Summer Update

It is now August and I apologize for not finishing my last trip report.  I did something really foolish after my last post - I woke up the next morning and decided to drive all the way home.  I drove too many hours, took too few breaks, thought the air was too thin and that explained why I couldn't breathe.  I did get home in time for my painting class that Wednesday, but by noon the next day I knew something was really wrong - I thought I was having an asthma attack, but learned later it was a lot more serious.  The swollen legs and breathing trouble were all signs I will recognize in the future as congestive heart failure.  My heart was in big trouble, surrounded by fluid that was putting pressure on my lungs - then it started marching to it's own beat, and it wasn't a regular beat.  Four days in the hospital later, I'm now taking a blood thinner and not doing heavy work - no more haying in the hot sun for me!! :)  I'm actually very pleased to have had this warning to be a little more respectful of my health.  I'm now eating better, drinking lots of water and less coffee, and I'm planning a more careful drive to Nova Scotia next week.

I'm planning to take three days driving to Nova Scotia instead of just two - I'll do some sight-seeing or take some photos or rest in some way at least every two hours.  So far, I haven't been able to do any plein aire painting, but it's on my list of things I want to learn, so maybe I'll just find a place to relax and paint whatever I see.

After I got home from the hospital in June, I lost my car keys and my rugs and hooking supplies were all in the car.  I finally found the keys a week ago.  I'm a full month behind on hooking Big Momma, so I'll try to get a lot done in Nova Scotia - and I'll try to do a daily blog report on that trip.  We're going to be doing some dyeing for Jo-Anne Harris' new shop in Toronto

, so I'll be sure and post a photo report on that project.  I'm also planning to spend a lot of time at the Hooked Rug Museum of North America, so I'll also post a museum photo report. 

Utah and Colorado

I can't believe how much beauty I missed when I drove through Colorado from Golden on through Utah in the dark a week ago.  Today, I spent so much time looking that I didn't get nearly as far as I expected to.  I'm in Eagle, Colorado, staying again in a motel - I guess I have spoiled myself.  I wanted to stop early tonight so I can prop my feet up to cure the swelling that doesn't want to go away. 

The best way I can describe today is to post photos - but I haven't downloaded the camera yet.  I traveled through all kinds of mountains and strange terrain and tried to take pictures of everything.  I stopped a lot, stopped in all of the rest stops and in several towns.  I had lunch in a very Mexican restaurant - wonderful chimichanga - the waitress and most of the other 5 customers spoke Spanish.  I haven't been able to practice my Spanish, I apparently put two cd's into the same slot and wrecked my cd player.  The town the restaurant was in must have been successful at one time, but now it was pretty much a ghost town.  There were many vacant houses and all businesses on the main street, except the restaurant, were vacant and looked like they had been that way for a very long time.

I stopped in a couple more towns, both in Utah and Colorado, where there were modern chain businesses near the freeway, but a mile down the road was completely different.  Lots of shacks similar to the deserted buildings in the Mojave Desert.  I couldn't figure out where the people who worked in those modern businesses could be living.

The rest stops in Utah had Native Americans selling jewelry and pottery, and one had a little Chihuahua that looked just like the one I took photos of last year.  He was chasing a lizard that scared the owner - I never saw the lizard, but I heard it hiss when the lady screamed and jumped into her truck- I never heard a lizard hiss before.  Anyway, to be polite,  I bought some earrings.

I did some more shopping miles further east.  There was a funny low log-style shop surrounded by pieces of driftwood with a name something like "The WOW Store".  The inside was filled with beautiful artwork - handmade pool tables, bedroom furniture, walking sticks and all sorts of things made from wood, even including a coffin.  The proprietor looked, with his Hemmingway-ish white beard, like a movie character.  He started talking about what he could do with some old hay hooks making them into towel racks, and then showed off a great yard sale find.  At first glance, it could have been a kerosene lantern, but it was very big, more than a couple feet high, with a metal bowl on top - filled with lead.  A closer look proved it to be a stove for melting lead for bullets - probably dating to the Civil War era and probably used by the army.  The man took it apart to show me how it worked and it was fascinating.  Then he started telling me about a woman he yard sales with - she has an 8th grade education (and is younger than I am - how did anyone in this country in this age miss out on high school?) and is a self-taught artist.  Her wood carvings and paintings were amazing - she is one of those people who can look at a piece of wood and see the things in it waiting to be carved out.  I wish I could have met her.

Well, I'm off to prop my feet up for a while...

Traveling on home...

I posted this message on Rughookers, realized it's too long for a message, so I copied it over here onto my blog.

I am in Colorado, taking an early afternoon of rest from driving.  I left Cambria yesterday after spending part of the morning watching the ocean waves at Moonstone Beach.  There were a few people in wetsuits getting knocked off of their surfboards by fairly big waves - I took a lot of photos that I might be able to use for painting or rug patterns - then I headed for the desert.
Every time I have crossed the Mohave Desert, I have been curious about all of the small deserted old buildings.  I couldn't imagine living in some of those locations, baking in the hot sun in those tiny little houses.  My camp roommate, Grace K., cleared up the mystery for me - those were places that were homesteaded a long time ago.  The people had to leave when their wells dried up or when the federal government took over the land.

