Older Mat. New Post.

For years now I have not only been using "free stuff" on my computer to help me hook from photographs, but I have also been teaching people about it. 

All my "hooking from photos" classes - live and virtual - use free online photo editors, but I also introduce my students to resources that are on the internet that they may not be aware of.

I have been invited to participate in Workshop Week 2024, which is an online extravaganza of teachers and courses. My course will be related to using your computer in rug hooking. And it will introduce those registered to the resources. 

I decided to do a blog post about my rug that I call "April Tech", which was a rug I created using my computer to do each and every step. A little background for the name and design. I had a "December" mat and thought it would be fun to create a mat for each month. As I was teaching this course in April, I chose April. (Those are still the only two month mats I have hooked. lol)

Step l: Clip Art (the perfect argument against "I can't draw".)

I thought that a kid carrying an umbrella in "April Showers" was a great place to start. I found the following clip art which was the foundation of the design. The main motif. There were lots of choices. Just google the image you are looking for with "Free Clip Art" and voila. 

I also wanted umbrellas for the corners. And I wanted some kind of cloud clip art.

Remember, these are all free!!! Royalty Free and Free to use. 

Step 2:  Fonts  (the perfect argument against "I can't print.")

I wanted a font that would be easy to hook, and that looked like April. I I went to dafont https://www.dafont.com/ and sampled a couple that I liked.

I blew them up to the size I needed and tried them on for size. 

I wanted to use a picture of my grandson, instead of the little girl under the umbrella, so I found a shot that I liked, cropped the image to get in closer, and put in his face.  

Step 3:  Enlarging

I used a free online resource called blockposters to blow up the image of Jackson's face inside the umbrella to the size I wanted. This resource works with your uploaded image in multiples of an 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper. So you can go two wide, three wide. It sends you a preview and gives you finished size dimensions. You can just tape the sheets together to make your final size. 

Then, on a piece of gridded paper, I put all the elements together. (This I did with scotch tape and scissors - I know it could be done on the computer, but old school seemed the best for me at this step.) 

With Jackson in position, the font selected, and the clip art umbrellas in the border, I was ready to go.

(Forgot to say that Jackson's photo was run through Photomania to create the value sketch I used for hooking him. )

A couple more decisions were made simpler with more online resources. I found an image online - not one to copy, but to do a colour selection from it for the rain on the inside - not the border. The colour plan was created by sampling the colours in the image using Paintbrush - a free program for Mac (it is called Paint for PC and does exactly the same thing.)

On to the hooking. There is no online resource for that lol. Just one loop at a time. Here is a progress shot - nearly done, but still a few things to change. You can see that already, I have used the same cloud swirl on all sides, instead of the raindrops I had originally thought of. 

Here is the final piece. 

I changed the single line around the main motif - opted for a rainbow of colour instead of the black and white beading. And I added a golden yellow outline to the lettering to make it pop. I hooked one line of the background wool around the black border, and then hooked a line of the golden yellow. 

It was a fun challenge to myself to prove that from start-to-finish, I could create an entire mat using the free resources that are readily available. I had used all of them together for many, many years. But not all in the same piece. 

Knitting and Hooking and Newfoundland Rug School and ...... COVID

 Yep, that's what's been going on since my last post.

I will save the COVID story for later, so you can enjoy the other parts of a great trip.

Rick and I went to Newfoundland on August 9, picked up a car in Gander and immediately drove to St. John's. It is apparently the only way you can rent a car - one big loop, no pick up here and drop off there.

We spent 3 days in St. John's - not the best weather days, but perfect for a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour, and a few destinations on day two.  Here is the first photo of us on the bus tour day - pissing rain and absolutely socked in with fog.  I think I took this selfie at Cape Spear, but in all the fog, it was hard to tell. ha ha 

This was the second day, and this shot was taken by another bus passenger at Quidi Vidi. Quaint little harbour that was on our list, but it wasn't open at 10:00 in the morning, so we settled for this shot and then purchased some of their Iceberg beer at a liquor store in Mount Pearl. 

