Continuation of the Bucks County Theme

I have hooked two more items since my last post.  My Aunt Gloria asked me to hook something as a Christmas present for my cousin, Lisa, maintaining the Bucks County theme.  We had all spent so much time there growing up and so many fond memories.  Now that neither my aunt's property nor my grandmother's property remain in the family I think she wanted Lisa to have something special to remember it by.
I had to think about what to do for a while and then I thought rather than do Mimi's cabin again I would do my grandmother's house which exists no longer having been demolished after a big flood.  Lisa spent a lot of time like I did with our grandmother Honey so I did a hooking of the house with our grandmother and her beloved dog Bonnie standing in front waiting for us to arrive down the long drive as she used to do and as we will always remember her.  I didn't make it into a pillow because I wasn't sure if she would rather stretch it and hang it on the wall.
I was able to see Lisa and deliver it to her when we all converged on Morgantown for my father's 90th birthday.  She loves it!  Below are the photos:

After finishing it I made a few small adjustments.  Below is the final product.

At my father's birthday party I talked to my Aunt Jeanne who is Uncle Dave's wife.  He is my mother's twin brother.  Everyone had been telling me that Jeanne was enthralled with my pillows.  When I returned home I thought I better make one for Uncle Dave and Aunt Jeanne.  But what to do?  I was getting a bit tired of the Bucks County theme but then I came across a photo of  Bridge Four which was used on the cover of the program at my Aunt Mimi's memorial service.  It occurred to me that the bridge which overlooked my Aunt's cabin had a lot of significance.  We spent time under the bridge as kids making echos and would sit on the boardwalk of the spillway and dangle our feet into the canal in view of the bridge.  Right!  Perfect subject for a hooking.  Below is the inspirational photo and further on the hooking in progress and the final pillow.  Reflections in the water were a bit of a dilemma because I couldn't effectively get that much detail without losing the sense of it being water.  I tried instead to just suggest a bit of reflection.

 

What shall I do next?  I'm thinking of doing an abstract when I feel I have the energy. It's going to be a big rug to go on a floor. Thank you for reading my blog.  I continue to be surprised to find that so many of you enjoy my infrequent posts.

Pillows for Three Sisters

PILLOWS FOR THREE SISTERS

Last July I went home to visit my parents.  The timing was such that I planned on seeing my Aunt Mimi in Cleveland to celebrate her 90th birthday.  Before I went I planned a little gift to take to her to remind her of her beautiful little cabin that she had to sell some years ago because the upkeep became too difficult for her.  And because I didn't have much time I decided to make a small hooking of it that she could either hang on a wall or I would offer to make it into a pillow for her if she wanted.

It all went to plan and below is a picture of her holding the hooking up for the camera on her birthday.

And in the end I am glad that I got to go do that because my very special aunt passed away since then.  After her funeral which I was unable to attend my Aunt Glo rang me to tell me how much Mimi had loved that little pillow.  She was able to take it with her from room to room and when she died in the hospital the hospice nurses used it to prop up her elbow.  So it was with her at the last, that beautiful little memory of her beloved cabin in the woods.

That phone conversation prompted me to make one for my Aunt Glo.  I thought I would make her one of the cabin since we all had wonderful memories of spending many holidays there over the years.  And of course I made it differently as no two hookings are ever alike.  The weekend that I decided to get my linen backing out and start drawing the rough image with a sharpie, I was also going through some old photos and low and behold I came across this really cute photo of my Aunt Mimi standing in the garden next to her cabin. So that made me want to add Mimi into the cabin hooking.  This was my first time at actually adding human forms into a hooked rug.  Below is the photo that inspired the final pillow.

I took a few close ups of different parts of the pillow.  The photos have washed out the color a bit.  They are really more vibrant than these photos show.  I sent that off to my Aunt Glo and she was thrilled with it.

Then I got to thinking that my mother would feel left out if I didn't make her one too and with her 88th birthday coming up there was no time to lose so I started working on one for her.  I borrowed an idea from Deanne Fitzpatrick.  She has a rug design with three old ladies standing out in the surf in their bathing suits.  I started with that idea and then wanted to put my uncle in there somewhere and somehow I imagined him in a little motor boat.  This theme is fitting in that they used to spend every winter in Florida when they were children.  Later I learned that my uncle actually did have a little motorboat and used to go out fishing and bring back breakfast for a hungry bunch of kids.  Below is the result.  It arrived in the mail to my mother on the day of her birthday.

I love the movement of the water in this rug, especially where the seafoam rises above the lettering to the back of the ladies legs. I ran out of blue wool thus the colorful sunset.  Now that those are done.......I wonder what I shall do next.................