I drove to Las Vegas, stopped on the west side of the city to get a hamburger, and promptly got lost.  My gps deserted me, wouldn't even tell me to "turn left, turn left now, make a U-turn".  So I lost about a hour, hoping to find a police car to ask for help, finally stopped at a gas station and asked a customer for directions - picked the best looking guy in the area and he was very helpful. When I was once again on the highway, I started looking for a motel, since it was a hundred and four degrees - too hot to sleep in the car. Then, I was suddenly stopped by a cop car.  The elusive car I needed an hour earlier.  I was sure I had only been going 70 and being passed by cars going much faster, so I waited to hear what law I had broken.  They stopped me only to see if I was okay, because I was going slower than the rest of the traffic and kind of wavering in my driving lane (must have been when I was reaching for fudge and pistachios - or my giant water bottle.)  Later, I remembered that about the same thing happened in about the same place last year - Las Vegas police must be on the look-out for white-haired old folks.  Anyway, they told me the motels were all about an hour ahead - so I moved on, stopped in a funny little old motel run by a lady who was making cats out of yarn - and teaching a younger woman how to make one.  Fiber artists everywhere.

So today, I drove through the beautiful Utah landscape that I missed seeing on the way out when I drove through the whole state in the pitch dark.  Once again, it's too hot to sleep in the car, although I took a power nap that was only supposed to be 15 minutes and turned into a hour when I found some shade under a tree near a gas station.  Now, in a nice motel, I've rested for a while and am debating about going to dinner or going swimming - and then maybe bringing my hooking into the motel for a couple hours of hooking - or, maybe painting.

I promise I'll post photos soon...

Traveling on...

Finally able to make an internet connection - frustrated all day because my mifi (wifi card) wouldn't work and the tech who promised to call me back didn't.  However, I am now connected to Cambria Pines Lodge wifi and am much happier.

Today was a full hooking day - three meals, and every other minute  hooking from 9AM until 9PM.  I finished one flower and one cherry on my six foot long "Big Momma" (a Gene Shepherd pattern).  Gene was a huge help with the color planning - my flowers will all be bright colors made with Gene's beautiful wool - my background will be five different almost black recycled wool from my stash (my stash of dark, drab Michigan colors),

Since I only told about the beginning of my trip in my last blog, I'll fill in the rest of the trip.  Saturday, I started the morning in Colorado, driving from the northeast corner where the land is open rolling hills with some cattle and scattered homesteads.  The sky was a clear bright blue with a variety of white clouds that I wanted to remember for painting, so I took a number of photos while I was driving along (at 85mph).  One photo was especially interesting because there were great large billowing clouds at the top, but unusual lacy clouds at the bottom of the sky.  Another 50 or so miles further on, I realized the lacy clouds were really the tops of snow-capped mountains. Lots more snow than I remember seeing before.  When I got into the mountains, I thought I deserved a little touristy break, so I decided to make a fast trip up to Lookout Mountain.  Driving up the mountain was easy and exciting because the road was shared with many bicyclists and hikers - it was like driving into a huge party of very active healthy young people all wearing spandex.  The top of the mountain offers interesting views and a really nice nature center.  I didn't think I should take much time, so I did a fast survey of the displays, saw some great coyote paintings, and started driving back down the mountain.  I was driving very slowly with a bicyclist following me and when I came to a stop, he rode up beside my window and told me I had a seriously wobbly rear wheel.  That must have been what the fellow on the expressway the day before was waving at me about - I had fixed the wrong tire (but it was a good thing I did since it had a hole on the inside and was losing ten pounds of air per day).  So I had to drive down the mountain, through dozens of hairpin turns, think my wheel might fall off at any moment.  I was pretty sure the wheel was going to fall off, the car was going to go into a flip that would take me right off the mountain and I was not going to make it to rug camp.  Also, I had forgotten that I have trouble breathing in thin mountain air, so add the wheel worry to my oxygen anxiety and I can tell you I was very happy to get down to flat ground.


Then I had to backtrack to the city of Golden to try to find a tire repair facility - which turned out to be very difficult since all of the tire repair people were riding bicycles and hiking in the mountains and not working on Saturdays.  I had to drive miles looking for a Pepboys that someone told me might be open, but couldn't find it.  I accidently drove past a truck stop - the kind of place where I usually feel safe spending the night - so I did a fast U turn and drove around back to the truck repair section and literally begged for help.  Three men went to work to figure out the wobble cause, which finally was eliminated down to the wheel nuts not being tightened properly.  My mechanic at home had repaired a flat for me and not cleaned the road dirt out of the wheel.  It took a long time to chip away the hard packed clay, even after a power washing, but with the afternoon completely gone, my wheel was finally back in place - and the mechanics wouldn't even let me pay them. I think they were going to tell their friends they spent the afternoon helping a hooker.

So, starting about six o'clock, I drove through the rest of Colorado, past all of the beautiful mountains without stopping again, then into and across Utah which never seemed like such a big state before.  It was pitch dark out when I was going through the beautiful sandstone mountains and bluffs, but I couldn't see them at all - for 500 miles I felt like I was driving through a very long tunnel.  The only good thing about driving like that is there wasn't much other traffic at all and I could go as fast as I dared.  I finally reached my turn that would take me south into Nevada and toward Las Vegas, and I decided I would have to get at least a little sleep - even though that meant leaving at least a thousand miles to go on Sunday.  I found a rest stop provided by a Chevron gas station, and pulled in where there were a couple pick-ups pulling U-Haul trailers - it seemed safe enough and I parked right next to the building where it was well lit.  What I didn't think about until I crawled into the middle seat with my pillow was 1) the car was parked on a hillside so laying down I was practically standing up, and 2) it was very cold (about 40 degrees) and I didn't have a blanket.  I ended up sleeping under some of the recycled wool that just happened to be left in the car from my last trip to Nova Scotia.