We have three of our best meals ever in St. John's. Exquisite fish - all three times - two dinners in the Terre Restaurant attached to the Alt. And the third meal at Portage, right across Water Street from the Alt. We found all the people who we met to be incredibly friendly and professional.

The next three days we went to Lisa Meecham's Airbnb "Salty by the Sea".  What a change from busy St. John's. This place was idyllic - and not often I use that word. I can't say enough good things about this place. Right across the road from Upper Island Cove, which offers a spectacular view all all hours. Lisa has filled her place with treasures that are waiting for you around every corner. We had three days of blissful peace. I know there are lots of pics on the link above, but they don't have my very relaxed husband watching the water from a red Muskoka chair. 

Then we drove back to Gander to return the car and send Rick back to Toronto before I went to rug school. I stayed behind for 5 days, and had fun just about every minute of all 5.

Rug school this year was a bit smaller than when I was there before, but it was a fun group and everyone got to know lots of people. We had a games night on Friday night, and a Kitchen Party on Saturday night, complete with a "screech in" - and a cod! Luckily, I was screeched in many years ago in Toronto, so did not repeat the process.

This was my first Kitchen Party, and there were some shenanigans!! This is a student from my class, and a silly pose in front of the backdrop with the theme, Music and Friends. 

Speaking of the theme, I hooked a ridiculously fun project for the Theme Challenge. After letting Friends and Music percolate in my head for a while, I decided to hook a very large LP, with a song title or two - about friends -  in every groove. I even put it on my yarn swift so you could spin it. AND I made a play list of the songs. I didn't win, but it didn't matter, it was a lot of fun and is a great keepsake.

My class had 14 keen students, who were working on portraits from images that had been run through various photo editors. I had three cats, two dogs, several grand children and self portraits. At the end of three full days, a couple of people were finished, and many were well on their way. Everyone has promised to send finished pieces, so I will hopefully be able to share here.

As to the knitting part, I did take a sock with me for plane rides etc., and didn't really get too far. I find socks are the perfect carry-long project, but tend to opt for a movie on a plane if there is one. Luckily there is no deadline for socks - at least not for a while.

So, now to the COVID story. By Saturday night, when I spoke with Rick from school, he was feeling horrible. I thought it was another "man cold", that he had picked up from the driver who brought him home on Wednesday. We decided to test him as soon as I got home on Monday. "POSITIVE". The first of many tests. We will do another one today, since he is now more than a week. And we want to see the grandkids. I have had 4 "negative" tests, and my just laying low until Wednesday, which will be nearly 10 days.

All in all, an amazing experience - except the COVID part. But after all the frenzy of activity, it's nice to be a bit bored and sitting around the house waiting for freedom to come back.

Be careful out there. It's still here, even though nobody wants to talk about it.

More gardens to share.

 So, I finished my fourth sample garden, the one that was inspired by the home spun yarn that is dangling from the bottom. It is mounted on a stretched canvas that is 10 x 20. The centres of the flowers are also created by making quillies from the "rasta" yarn. (This is not the best picture of it. Colours are much brighter.)

In addition to the gorgeous hand spun yarn, in the little "prickly" looking flowers in the upper left corner, I used the yarn that is made for knitting "scrubbies" for the kitchen. I love how it turned out. If you zoom in a bit, you can see it clearly.

Then off me and my little gardens went, to my first "in person" workshop since 2019. What a rush that was!! Everyone was soooo happy to be together in a real space, of course they were going to have a good time.

But they got the concept, and after I showed some reference from Pinterest, and did a lesson on making a quillie and how and what to do with Proddy, off they went!!!

Each student had something unique in their heads as they started their little gardens. I took a few early shots while in the class as they were just getting started. 

By the end of the day, everyone was much further along. And I am thrilled to see how many "gardeners" have been sharing their masterpieces on Social Media. 

Here is Peggy's 

Here is Claire's 

And here is a link to Martina's on her Instagram page. (you can't copy an image from there). You will get a re-direct notice, but if you click on the link you will see it. She actually was working on 4 tiny gardens, so you will see more from her either on IG or here. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjT-NW7pxS0/

Hopefully, I will have more to share in the coming weeks.