SEBRING PART ONE

My mom and I had a great time in Sebring - it was very hot down there the first 3 days and then rained on our last day and all the way home.  I took a lot of photos of the rug exhibit so I am going to have to break this post up into two parts.  I am sorry if I did not photograph your rug - it was dark in the lobby area where the rugs are displayed and some of the photos were just too dark to put up on the blog.  Others are not great but I'm going to show them anyway.  Sorry but I did not make notes at to the makers of these rugs so again - my apologies for not giving recognition to the maker of these lovely rugs.

There was a variety of cuts and styles in this exhibit however I would say that there were probably more fine cuts than wide in this exhibit. Fine is basically 3 and 4 cut and typically does not include 5 and 6 but people who hook with 8, 9 and 10 cuts consider 5 a fine cut - not to confuse the non-hookers out there but I'm just trying to say there were more rugs 6 and under than there was 7 and up.

These two patriotic rugs are by Polly Minick - she is a well known artisan who has appeared in publications such as Coastal living, Country Home, Southern Living and sells her rugs in galleries all over the US.  Polly was teaching a class at Sebring and while I love my teacher - I wish I had taken the opportunity to be in Polly's class - she doesn't teach that often.  She is the other half of Minick and Simpson and has a very active blog with her sister Laurie Simpson who designs quilts.  Polly and Laurie have a beatiful line of fabrics by Moda and I love their style.  They are team teaching a workshop at Mackinaw Island this fall and how I would love to be able to go to that workshop.

So many enchanting rugs in this exhibit - so many hours of work goes into these rugs.  I thought the exhibit was really good this year and I was pleased that Miss Merrie was debuted among all these fine works.

In Part II - I will show some of the beautiful flowers and landscaping at the Inn in Sebring and show rugs in progress from my class.  I hope to get to that tomorrow but in case I don't - have a great weekend.

MARCH HARES

It's a fine spring day here in NE FL - I have the french doors open in my office and a gentle breeze is blowing in off the river.  If I could be stitching or knitting it would be total bliss but it is quite enjoyable for a work afternoon.

I was so excited yesterday when I got an email from Joanie that I had won her "I'm so tired of winter" giveaway.  I've never won a thing so needless to say I was very excited to hear that news.  Pop over to Joanie's blog and see what she is up to.

Before I show you a few fun bunnies - I am going to show a couple of photos of my main sampler WIP's - Here is a shot of Elizabeth Savilles - I am really enjoying this sampler - the silks are so lucious and so far there are only 3 colors of Gloriana being used - 2 pinks and one green - lovely isn't it !

Here is only 1/2 of the Spanish Mystery SAL - this sampler is SOOO big - I can't hardly fit the whole width in one frame - I am starting on the 4th band - thankfully it is not that light blue - I was getting tired of that color.  This sampler is relaxing and easy to stitch in spite of the huge size  - Jody thought it was a lap robe because when it is chilly at night I throw it out on my lap as I am stitching on it  - I'm sure some of you will shreik but I don't see any harm in utilizing the other end of this 1/2 yard piece of linen to help keep me warm at night .  Oops - I see a leaf I forgot - will go back and catch that one tonight.

Finally the Miss Trenners Academy box set and charts have arrived.  I've been waiting for this pre-order from market for a long time - actually I have been waiting for this box set since I first heard about it from Ellen - With my Needle when I saw her in December.  They are much larger than I expected and I LOVE them - I have the perfect spot for them to live while waiting for the stitching to be done.  Everything Ellen does is incredible - her finishing instructions are always top notch.  I am so pleased I was able to get a set of these limited edition boxes for my collection.

 There is a great primitive artisan in our area - she used to sell a great deal of her creations to the Olde Green Cupboard .  She has a shop in St Mary's GA called the Feathered Nest - Meet Bertram the bunny - he is soooo cute - he is sitting on a wooly carrot - his momma Harriet came to live with me last year.  I will probably show some shots of more of  my easter stuff in April.

I've been working on my Hare Easter lately.  This was adapted from Paulette's (Plum Street Samplers) freebie design for cross stitch.  I thought they needed some grass to stand in so I started adding that at rug guild on Sunday.  That pale aqua around their legs is the color of the backround.  My friend Katie transferred this pattern for me to rug canvas and she added a cute border with carrots which you can't see because I have it folded back -  I am having second thoughts about hooking this border - I want the bunny family to be the main focus of this rug and I think those giant killer carrots might be distracting from the subdued colors in the center.  I found a great easter eggy spot dye that would make a great border to finish off the rug.  I know exactly where I got it and from what teacher but Katie thinks she can duplicate it as I don't have enough to put a decent sized border on with what little I have left in my stash.