I awoke a few hours later after the U-Hauls left and began the last leg of the journey, through a little of Arizona, past Las Vegas, through the Mojave Desert into California, past beautiful vineyards in wine country, and finally to Cambria.  My gps took me on a longer route than necessary and then turned me around in circles around Cambria so it took me an extra chunk of time to finally find the lodge - and, even though the tire and wheel problems took away a lot of my travel time, I arrived just in time to register, get my hooking stuff unloaded in my classroom, find my room and take a shower before dinner.  Eventually I'll post my photos of the trip and you'll get to see how great cloud formations look when photographed at high speed through a bug splattered windshield.

Last year, I did the same trip in two and a half days and got here early enough to spend some time seeing the ocean.  This year, if I add Thursday night to Sunday to count as one day, the trip took three days and I still haven't been to the beach.

On the Road Again!

I'm on my way to Cambria Pines Rug Camp.  I left home yesterday about dinner time and arrived in Colorado today about dinner time.  Yesterday, I drove the width of Michigan and Illinois, sleeping in 2 hour shifts several times once I reached Iowa.  Illinois and Iowa were familiar territory, family places and stories were running through my head.  One of my gas station breaks was at the intersection of Interstate80 (my chosen route) and a road that went to Princeton and Dixon - the two places where my niece and nephew were born (Dixon is also the birthplace of Ronald Reagan).  Then I skirted around Moline/Rock Island where my father grew up - I wondered how many of the places I passed were spots where my dad could have gone fishing or hiking (although my impression of his growing years were of his working all the time, even selling newspapers when he was only six years old).  Then, in Iowa, I passed the area where my great-grandparents homesteaded, and where my grandparents met when my grandmother was teaching school.  I was listening to a book on cd about a wagon train going west - and my grandmother was orphaned when her parents died on a wagon train.  How much easier my trip is when I can go a thousand miles in the time it took a wagon train to travel ten miles!

Iowa is 600 miles wide, all lightly rolling hills.  I was looking for sights to paint, but Iowa really doesn't hold much appeal for me - although I did see some interesting farmsteads.  The rolling hills are grassy green  (no sign of drought) with spotty clumps of trees on hilltops - those trees conceal farm houses and other farm buildings.  When it wasn't raining, the sky was beautiful with a changing variety of clouds moving from south to north (I took photos for future reference.)

Somehow, I slipped into Nebraska without realizing I'd changed states until I noticed the 75 mph speed limit.  I was mostly going 85.  At one point, a pick-up truck zoomed past me with the passenger leaning out of the window and waving both arms at me - he made a circle with his fingers and pointed at my wheels.  I pulled off right away since I was already suspicious of my left front tire.  It was down 10 lbs, so I was glad to have my little air compressor and I started looking for a garage or a tire repair place.  When I finally found one, I learned that my tire was destroyed, broken on the inside, and it had to be replaced.  At the end of the driveway for the tire store , I saw the only thing I really wanted to paint.  It was a great old tow truck, so I took a number of photos, but I didn't feel I could take time to paint until I get closer to my destination - since I left almost two days later than planned.

I was planning to stop for the night when I reached Sidney, the last city in Nebraska, and almost forgot to take the turn onto I76 toward Denver.  After I turned I remembered the motel near the welcome center where I've stayed twice before - and that's where I am now - and very tired, going right to bed.

 

 

 

Fishing Boats

This watercolor painting shows some of the fishing boats I enjoyed seeing in Nova Scotia.  I thought the smaller boats were used to go from the wharf out to the fishing boats, but Jo-Anne Harris told me they were pulled behind the fishing boats and were used to carry the big tuna.

 

I was painting this picture tonight and completely lost track of time - suddenly I heard a loud knocking on my back door.  My "phone pal" who calls me every night to let me know she's okay had been trying to reach me by phone and couldn't reach me - so she drove all the way down from Hamburg to see if I was okay.  I guess I was too involved in Nova Scotia to hear the phone ring.

Painting

I haven't felt like hooking lately, somehow the two rugs in process are not inspiring enough to get me to the frame.  So, I decided to take a watercolor painting class at our Senior Center.  The teacher, Kathleen Kaszmierski is really good - I lurked around the class on and off for months and learned that Kathleen is the right kind of teacher for me.  I've been thinking that learning to use color in painting might help me with wool painting - so, I have uploaded a few of my early paintings.  People in my class are painting beautiful flowers and landscapes and I paint chickens and pigs and horses.

  I am really frustrated with Google - it seems like Google is trying so hard to take over everything that it now interferes with everything.  It's not nearly as easy to upload photos as it used to be.

Happy to be in 2013

2012 is one of those years that went by too fast and yet, I'm glad it's over.  I had a great trip to California where I was lucky to have a class with Elizabeth Black at Cambria Pines Rug Camp, and I took a second trip toward the end of the summer to Nova Scotia.  I stayed with Jo-Ann Harris and her daughter at Old Salt and had a wonderful time - but from there on, the year was not so good.  My knees were in terrible shape - I thought I had pulled ligaments and my doctor said it was osteoarthritis.  I started in physical therapy and my knees improved tremendously (so I think I was right since osteoarthritis would probably still hurt...) but I had to stop the p.t. early to have breast cancer surgery.  The surgery went well and I just finished radiation.  It was all a new experience for me - I found the entire medical experience to be positive and uplifting (this from a person who has frequently walked out of hospitals in fits of anger at neglected treatment). Who could figure that going through something nominally life threatening would put a lilt in my step and a smile on my face? 

