Binding Night

Here it is, already Thursday.  Boy, did this week fly.  Pictured, is the fine group of rug hookers who made up the Heirloom Rug Class this week.  Not pictured, is Kathleen Salak, who was a wonderful addition to this FANTASTIC group.  I am not sure what we found sooooo funny, but we laughed ourselves till it hurt on many occasions thru out the 3 day class.  Hopefully, they learned a lot about the techniques of making an 'ugly bug rug' and a little history and general hooking knowledge to boot.

I promise to show their rugs as they finish them.  I won't say they were beautiful (they really were) because we laughed a lot about how these rugs need to be old, worm and homely looking.  The rugs are going to be outstanding.

Now….remember, our first BINDING NIGHT will be tomorrow, October 24 until 9pm or whenever Elsie and I drop dead from hooking exhaustion.  Els and I can always be counted on to be the last 2 in the room, so I look forward to getting lots done.  Carl will bring us something for dinner, so we won't have to pause too long for dinner.  Join us, we will hook all afternoon for those who can and then bind late into the evening.  It is free to all.  World problems will be solved and hopefully we can share some more stories about how we damaged our children thru out dubious parenting skills.

Tomorrow?…..

Janice

Do You Love Binding Rugs????

Heirloom Rug Workshop starts a week from today, October 19, so I am honoring some of my heirloom favorites this week.  This is a pattern from Woolley Fox that I made a few years ago.  My goal was to use all darks for the background, but not mix the various wools together.  Instead, I drew in patches and filled in the patches with the same dark wool.  There were blackie greens, blackie browns, some textures, some not.  It made a great black background, but with lots of interest.  I was particular about using the same wool in 3 different areas thru out the rug, so the colors appeared balanced.

OK, the title of this blog is DO YOU LOVE BINDING RUGS?????   Well, I already know the answer to the question.  No, you don't.  Nobody does.  I avoid it at all costs and try talking my buddies Sandy and Dr. Susan into binding for me, whenever possible.  Colleen was lamenting at hooking on Friday that she has 8 projects that need binding.  Well, the conversation lead us to the conclusion that we should have a special rug hooking event just for binding rugs.  Then Kathy Berkshire said "And it should be QUARTERLY!!!!"

So, our first RUG BINDING PARTY will be Friday night October 24.  You can come to hook for open hooking in the afternoon, or come after work…..whenever.  We will plan to work until 9pm.  Carl will bring us dinner and we will bind those darn rugs or else.  Sandy promised to be there to help people who want to make rugs into pillows.  She is a genius and can teach you to finish your rugs into beautiful pillows.

Join us…..of course, it is FREE, FREE, FREE.   We will plan another binding night after Christmas and try to keep up our quarterly schedule.  See you October 24 and feel the sense of accomplishment you too will get, when you get your binding projects done.

Janice

Pretty Ava Crowder

Tonight it is time for a horse story…..no rugs or wool or dogs……a HORSE story.

Carl and I love to ride. We are HORSE people.  Of course, you know my beautiful black and white paint gelding, Hairy.  He is the best, most solid, and well mannered horse on the planet.   We have been looking for a new horse for Carl.  His horse Sunnee is 23 years old and starting to be a little arthritic,  he needs a replacement, so he can retire from his riding duties.  

I located this absolutely adorable 15 year old crop out Paint mare near Austin Minnesota.  She has a bunch of western pleasure and horsemanship points and has a heart of gold.  I had her vetted and when she passed the vet exam, Carl and Blue and I drove to Minnesota to try her out.

It was love at first sight and after Carl rode her, we loaded her in the trailer and brought her home.  Her barn name was Lollipop, but Carl could not see himself calling her that, so we are calling her Ava Crowder after the heroine on "Justified".  Our vet calls his calf roping horse Raylon, after the hero on that show.  We all decided she was just as pretty as Ava Crowder, and had a little starch when she needed it.  Perfect, Ava Crowder it is.

