Time for an update.  My sea turtles are swimming right along!  The turtles are hooked using my leftover strips which I like to call noodles.  No new wool has been cut for the turtles.   Just look at those faces!!

The background is a variety of fibers including cotton batik, hand-spun yarn, hand-dyed velvet, wool roving, commercial yarn, mohair locks, sari ribbon, chiffon ribbon, and probably more that I don't remember right now.  Lots of texture in the water.  As I hook toward the top the values will become lighter and brighter.

I joked to a friend that the faces are perfect, and hooking more might create some mistakes, so I might just leave it as an unfinished perfect work of art.

That is the new excuse for a pile of unfinished projects,  perfection.

Finally, it is complete and with a nice label too!  I began this rug in 2017 with Sally Ballinger with the goal of learning her technique of fine shading flowers and scrolls.  Flowers used 8 value straight gradation swatches.  Scrolls used dip dye over 6 pastel wool strips.  

60" in diameter, #3 cut.

Gainesborough OSV #440 by Pearl McGown.

I purchased the pattern on burlap  at garage sale and transferred the design to linen.

I only wish I would have finished it sooner to show Sally.

This is a little Beka rigid heddle loom, with a 4" reed.  It came to me with a broken back beam, and no reed.  Of course I had to fix it, and purchase the #10 dent 4" reed.

Then learn to use it, thanks to youtube videos.  I wove a hatband for the hat I wear to keep the blazing sun off my head.

Always good to try new tools and techniques.

Florida Tropical Weavers Guild Annual conference will be live and in person  in March 2023!!

We will be at a new venue, the Wyndham Orlando Resort/conference Center in Celebration Florida.

Registration is open, check out the classes and schedule and come to join us!

I am honored to be teaching a rug hooking class at the conference.  All about hooking landscapes with mixed media!!  So many fabrics and fibers to explore during class, and some special techniques also.  I can't wait to be there in person!

Americana and flags are popular all year round.  I won this pattern, by Debra Schrang, at a hook-in several years ago.  Using my own hand-dyed wool in  #10 cut strips on linen using a fat hartman hook, I got it done this week.  Pulling wide strips through the linen was hard on my hands even with the fat hook.  Plenty of hand stretches, and only hooking for short times helped.  

I made a covered cording to finish and sewed it on by hand.  Nice little rug, 24" x 18.5",  extremely soft and squishy!

My first ever overshot on my Baby Wolf floor loom! 

I signed up for an online weaving class with Kelly Casanova weaving school.  8/2 natural cotton for the warp and tabby.   Navy 3/2 cotton for the pattern weft.  Slow but sure, checking and rechecking all the steps along the way.  Weaving was faster than warping the loom!  Unweaving is slower.  

It looks nice on the table with a Blenko hand-blown glass vase.  Finished size is 48" x 20".

Time for a summer update.  It is no cooler here on the shady hill than anywhere else. 101 degrees early this afternoon. My dye kitchen is in the garage so no dyeing here until the temperatures take a dive. 

The Greenway Fiber Arts Society is meeting again although not at my home.  The sheriff station has a community  room available so we use it on the first Friday of each month. If you are in the Ocala Florida area and interested in  the fiber arts  send me an email and I will fill you in on all the details.

Update on Gainesboro:  Only one rose to hook, and one tulip to fix.  Then done.  Did I mention it is hot here?  Too hot to have the big rug in my lap, even with A/C and a fan.  It will wait until winter.

The rug pattern here is in my online store along with many other Pearl McGown OSV patterns on rug warp.  All are big, and beautiful and in  stock.

This is the before picture of a chair picked up on the side of the road during an adventure with a friend.  Nice and sturdy and even comfortable to sit in.  I will keep it in the studio.  However the seat needs a make over.  I thought about weaving fabric in my own design, and colorway.

This is what I came up with!  A tie-dye hand-dyed wool to cover the seat.  It has  been hanging around the studio for awhile because it is too pretty to cut.  Due to the stretchiness of hand-dyed wool I ironed adhesive fleece to give it some stability as it is stretched around to the back.  

Sea turtles are up next on the frame!  My collection of "water" keeps growing as I throw new fibers in the over flowing bag. It's flooding with cotton batik, silk sari ribbon, chiffon ribbon, several hand-spun and  hand-dyed yarns, and a bit of hand-dyed wool.  Mixed media for this one!  We were in the Florida Keys last week and I do believe I have the right colors for the glorious water we saw.  Now, the search for finding visuals and supplies for the cutest sea turtles.   Design by Carolyn Stitch, I have a couple for sale in my store here!  Take a look at all the patterns.

