Friday, June 09, 2017

IN THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY

WELL !  I did it , I let the whole month of May slip by without making a blog post, for shame for shame.  I have no excuse except things were a bit busy. 

I guess the big event was a trip to Hiawassee Ga for a rug hooking workshop at the fabulous studio of Linda Bell, certified rug hooking teacher and owner of The Hookery.  She is on the banks of Lake Chatuge - the most picturesque and tranquil place I know of.  We had been there once before about 8 years ago and my folks wanted to go again.  It was my dear dads birthday weekend so off we went.

First stop Swainsboro Ga - The painted lady - the Coleman House which is over 100 years old and on the national Queen Ann registry of historic homes.  Years and years ago - a bunch of my stitching and rug hooking friends went up to this B&B for a retreat and it was a wonderful time.  They have a great  lunch buffet with the best fried chicken and fresh veggies 6 days a week if you are ever in the area.

Here is my dad and my DH standing in the side garden.  You can see the paint and gingerbread trim pretty good on the house.  That brick structure on the right is the old smokehouse.

Here is my dear mom taking one last look back at the expansive wrap around porch.
 So the workshop at Linda Bell's was taught by Karen Poetzinger from the Raleigh NC area.  I'm so sorry but all the photos I took of Linda, Karen and the other students were accidentally taken in "live" mode and can not be captured to the blog - RATS!  Check out her website, she had wonderful wool and some designs of her own.  Many of the class were working on her Rabbit in a hole stool - awesome !

Our goal was to have a stool cover ready to finish so you could get help with the finishing from Karen.  This was Becky's stool, she sat right next to me and worked so hard on sewing up the sides of her stool and pulling the seams like crazy to allow no canvas to show thru.  Hard work !  Isn't her stool beautiful !
Here is our view from Linda's studio every day.  BIG SIGH - I wish I was there now. This was after an evening of rain.  See the  rain clouds hanging low in the mountains which surround this heavenly place.

 For 3 days - I worked on my A&E stool cover - For my long term blog friends I'm sure you must think this project will outlive me.  I sure hope not.  I did make progress but with a 4 cut - it is pretty slow going.  It was also slow going because once I saw the process DUH - I realized how important it was going to be that all of the subject matter lined up correctly when you meet the seams.  So I had to do some pulling out because I had the ecru background starting too high on some of the panels.  The other thing that was important was constantly turning the canvas to make sure the blue sky was extending evenly down the 4 sides.
I did get some important hints from Karen on my rug - first of all - it was enlightening to realize once I saw the actual construction of the cube footstool that it was going to be hard if not impossible to make that zig zag border match up correctly on all 4 sides - not only in the hooking process but also in the sewing process.  SHOOT!  so that is going to have to all come out and will be replaced hopefully by a lovely green spot dye which will mimic a grassy knoll under the tree.  As I've said several times - the motifs and inspiration for his cube stool came from the antique sampler Jane Atkinson -yes I do have Jane in my chart collection - I even have 2 of them because I thought I lost her and bought another.  This design is actually by the wonderful designer Kim Nixon who passed away about 8 years ago.  The only thing left of her stool design is the lovely Eve, everything else was adapted to canvas for me by the very creative Katie Puckett of KISS rug studio.  Much of the wool was dyed by Katie and some came from my stash.  After seeing those stools being finished - I do so want my stool to be done.  Better pick up that hook and get to pulling loops.


Well my friends - the first week of June is already gone and I'm still living in May.  June 1st - you know what that means - Another summer of Camp Loopy !  Yes - my "bee eye" friends and I will be knitting the summer away - as hard and fast as our fingers can fly.  Next post I'll have my first camp project to show you.  Until we meet again - may summer be sweet and your needles busy.