I have neglected my hooking as much as I've neglected my blog.  I have two rugs started, one the dogs I started with Elizabeth Black, and one I won in an eBay auction to support the 2013 Biennial.  I took that rug to work on today at Thrums and Chums, but didn't get much done.

I've also been neglecting the antique shop, but spent some time there today.  I was going to post some interesting photos from the shop, but Blogger has changed since last I posted and I can't find a way to upload the photos.  I dislike it when things that were working easily are "improved" to become more complicated.

Family Tree Addition

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/s/2k8r26
This link leads to a page that shows the home of Judge A. G. Otis, of Atchison, Kansas, maternal grandfather of Amelia Earhart (her mother was Amelia Otis Earhart).  Amelia grew up in this home.

I haven't posted my family tree here on Blogger, but accidentally found a surprise addition and the source for the photo wouldn't let me save it in my documents, so I saved it here.

I had chosen a book from the collection at my store, planning to see what repairs were needed, and the book opened to a page of photographs of "Popular Heroes of the Spanish-American War".  One of those heroes was Major General Elwell Stephen Otis.  While perusing his bio on Wikipedia, I found a curious link to Amelia Earhart.  I had never suspected she was an Otis, but maybe I should have, given how her strong deterined personality is similar to so many of the early Otises.  Many of the early Otis women were feminists, even before that word was part of the language, and Amelia Earhart fits right in with them.

Two Flowers and Five Leaves

Two flowers and five leaves to go! With any luck, I should have the hooking done tomorrow. Then my problem will be how to finish - I'm sure it shouldn't be whipped and I've gone beyond the point where I could fold it back and hook through two layers, so I guess I'll either fold it back and hemstitch it down or fold it back and cover the edge with tape. I think tomorrow I'll go upstairs into my studio and check out a few of the antique rugs and see how they were finished.

I haven't given an update on Gibby for a long time. He's doing well. Fortunately, he has taken on the job of raising Gadget, and Gadget isn't an easy pup to raise. Gibby and I spend several hours every morning working together to turn Gadget into a decent dog - and it's very hard work. Gadget has had dozens of toys, but only one survives, the rest have been beaten up and chewed up by Gadge when she's in her divil dog moods. Poor Gibby either has armor for skin or he has tons of bruises hiding under his beautiful fur coat - Gadget bites him, leaps on him, and throws her toys at him. Once in a while, usually when she's chewing on his tail, he gives her a warning growl. She runs back and forth through the house and Gibby tries to keep up with her but quits after one run. She can recuperate with a ten second rest, Gibby needs a deep sleep. I am soooo glad to have Gibby, raising this wild puppy would be a disaster without him. I only have a chance to write this now because Gadge is busy chewing up a leash and my favorite white blanket - wait, that's MY blanket - STOP!

Working on the Lion

I've been spending every spare minute working on the Frost Lion. The lion is finally done and now I'm working on the grass under the lion - doing some antegodlin with 6s near the sky and ground boundary and 8s in the rest.

On Friday, I started working on the rug in my quilting group at the community center, ate lunch there, and then just moved my project into the large dining room so I could watch the life painters while they worked and get some hooking done - so, I hooked from 10 to 3, then moved to the store and hooked from 3:30 to 7:30 - wouldn't you think so much hooking would have filled up most of the pattern? I basically hooked an area that I could cover with my hand. I guess I'm a slow hooker.

The Lion Roars

I didn't get as much done on the lion as I expected to last night. A man came into the store wearing a big Russian fur cap, so he said "Hello" in Russian, and I said, "How are you" back, in Russian - the full extent of my high school Russian. We had quite a conversation, turns out he was a student, in fact, the class president, at University High back when I was a teacher in the same building. I was teaching first grade in University Elementary, almost 45 years ago. He came back a second time and brought with him a book of Edgar Guest poems -- a book he had taken from the school library way back when. Since the school has been closed since 1970, he felt giving it to me was as close as he could come to returning it to the school library. Talking with him reminded me of a lady who had been the much admired school librarian, Ms. Sarita Davis. She was the most caring and dedicated librarian I've ever met. She encouraged me to write stories for children, was even going to send one of my books to a publisher, when she literally dropped dead in the hallway walking between the high school and the elementary libraries.

Less Frosty Lion

I removed the yellow/cream tweed that was showing up in photos as bright white and am now hooking the mane with mostly yellow/tan/light brown tweed. I like it a lot better. It's too bad the photos don't show the colors more accurately, the black background is a very active antique black - lots of colors showing through. I wish I could get a photo that would show those colors. I decided that hooking at the store just isn't enough, there are always too many interruptions, so I'm packing a bag and taking the lion home. We'll have a lovely eveing of dogs, television, and hooking. I think I'll even bake some scones - I found an "easy" recipe that uses lemon-lime soda.

Lion Too Frosty?

