Diane Stoffel IS COMING

I am showing you the rug I did of my son!  Diane Stoffel helped me with it when she was here in March.  I can assure you, it is not something I would tackle on my own.  The rug shows my son Will after a day of working cattle.  He is sitting on the cattle chute, a beverage in hand (I am sure it was a diet Pepsi, right).  You can see the shadow of his horse next to him, the horse's head is lowered, as is the the head of the tired cowboy.  You can see that they both had a hard day.  Will's friend Heather is a wonderful photographer and snapped this picture at just the right moment.  I knew the minute I saw the photo that I needed to hook it into a rug.

I blew the photo up at Kinko's, then transferred it off on linen, using red dot.  I didn't worry about drawing in  a lot of details, I knew I would add those as I hooked it.  In person, you can see the tiny little silver buckles I added to his spur straps.

With Diane's help, I started on the hat, then worked the shirt, complete with wrinkles and turns to show the bend in his elbow.  That was tricky!  By the time I got to the jeans, I had figured it out and loved working with the blues to show the faded, worn jeans and creases in them.   Diane kept throwing wool at me, saying "Use this for the shadow here, this is the rust on the chute, there."

This is the beauty of a wonderful teacher and Diane Stoffel is one of the BEST you will ever meet.  She gives you such confidence working thru each element, until pretty soon, you are able to move on without her standing at your shoulder.  Remember, there were 16 people in this class and each one got the attention they needed to hook their project, along with mini classes on color, technique tips and more.

I tell you this today…..because Diane is coming to teach a class my store this Friday, Saturday and Sunday July 25,26,27.  The class has been full for a long while, and today…..I got a call from someone who is not going to be able to come.  So, here is a rare opportunity to step into a Diane Stoffel class at the last minute.

Anyone interested, email me at janicelee@me.com for complete information.  I guarantee it will be 3 of the most productive, educational and FUN days of your life.

Janice

Autumn Gobbler Finished

Autumn Gobbler, a Jan Goos design that I started hooking in a class taught by Jan Goos herself, is DONE.  I particularly like the Indian corn  These similar value rugs are particularly challenging, but as Jan says "you have to make your wool work for you and 'love' in a little here and there to make the colors stand out."

Below is my shaded rose from the Newton Teacher's Workshop, complete with a 3 cut shaded rose.  A proud day for sure.  I did the leaves and background in a 5 cut, because I could not bear the thought of a 3 cut background.  But I think it looks fine and I am proud of the result.  Thank you Livily Powers for the fine instruction.

Don't forget, that we hook Friday and Saturday this week, July 11 and 12.  We missed first Saturday because of the holiday weekend, so we are bumping it back to this weekend.  Join us, as always….all are welcome and it is FREE!

Til then…..
Janice

Fall Hook-In Weekend Plans

Only slightly behind schedule, here are some pictures from the Jan Goos "Autumn Gobbler" class that we held here at the store on June 21.  Jan designed a wonderful turkey rug, shown a few posts ago, the students could select the rug in one of 3 sizes.  I drew them up and the class was ON.

Nine of us worked on our turkeys, every one in a different color plan.  My turkey is plums and browns, some were turquoise flavored others were rich greys and tans.

Shown above are Suzanne Burgoin and Linda Stortenbecker, very serious about their projects.

Kathy Berkshire, Judy Orendorff work with teacher Jan Goos in the 2nd photo.  In the 3rd photo Jan is going thru some of the stacks of wool here at the store, to select just the right thing for someone's primitive sunflower or pumpkin to accent their turkey.

It was a great class, fantastic people and a good time was had by all.  I am almost done with my project, so I will show a picture later this week.

Jan will be doing another of these 'Single Saturday' classes on October 4th.  The Hook-In in Omaha will be on October 3rd, so I am again planning events here at the store for AFTER the
hook-in.  Friday we will have OPEN hooking from 4 til 10pm.  Carl will make dinner for all, there will be door prizes, of course.  Then Saturday, we will have OPEN HOOKING from 9 to 6pm.  I have hired Jan to teach a "Chalkware Santa" design to anyone interested in taking the class on Saturday.  She will have 4 different Santa color combinations made up ahead of time.  You will get to sign up for the class, select your color scheme, then I will make up the patterns and kits to be ready for October 4th.  The pattern, on linen, and the wool for the hooked project will be only $50.  The class, taught by Jan Goos,  is on me, to thank all my customers for their continued wonderfulness.

Let me know if you would like to be on this class list.  We will be able to have 20 or so working on Santas that day.  You can get your name on the list, then pick out your Santa color (red, blue, white or brown) when the samples are available later this summer.   For those not planning on hooking the Santa, we will have open hooking all day long, lunch, snacks and more prizes to be given out thru out the day.  Plan to attend the Hook-in on October 3 at 120th and Pacific St in Omaha, from 9-3, then come join us for more hooking fun on Friday afternoon and evening and all day Saturday October 4th.

That will be here before we know it!!!!!!
Til next time.
j