~ We've got CLASS! ~

 Good Morning Friends & Folk ~

and a happy steamy Sunday to you all!

{and a very happy birthday to my sweet sister Sharon}

xoxoxoxox

Yesterday we had the pleasure once again to host a finishing class

taught by Beck Noland from Lucy Beam - Love in Stitches!

~ her project for class was this sweet as honey Tea Box ~

Becky always brings along a few of her beautiful models for us to drool over, 

and other needfuls for class...

{she also brought along AWESOME cupcakes from Frosting bakery in R'mond, VA}

 

here she is during the class ~

Becky is a wonderful teacher and we love to host her classes!

 

 

some of us brought along other forms of needlework, too ~

and they sure were fast at it, see those busy blurry hands?

;)

 

here the class students are wprking on covering their tea boxes...

they had previously cross stitched the top portion ~

Becky carefully chose pages from a vintage cookbook for class ~

charming!

 

after class,

a few gals shared some of their show 'n tell with us...

below is Debbie holding up her lovely quilt that she made, and taught a class for as well...

and here are a couple of Deb's stitched reproduction samplers 

from Susan Greening that she stitched:

our beloved friends Steve & Shari Kritikakos 

joined us for a much overdue visit!!

{you may also know them as Santa & Mrs. Claus}

here Shari is showing us a beautiful embroidery done by her grandmother... 

such perfect stitches and so fully embroidered!

treasured family heirlooms indeed.

My sweet friend Heather gifted me with this happy ORANGE coneflower!

I have never seen one this color, but she knows I love orange and thought of me...

this will be planted here in our kitchen garden to come back each year and remind us of how much we love our friends ~

 

Much thanks to Becky for another awesome class ~ 

and thanks to all who came out to the shop for the class, 

so good to see everyone's beautiful faces

as well as our shoppers who visited during class too!

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ A Little Q&A ~

From time to time

 I get questions asked of me about my rug hooking 

and my wonky-way of doing things.

here are a few answers ~

"How high are your loops?"

 I pull my loops as high as my largest strip of wool....

I tend to hook with different widths of wool all on one rug, from 3/8" up to a 9 cut.

If the largest strip I'm working with is a 9 cut, then I will pull all of my loops up to that height...even the 7 cut will be pulled up to match the height of the 9 cut so it doesn't get 'lost' between rows.

BUT that is not always necessarily consistent for me either! if I am hooking a rug and really want it to look old & worn, then I will intentionally hook my smaller strips {such as an outline or beauty line} lower than the rest of the surrounding loops, so they 'sink in' a bit.

Instant Age!

"How to you achieve detail on your faces suing a larger cut?"

After I hook the general outline of the motif 

{in this case, the witch's profile below and the moon's profile under that} I will simply turn my wool strips with my loop lifter or fingers to manipulate the way the loops go.

see her pointy nose? I turned the very tip of her nose to make it go an almost opposite direction from the loops along her brow, down the bridge.

Then I fill-in the rest making sure not to over-pack my loops.

"How do you hide your tails?"

 I don't!

 I don't mind them at all...they lend an old look and texture to my rugs.

But I make sure not to have lots of tails all together in one place...spread them around a bit.

you can see the tree trunk {below} has tails smack dab in the middle where two colors have met.

"How do you color plan your rugs?" 

I have a favorite color palette that I use, 

which I have based off of a DMC cotton floss color palette.

I favor more muted tones, rather than brights ~

 but have no problem mixing in a little 'poison' to make motifs spark!

I will look at each motif on my rug design, and color plan each one separately

 ~ from there, if a color doesn't fit in with the rest, out it goes!

I love black-browns, green-blacks, orange-reds, golden-mustards, yellow-greens, olive-greens, yellow-blues, and greyish-taupes.

I hand dye some of my wools {using Pro Chem} and really should dye more!} but also love using as-is wools from The Wool Studio & Heavens To Betsy.

"Where is you favorite place to hook?"

I have to say in my garden. 

The natural light is superb, and I enjoy the birds, bees and occasional kitten for company ;)

I also love hooking outside because there is less wool dust to clean up HA!

Aside from there, I hook in our Keeping Room and/or my Sewing Room here in the farmhouse,

or out in the Farm Shop.

"What is your preferred backing to hook on?"

I prefer Dorr Mill's bleached linen.

it is nice & bright, sturdy, and can accommodate all of my different wool strips nicely...

and it is virtually 'hairless' and not scratchy. Hooks Like Buttah!

"What kind of tools do you use?"

~ I prefer to use my steel shank primitive hook that Peter makes, it pulls a 7 up to a 10 cut wonderfully and doesn't 'snag' the wool.