I haven’t been able to hook since Thursday, but while I’m resting at home, I’ve been thinking about the Frost Lion.  I’ve been working on the head and basically only looking at the head – and, by itself, the lion head looks a lot like some kind of unusual space monster.  I decided it was time to take a good look at the whole pattern and see how the head is going to fit in.  I’ve been anxious to get enough hooked to see how the antique black background will do, so I have hooked just a little bit around the top of the mane.  When I look now, I see way more of the very light colored mane hairs than I should….

Frost Lion Day 3

Again, not nearly enough hooking time. I had a computer lesson with a really nice gentleman whose children told him he needs to join the computer age - taught him how to search for dump beds for pick-up trucks. He's coming back tomorrow to learn how to use a laptop. Then I had a one person hooking lesson. Dee is hooking a picture drawn by her grandaughter that's really cute.

Next I had a visitor, a really nice woman who visits every so often and frequently brings me special things. She met Gadget the last time she was in, so today she brought me a book about a farm with border collies. After she left, I couldn't get into hooking until I'd read at least the first chapter. My job is supposed to be selling things so that things leave the store, but some of my best days are filled by the kindness of people bringing me thoughtful things and/or just stopping by to talk.

Anyway, it was already sundown by the time I got to hooking. I'm trying to close up and go home around sundown, but I felt I had to do some hooking anyway. I gave the lion some ears and a few strands of mane - I wanted to get some mane bumping into antique black, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm wondering now what the lion is seeing - maybe he heard the noise of a hooker sneaking up behind the flowers on the far side of the rug.

Frost Lion Day 2

Only a little more done on the lion today. I didn't get to the store until 3:00 and then had customers in and out the rest of the afternoon. I had one Indian chief who bought an antique microscope for his medicine woman's valentine present, and then I had a little woman who grew up in New England but has always wanted to live in England, in high society a century ago - she makes button greeting cards.

Funny what you learn about customers. I think I almost like talking to customers as much as I like hooking! I had one grumpy guy who strode in, strode to the back of the store, strode back, said, "Got any local photos?" and I said, "No". I do, but he walked right by them twice and I didn't feel like sharing them with a grump. I'm thinking about putting whatever local history I have into a little book - I may run an ad asking people to share stories about my building. I heard one the other day from Donna at the Senior Center - she met her first husband at a dance upstairs (in what is now my rug hooking studio). She went to the dance with a girlfriend. This man walked right up to the girlfriend and then turned and asked Donna to dance - and then she said, "and we danced together for twenty years!" Lots of people have told me stories over the years and I should have written them down. I guess I can't start any sooner!

The Frost Lion

I've started hooking the lion in the Frost Lion rug. I've had a hard time trying to decide what colors to use for the lion. I've researched photos of lions several times now and had thought I would use wool that I dyed with Cushing's gold and old gold, plus some wool I bought on eBay called "lion's mane", but the colors just didn't seem right.

I'm having a terrible time trying to get Blogger to let me put my photos where I want them, so I guess I'll just leave them at the bottom. I looked at a lot of photos taken of live lions and I also had a lot of fun studying Edward Hick's paintings with his Kingdoms that included lions that changed and aged as his paintings changed over many years. You'll be able to see in the first photo that I've decided to do a shadowed gray/buckskin lion, although right now, with so little hooked, the lion looks more like a goat.



This is one of Edward Hicks' lions

A second Edward Hicks lion

Close-up of an African lion

My favorite lion photo - I'd love to know what he's thinking.

I decided to use Hicks' lions for my models. I'm guessing that a post-American Civil War rug hooker would not be familiar with live lions and would have to rely on available books or paintings or photos. Edward Hicks, a Quaker minister, painted at least 62 different "Peaceable Kingdom" paintings and they all included a lion. Those paintings could have travelled from his Pennsylvania to other Quaker meeting houses in New England and elsewhere, so I'm guessing our early hooker could have seen at least one of them. Of course, the pattern gives some information about how the lion should be hooked. The pattern gives a longer face to the lion, but that's all workable.

Martin Luther King Day

This is not one of my normal blog posts, but I wanted to send the top photo to the Ellen Degeneres show. After a wonderful concert in Hill Auditorium (bottom photo for you non-wolverines) a group of us were walking to the parking structure when we passed the store that carries UofM sporting goods and saw this mannikin in the window. Whoops.

DONE!

My SJ rug is done! Well, at least the hooking is done - I still have to do the whipping, but I'm putting that off until some time in the future. I may want to add a border, but I'm anxious to get started on my Frost pattern and I want to think about border possibilities for a while. With the extra monk's cloth folded back, the rug seems a lot smaller.

And now, Gibby and Gabby are really pals. Gibby is soooo patient with the puppy - she jumps all over him, chews on his ears, bites his cheeks, puts her paws on his nose, etc. and he just takes it. Sometimes he comes to me for attention, but as soon as I pet him, she's all over him again - I think she doesn't want to share.

This morning, I was in the barn cleaning up after feeding the chickens and Gabby walked in. She and Gibby had been in the dog pen and apparently she figured out how to get out. I was a little panicky because I didn't have the driveway gate closed, but she ran right to the house - whew!

Patches

Poor Patches.

Ever since her mother died before Thanksgiving, Patches has been in hiding. She's been hiding in a destroyed couch in my library, a room that is now basically only a pass-through to the door that leads to the dog pen. A few days ago, she spent about 36 hours hiding in the bathtub. The last couple days, she hid behind some boxes under my desk in the library - when I found her there this morning, she was shaking from head to toe. During this whole time, she would come out to eat, but only eat about half of a can of canned dog food, and if I tried to pick her up she gave a small growl and let me know she might bite me.

