Glad Plaid Bag all hooked.

Here is the bag all hooked. Despite the amazing weather the last few days, I managed to get in an hour each day and it went quickly. The second side was a breeze, since I followed the colour placement from the first side. And that was indeed the trickiest part.

I decided not to do the flap, which is one of the many options Jennifer gives you in the pattern -  have seen her bags with and without the flap, and since the buckle is very wide and keeps the bag well closed, I am happy without it.  So much easier to grab things from the bag without having to move the buckle and the flap out of the way first.

Now comes the assembly. I have put together two other bags, so this shouldn't be that much more challenging. And Jenn's instructions are very detailed to help me along.

I hope to keep up the momentum, but there will be an interruption this week - a little mat for a special celebration. But it shouldn't take long.

I will share progress on both next week.

A Happy Purse Beginning

This past weekend I celebrated my last birthday of a decade and, as my friend Elaine so eloquently said recently of her birthday, "I felt really loved."  Celebrations began with a lunch with my friend Jennifer at Tall Trees in Huntsville - yummmm. I met her at her office and she had a bag of goodies for me, including a pandora charm (a bit of tradition for us) and a twist of her amazing new silk - check out her post.  We followed lunch with a trip to her local quilting shop where I found lining for this wonderful new project.

I'm calling this my "Glad Plaid" bag, and it's from Jenn's Bala Bag pattern. I wanted a larger hooked bag so I bought this pattern plus the leather strap and buckle a L-O-N-G time ago.

When I finished my last project, I thought it was the perfect time to start this. And I decided to use all my "plaids". After only a couple of rows of squares, I could tell this was a good decision. I love it! It makes me happy. Doesn't it have a slight retro feel to it? And with all these colours, there's nothing it won't go with (bad grammar here - oops).

And wait till you see the lining I (we) picked - another post for that later.

Back to the birthday - the kids drove up from the city on Saturday morning to the rainiest day so far this summer. But we hung out, played Scrabble, enjoyed a birthday feast and had a good catch up visit. Sunday, out for lunch together and then we drove them back - I needed my car.

So many birthday singers and calls and emails. And great gifts - I did feel very "loved". Thanks to all.

Underpainting Done

Well, here it is - finished.

I must confess that I am happy with the results and would definitely consider incorporating that into many sketches going forward.

As simple as this little mat was, getting all the elements to separate in values was a bit of a challenge and I hooked the water a few times to get to something that didn't blend into the trees.
This picture doesn't really show the separation.

But, I do like the underpainting part. So, I think tis exploration gave me the results I wanted.

The Four Pillows

Here is a picture of all four "Amazing Matrix" pillows finished! Don't they look amazing? Thanks to Jennifer Manuell for her fresh take on the inch mat, these four beauties are complete and look wonderful on our leather sofa and love seat.

I don't keep all four on one piece - this was purely for the photograph. There are two for each piece and they sit against the arms versus the back.

As usual, the finishing was the true test of endurance.  As it was so warm for so long, it was hard to even think of holding layers of hooked wool and ultra suede on my lap. But a cool, rainy day presented itself and it was the perfect opportunity to finish the final two.

Of the many hooked pieces around the house, these pillows seem to attract the most attention.
Everyone wants me to make them one.  There may be a couple of gifts looming in the fall.

But a couple of other projects in the queue to finish first.

Underpainting - can you hook it?

I have always been a fan of art with an underpainting. I think that it makes everything look better, and I think that is why I love so many of the Canadian paintings that my husband and I have collected over the years. Nothing makes a sky and water look better than a touch of orange showing through.

In doing a little on-line research into underpainting, it turns out that it isn't a painting style that is restricted to impressionist work, although that's where I love it, but to still life painting, and portraits - virtually every kind of art. Virtually every medium as well, including pastels and pencil crayons. And several of the software programs for use with photography also have an "underpainting" tool to help give a painterly quality to a photo.

I was reminded of how much I like it a couple of weeks ago at the Muskoka Arts and Crafts Show in Bracebridge. I met a new artist whose work I really enjoyed. Here is one of his paintings.

