Maureen's batch of mats

The fantasy mat on the right I call "tall skinny crewel"; it was hooked in wide-cut bright colours right into a fairly loosely woven Cottage Craft wool, to brighten up a dark corner by our back door. Because no flower is meant to be recognizable, it was fun to just play with colours and shapes; these type of flowers are often called 'padulas' in rughooking circles. Hooked in many cuts, from #3 to hand-torn 1/2" wide wools. As-is and specialty dyed wools; 10" wide by 39" tall.

Cottage Craft is a wool shop in the heart of St Andrews, NB (Canada), right on Market Square: "Producing quality Canadian woollen products in St. Andrews by-the-Sea for over ninety years…." They offer handknit sweaters, exclusive tweed apparel, woollen skeins in a wide array of colours and sweater kits. Cottage Craft yarns and hand-woven tweed are 100% wool, made here in the Canadian maritimes.

 

A funky cat (left), hooked for a friend's sister-in-law. Hooked in wide cut yarn fabric; 10" x 8". 

Georgia's mat, below, was made for our one-year old granddaughter.

The mat is 29" W x 20" tall, hooked on linen;  mainly #6 to #8 cut (6/32" to 8/32", which is how rughookers measure the cut wool strips that we use to hook our mats and rugs) with some hand-torn, up to 5/8" wide.

Georgia trying out her new mat, before it was finished (also her new birthday bathing suit, ready for summer fun!)

Here are some more mats, in various stages. I guess I should finish up a few!

Two Deer & a Tree
(Mostly wide hand-torn and cut 100% wool fabrics,
on burlap; 22" x 19")

 

 

 

abstract hit-or-miss, scrappy little mat
(10.5" x 12"; unfinished)

stained glass workshop little mat
(10.5" x 14"; unfinished)

Another crewel play piece, destined to be
a pillow someday. Fantasy flowers are fun!
(#5,6 & 8 cuts; 13" x 12.5" on Verel; unfinished)

(all original designs, Maureen Mc, except stained glass sailboat, from a workshop with Doris Norman)

Of Petals and Wool: Food Court Mob, Hallelujah Chorus ...

I have to wonder how many were plants (from a community choir, for instance) and how many just joined in for the love of singing. I bet there were a lot of people in the food court and mall that day that had never heard the splendour of the Hallelujah chorus sung in parts by a 'mob'.

(link to) Of Petals and Wool blog: video - Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus ...

Religious affiliation aside, this is a vocal tour de force. The acoustics aren't bad, either!

The greens look a tad grey here, and the letters need tweaking, but it seems to fit with today's post. A traditional style hooked mat with padulas - imaginary flowers - in 100% wool, woven and sweater/knit strips. #6-8 and handcut on Verel. (Maureen M)

More mats on the go by Quoddy Loopers...

Mary J's wedding rug for Natasha

Mary J designed a sunshiney yellow mat for her niece and new husband...  "Live Love Laugh Forever" - good words to be going on with in a marriage!

Hella H put her current mat on hold to work on her Rug Rave rug for Rug Aid. (designer, Heather Ritchie)

Hella H's Rug-Aid Rug Rave mat in progress

I am, unfortunately, late in getting these posted, so will hope to soon have finished photos of them all!
 

Lynn K's mat is nearly finished!

 Lynn K has a couple of mats done. This one is adorable and so close to being finished; designed by ????. The apple tree, saltbox house, padula flower, stars and crescent moon make an appealing scene, out of scale as many primitive rugs are.

Lynn is currently working on Sylvia Squirrel, a free pattern from Rug Hooking Magazine. Sept/Oct 2009 issue, designed by Mary Johnson, Designs in Wool. Her squirrel has sparkly fluffy grey tail and accents - very cute!

Here are a few small (approx 6" in diameter) funny faces that I plan to stuff and stick on branches gathered from our little woods, with ribbons around their 'necks'. From there, who knows? Perhaps stand in a plant or a vase, just for fun. (Thanks to Pauline, on Rug Hooking Daily / RHD for letting me 'borrow' her idea! However, the designs are my own, such as they are)

RHD is the free rughooking forum started by Heidi Wulfraat of London-Wul for Atlantic Canadian wool addicts, but now the membership is global.

Floral message board

I know Verel is a dirty word to many rughookers, but I thought it would have some practical applications, so have made a few tote bags with small hooked motif and a message board with a hooked padula floral border.

The pushpins are a serendipitous dollar store find. There are loads of interesting options now available, at various price points.

Verel has been used for office dividers and the like before, and while it is a synthetic fabric and not suitable for rugs or mats on the floor, it works fine for smaller decorative items and wallhangings. The 'board' part of the floral message board is 3/8" styrofoam and 1/4" cork, so that the pushpins will stay and not degrade the styrofoam. I hooked the edges, leaving the corners unhooked so I could 'mitre' it and reduce bulk at the corners. The padulas [fantasy flowers in the rughooking world] are done with hit-or-miss like colours, as are the stems and leaves, in various greens.

Once I sewed the verel around the backing material, I connected the opposing sides along their length to make it taut, then lined it and affixed a label with name, date etc.

I haven't 'road tested' the willow tree tote bag, but I am fairly certain it will hold up - the question is not if the Verel will last, but whether, over time, it will abrade the wool strips. I have used a light fabric 'lining', adhered with fabric adhesive over the hooked area only. The other thing I like about Verel is that it comes in several colours, not to mention being economical.

While the weave is rather tight, I find it easy, with a large-shafted hook, to hook up to an 8-cut wool strip, in primitive style. It will take a wider cut, but does buckle a bit. The close weave makes it suitable for a tote bag. Knitting needles would likely pierce the fabric, but they will do that to most textiles.

My other plan for the message board is to make one to display our grandson Ruben's latest art project. He's just coming up to two, and is enjoying daycare in Toronto [too far from New Brunswick, but that's life--thank goodness for webcams!]. I haven't settled on a border pattern to hook, but maybe will use a variation on the Noah's Ark rug I made him.
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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.
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Something to brighten up the winter - and all this SNOW!

I felt like something bright and cheerful to work on, and to use up leftover worms. so this is what I am working on now: the wording is hard to make out in the photo [I think I need to change some colours here and there], but it will say:

live simply, laugh often, love much

The last border will be totally hit-or-miss and I hope to power through my odds and ends that way. The flying geese are hit or miss, as are the big padulas [fake flowers]. It is on primitive linen, mostly #6 cut wools - as-is, marbleized, casserole dyed... whatever I have on hand.
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