One of my motivators for getting a puppy was an attempt to bring Patches back into the world. She has always been a playful dog, so I was hoping she would play with the puppy - but, so far, she doesn't want anything to do with the puppy and even leaves her food bowl if the puppy looks at her sideways.

So, today, I begged Patches to come out from under the desk and was surprised when she came to me. I put a leash on her and led her out to the car - and then I realized how much I had been neglecting her - I used to take her with Blue and George in the car almost every day, but after Blue died, I had gone in the car alone or recently taken the new puppy - so, anyway, Patch was glad to be in the car - she went right away into the very back part where the sleeping bag and pillows are. She stayed in the car while I had lunch with friends, then I took her to the store.

I had just gotten Patches settled at the store when a young girl opened the door and waved to the driver of their car to come in - and here's where the world becomes a funny place. The woman who came in had not been here for a dozen or more years - she moved to Illinois years ago. She is the person who rescued Patches when she was only a year old. I had sold Patches as a small puppy to a grandmother who had never let her out of the basement for a year. Neighbors were talking about how horrible the grandmother's house smelled and that's how I heard how badly Patches was being treated. One of my weaving students volunteered to go get Patches, and she did.

She rescued Patches again a year later when she visited the dog pound and saw Patches being taken to the "euthanization" room. She stopped that process and called me and I, of course, was anxious to take Patches back. She arranged the adoption for me.

We had not seen her since that phone call, and here she was today in the store. Patches jumped all over her. I saw Patches happy for the first time in weeks. Patches is about fifteen years old now, and hadn't seen her rescuer since she was a young dog, but she obviously remembered.

Patches is better now, not hiding. She made a nest behind the counter at the store and has been acting like her old self all afternoon, even with lots of people in and out of the store. She even shared my supper with me.

New Dog Toys

Gibby and Gadget, who is now being called Gabby, have been playing wildly for days now. Poor Gibby gets worn out long before Gabby is ready to stop, so he takes a nap while she shreds every piece of paper she can find. The noise of their wild playing gets really loud and sometimes their play includes leaping from sofa to chair to chair to dog bed and back to sofa - a wild whirlwind that makes sitting in a chair in the same room a little uncomfortable - so, I decided it was time to get some dog toys. I studied a catalog, read up on "unstuffed toys" called skins, and then I added dog toys to my shopping list. When I went shopping tonight, I picked up one toy, but trying to get a lot of toys was going to be expensive - so I bought some toe socks instead. The toe socks were on sale, 3 in a package for $2. When I got home, I gave the purchased toy to Gabby and it scared her - the toy talks and does some heavy breathing just like a playful dog. After a few minutes she played with it anyway. Then I gathered up a few coke bottles - bottles that had already been stripped of their labels by Gabby - and I stuck them in the toe socks. They made great toys, the crackle and pop when chewed on, there's enough left at the cuff end to hang onto for teasing and throwing, and Gabby likes to pull on the toes - great toys. Gabby wore herself out with the new toys and is now sleeping on the back half of my chair.

I got a little more hooked on my SJ today, now only three blocks to go. I also have a couple blocks in the middle that need to be redone - I must have been in a pretty dull mood when I hooked them.

Welcome Gadget!

I had intended to spend every spare minute this weekend working on my Sincerely Jane rug. I thought I would have everything finished except the binding, but I haven't even picked up a hook. This little critter under the table, sitting on my wool bag, has occupied every spare minute.

This is Gadget, also known as Gidget. She joined us a week ago and is a wonderful addition to the family. Gibby has learned to play with her. Patches stays far away. She's in perpetual motion, always looking for a toy - like an empty dog food can, a toilet paper roll, or anythng that can be ripped and torn (just rescued my checkbook as the bite and double-twist were being applied).

Sincerely Jane Update

This is my Sincerely Jane at the end of November. If I count the partially done blocks at the top of the rug, I'm halfway finished. I'm expecting a slow weekend at the store, so I should be able to get several blocks done. I'm finding this challenge is a lot more challenging than I expected - each block has to be individually color planned and then coordianted with all of the blocks around it - it's just like hooking a brand new rug for each block. The only blocks that aren't hard to do are the animal blocks - my favorites. The next animal I'm going to do is the dog - I'm going to reverse hook the tan I started with and hook the dog with a black and white tweed, in honor of Blue. I'm anxious to get this rug finished, or at least close to finished, so I can start the Frost Lion pattern.