In addition to doing an underpainting, he told me that he paints on plywood because he loves the texture that it gives. And he also discovered some art markers that let him outline his shapes before painting them.

When I got home, I took out a little Martina Lesar mat that I have been working on and decided to see if I could simulate an underpainting on it. As you can see from the subject matter, it's the perfect little piece on which to experiment.

I am introducing a burnt orange yarn into the already-hooked shapes as well as the to-be-hooked shapes. And I think it will create the effect that I am going for. And it's a good exercise to try something about which I have been curious to see if it will emulate the underpaintings of the artists I so admire.

I'll share photos as this progresses, but thought there was enough here to demonstrate where I'm headed.

Another Celebration Mat

I have another little mat to share that I couldn't post last week, since my friend Jane (for whom it was created along with her husband Peter) reads this blog.  I didn't want to ruin the surprise. The mat was received this week, so now I am free to share it.

Jane was my very first friend when I moved to Toronto a million years ago. She has been living in the Peterborough area for the past 20+ years, so we don't see one another that often.
However, like all good friends, we seem to pick up the minute we see one another - as if the last time were the day before.

Jane has recently taken up rug hooking, so we have yet another thing in common. She has a group in Peterborough with whom she hooks and is very enthusiastic about it. She even did her first year at Trent this summer in Bea Grant's class, and loved every minute of it.

Jane and Peter and Rick and I share another thing in common. Our Anniversary date - August 1st. They have an 11 year head start on us, however, so this year is their 40th!!! Wow! And they are off on a European River Cruise to celebrate, which is why I sent the mat a little early.

When the four of us got together  at our new home a couple of weeks ago, they shared stories and pictures of a Barbadian holiday this past winter. They had a great, warm February and March, and from the pics I found one to use and create a small celebration mat.

Here is the picture:

And here is the little mat

Thanks to Robert Browning for the words. I have always loved them and finally got a chance to use them here.

This was another fun "featureless faces" project, which I think captures the essence of the picture. I learned it is quite a bit tougher to do facial hair. However, I enjoyed doing it and think of it more as a large card than a mat.

With so few people these days making it to a big number like "40", it's definitely worth the celebration.

Happy 40th - again- Jane and Peter. Have a wonderful time on the cruise.

Bra Project Update

Before I do a new post, let me thank everyone who responded so enthusiastically to the Bra Project. Both here and on Rug Hooking Daily, the response was amazing!

I am now galvanized to take it to the next level with a couple of things up my sleeve. I delivered my hooked bra to the Hospital Foundation Office and they were thrilled, not only with my art bra, but also with the fact that the rug hooking community has embraced this. Obviously, they are very happy to have any support that helps raise the awareness and supports the cause. And tapping into a network like our rug hooking one is a big boon to getting the word out. (And hopefully a few more bras on the line at www.thebraproject.com)

For anyone reading this who hasn't been to Rug Hooking Daily, please go and see my page there. I have shared the steps in creating my bra. It's impossible to share a pattern, since it is dependant on the bra selected, but the general process is there.

And thank you all again for your support. It's much appreciated. I will continue to update both here and on Rug Hooking Daily as I create any more pieces.

You hooked a what????

I have a special fondness for "non-mat" hooking projects and in the past have done many different things that will never be put on the floor. Purses. Belt buckles. Flowers. Pendants. Snowmen - the list goes on. But I have just finished the one that will be the most unusual for my collection.

Here is a picture of it in progress. And I'm pretty sure you won't know what it is.

No, it isn't two Pac Men, although that is what it surely looks like.

Here's another picture that will help solve the mystery.

That's correct! I hooked a bra!!!

More precisely, I hooked bra cups and attached them to an existing black bra. Pretty neat, don't you think?

So, why on earth would I hook a bra anyway. Here's the story.

As a new resident of Parry Sound, Ontario, I volunteered to get involved with a fundraising effort to raise $700,000 for a new digital mammography machine for the wonderful new hospital here.  I am always blown away by the way smaller communities can take on, and achieve, these incredible challenges. I have no doubt that this group will succeed.

Anyway, this bra, which I am going to title "Hooked on Early Screening" will join a series of others on a website called www.thebraproject.com.  You can visit the site and see some of the other amazing "art bras" that have been created.  And you can learn more about the undertaking.

