Chantry 2011 - Ingrid's Tessalations and more

Well what a lovely long weekend in Southampton for our Hookers :-) We spent 3 days in the new shortened format and it was just right.  A productive 'social' setting with a mixture of fall weather, some rain, some wind, some nice fall weather, oh and a bit of hooking mixed in there!  

I was in Ingrid's Tessalation class which I can barely spell but learned a LOT on designing new rugs from simple shapes made into repeating patterns that fit together with no background showing... the puzzle makers would love doing this and then add your colour scheme on top.  We had a ton of beautiful colours to pick from between the teachers for wool.  My target was to hook a pillow that had the colours of my 3 Emily Carr's framed in black hanging on my safflower wall in the living room. 
I brought along my finished Grandma Barger with Michael rug to show Jen in person and we had a nice distracted chat from our hooking time. 

Special thanks go out to Sybil Mercer and Vicki Cooper for all your hard work to arrange this.  And to our helpers before and after for set-up and clean up (Joan Rigby and Marilyn Euseden).  Here are some of the photos from the 4 classes with work in progress on some.  Take a look, and see you next year!
Oops I have a 2010 date as a watermark on the photos it was 2011! doh
Ingrid's sampler:

Marjorie D playing with colours:

My design taking a triangle and creating a tessalation:

 Charlotte's web by Ingrid - hooked by Carol Rowe:

Jettie Swaters makes the web into a flower :-)

Cheryl Harnack's table runner - fish and green is the colour from her room at home:

Working hard... Rachel, Lora-Lee and Jennifer: 

Hooking studiously... Norma,  Alice, Helen, Jettie, Carol, Rachel and Vicki/Pat supervising!

Helen Weurth's cats...

and our lovely Christine Beattie :-) fondling with her Hearts and Corsets (colour planning with Ingrid)

And some pix from the other classes - Marge |Bruin, Gayle Gunby, Karen Kaiser...

 

Gayle Gunby's class...

 

 

 

Karen Kaiser's class...

Jen you would be proud! I actually finished HOOKING my portrait rug

FINALLY!  all the hooking is done :_)  Lots of TLC in this rug!
This will be put away for Michael (now 18 and 2 when I took the photo), it isn't as if we have any room left to display it and I would not walk on Grandma :-)

Now all I have to do is whip the edges, all 38" x 48" of them... I have some variegated wool with purple, blue, brown, tan in it and have lots so will use that for my edging.  Now that will take a while!  I actually enjoy hooking so much more than whipping.  (I lightened the photo a tad as it did not show the colour difference between the burgundy and the mustard-brown plaid squares very well.)

And I have always been told that if your back shows as well as the front 'be proud'!  

 Now what next... hmmm?

A Cherished Moment captured … Hooking Great Grandma and Michael

A Cherished Moment captured ...

In Oct 2010, Jennifer Manuell helped me take a photo I adore and figure out how to best move it to a rug hooking.  This was quite a daunting task - as it involved a "portrait" of a real-life photo.  

I drew out a design with the idea being a quilt-look-a-like... we used a piece of software o Jen's iMAC she brought to the class.  First we 'posterized' it, then with a little manipulation printed it on paper.  I expanded it, outlined it, used red-dot to outline and then put it onto the linen.  It then took me about 1/2 a day to draw on the rest ... which I should have known I would not likely hook exactly that way...  I did re-draw it all to make it a smidgion (sp?) smaller! 

History - Back around October of 1995 I went to visit my Grandma in Lucknow with our 2 year old (Michael) and newborn (Jody James).  When we were leaving I snapped a photo of Michael and Grandma :-) (my Mom's mom).  With this in hand, I came to Jennifer's class at Chantry School of Hooking in October 2010, Southampton.  

I was feeling inadequate about hooking a portrait face, so much so I left it until June, 2011 to even attempt a start , hmmm a mere 9 months later!  Well, the start is below and you can see the photo in an 8x11" sitting just below my hooking view for comparison above.

