" garden because of the statue. It is actually a fountain and when the water is running it appears to be a little boy...well...whizzing on the plants.
This garden is the first one you see when you drive down our driveway. It will be quite colorful in another month!

We have some plants that just show up, and our yard has chives, oregano, peppermint, rasberries and blueberries all over the place.

So as you can see I've been busy. I have also been spending time on the computer of course, and much of it has been working on the Wool Snippets rug hooking group that I co-manage with JoJo. We have made a lot of positive changes in the past few months so if you are a "woolie", please stop by and check it out. http://woolsnippets.multiply.com/ You have to become a member to view the current posts. There is also a Works in Progress site at http://woolsnippets.blogspot.com/ Hopefully this long post will appease those who like to see me post more often. You never know when I'll feel talkative!

New Orleans

2009-04-09T17:45:00.001-04:00

Wherever my journeys take me, I strive to fine some sort of art or fiber crafts. During my business travels last week in New Orleans, I was challenged to find fiber arts at the end of each workday. I was told that the only rug hooking shop was ruined in hurricane Katrina, and the owner never returned. I did find a shop where a pleasant woman had a 10' loom and was crafting beautiful cotton rugs. I wish I had been able to spend more time there but my companions were on a mission in another direction and did not share the love of fiber that I have. They wanted to party, and I wanted to make things and meet people. I think I'm getting old!!!I was finally able to find a needlepoint/ knitting shop that had a lot of fun fibers! My souvenier from my trips is almost always something that I can use for my crafting, and I found a couple of sweet skeins of wool and some funky knitting needles to bring home.Although I protested, the proprieter wrapped my small purchase in glorious New Orleans style with colorful tissue paper and loads of curly ribbon. I had protested the wrapping because I knew it would become ruined in my suitcase. But she insisted that everyone who came to the city deserved a special present, even if they had purchased it for themselves. I was in the city for the National Afterschool Association and National Principals Association conferences. The workshops were varied and many were right on target for the subjects I wanted to learn about. The cast from the new 'Electric Company" PBS show did a great performance for us. If you have young school age children who need to improve their reading skills make sure they catch the show on PBS. Colin Powell did a presentation, and although I have heard him speak several times I never tire of his accolades about his life and adventures. He is a "real" person, and although he has been company to leaders of numerous countries he is the kind of person you could enjoy a cuppa coffee with and feel comfortable.

One evening I walked to the river and took in the view of the barges and activity. There is a time difference from Maine, and of course it is much further West so it stayed light for almost two hours later in the evening which was quite nice.

There were shuttle buses that would take us to and from our hotel each day. One day the bus driver passed around an old (1940's) photo of a family and asked if we could identify who one of the children was. It turned out that our bus driver was cousin to Louis Armstrong, and they grey up together in New Orleans. That was a family photo from their childhood. Our driver said that when Louis died he had sung at his funeral, and still sings at festivals to honor his cousin. So of course we asked him to sing for us as he drove along. He did...and he sounded just like Louis Armstrong! Exactly! He sang "Hello Dolly" and several other songs before we arrived at our hotel. It was quite a treat!

Art , music and spirit are at the core of New Orleans. It is on every corner, in every building and on every face. This year I noticed "Trolly Art" all over the city. Artists used the shape of a trolley to paint their images, and the "art trolleys" were set on stands. Here are a few:

There was a nice sidewalk art show that included a wide variety of styles. The art was stretched on all four sides of this block with numerous artists displaying their work for sale. Many of their works were very somber depictions of what they had experienced during Katrina. Others were jubilant, colorful depictions of the spirit of the city and it's inhabitants.You never know what you will see as you walk down the street. There were mimes who were painted all gold or silver standing as statues. And of course they all had their bucket out for tips. Just freeze on your crate and let the money come to you! This is called self employment...tax free! Notice the pet alligator?

This large group had a lot of talent! They played some fantastic jazz, and you couldn't keep your feet from dancing. Traffic is secondary to pedestrians, and everyone dances in the street. The citizens of new Orleans will use any excuse for a parade. I saw a different one each evening. This was the beginning of a wedding parade. First the band, then the bride and groom, then the wedding party, and they were followed by all their guests dressed in costumes with lovely parasols. Of course 50 other people joined in so the parade extended almost two blocks.And then there were the pirates. Hundreds of them...perhaps thousands! We encountered them everywhere, and of course they had to have a few parades because...this is New Orleans and a good party has to have a parade!The costumes were wonderful to see, and some pirates were quite sober and gentle in appearance.

Some acting was involved and most of the pirates played their part quite well with snarls and "harr harr me matey's"!

And then there were the fun pirates. This lady with the bodacious "tata's" reminded me of Bernadette Peters.

And there were also "dead" pirates. They had makeup that made them appear quite ghoulish, especially after dark. Often they had blood paint spattered on them as if they had been in a swordfight. Some like this gentleman wore contacts that made their eyes appear quite creepy.

Of course alcohol has a little bit to do with the spirit of new Orleans. Bourbon Street after dark is still the same as it was 30 years ago. Bubba Gumps was rather quiet compared to many of the bars, so our group had some shrimp and an ale so we could say we had been there.

