A Buffalo Check Bargain

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and is recovering from the bunny hangover. There is an awful lot of chocolate around here, that's for sure.

We had a busy weekend with both kids here for Good Friday and Saturday and then off to Grandma's on Sunday - which turns into a 7+ hour road trip by the time you do the Peterborough leg (3+ hours), the Toronto leg (1.5+ Hrs) and then the Parry Sound leg (2+ hours). Luckily our son did the first leg, so it was a bit of a break.

While they were here, I put a show binding on my little "No Hunting" mat, which will be placed in the powder room window - facing out - as a bit of a screen for when people are sitting out there. It's quite fitting that he ends up there. He will be next to the moose on our DAVIS sign, surrounded by log walls and above a twig table. From inside the powder room, you will get a glimpse of the mat from the back, which is nice too. And this trio will be in good company with Max and the gang on the washer/dryer.

What I really wanted to post about was the beginnings of this little piece and how it was virtually a "free" mat. I LOVE it when that happens. Here is a piece of buffalo check wool that I bought last year at Circle of Friends for $2. (I think). It looks like some kind of mill end and is only 2 3/4" wide. But as you can see it is very, very long.

The moose was already hooked on a piece of backing, since he was originally going to be put inside the stocking that I designed and hooked for the RHF stocking challenge last year. But I didn't get him quite finished, so I added the other critters and decided to use the buffalo check for the background of this little mat (which is about 12 x 16). The lettering was just an after thought, which I thought was appropriate.

I reproduced the check in most of the background, which was trickier than I originally thought it would be. Then I just used the wool as is for the show binding. I have only done show binding a couple of times, but this seemed like the perfect spot for it.

I had to decide whether to do the short top and bottom first or the longer sides and ended up going with the sides first - top and bottom second. In hind sight, I should have done it the other way around - note to self for next time.

But I love the final result.  And it's great that No Hunting had No Cost.