Canadian Lakescene

I am posting a photo of my latest hooking.  Every piece I make has some new challenges.  This one was trying to create a realistic reflection on the surface of the lake with the limitation of what wool colors I had to hook with.
One thing that bothers me is that the sun peeking around the cloud is smack dab on the centre line of the piece.  I would have shifted it to the left if I had realized.  Well, anyway, I would love to hear your comments on it, as every one I do is a huge learning experience for me.

Thanks in advance.

Rag Rugs & Saddle Blankets

RAG RUGS AND SADDLE BLANKETS

Last November I finished this rag rug for a baby's room.  I liked it so much that I decided to tie on another warp to the old warp and pulled it through the heddles onto the back beam.

I wove the saddle blanket below for a friend.  She thought it would be the perfect lightweight material to use under her western saddles and also because it is machine washable.  She is doing quality testing for me.

Below is the second smaller saddle blanket or rug.  It is 29 inches by 34 inches long.

After doing the saddle blankets there was enough warp left to do another twill rug.  I think I will give this one to Ana.

Cape Cod Dreaming

It has been quite a while since my last post.  Despite a few loyal fans clamoring for more I have been too busy working full time to do anything.  But since Christmas I have gone back to part time and have time to do a few things.
On the rug hooking front, I have three I am working on at the moment.  One is just finished and I am so pleased with it.  It is called Cape Cod Dreaming and will be a gift to my mother's cousin.  I will upload the photos that I took on my last visit to Cape Cod and final visit probably to Jean's home.  I hope that she enjoys the wall hanging in her new home.

Originally I planned on doing two separate panels of the first two images but after I drew them side by side on the linen fabric I decided to marry them together and use the rose image as the theme to bind them together.  Below are two photos of it in progress and then the finished product.

Navajo Chief's Blankets

I'm not a very prolific weaver.  I think I get about one of these miniatures done a year between all the other little projects I have going on at once.  I am weaving a series of three miniature Navajo Chief's Blankets.  Below are the first two.  The blue one is the First Phase blanket.  The one on the left is the second phase.  They are only about 12 inches by 15 inches.  I can see that my tension and selvages are getting better.  I have now started working on the third phase replica.
When I finish them I will either frame them to hang on the wall or turn them into pillows.
I enjoy the slow process of this kind of weaving.  It is very therapeutic.  I imagine how wonderfully effective and simplistic this kind of weaving is.  When it is finished, it is complete.  There are no knots to tie, edges to hem or ends to be woven in.  And it is very transportable.  The weaving could be cut from a frame and the entire thing rolled up for transport and then rehung from a tree at a new destination.  It is marvelous.

Three More Hooked Rugs

I am posting photos of my latest three hooked rugs.  I thought it would be interesting to put up the photo that inspired the rug and then follow it with the rug.  These last three I worked on simultaneously as I ran out of blue and had to order more blue wool in order th complete the skies of each of them.  They are smaller than the last rug that I posted.

My previous rug was a large landscape that featured a thicket of paperbarks which were dwarfed by the much larger scenery surrounding.  I liked the results but I really wasn't done with the paperbark trees, so I did another smaller one which focused more on the trees.
Here is the photo that inspired both rugs:

 There has to be some thought to artistic license.  If I hooked a rug that looked just like this photo, it would be very boring.  And in some sense the photo only captures part of the reality of the stand of trees.  Having been there over two days in different lights and building a complete map of where the trees sit in the landscape I went home with a much richer memory of this place.  In some ways my artistic license is a more complete record of the reality of the location.  Phil thought I went too far with the colorful patchwork quilt of the foreground.  I agree with him to some point.  However if you walked through that dull looking reed you would find the tiniest and most delicate wildflowers of every color and configuration.  Just wonderful!

 The photo below was taken from the top of an ironstone mountain that Phil and I did a vegetation survey on.  I fell in love with this place and its unique flora and vantage point.  We walked for days over rocky ridgelines and exposed outcrops.  The photo doesn't show the banded ironstone whereas my rug does.

 A campsite in a borrow pit along a dirt road into the central desert.  Desert poplars are the first thing to come up after a burn or a disturbance and they are short lived.  This was at sunset and the red glow of the setting sun bathed the scene.  My photo again does not do it justice.

I put in some clouds trying to convey that it was a sunset but I think my clouds look like floating cigars!  Not happy with them and if I did it again I would put more leaves on the tree.  The orange and the green colors are much brighter than the camera could capture.

I've got four ideas for the next rugs so I better leave you and get on with the linen, hook and wool.  Hope you enjoy seeing these.