Only one rose and a  small bit of scrolls on Gainesboro rug.  I have dyed the yarn for whipping the edge, so I am ahead with that.  Steaming a rug 60" in diameter might prove a challenge!

Save the date!  March 16 thru 19, 2023!!

My class proposal for using mixed media in rug hooking a small landscape has been accepted by Florida Tropical Weavers Guild and I will be teaching at the 2023 annual conference!!!

All the details are at FTWG.org.

The photo shows a sample of what can be hooked, other than wool.  Sari ribbon, silk, velvet, novelty yarns, hand-dyed rovings, curly locks, fabric, hand-spun art yarns, and more!!!  All these will be available during class for students to sample in their project.  So many possibilities!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I am still working on my Gainesboro rug.  And am determined to get it done by June, 2022.  Summer and fall are too hot to have this large rug draping over my lap.  Now that the weather is cooler I can work on it more often.

February is almost over and way past due to really clean up the studio.  The wool wall is refolded, restacked, reorganized today.  The picture shows only a portion of the wall.  The rest will be done later this week, at least before March rolls in.

I enjoyed taking an online weaving class to learn overshot technique on my rigid hedddle loom.  So many patterns to learn when I made some adjustments to use a 4 shaft pattern!  Cant wait until I find the perfect yarn for the scarf pattern in the class.  Class by Kelly Casanova weaving school.  I highly recommend.

Until the yarn is chosen I will get back to hooking my large rug.  Making progress with hooking an hour a day.  Hope to be done by my self imposed June deadline.

One way to stay warm!!!  Hook a large rug that covers your lap, and all the way to the floor!  This picture is a month old so there is more done now.  

I probably should take a break and put up some Christmas decorations.

Lovely purples, radiant reds, and a brilliant blue, herringbone, tweeds and plaids.

 I washed these so you don't have to.  You can start your project right away!

Available in my website store!

Wow!  Can you imagine a rug braided with these three!  I can!

They are listed in the website store ready to ship out to you!  I washed all this wool so it is ready for you to use right away.   

I will be adding more in a couple days!

I started this a week ago as a gift for our daughter.  Polka dots and zigzags are the focus in this rug.  I am using darks and lights to have great contrast for the design to show up.  The pattern comes from Nancy Young, a well known braiding teacher in Maine.  This is her Killer Chair pad pattern.  I understand the "killer" now, as each row is individual, and therefore, butted.  9 rows here, 9 times to perfect the butting.  

This measure 18" in diameter now.  I would like it larger.  The decision to make is what color row next.  Yellow and light green?  all three?  I will braid some samples to help make up my mind.

The noodle bags are overflowing like a cascading waterfall!  This little round footstool has been wanting a new cover, so it's time!  A few tips and techniques to help you.  When you want to use up noodles for a hit & miss project I find the finished piece easier to look at when you make a rule or two to follow.  My rules beyond using only noodles, were 1.  use lime green for the center of circles.  2. only use blue to red on the color wheel for the circles.  red, red violet, blue violet, blue. 3. use all lightest pastel values, any color.

Now I have a plan, ready to sort the leftover strips and begin.

I used a rummage sale footstool.  Kind of old but solid and sturdy.  The hardware was in good shape so I was able to reuse it.  The legs do need refinishing but it's way too hot to work in the garage, so will wait til winter.  When I finished hooking I put cording on top of the backing right next to the hooking and whipped with two strands of wool yarn.  Then measured how much backing I needed to fold to the back..  Remember to measure twice before you cut!  I left the old cover on so I did not have to add layers of padding.  The cording did cause a bit of waviness at the edge, so on a future round piece I will consider a row of chain stitch instead.  Staple the backing on, stretching from side to side.  Add the liner to cover the raw edge of backing and tack in place leave space for the leg braces.  Screw in the leg brace.  Using a screw through the layers of fabric caused a problem.  The screw snagged the liner and the linen backing pulling threads unevenly.    I had to use sharp pointy scissors and exacto knife to cut tiny holes to make space for the screw to not catch any threads.  Are you ready to tackle your footstool project?  Have fun! 

Pack your go bags everyone!  Remember to bring finished items for the fiber exhibit, a wearable fiber art for the fashion parade, a pet supply donation to the Humane Society of Marion County, a project to work on for the day, rug hooking, spinning (a spinning vortex will be in the middle of the room), weaving, knitting, kumihimo, any fiber art is welcome!  We will be at the Klein Conference Center at the College of Central Florida in Ocala Fl.   Pre-registration required at ShadyHillRugHooking.com.