Observation:  I think I could have hooked the top of Grandma's hair a bit higher but for naught ado as they say "don't pull it out til you are sure"… so I will leave it.  (She's looking a lil squished when compared to the real photo. :-) …)

 So as of Aug 7, 2011… I have this much done, with toes peeking through you can compare for size since I have  not measured it out … Not sure I can complete it by October 2011 but will do what I can before then.  I can get about 1 rectangle or less done in the time I have at night in a week (between sleep and real work, not much time of late left to relax and hook). 

Stay tuned will post when I am done!  HAPPY HOOKING, stay cool everyone.

Hummingbird in Flight - 1/2 of a second

June 2011 - This small rug hooking about 18"x 12" is designed with permission from Roger Bryant the photographer of the attached photo. A Hummingbird coming in for a landing in a timespan of 1/2 second - Amazing! I still need to finish the piece for edging.

Now on to Devon's Pillow for 16th Bday surprise - DONE!

June 14, 2011 - Devon's Dragon - Finished version 18"x18" :-)
Looks great with the added black cording around the edge!  Wendy has already pre-viewed it and loves the results.  (Of course I can see little things I would change on it to make it better but isn't that always the case... I would keep changing and never finish things if I did work that way!)

This one is work in progress...  White is not yet done... I need to fix the eye I kind of filled it in without an eyeball :-) and the left hind leg needs more muscle and the feather thing looks too much like something else (which btw I did ponder)... and makes for good conversation, but alas I will fix this too. 

April 21, 2011- Off for the Easter weekend with Cooper to visit Mom and Dad - in brrr cold weather too!  Lots of quality time with Mom for project chats and Dad makes the best dinners yummmy.  The rest of the family is scattered for the weekend, back together Sunday as a whole.

Our journey continues - Live, Laugh, Love

Original Design:  Our Journey Continues
When:  March 2010 (Size - 12"l x 15"w ... I think as it was given away as a gift!)

In 2010 we had several team members from IBM who were displaced in positions and were moving on.  One co-worker was a trooper and had in fact had surgery for carpal-tunnel on both wrists, is always positive and smiling in her ways... well I just had to make her a small rug for her departure from IBM with her personality in mind.

I came up with colours of the 4 seasons, earthy tones as Shajia is very much down to earth and a loving/giving person in all her ways.  The middle blocks - south block is Summer, north is Fall, west is Spring and east is Winter.  I then added the 3 familiar L's for Live, Laugh, Love... and in the bottom left a leaf for the 'earth' to live by and the bottom right 'fish' for nurturing your family through love or other means. 

I would do this rug again in the same colours... :-) To me it brings out feelings of peace and calm.

Ever just wondered how something can be what it is?

I snapped this photo the other day on our deck and it IS NOT photo-shopped this is exactly what the squirrel looked like, he keeps coming around driving our little Cooper nuts through the sliding glass door.  What a beautiful colour his tail is! 

Ever wondered what Cleopatra would look like hooked - I did!

Original Design:  Cleopatra
When:  2003   Size is about 12"w x 18" l

Why - no real reason except I had some chains nad jewels to embellish with so why not hook Cleopatra!  Had it hanging in our kitchen over the computer cubicle until last year when I painted it a new colour, Cleo got a rest...
(I think she needs more hips and boosom!)

The Foundation of our Family (Mom gets her Angel Wings!)

Original Design:  The Foundation of our Family (Mom gets her Angel Wings!)

Depicting the theme of Love and Motherhood - A 'foundation' of blocks of love and within them how our Mom provided us (ME) with memories that we could take forward in raising our own families...  This rug could have been HUGE as you can imagine!  

When:  2004 with a child version for Memories of my Mother (this one was too big) Size:  48"w x 36"l

Colour of background - chosen to work with the walls of the RecRoom at Mom's in case it would be hanging there (which it is) - Smaller Memories rug is posted below this one...