The Elf

The Elf rug was just posted on the Rug Hooking Daily site and now I can show it here also.
All those weeks when I didn't have any pictures of my work in progress, this is what I was doing.  I bet you thought I was just sitting around eating chocolates!  Well, I did that too!

The purpose of the S-M-I-L-E challenge was to do something different, to stretch our limits a bit.  The lady who initiated the challenge is a hooker with a quirky sense of humor named Sunny Andress.  She stated that we were to pick a 'season' and think of the colors associated with that season.  Then she sent us a small drawing that we were supposed to use in our hooked piece.  We could change the picture somewhat, but it still had to look like an elf with the words smile in it's hands.

I AM NOT AN ELF person!!!  But the challenge was fun and I like the results.  Yellow is not a color I commonly use in my work, nor is aqua blue.  We could also emblellish with 'bling' but since mine would be a rug, I opted not to do that.

Closeup of the elf face.

I had some problems getting the binding right.  Was going to whip it with yarn, but after two attempts at dying, and both colors coming out too bright, I gave that up.
Then decided to whip with fabric strips.  Didn't look right either.
Finally ended up binding with a bias strip of wool.  I had done so much modifying and starting over that in the end I only had a 1/4 inch edge of burlap left!!!  Yikes!  I put glue on it and let it dry, then applied the bias wool strip.  Seems to be holding together OK.

That's the story of the Elf rug.

To see what other hookers have done with the design, check Rug Hooking Daily in a few days.  There should be an Album set up so that all our designs will be in the same place and ready for viewing.
Also check Sunny Andress's page for the wonderful, humorous designs that she has created.  They are so much fun!

Happy Hooking!