Workshop today with Doris Norman

Our group has the luxury of an excellent teacher living nearby, and Doris Norman comes down to St Andrews from Fredericton [approx 1 1/2 hrs] a couple of times a year. She has a busy schedule and teaches around the Maritimes, New England, etc. Just back from teaching in Newfoundland and Labrador, and one of our group actually went for the rughooking camp. The rest of us are green with envy, and would have loved to hop along in Diane's suitcase or Doris' basket. No such luck.

Today our workshop was 'Shading primitive leaves & flowers'. We mostly all used Doris' pattern - a largish double-petalled padula (fantasy flower) with three buds and several leaves. There was a fair bit of unhooking going along with the various hooked versions of the flowers, but we all ended up with something at the end of the day. Visit Doris' blog for more.

Doris also did a demo of marbleizing wools to marry them in the same colour family. She sandwiched a white length of wool between a brightish cerise and a purple/plum plaid, then rolled them from the short end to make a fat sausage, tied it in several places and put it dry into a pot with water and some dishwashing soap [she suggests Ivory as being a gentle one and easy on the wool]. This simmered along for about an hour while we hooked and then Doris added some citric acid to set the colours and simmered some more. Next, the reveal -- the central white piece picked up pink and purple dye in bands so would make a gentle background or some lovely clouds above a pinkish sky. Some wools bleed more of their dye into the water than others, but they all came out looking like they belonged together, which was the intent. The cerise piece didn't lose a lot of colour, but enough that it provided a different value, with a matching piece that hadn't gone into the pot.

If a few of us get our padulas finished, I'll post some photos. Brought the camera today and didn't remember to snap any pics - too busy hooking and yakking. An excellent day.
."Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of travelling" (quote from Margaret Lee Runbeck - an American author, 1905-1956) - another mat to use up spare woolly worms in the border - traditional flying geese quilt pattern [Maureen; original design]. It is not quite a hit-or-miss, as the spare worms are hooked in colour families in the triangles, but it appeals to my thrifty soul, as I can use quite short pieces and group them.
.