Wooly Bullies, September 2015

Get ready for lots of pictures.  Lots of laughter and fun today, not to mention rug hooking and fabulous eats, at Cheryl's gorgeous Victorian house.  And a lovely perfect-weather day to boot.  We could probably have hooked on the porch, but as it was, we gathered around the dining room table.  I noticed that Cheryl referred quite a bit to the fact that she has been hooking on her porch in the spring and summer; it's so comfortably set up out there that I can only imagine it's the perfect environment to foster creativity in good weather.

It felt like a long time since we had met, and we missed Elizabeth, who was at the Cape House having her lawn trimmed by ever-hungry goats.  Seriously.  Great idea.  I bet you will start a trend, Elizabeth...but we missed you.

Now, how adorable is this?  Apologies for the overexposure.  Lenore is doing this as a prototype experiment for her next rug, and I can't imagine it looking any sweeter, and frankly, I cannot wait to see the rug itself started.

Of course, I plan to abscond with the rug when she gets it done.  Fair warning, Lenore.

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Maria's "Forbidden Fruit," a Jane McGown Flynn pattern she started years ago and abandoned for awhile (WHY?) is coming along.  Maria, we are all in love with this rug so you have got to keep working on it and finish it.  She says that if she were starting it today she would do the background differently, but I think the background is perfect.

I plan to abscond with this rug also.

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Kathleen came for color advice for the background of the new fish rug.  K, did you actually get the level of color advice that you wanted?  Somehow I feel like I got distracted at one point and I missed the end of that conversation.  I love your design...did you get enough from the group in terms of ideas?

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A closer look.  The current background is experimental until she settles on the color scheme.

Another rug I plan to steal.

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A few months back, I mentioned that Cheryl is a Rug Rescuer.  You can compare her progress from that date to this date by comparing the picture here with that post.  As of today, the entire center panel, the scrolls, and a lot of the background is done.  She has been busy (when you go to the old post, scroll down to see where she was with this rug as of last May.

She has really gotten a huge amount done.  The colors in my pic aren't quite true, but close enough.  This is a lovely old pattern called "Three Rose Scroll" (not hard to see where that title came from).  And yes, I want this one too...where am I going to put all these?

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Cynthia brought the Kokopelli rug with her.  She is so close to finished that she could practically sneeze with a hook in her hand and accidentally complete it.  She's even planned out what yarn to use for whipping it.  I took lots of pictures because the Kokos (my nickname for them) are so creative and wonderful.  Here's a gallery.  You can also see one of her corners partially completed, with wonderful color.  This is a very large and just stunning rug.

I won the dunce award today for having nothing to show, as I am in the process of designing the tarot rug and thinking about the design, the colors, and the construction.  So I had the mostly-blank backing with me, and did some pencil sketches.  I also tried punching on my Snapdragon Frame, to see if I could actually punch the rug using that frame.  I think I could.  But am not sure I like the results, even though it didn't pull out the work when I took it off the frame.  My big debate is whether to punch the rug or traditionally hook it.

At least I've gotten going on it!

Oh, did I mention the amazing food?  We started with Cheryl's coffee and some homemade banana bread.  Later we had lunch...a marvelous soup with veggies, beans, some beef; it went down really well and we all had seconds.  Along with hot biscuits, oh my.  But after that, the real "Oh my!" started when she trotted out the handmade cannolis, which she actually stuffed in front of all of us, using a pastry bag as we sat mesmerized and drooling.  Whipped cream and almond filling.  O.M.G.  Beyond fabulous.  But wait--there was another dessert, a pear bread pudding with whipped cream.  Can this woman cook?  She's nothing short of phenomenal.  Cheryl, I just hope you realize you do NOT have to do this for us every time.  But talk about heavenly.

Next meeting @ Kathleen's on October 24th.  I hope to have something to show for my efforts by then.  Thank you all, as usual, for the hooking inspiration and the great company and the creativity.