Did Some Dyeing Last Night

I'm getting ready to head to Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week, August 14 through 19, 2017.  Barb and I will be vending, and I am teach a workshop called Why Whip? Interesting Edges to Enhance Your Hooked Rugs.  The darker blue -- I call it Anthem Blue -- is stock for our booth next month.The lighter blue is the background for the bird rug I started a few years ago while on vacation in Northern Wisconsin.  It's about time to complete it, don't you think?  I'm hoping to have it ready to display in our booth at Sauder.  Keep your fingers crossed!

Dye Day and My Darling Daughter

I've been doing some dyeing, getting ready for the Long Island Fleece and Fiber Fair coming up in a couple of weeks.  I was inspired but the colors in the yard.  The daffodils are on the wane now, but the cherry trees that line our street are about to burst, as are my white lilacs.  The violets are out, the trillium are nodding their heavy heads, and the dandelions are everywhere!  So nice to see all this color after the long grey winter we had.

My daughter flew in on a red eye Friday.  She's spending a couple of days with us before a business meeting in Westchester tomorrow.  Its so nice to have her here.  No work for me today!  I'm going to enjoy her company while I have it.

New Season, New Rug

Paisley Sheep

While I have not -- obviously -- been writing, I have been working.  This rug, Paisley Sheep, has been in my brain for a couple of years.  It has changed some since the initial design -- I always thought it would have a black background -- but it is one of those rugs that hooked up quickly, because all the work was done in my head.  I love when that happens, and I LOVE this rug.

The sheep's coat is made from the Standing Wool Rug technique, another rag rug technique that I learned from Nola Heidbreder and her sister Linda Pietz years ago in a class called "Historic Rugs".  Lots of people incorporate this technique into their mats these days -- they are often called "quillies" after the Victorian paper craft of quilling.  I like to stick with the original name, but I don't stick with the original technique.  I like to shape my circles using a needle and thread, squeezing and manipulating them as I go, often using layers of different colored wool.  I love to do it, but it takes a lot of time, as every piece is hand sewn and then applied to the linen backing before I begin hooking.  I've used the same technique to add interesting edges to smaller mats as well.

The leaves and paisley shapes in the background are hooked with by sister Barb's hand-dyed wools -- the colors are Irish Moss, Watermelon, Citron, Vintage Teal, Mango, and Nova Lox.  You can find them in her etsy shop: thimblefolk.  The brown is my own hand-dye, Hedgehog Brown.  I decided, once I had the body of the sheep completed, that a black wool background would create too harsh a contrast.  The brown worked out just right.

The finished mat measures approximately 18 by 20 inches -- not too big.  The pattern will be available in my etsy shop shortly. Click here to get there: The Paisley Studio.

Happy Spring!  The warm weather can't be too far away.

If You Would Like Some of Your Own . . .

I just wanted to mention that my sister Barb sells her wonderful hand-dyed wool -- the same colors as we dyed over the weekend and others as well -- in her etsy shop thimblefolk.  I use it in many of my hooked rugs.  Fleur the Fox Terrier was hooked with lots of Barb's colors.

I am not the best photographer -- the camera flash made the colors in the photo in the previous post brighter than they actually are.  Her colors have a softness to them that my photos don't capture.  And, of course, computer monitors can distort colors . . .   The best way to view Barb's woolens is in person. Our first show of the year, the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival,  is coming up on April 27.  It's our first year as vendors at this show, which is in its 104th year!  Come and visit if you are in the area.