So we brought Ava Crowder home and she needed to have her teeth done.   She had only been here for 4 days and had been from the pasture to her stall only 4 times.  Well.....I hate to admit this part of the  story because it makes me look like an idiot.  In 16 years here at the farm, I have only had 2 occasions where a horse snuck past me at the gate and got loose, but this is what happened.  The vet was coming to do her teeth on Monday morning, so I thought I would bring her pasture mate Tooey in also, so Tooey would not stand outside and scream for Ava Crowder.  So, I brought Tooey out of the gate and little Ms Crowder....leaked out behind her.  I mean just slipped out of that gate so slick that she got right past me.  Now I am thinking, OH SHIT, loose horse, new horse, vet will be driving in at any minute and he has been my friend for 40 years and loves nothing more than to give me CRAP!!!!  It could not be worse timing.  At this point, my paint gelding Hairy races up to the gate of his pasture and calls to her and I think, Oh, Good, she will go visit Hairy while I get Tooey put away.  But NOOOOOO, she trots off toward the barn.   Our barn is a little different configuration, it has an 8 stall barn, a connector barn that attaches to the indoor arena.  She trotted into the connector barn, where she could then go into the arena or out the door on the other side of the connector barn to get to the hay barn, pallets, equipment etc.   I could just picture her out picking her way thru the bad stuff as I raced Tooey to the barn into her stall.  I ran toward the arena, expecting to see our little chestnut darling somewhere she should not be, and did a quick double take at her stall.  She had gone into the connector barn, made a right turn into the stall barn and then another right turn and put herself away into the right stall, with all the other stall doors open.   I could have kissed her.  I could not believe that after only 4 days of being here, she put herself away in that manner.  We used to have a Fjord mare that would put herself away, but have never had another horse that would.  She is a sweet genius!!!!!

So Ava Crowder is a big hit around here.  She is sweet and kind to Carl and he is loving riding her.  The other horses all think she is just fine too.  Even Tooey, who usually has a gripe with her pasture mate, thinks Ava is a fine friend.  So far, so good.  There is peace in our horse kingdom.  Bless you, Ava Crowder.

Til next time,

Janice

Weekend a big SUCCESS

 Our weekend of post Hook-In events is over and we had a great time here at The Rug Hooking Store.  We had visitors from a 5 state area and there was much laughter and learning that went on.  Thanks to all who attended.

Jan Goos was here to teach the Chalkware Santa class and they all turned out beautifully.  There were door prizes, a free fat quarter with $100 purchase and a drawing for a $100 gift certificate at the end of the day on Saturday.  You did not have to be present to win, just had to make a purchase thru out the 2 days to be in the drawing.

Colleen Cochrane pulled the name out of the bucket.  She says she has terrible luck, so there was no chance she would pull her own name.  She didn't.  But guess whose name she did draw?

We could NOT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!  That lucky Sandy Weller won again this year!!!!  She won last year too.  Obviously she is living a good clean life, to have that much luck.  Congratulations Sandy on winning the $100 gift certificate.  You can use it at the Heirloom class which is coming up in 2 weeks.

Here are some pictures of some of the beautiful wool I dyed for the weekend.  The shelves were packed, so I moved clusters of yards and half yards around the store, to be even more enticing.

The center picture shows some gorgeous fall colors.  The bottom picture shows some of my favorites.  The darks are Spunky Monkey, the blues are Chimney Sweep.  Someone asked me what color Jan Goos used for the sky in her Winter Wonderland rug that was Best in Show at the hook-in on Friday.  It was a combination of Chimney Sweeps and it made for a spectacular winter or night sky.

Blue didn't get to come out on Saturday, there were just too many bodies in the store.  He was pretty miffed that he got left out of the festivities.
So, I thought I would show his picture anyway.  Here he is at TRICKS class at the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha.  We have a fabulous teacher named Tiffany that is full of knowledge and makes it all so much fun that we laugh for the whole hour.  Blue has learned tons of tricks in the class and we are working on perfecting them.  This was the first night with the hoola hoop.  Tiffany said some dogs are afraid of the hoop, so you should treat them when they touch it, just starting out.  Then when they get more confident you teach  them to go thru the hoop both directions, etc.  Well, Blue did not think there was anything scary about the hoop and when he found out there were treats involved with being near the hoop, he thought it was FABULOUS.  When the exercise was over and I put the hoop down, he wound himself into a ball to lay inside the hoop while waiting for the next lesson.  He is thinking, "This thing is terrific.  Sometimes you get treats just for being near it…..I don't want to miss an opportunity!"  Oh, Blue, you are the best.

Next time,
Janice