Monday, July 18, 2011

Hubba Hubba

After celebrating Elaine's big birthday on Saturday, and giving her this mat, I can tell the story here on the blog.

We have been close friends since our boys were in grade 2 together - our boys are now 25. And when we met, we found out that we had nearly met many years earlier when we were both in Grade 13, since we were at the same high school. Crazy small world .... again.

We started hooking together, we went through the teachers' program together and until I moved north, we co-taught in her studio.  Rug hooking is just another thing we share that has cemented our friendship. We have remained incredibly close despite her move to Florida for 10 years and my move up here. Distance doesn't seem to bother us.

This is a picture of the two of us, taken in 1997 wearing those ridiculous t-shirts. When she gave me a copy of the picture, she had written "Hubba Hubba" and the date on the back. When I was going through some old pictures, I realized it was the perfect image to capture on her birthday mat. And it is fitting that the picture was taken at our "then cottage/now home".


This was an incredibly fun mat to hook - a smile in every loop. In fact, I think it was the inspiration behind the last post about "being an emotional hooker". It isn't very large, about 12 inches square, so it went quickly.


I hooked the figures first and when it came time to hook the background, I decided to treat the trees and grass in paisley, since that is what Elaine has been focused on for the past year. And she just finished teaching a week-long paisley class at Trent which was a huge success.

Elaine's family treated her to a weekend at Rocky Crest for this milestone birthday. As it is only about 20 minutes from me, I got to join them poolside on Saturday afternoon and give Elaine a big hug and her gifts. She was as pleased as I hoped she would be. And her family thought it was lots of fun.

Happy Birthday, Elaine. Thanks for going first. I'll be there before you know it!!!

5 comments:

twoives said...

What a fun mat! I know Elaine loved it and that hooking it gave you great pleasure. Good job.....

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

Oh, Wendie!! That is a great little rug!! You captured it perfectly ~ your friend had to absolutely love it!!!!!!!

Susan S said...

okay, I'm seriously bugged that you and Elaine are just reaching that 'special age', having reached it two years ago! What a great gift for Elaine and so appropriate. You two always rock and are such great friends and still inclusive of everyone else. It's wonderful to know you both.

April DeConick said...

Cute!

Christine said...

I Love it! How lucky is Elaine! A one-of-a-kind gift, made with talent and love. I can't wait to see the next 'emotional' hooking.

xine
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