Outbackspinner

This last week my husbands relatives came for a visit from Perth. I took a day off to join them on a trip north to visit the mining ghost town and museum of Gwalia near Leonora WA. The mine at Gwalia is still active. It was made famous by one of its first mine managers, a very young Herbert Hoover. Originally it was an underground mine. Because the ore body sloped downward deep into the earth the idea of building a decline following the slope of the orebody was Hoover's idea rather than trying to build vertical shafts into the mine. Today, the mine is a deep pit with the decline sloping off of the pit. The old manager's house sits precariously on the top overlooking the pit and is called the Hoover House. It is a Bed and Breakfast and is attached to a wonderful museum. At the base of the hill below Hoover House is where the miners used to live. There are still a few tin shacks remaining that have been preserved by locals. Walking through them was wonderful. Hope you enjoy my pictures of the interiors. What wonderful old junk. I took the picture of Thundermug tree for Barb's entertainment.

Time to head home!

I will be adding photos to this post as I complete works.

This is the latest hooking that I have completed. It was a companion piece to the leaves but it took me a while to source the right colour wool for the Luna Moth. In the end I used some upholstery fabric which is fraying but it looks ok. I loved working out the colors for the moth that is on the bottom of the panel.

I finally finished the hooked rug of the water at Wharton Bay. I had a lot of trouble with the white crashing surf and how to recreate it. I am not totally happy with the results but overall I am happy with it. I hooked the white clouds and thought they just looked like plain white blobs so I took a variegated yarn and hooked it up between the white wool. This gave it a beaded effect which added to the depth and texture of the clouds. That was my new discovery. My photo has lightened the colours a bit. The teal colour in the middle is actually a bit greener and brighter in real life.

This is the one that I am working on currently. It was inspired by a recent fishing trip to the Duc of Orleans. I fell in love with the water at Wharton Beach and took lots of photos of it. On our way home through Esperance we stopped for breakfast and I ducked into a little craft shop and found a basket of Cascade 220 yarn in the range of colors that I had seen. I bought them not knowing what I was going to do with them. So most of this rug is hooked with yarn rather than cut wool.

I worked on this little rug for an online class with Deanne Fitzpatrick of Nova Scotia. She is the lady that I bought my first kit from. We were working on water and sky. It was inspired by my memories of a two week family vacation to Cape Cod. I was not happy with the grey house in the lower left corner. Deanne said that because I have so much movement going on with the water and the sky I should make the land a place for the eye to rest. So I ripped out the left corner and redid it. Not sure I was successful at making it more restfull. You be the judge.

Final version of Waquoit Bay.

Fun stars for Christmas ornaments.

A small scallop. Would make a nice coaster with Felt glued to the back. I was just playing around and trying out my smaller wooden hoop.

This panel is one of two. I have yet to hook the second one. I had no white wool for background so I ended up using some of my handspun yarn. It was my first experience hooking yarn.

Mr Pickle. The pattern was an inexpensive pattern that I bought on ebay of a traditional looking cat mat with welcome on it. I embellished the border and the background. I made it for TV who loves her kitten Mr. Pickle so I made the cat look like him.

This was my second attempt at hooking. I bought the pattern again on ebay from Olde Scotties Primitives. I loved the simplicity of it and since I was going back home for the Fourth of July it was appropriate. I put 2010 on the plant pot since it was the year that I went and Ana was graduating from University. It is now a nicely backed pillow.

My first rug should be here but I have to get a photo of it. It was the first kit that I bought from Deanne Fitzpatrick of sunflowers. I thought myself as I worked on that rug. I laugh now when I think of some of the rigid ideas I had about hooking back then. It took me about a year to do it as I would only hook for short periods of time and I had it on a huge quilting hoop that was quite awkward. It now belongs to Ana.