More Loyalist Bragging Rights.

I just love it when students share their finished projects!! It is rewarding to see that the momentum held and that they finished. Too often a class project gets put aside - I think I vie to lead that parade - so it takes dedication to go home and finish.

This little Van Gogh study was done by Susan in the class, who is relatively new rug hooker, but for whom I reserve the term "rabid". She is hungry to learn, to try, to experiment. And she arrived at class with two projects to work on.

This one is finished. I think it has lots of amazing movement, but still leaves the tree as hero. And the colours are wonderful. Post impressionism lends itself so well to rug hooking that the brush strokes create quite a plan for hooking. Susan is not the first person to take on Van Gogh, but I think her rendition is very pleasing and true to the artist.

First Loops Pulled in Peterborough.

As the weeks tick by, little by little we are starting to feel like we aren't living in someone else's house. More boxes get unpacked. More rooms emerge from their new paint makeover. Art work gets chosen for locations (though not committed yet with picture hangers). Furniture and bookshelves ordered and carpet on the front stairway. Yep - starting to feel like home.

Last Wednesday, I was invited to join a group of local rug hookers for their regular get together. They are a small group, since they take turns hosting at their houses.  It took me a while to find all my supplies, and I needed to break through some of the plasticized rooms that were barricaded for spraying, but I found something to take with me. I am still a few weeks from being able to take my turn, but hope to do that as soon as the studio is set up - and the Ikea shelves are ordered for delivery on the 26th.

How great it felt to be in the company of this group. And to pull the first loops that I have done in months (well, if you don't call a few demos in class at Loyalist, that is). Just one motif got done, but it was still a lovely re-entry and I enjoyed every minute of it. This is the project that was started two years ago at Loyalist and contains a motif from each and every student who was in the class. I believe the little school house was inspired by Deborah's mat.

Speaking of Loyalist, one of this year's students already completed his rug and sent me a picture with permission to share. He is taking part in a challenge with his group to create mats based on quilt designs. Since he is not a quilter, he created a rug pattern based on 6 blocks of "lures" that he designed himself. PLUS, he made his own hoop and hook. A ton of bonus points for that, right???

One more rug to share, but not one that anyone hooked. One that Rick and I found at our favourite second hand store in Toronto: "Of Things Past".  It is located near Yorkdale on Bridgeland Avenue and has a wonderful variety of previously-loved treasures. We have had great luck finding all our Oriental rugs there. This was exactly the size and colour we were looking for.

Hopefully the hooking will continue - even if just a little bit each week. And I will have to get busy making some sample mats for the Zentangle-inspired mat class that  I have been asked to teach at Trent School of Rug Hooking next year. Lots of fun exploration to do for that course, for sure.

Looking forward to my Wide Cut Class at the OHCG School in October. There are still a couple of spaces left - in my class and some of the others. It's a wonderful longer-than-usual weekend. - Thursday night to Sunday at noon.  And Mount St. Mary Retreat is a beautiful place to stay.