Once Again, Mourning a Dear Friend

Blue, Australian Cattle Dog

Blue and her daughter, Patches

Blue and Patches

Blue passed away on the Monday before Thanksgiving. It's taken me a week to be able to write about her. It's always hard to lose a pet, but it's been especially hard losing Blue. She was with me for almost a quarter of my life and was a connection with so many of my other dogs - she came to live with me soon after I lost Tuffy, a New Boston Terrier. She was a wee puppy who immediatly fit in with the pack led by Shady, Shady's son Shep, and Ben the Dog Who Came to School. Shep and Shady lived to 16 and 17, and Spot the Puppy Who Came to School for Show and Tell, joined us. Spot did everything he could to try to get rid of Blue - one time he took her off on a 20 mile run and then left her. Another time, he took her behind the store into the woods and dumped her in a frozen pond. Both of those times it was a miracle that she ever came home. Blue had a litter of puppies before I knew she'd had her first heat cycle. Ben fathered some, Spot others. Ben and Spot both met their demise as free-running farm dogs. Then our vet arranged an adoption and George came to us. I had sold all of Blue's puppies and she seemed pretty lonely, so I gave her the puppy and told her she could raise him - and she did. She set rules for George and bullied him into following them - they were inseperable. Then one of Blue's puppies, Patches, came back to us. She'd lived the life of an abandoned wild dog for a year and had been trapped when she was killing a farmer's chickens. Blue tried to make Patches behave, but Patches wasn't easily cowed and is still a little worried about being "caught" - eventually they became very close friends and Patches became Blue's guide dog when Blue's sight was limited. Blue and I had a special bond. Even when she was blind she could read my mind. Like a true Cattle Dog, she was happiest when she was with me or close enough to watch me.

Sauder Village Rug Show was Great - Again!

The 15th Annual Sauder Village Rug Show was a collection of fascinating smaller rug shows: The Circus Train collection of mats made by the Green Mountain chapter of ATHA, a collection of rugs hooked by Patty Yoder, rugs hooked by Jenny Ruup, rugs hooked by Magdalena Briner and Evelyn Lawrence, the rugs in this year's Celebrations, etc. Each Sauder show is wonderful, and this one is no exception, plus it offers a unique educational experience by displaying new ideas (Nola Heidbrieder's pond rug hooked on dyed hookable foundation} and rugs hooked using embellishments, etc. I've never seen a better or more interesting show - so I'm going back to look again tomorrow.

Back in Business - the store is open

I reopened my store a few weeks ago. It's taking up a humungus amount of time, so I have my hooking set up so I can get some done while I wait for customers. I took photos today and put them together in a slide show. With a nod to Gene and Marsha Shepherd, the slide show ends with a picture of my garden.

Cambria Pines Rug Camp

Starting on the first day of June, I drove out to California to attend Gene Shepherd's Cambria Pines Rug Camp. The camp is held each year at Cambria Pines Lodge in Cambria, California. The camp started with registration on June 5, Sunday afternoon; Classes started Monday morning and went on until lunchtime on Friday. There were some very impressive teachers at camp: Susan Feller and Nola Heidbrieder shared a large room with Gene Shepherd, Laura Pierce and Diane Stoffel were in other parts of the Lodge building, and Jane Olsen taught with her grandaughter in a separate building. I started taking photos on the second day of my trip, after I had driven through Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. I arrived in Cambria on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night in a motel (quite a treat after sleeping in my car on the way out) and spent part of the morning exploring on the ocean shore. The slide show shows the Cambria Pines Lodge building called Woodfern where I stayed for the week (and where Jane Olsen's class was held on the ground floor). Somehow, I never took a picture of the main lodge building where we had our classes and meals. This slide show ends with the mid-week rug show - I expect to make a part two slide show when I download the photos still in my camera.

Very Sad Day Today

George, May 1, 2011

George is gone. He lasted only a few days more than the vet predicted. He passed away this afternoon. The warmer weather we've all been waiting for made his breathing more difficult. I put him in his "angels are everywhere" sleeping bag and buried him in the back yard. His good friend Cathy came out and planted violets on his grave. He was a good, brave, kind, and gentle dog. I'd like to believe he's with my mother now, she loved him, too.

Benefit for Hooked Rug Museum

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED to a HOOKED RUG MUSEUM BENEFIT HOOK-IN MAY 14, 2011 10am - 4pm Where: the Hamburg Senior/Community Center in the Hamburg Township Complex on Merrill Rd. ½ mile S. of M36 Take US23 N.from Ann Arbor, S. from Brighton, to the Pinckney exit Coffee and tea will be available in the morning, a lunch buffet will be available at noon There will be a brief presentation by a Director at Large for the Hooked Rug Museum of North America, with a possible (if all the high-tech stuff works right!) large screen Skype visit from Nova Scotia with Suzanne Conrod, a gifted hooking artist and founder of the museum. With high-tech luck, we might also get Suzanne and Hugh Conrod to explain their new and exciting discovery relating to the earliest history of rug hooking. There will be photos of some of the antique rugs in the multi-million dollar collection waiting to be housed and displayed in the new museum. The museum is going to be a real treasure and a vacation destination for all of us, starting in 2012. The rest of the time will be for hooking and chatting with old and new friends with maybe some time put aside to visit some very select vendors. *********************************************************************** Cost: $15, unless you would like to make a larger donation to the museum Lunch reservations must be in by May 5, 2011. Send check to: Phyllis Lindblade P.O. Box 96 Hamburg, MI 48139 If you have questions, please call Phyllis at 517 304-9659

Sincerely Jane Challenge #3

On Saturday, May 14th, I'm going to hold a hook-in in this facility.

This is the Hamburg Senior/Community Center. A great place for a hook-in with two wide window walls helping to create great lighting for hooking. The main room will hold up to 150 people. The hook-in will be a benefit for the Hooked Rug Museum of North America. I have to work on getting invitations out pretty soon.

I spent all of my spare time this weekend working on drawing the patterns for my Sincerely Jane rug. While I was busy, the dogs were mostly sleeping - I caught this photo of Blue sleeping with George as her pillow. George didn't seem to mind at all.