Speaking of rug hooking - I am leaving Friday morning for Sebring for a 4 day rug camp with my mom and DF Susan.  Mom and I have been going to this camp in March for quite a few years now.  We just love going to this small family owned inn on the lakes - their meals as chef prepared and it is just a wonderful relaxing setting.  We have the same teacher that we had at the rug camp in January.  We are both continuing on with our new starts from January.  Hopefully next post - I will have lots of shots from the exhibit and from our class to show you.

many thanks to everyone who commented on my Merrie Halloween - to finish a rug is a great accomplishment for me and I so appreciate all your wonderful comments on her.  Wishing you all warm spring days, gentle breezes and little march hares in your gardens.

MISS MERRIE - TAKE A BOW

Needless to say I am still ecstatic over my finish of Merrie Halloween on Sunday. She is a pretty miss in my opinion. For any rug hookers out there - she was hooked mostly in a 6 cut with hand dyed wool and the color plan and wool was by Diane Stoffel. There are some finer details in a 4 and 5 cut. The binding is not done but I consider her complete when the hooking is done. Here is a full shot of the rug which is 28" X 38" - WOW - that was bigger than I thought it was. I've been working on her a little over 3 years but of course have done lots of other things since I started her on Halloween weekend at a private workshop with Diane.

For some strange reason I have been unable to upload photos all week using my normal method of uploading the photos from my computer - the select button has not been active and is still not active.  I had to mess around with loading this from webshots - good thing I remember I could still do it that way.

Here is a little closer shot of her face and the vining which I love - too bad you can't see how beautiful the wool actually - I just presume most of my readers are non hookers and don't really care about seeing a lot of fine details. 

so - there you go - a BIG finish on my 11 in 2011 Challenge list can be marked off DONE - outta here !

I hope you are all having a good week and taking some time to do what you love to do.

WHAT TO SAY?

I had another cheery title picked out for this blog post but I just could not force myself into a cheery mood.  The news of Lisa Rowell's tragic death in Ohio hangs heavy in blogland this week.  There was also another sad passing of a vibrant 50something rug hooking designer and teacher - Kim Nixon of Under the Rug studio in Tennessee.  She succumbed to cancer leaving behind a family, many friends and fans.  I was never able to take a class with Kim but my A&E cube stool cover is one of her designs.  Both of these talented ladies will be missed.
I don't have much to show but I did finish my february assignment on the Spanish Mystery Sampler - an SAL I am doing with the Attic.  It is so wide - I have trouble getting a decent photo of it.

Here is a close up shot so you can see more of the color contained in the February band and since yesterday was March 1st - I felt I had to sink a few stitches but my heart just wasn't in doing any stitching last night so I switched to knitting before I screwed up on this.

This seems like a pitiful amount of stitching but honestly - I don't get much done.  This is my start on Elizabeth Savilles.  I could not resist starting her since we are having unseasonably warm temps here in NE FL - All the flowering trees are blooming - I just wanted something bright and colorful to stitch.  This is stitched on the called for LL Meadow Rue - vintage 36ct and Theresa at Shakespeares's Peddler so kindly converted the Olde Willow cottons for me to Gloriana silk floss and Gloriana Florimell.  The colors are stunning and I am so pleased with how they look on the linen.  I was working on this sunday and found an error and had to pull that whole flower out and start over - goofed up on the stem which made me 1 stinkin stitch off.  Don't you hate that !

What is this mystery shot??  This is all that I have left to do on Merry Halloween - YAHOO !!!!!!!

I finished the last of the black backround on Sunday morning - All I have left is the mound she is standing on.  Just a few more hours and I will have this Miss completed.  Mom and I are making our annual trip to Sebring for a rug camp at the end of the month and I so wanted Miss Merry to be finished for the exhibit especially since I missed finishing her for the exhibit in January.

I got a big box of wool from my teacher for Sebring week before last.  Since I revamped the whole color plan on my big oriental rug in January - I needed more wool in certain colors - so I really should spend some time with that rug before the end of the month.  I would love to come close to finishing the center medallion while at that camp.  She is also brining my backround to Sebring and then the color plan will be complete. I hope 2011 is the year to finish up a few rugs - I have several that could be finished this year if I just remain focused and continue to hook thru the summer months.

I'm going to leave you today with a quote from Marie Beyon Ray that really hits home in view of the passing Kim and Lisa.

"begin doing what you want to do now.  We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand --- and melting like a snowflake."

Wishing you all peace and much happiness