Mission Accomplished

Mission accomplished!  We finished up our Heirloom Workshop today.  After three days of hooking and eating and laughing, everyone headed for home.

Shown in photo, left to right:  Linda Walton, Kathy Berkshire, Sharan Keegan, Karen Gregg, Me (Janice Lee), Suzanne Burgoin and Larry Walton.  Sandy Weller was also in the class, but she was busy being the photographer for this picture.

Kathy Berkshire did a pattern from Vermont Folk Rugs.  We colored planned this rug to have two black horses, in Whole Wheat echoes.  The Old Maine hearts are sporting lovely gold stars that Kathy will carry out in color and theme to her border.  The wonderful geometrics will all have black 'gridwork' around them.  Then wonderfully muted colors in blue, green, reds and golds will help decorate the geometric shapes.  This rug is going to look very old and Kathy embraced the ideas of making a vintage look rug.

Next, is ol' Sandy Weller, a problem child for sure.  You may remember that I talked about Sandy and her 'pretty' rugs a few weeks ago.  This time, I was determined she was going to make one of those 'so homely only a mother could love it' kind of rugs.  Well, things went better, but it is still darn pretty.  We used lots of black grid work,  different shades of Molasses and Brown Sugar for her basket and a Maple Creme background.  Her flowers are pastels, but hopefully the outlining and similar values will help give it an old look.  We can only hope.

Larry Walton is doing a great rug from Designs by the Lady.  This rug has a rooster, pig and sheep, standing on top of one another.  The animals are all going to be done in white, tans, browns, with a touch of gold and red.  They will be simple and plain, because..........Larry's background is going to a rockin' blue.  He found a rug in a book of antique rugs that had a great blue background in several different values and hues.  Larry plans to make his background to resemble the old rug and we selected lots of different blue colors, royal blue to turquoise, that he is going to hook in straight lines horizontally, like a skyline.  This is going to be challenging, but Larry is up to the task.  He is a great rug hooker and should be.....he was taught by his daughter Cammie Bruce who is a great rug hooker and teacher, herself.

Next is Linda Walton, Larry's wife and Cammie's mom!!!  She too is a great rug hooker and took on the challenge of a Tree of Life pattern from Barb Carroll.   She selected a variety of brown sugars for her tree,  and reds, corals, turquoises, blues and tans for the polka dots on the tree.  There are a million of them and I don't envy her having to hook all those dots.  This rug is going to have a hit and miss background and Linda will use everything from the tree and polka dots and incorporate them into the striking background.  She also wins the most photogenic award for this picture.  What a great smile.

Sharan Keegan is relatively new to rug hooking, but joined in the fun for this class.  And did a great job!!!!!!  She selected a Needl' Love pattern, the turkey gobbler.  She wanted to use a great poisony green, burgandy, rose, some Moose on the Loose for her turkey and a smutty blue/grey called Funky Monkey for her background.  She got a lot down and I can tell she is going to be a very good rug hooker.


Karen Gregg chose a patten from Patsy Becker based on an antique design.  It has a very simple flower pot, stems and leaves with petals on top.  In the corners are stars, and Karen
 decided to put her initials inside the stars to personalize this special rug.  The pot is an assortment of blues in a turquoise hue, the stems are a poison green and the flowers pinks and corals.  This very simple color scheme is going to have a background of nearly white.  We selected oatmeals that had been over dyed slightly with green and blue and yellow washes.  The result is cool and dramatic.  We saw a background in a book of antique rugs and just had to try it.  I think it will be stunning.


Last, but not least, we have Suzanne Burgoin.  Suzanne picked another Patsy Becker pattern, a very old looking pair of cats in a heart shape, with a simple vase with 2 flowers coming out of it.  We picked an assortment of my blacks for the cats, 5 different colors of Molasses for the pot and a rich red for the flowers.  Then it was time to hit the noodle bins.  As an exercise in value, the whole class helped select Suzanne's background color.  It is a rich assortment of greens, golds, browns, blues etc. and will be applied in a horizontal hit and miss pattern.  This rug is already looking old, old, old and I think will be one Suzanne is going to love hooking.

Thanks to all who attended.  I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone better and enjoyed watching their rugs progress.  When they get them done I will get photos so I can put them on the blog.  For now, I am off to bed.  Who would think that a little rug hooking could wear a person out so.

Til next time,

Janice