I use my off-set scissors or a small pair of Fiskar snips while I'm working.

 I use a Fraser 500 clamp-style cutter, on a Stripper's Tote© that Peter designed to hold it ~ 

and I use his Hookinpunch© Adjustable Gripper Frame.

"How long have you been a hooker?"

a long time....I think this will mark my 30th year, as I began my journey into rug hooking right after Peter & I were married in October of 1987.

*wow*

"Do you teach?" 

~ yep.

love to travel! have hook & broom will travel! 

I am a super-informal teacher, just ask anyone who has been in one of my classes ;)

I also teach here in our Farm Shop and hold weekly Hook In's on Saturdays.

in a wooly-nutshell, 

...there you have it to the best of my ability.

***FORGOT TO ADD***
that there will be NO Needle Night tonight, looking forward to seeing everyone on the 16th for our Gathering of Primitive Friends Show :)
Needle Night will resume in October, with the 1st monday night :)

Now I am off to finish the background on When Pigs Fly!

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Blessings from the Farm

 ~ Lori

~ Good Day Sunshine ~

Happy Monday Friends & Folk!

~ we have had thee best weather here as of late ~ 

with yet another high & dry one scheduled for today...

I have been putting the good weather to good use,

working on finished items for upcoming shows, 

… and models for upcoming classes.

this is but one of the projects that has leapt from my needle & graced my hoop;

I like to switch between my favorite DMC floss colors and Valdani threads

to give my folk art needlework more movement & depth…

what you are seeing is the back of my project-in-progress,

thus the stray threads ~

most of the time,

 I will wind my DMC floss around one of our thread winders 

to keep my threads from tangling…

or I like to use one of our 

Farmhouse Ball Jars to hold balls of Valdani perle cottons as I punch;

~ but ~

when I'm in the throes of a creative-frenzy there is no organization for me!

{{ as you can tell by the nest of cotton floss close by my work }}

I just thread that needle and punch!

here is a view of the front of my sun;

notice the dimensional-effect it has 

~ from the different height adjustments on my Ultra Punch Needle… 

I will begin filling in the background and this will be adhered to an old zinc sap bucket 

that I found on my travels here in Virginia.

 I have a total of 4 buckets to put use for more of my finished punch-work, 

and they will accompany me to the 

Summer in the Valley show in Fishersville, VA on July the 9th.

{still have to trim away stray threads from the front}

This week,

I will be happily preparing the supplies for the "Sturbridge Peony" Class 

that I'll be teaching this Saturday, June 25th

at Ye Country Mercantile in Sturbridge, MA

{class project is below}

Joan & I are super-excited to visit with Doreen Piechota at her beautiful shoppe:

Ye Country Mercantile

click HERE to visit

and we are also looking forward to seeing those of you who have signed up for the class!!

I promise to behave and be on my best behavior ~ but I can get a little crazy ;)

Have a glorious 1st day of Summer my friends ~

may it be filled with sunshine for all!

~ Blessings from the Farm ~

 Lori

A Friend's Painting in Wool, and a Party!!

Good Morning !!!

we have been very busy here this past week, hence the sporadic postings...
but we have good reason ~ we're getting ready for Hannah's graduation & party this coming saturday...we have family coming in from Connecticut, and friends from near & far...

(I know I'm going to 'lose it' at the graduation, so I will pack lots of tissues, and won't wear mascara)
I'll share pics next week!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and I have to show you this beautiful hooked rug, or as I like to describe it as,

a painting in wool....

Jane was one of my first students here when we moved to VA from CT...

She took to hooking like a duckling takes to water and has since hooked tons of smaller pieces, chairpads, wall hangings & pillows, but this is - as Jane described to me - is her Opus...her biggest hooked project yet:

 look closely & you see the detail in the workers picking strawberries and how about the John Deere tractor in the field and grazing bovines in the pasture...
...all nestled beneath our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains ~



 

here is the note she wrote to me in her email along with her pictures...

 

Hi Lori,I just finished this piece and I wanted to show you.
Without your guidance and encouragement, I never would have tried anything as complicated. In early May I went to Seaman's Strawberry fields to pick for the first time. This was the view from the field. It was so impressive to me. I sketched out the basics and Steve drew it up for me. It measures 23"X18" and is the largest piece I've ever done. I have to say, I'm pleased with the results.

Again - many thanks for the gift of your teaching.

Much love,

Jane

I am the lucky one, because I get to meet so many folks who create beautiful things with the help of my teaching...I am the one who is blessed !!!

Blessings from the Farm!

Lori