Now I can 'Finish' my Rugs...

Kathy always tells us that a rug isn't finished until it has a label on it. Well, Kathy, I finally made some labels.

Took me a while to decide how I wanted to do it- print them on the computer, just write on it with a micron pen, or....what???. I can't seem to get permanent archival ink for my printer so ruled that one out. Didn't think my own handwriting was really what I wanted either.

Decided on the dreaded embroidery machine! When I bought this machine, reading the literature makes it seem like it is soooo easy and everything is done automatically. There are icons on the computer screen with Auto-this and Auto-that, but......! And the tutorial is a breeze! Just click on the line in the drawing and it automatically traces around the drawing and makes outline stitches! NOT!!!

As you have probably guessed, the reality is that everything has to be done manually and it takes an age! LOL!!! Sone lettering fonts are provided with the embroidery software, but not many. And there are a few small decorative embroideries.
But the nice thing is, you can purchase wonderful designs on the internet if you don't have the time or patience to use your own designs. Embroidery Library is an especially good site (and reasonably priced!)

So here are the labels. The top one I'll use with designs that are not my own. I plan to write on by hand the name of the rug and the designer. The bottom one I'll use for my own designs.

Here is the machine in action. No hands necessary! It just does it's own thing until it needs a change of thread color. The sewing is the easy part. The setting up is the pain-in-
the-butt!

We had a really bad weekend with kitty health problems. I have been a total wreck!!! After finding out about two months ago that Sophie had diebetes (she is doing well at this point!), her brother Robbie fell off the window sill in the kitchen and now has some kind of neurological problems. We are not sure whether he had some kind of seizure that caused him to fall or if the fall was the cause of the problem. Anyhow he seems to lose his balance frequently now. We took him to the vet on Sat. morning and the bloodwork was fine, no inner ear problems, etc. And while he was at the vet's, he wasn't showing any signs of balance problems.

Sunday He was really schitzy and distressed. Yesterday he seemed better, with only one minor loss of balance that I noticed. This morning he had a small episode. Unfortunately without lots of expensive tests and ones that our vet is not equipped to do anyhow, we probably will not know what is causing this affliction. If it doesn't get any worse, he will be able to adjust. We will just have to wait and see and pray for the best.

Since I was such a basket case over Robbie, the only thing I had any concentration for was hooking. My gameboard is a no brainer at this point! The picture came out kind of dark. I took it on the front porch where there is better light than inside, but the sun wasn't shining directly on it. But you can see that it's progressing.

I'm getting tired of doing little red and black blocks! There are an awful lot of them!!!

Hope to see some of you at the hook-in at Grant Street Woolworks on Thursday!

Just Hookin'

On Thursday Grant Street Woolworks had their weekly hook-in. Jill K. from Virginia came and brought a friend along. We had a nice morning chatting and picking out wools for Jill's next project. This is the crow and sunflower rug that she has just finished. I love her colors! And the hooking is perfect! Way to go, Jill!

Doris came in the afternoon, and Kathy came later. I don't have any pictures because neither were working while I was there. We all just sat around and talked...and ate! LOL! Doris brought her 'purple project' to show, but since this is for presentation at another group, I didn't photograph it. I will say it's lovely! I did TRY to get some work done, but the conversation was more interesting. hehe!

I had my gameboard started. I got out the wools I had dyed, and in the fluorescent lighting, the yellow gold looked hideous! It was VERY bright and almost yellow green! Yuuuuuck!!! How embarrasing! Why didn't I get out those paint chips before I did that? What was I thinking????

Went home that evening and went through my wool stash and tried some other colors. Decided the golden brown was a decent choice. Of course there was only two small pieces. Got out the dyepot...AGAIN! This time I am happy with the results!

Now for a quiet day when I can make some real progress.

Happy Hooking, everyone!

Rughooker's Lament

Tell me why...why, why, why?! Oh why don't I ever have the right color in my stash?

Zip should be accompanying me on the guitar. This is a very sad song! LOL!!!

It seems like no matter how many pieces of wool and any color under the sun and then a few more, I never have the color I want for a specific project! I thought this checkerboard was going to be a good way to use up wool that I already have without needing to go to the dyepot. NOT!

I do have some red I like, and started out making the squares red and tan. Didn't like the tan. Re-decided on black. Do I have any black? NO! Overdyed some stuff that I didn't like with what I thought might make a nice antique black. Not dark enough against the red. Getting frustrated already! Got out (gasp!) a pack of BLACK dye. Overdyed again. Now I like it! Horay, a small success!




Since this is a gameboard I kind of want it to look like an old primitive painted one. Promary colors, but grungy. Here are the reds and a sage green that I thought would work.

I wanted the background behind the tree to be a gold/mustard color. Didn't have any of that either. Ended up overdying more odd pieces of light colored wool. Then dyed a dark green for the leaves and grass.
I do have some leftover brown worms from another project that will be the tree branches. But the whole point of all of this is that my 'sijmple' little gameboard turned into another dyefest, which was what I was hoping to avoid.



I think from now on I am going to just buy lighter neutral colored wool and dye everything, instead of purchasing lovely pieces that strike my fancy with no clear idea of what they will be used for. Because...and here the light bulb comes on!....I end up overdying them anyhow!

My final commnet is:
I need to be more like Doris. I KNOW she does not have these problems!!!



The last time I was telling you about learning about the settings on my camera. Look at the difference between the two pictures! The first one is on the 'normal' setting.


This one was taken right after, but with the setting for 'trees and leaves. Isn't that amazing?! I am just fascinated with the cool things a digital camera can do!

The veggies are from our garden. Those are cherry tomatoes. The baby eggplant is only about two inches long. Isn't it cute. Unfortunately when I went to chop him up for my salad, he was tough as leather! Oh well!