Maybe you'll even be inspired to hook one of your own and add it to the line!

Happy Birthday Beth

Today is my baby sister's 57th birthday - wow, how did that happen.!!

She is known as the "little redhead" to many, and she has a unique fashion sense, to say the least. This picture was taken at our niece's wedding, to which Beth wore a tuxedo, red bow tie and her vintage red cowboy boots.

I decided to commemorate her "dress up clothes" in a small mat for her birthday. And for the first time in recent memory, I actually got together with her ahead of her birthday and gave it to her. She was delighted.

Homemade gifts are something I believe in - and I think I have "inflicted" many of them on Beth over our lifetimes.  One of my earliest memories was a grey and pink dress with big bell sleeves (we're talking the sixties here). I think I sewed the sleeves in backwards (give me a break, I was 12!) and I think in my rush to finish, didn't pink the seams. So, luckily for her, it probably came apart on its first journey through the wash.

I like to think that the gifts have improved over the years. And she has kept most of them (save the little grey/pink fashion fiasco). She is always very gracious. No wonder I love her.

Have a wonderful day Beth. 

My Newest Student.

This past weekend, we had a house full of fun. Our son and daughter came, along with two other relatives, my great nephew Ian, and his dad James.

We filled the days with all the things that you do when the weather is perfect - waterskiing, tubing, swimming, and relaxing with good books and the newspaper. Add to that lots of delicious food and conversation, topped off with fireworks on Saturday night, and it really does make for a magical time for all.

The icing on the cake for me was that Ian was fascinated by the studio and rug hooking  and asked to learn. I was thrilled to teach him and he became my first student in the new studio - and - at 14 - my youngest student full stop.

He decided he would like to hook a name sign -  his name is only three letters - an easy first project for sure. And the way he took to it, like the proverbial duck to water, he will be done quickly. Here are some pictures of him at work, starting inside the studio, but moving down to the deck in the afternoon to be with everyone in the shade by the water.

He pulled his first loops just before lunch and by late afternoon - with a big distance swim and water skiing in between - he had managed to finish all the lettering. He said that he found the second letter "much easier" than the first. I was quite taken with how relaxed and peaceful he seemed, hooking on the deck as everyone else was reading. A total natural, for sure.

He headed home last night with a work sheet to suggest a hooking order, baggies of cut strips, my small gripper frame and a couple of hooks. I bet he will finish this little project in a couple of weeks.  He has promised to send me updates of his progress. The tough part will be trying to explain the finishing process from a distance. Oh well, we'll figure it out when we get there.

How exciting to have started him on this journey. I feel very lucky to have been able to share my love of 'hookery' with him. 

Have fun, Ian. 

Pillow #4 and the G20

Thanks to the miserable weather this weekend, and the G8 and G20, I got quite a bit done on pillow 4. Here is a progress shot.

I have really enjoyed hooking this one - not sure why - I guess the motifs are smaller and you change colours more frequently, but this one truly makes you keep going so you can see what the next "plus sign" will look like with the others.

I took my hooking upstairs this weekend and watched the coverage on CBC and shook my head in disbelief at all of it. It was kind of like a train wreck unfolding and you couldn't look away. But the media kept playing the most sensational clips over and over, so putting my head down to hook didn't make me miss a thing.

The fact that the more militant protesters were still at it after everything was over said it all to me. I felt extremely sorry for the peaceful folks who were there to truly support what they believed in.

Rick and I took a trip to Toronto last Thursday for Rick's cracked filling and then had dinner with the kids, so we got to see the downtown core without anyone in it. Thought we would be caught in the motorcades heading to Huntsville on our way back north, but we must have been behind them, because our trip was even a bit faster than usual.

Another big event last week -  Fedex delivered the pillow forms that I ordered online, which I guess I hadn't noticed in the shipping info. Rick nearly fell over from shock that they would come all the way out here. LOL

So this week, I'll finish hooking this last one and begin the assembly of all 4. I hope to have them finished before the kids arrive on Friday for the long weekend. I'll share a picture of them all as soon as they are.