THE RUG CAMP THAT WAS

I had hoped to do a long post about Off the Ocean rug camp which ended yesterday.  However I have been extremely busy and feel I better break this up in two posts.

First I am going to show you my rug which I absolutely adore.

I selected Dianne Kelly from Ohio for my teacher again.  I have had Dianne as a teacher 3 or 4 times before and I love her wool - I have always liked every rug she has planned for me and this one is no exception.

My canvas was adapted by combining two lovely cross stitch patterns by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle fame.  Yes I did contact Brenda months ago and ask her permission to create her design on rug hooking canvas.  Most designers have no problem with this as long as you purchase the chart (s) and do not mass produce their work which I would never ever consider anyway.  Just common sense stuff.  My friend and our local certified rug hooking teacher Katie Puckett took the charts and did the tracing for me to linen.  To say I am pleased is an absolute understatement - I AM IN LOVE with my project.  It is evidenced by the amount of hooking I did in 4 days.  Last year my camp experience was disasterious - I was very sick - missed one whole day of class in the bed and tried to breathe life into a former project.  To say I was miserable last year was also an understatement.

Anyway - without further ado - here is my precious Santa and Ewe.

EGADS !  I have no idea why these came thru sideways - I don't know how to fix it either because when I saved the photos on my desktop they were correctly positioned.  Oh well - rug hooking is so large - I think you can all see the photos so I'm going to press on here.

TOO CUTE !  I just love how they came out.

No those stringy gold things on the feather tree are not going to stay that way - it is just a technique used to make a small dot like an eye - once the hooking is filling the backround - those long strands will be cut even with the loops.

My sheepy is just precious - I used the same wool in the swirls to do Santa's wooly trim on his hat.  Of course Santa shares the wooly warmth of his friend.

the holly border and the reindeer, tree and house on the other side that I did not focus in on are elements that came from the Sampler of the Season chart also by With Thy Needle.  It is a perfect way to frame out the Santa and Ewe.  Just love the folky look of this design.  You can't see much of the backround but it is a snowy whitish grayish bluish color.  Can't wait to see more of the backround go in.

Stay tuned for the exhibit photos from this rug camp along with some impromptu shots from the hooking room.