It took all morning on Saturday to get the first two rows done, then I had to go to a meeting in Ann Arbor. When I came home, I drew a couple more rows. Then today, I've so far finished seven rows. I've decided to add a ninth row, so I have row number 8 to draw and row number 9 to select and draw - then I have to make a decision about wool. I was planning to do the outlining in antique black, but saw some lovely suiting wool at the JoAnn store today - it was a charcoal color with a lot of flashes of other colors in it. That wool reminded me of some dark blue I bought at Sauder last summer. I'm going to try to guesstimate how much wool I'll need and see if I have enough of the Sauder wool - it could be more interesting than antique black.

Another Doll

I knitted another doll, and this time filled it with a lot less fiberfil. It's really not easy to determine how much filling is the right amount of filling. I'm going to pull out some of the filling in the first two dolls and re-felt them when I felt the new one. I'm hoping the re-felting will bring the hand and feet fibers closer together because right now, you can see the white fiberfil through the over-stretched stitches. To re-felt I'll have to pull out the eyes and nose and then the post-felting dolls will get new eyes and maybe have new personalities.

At my quilting group today I said I was making them for the rummage sale in the fall and I already have one sold! I think they're pretty cute and it's nice to know someone else thinks so, too.

Knitted Felted Dolls

My latest project has been doll knitting. I found the pattern for "Felted Kuku dolls" in Love of Knitting magazine. The knitting is really easy - all stockinette stitch with a couple rows of purl two together and knit front and back in the same stitch. The only unusual stitch is the "bobble" that makes the ears - and that's basically knitting and purling in the same stitch multiple times. There are two rectangles for the legs, a bigger rectangle for the body and head, and two smaller rectangles for the arms.

The rectangles were sewn together and stuffed with fiberfil, and then hair was added. I followed the directions with the black haired doll, pulled a strand of yarn through and then knotting it, but I did the yellow haired doll like rug hooking, only with really long loops. Then, following the directions, I pulled some non-wool yarn through to hold the fiberfil in place. I won't do that with my next doll, or I'll do it very differently, because all of those white strands of yarn ended up as a mass of tangled soapy yuk in the washing machine after felting.

I learned that I had overstuffed both dolls - you can see how over-stretched the hand and feet yarns are. I pulled some of the stuffing out, but the yarns would not relax (because they're felted!) With the hair sticking up, the dolls are about eleven inches tall.

I needle-felted some eyes and saw the dolls finally have some personality - so then I added some needle-felted little snub noses. I took the dolls to the senior center today to show a couple people and then sat them in a chair next to me when I played Bingo - and I won, so I think they make lucky charms.

I learned several things with these two dolls that will help while I knit some more. I'm planning to donate them for our senior center rummage sale which will probably be in October. I'm going to be really careful about where I store these dolls, Gibby can't seem to take his eyes off of them. I'm sure he thinks I'm making dog toys.

Marauding Cats

Whenever I talk about my poor old farmhouse, I feel like I'm telling that children's story that goes, "fortunately, such and such good happened, but unfortunately then such and such bad happened." This weeks adventure once again unfortunately has to do with cats. I thought all of the cats had left the building, but apparently I was incorrect. For two nights I heard strange noises from upstairs - last night, it sounded like a cats was racing around and playing in my bedroom (which I haven't used since I moved back into the house - originally because I was worried about rats running around in the night). This morning I finally decided I had to investigate. I found the odd door into the attic-like storage room off of my bedroom wide open. When I looked inside, I saw at least a dozen cats scurrying and leaping over boxes and piles of stuff that's been stored for decades and flying out of the window. The window that shouldn't have been open - in fact, it wasn't exactly open, it was broken.

It took a while to clear a walkway through to the window - in the process I found the typewriter my dad gave me when I turned sixteen, the framed illustrations from Kahlil Gibran my grandmother gave me to decorate my college room, and jars of dried-up poster paint from my first teaching job when I had to buy all of my own supplies. The window glass was very old, very thin glass with little bubbles in it that I'm sorry to lose. It was knocked to the outside, so maybe there was a cat stuck in that room who finally burst his way out. I took the measurements to replace the glass, but I went into town so late that it was dark before I got home and there's no electricity in that room, so I left the door tied shut (with the electric cord from an old tv antennae tied to the frame of the bed) since the latch doesn't hold, and let the cats have the room for one more night. What's a little more outside air coming into this house? I'll fix the window with plexiglass and put a hook and eye to hold the door closed tomorrow.

Sincerely Jane Challenge #2

This is the second incarnation of my SJ rug plan. There will be five blocks across and eight blocks down, a total of 40 blocks, with a half inch sash between all blocks and an inch wide sash around the outside. The rug, before whipping, will measure 34.5" across and 49.5" down.

I divided the blocks into five types. The first type is animals, and there will be one animal block in each row - I haven't yet decided if they will all be upright, the way they are in the photo, or if they will be turned in several different directions so the rug doesn't have a top and bottom.

The other types are rounds, triangles, straights, and stars. Each block falls into one of those categories and my plan is to scatter the different types throughout the rug, with no two blocks of the same type next to each other. The photo shows two blocks that should be moved - at the far right (if you're standing to the right of the photo) the last blocks in the second and third rows are two rounds next to each other. Photos can be very helpful.

Now, I have to start working on color. I'm thinking antique black sashing with mostly red and a light gold for the block colors - the light gold taking the place of the white in the original quilt.