Most of our time was spent within a 1/2 mile of the French Quarter area, which is high ground in New Orleans. During Katrina it suffered some flooding, but had more wind damage. We did tour a church school in an area that had been totally flooded...the 9th district. The terrible scars from Katrina have not healed much at all, and many homes have been condemned. You can easily see the marks on the houses where searchers went in when the water receded two months after the storm. The marks show the date of the search, and if bodies or animals were found. That area has not come back from the distruction of the flood. There are clusters of people living there, and they say that the clusters are growing. People need other people, and if they work together they can bring back the spirit to that impoverished area. Hopefully the crime and gangs in some areas of the city have been dispursed.

New Orleans is a special place that I always enjoy visiting. My perception has always been that there are some who live there who want hand outs and do not feel the need to earn their monies. I see that in many large cities. The majority work hard and continue to support those who don't. If they continue to work hard and can get everyone involved in the effort they will be able to build back what was lost. New Orleans is still there, and still has the spirit and music that I love.

Always,

Lauri

Busy as a bee!

2009-03-29T19:22:00.015-04:00

I have again been neglecting my blog! I have been busy with work and travel, but it has all been good! I went down to South Carolina to visit my family and escape from all the snowy weather up here. So what happens? It snows! Well, for me it was only a flurry but the excitement it caused was hysterical! Schools closed, stores closed, and life stopped for a day. Children scraped together the snow and made teeny snowmen. I had a great visit with my family and was able to fix a few things and do some painting at Dad's house that he can't do anymore.

Something else I did was quite interesting, although it lasted only minutes. One recent evening my better half and I went outside to see something we heard would be visible. The space shuttle had hooked up with the International Space Station earlier that day. We were able to clearly see them as they crossed the sky. It appeared as if they were closer than a plane, and seemed to move a bit faster than a plane. Of course we were the ones moving here on the Earth! But it was quite a memorable moment to see the shuttle and Space Station. We waved to them! And I think they waved back!
I received a call on my answering machine from my nephew saying that their baby girl had been born on Tuesday! I won't go into details but my nephew and I share an interesting history together and he is very, very special in my life. This is his first child. But it would have been nice if he had told me her name, and now we're playing phone tag! I'll update you more in a future post!
I finally made it over to my friend's house to celebrate Christmas. Their tree stays up until the last of their long distance friends has made it over, which often isn't until Easter!!! Don't you love their tacky little tree, and it has LED lights so the tips of the branches glow. Notice the Easter candy under the tree? Their home is quite eclectic, but my friend is a fabulous quilter, cross stitcher and now a knitter. Her art is all over the house and it's beautiful. But there are the fabulous tacky touches everywhere too...like tinsel Christmas trees.

The two of us took off to see Kathy Mattea in concert at the Jorgenson Center in Storr, Connecticut. It was a great venue with cozy seating and good food. Kathy put on a wonderful show as usual. If you want to know more about her music check her out in my links.
Sometimes I get artistic inspiration from the strangest places. This is a picture I took of the rug at the Jorgenson Center. I can just see part of this design as a hooked rug! But I'll just bet that finding the source to obtain copyright permission might be tough! Here's another floor that I thought would make a nice design for a hooked rug. It was on a cruise ship!We also visited the nicest hooked rug shop called Whispering Hills. Debbie, thanks for telling me about it! It had a nice variety of everything from hooks to books. She also has some great classes scheduled with Norma Batastini, Elizabeth Black and Nancy Blood. Worth a visit if you are in CT or MA. http://www.whispering-hill.com/ I bought a nice antique hook but didn't buy anything I already had. I finally finished my Padula rug a few weeks ago, and am glad it's completed because I have other projects I want to do. I picked up my Sunflower rug that had also been a UFO (unfinished object!). I was given the pattern when I first started rug hooking a couple of years ago, and had just started exploring with dying my own wool. I need to find out who made the design as it isn't marked, and is beautiful.

My friend came up with a picture of a chair mat that I had given to her a couple years ago. The mat was taken by someone and never seen again. I'm so glad that she had this picture so that I can put it with other photographs of things that I have made. It is a Moshimer pattern purchased at Cushings.

Another thing that has been occupying my time is the rug hooking group Wool Snippets. For many years Tammy and Bren have done a fabulous job with the group, and then the group had to move to another site and it lost it's luster for a lot of people. Tammy and Bren decided to retire from being managers, and JoJo and I took up the challenge. If you are a rug hooker and haven't checked out the site for more than a month please visit. http://woolsnippets.multiply.com/

One of the members (JoEllen) is offering an online tutorial about dimensional rug hooking through her business for only $10.00. She has made some wonderful sculptured pieces and I am looking forward to her online class. The design is a bee skep with little bees around it. The class will start in Mid-April, and you can find out more on her blog. http://befruitfulkreations.blogspot.com/

Another quick project I will be working on is for a candle cuff swap on the Snippets group. And I need to make a chair pad for someone I know who is having a baby this summer. It will be a ladybug theme so it should be fun to design! In fact, with so many projects to work on I think I'll get off the computer and go play with some wool.

Thanks for visiting!