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.

BUBBLE AND SQUEAK

For the thirteen years that I have been married to Phil, he has been ranting about this stuff that his mum used to make called Bubble and Squeak.  Beacause he doesn't cook he couldn't really tell me how to make it but it somehow involved leftover veggies.  Recently I decided to get to the bottom of it and started asking around work and family for the details.
Well, I wish I had done this sooner.   I might have saved all those leftover veggies from past roasts from ending up down in the chicken yard.  I have now embraced Bubble and Squeak much like my Trifle epiphany.
Here is how you do it.  I took advantage of cooking dinner last night to take pictures for this blog.

This is what I started out with:

Leftover leg of lamb, leftover veggies from the roast, leftover onions that had been fried with some sweet peppers for a previous dinner and my swiss chard (silver beet) washed and chopped.  Of course you only need the veggies to make the bubble and squeak.

Here is a close up of the rather unappetising leftover veggies:

I had roast potatoes, sweet potatoe, carrots and zuchini.  You cut these up into a cast iron skillet that has been well oiled with olive oil.

Cook the veggies on medium heat chopping them up and mashing them as you go with a metal spatula.

 

I like mine chunky but Phil prefers his a bit more smooth.  Once you think they have cooked enought shape it into a large looking cake.  Turn the heat down to low and let cook until a golden brown crust forms on the bottom.  Flip it and do the same on the other side.

Below is the finished product served up with lamb slices warmed up in gravy and steamed silver beet.  It is delicious!!  Bubble and Squeak rates up there with some of the best soul food on the planet.  Try it.

Latest hooking--Melaleucas on the South Coast

This is my latest hooking.  It is the largest one that I have done to date and was inspired by a place we camped near last year when we went fishing east of Esperance.  I am happy with the results.  I am going to do another one that is smaller, less busy and focuses more on the melaleucas (aka paperbarks).