The Merry Hooker Woolens

Happy day... I was able to set aside some quiet time to finish my first little Maggie project from the book, A Day at Sunny Brook.
 With the exception of the hand dyed cotton velvet, everything used to make the chatelaine was either repurposed or scrapes of wool left over from hooked rug projects. The cotton face for the scissors holder is a piece of hand printed Fortuny (Yes, that Fortuny!) left over from my days as a custom curtain maker. It's a wonderful example of fine fabric work.
I was especially happy with the berry pin cushion....hand dyed red cotton velvet, a good wool plaid over-dyed with green and black glass chop beads put together & stuffed with pine shavings and wool. It was not hard to make but I did learn a few things like take it outside to stuff it with the pine shavings because it makes a big mess. This design, Strawberry Fields, is one of several new pin cushion designs that I've just added to my website.

It seems that textiles, and their accompanying paraphernalia, have always been a part of my life. As a result, I've accumulated a few "collections".  As you can imagine, my wool collection is significant but I have a couple of other collections that I don't write about very often....fabric that's not wool and buttons.
Some of the buttons are antiques and really too valuable to be used but others are just pretties that couldn't possibly be tossed out. And the fabrics, most from my many years of constructing custom soft furnishings, are wonderful and, in this era of cheaply produced Asian fabrics, almost irreplaceable. And really, ask my friends... I've given a lot of it away! But I'm selfish and just can't give up some of it.
Well, recently I decided to add books and patterns from the delightfully creative Maggie Bonanomi to the offerings on my website. And in exploring her latest book, A Day at Sunny Brook, I found the most enchanting use for a jar full of mostly Mother of Pearl buttons...all vintage, a few antique and none terribly valuable. But all just waiting for the opportunity to be useful once again...

Here's a photo of my work-in-progress (And I'll post the completed piece soon, I promise!):


And here are a few of the other buttons:

I'm so fortunate to be a member of the Wine Country Rug Hookers, an ATHA guild based in the lovely region of California where I grew up. There are many reasons to appreciate this guild.....not the least of which is the varied and talented group of hookers I've come to know & love.


Another reason is that, at least twice a year, we host well-known teachers from around the country to come & share their expertise with our members. For some inexplicable reason, we don't have much difficulty getting teaching commitments from these great teachers. I wonder why???

Last weekend, we had a visitor from not-too-far-away, the inestimable Gene Shepherd from Anaheim, California (otherwise known as the home of Disneyland). Gene spent a very busy day and a half teaching us proddy techniques to enhance our hooking. It was great fun and Gene is a great teacher. He's thoroughly researched his subject and has worked hard to develop neat ways of prodding realistic-looking flowers. He's also quite personable, tells a good story and kept us laughing.

The hookers in our group have a broad range of styles and, as a result, there were a great many interpretations of Gene's proddy flower techniques. I took two pieces that I had put a lot of work in to before the workshop. The first is a Primitive Spirit design, Almond Blossoms, which I had completely hooked but left spaces to add the proddy blossoms. The top photo is how the piece looked after the workshop. I spent the whole first day cutting out the blossoms and adding them to the piece.
While I was very happy with all that I learned, I did find that I was not completely pleased with the colors of the blossoms.....somehow the brighter pink just didn't go with the overall muted colors of the mat. I have since made a few changes and additions and am much happier with the total effect.
I welcome your opinions on which you like best.....the first version with the brighter blossoms or the second version with the more subtle coloration in the blossoms?

This mat will be used as my demonstration piece for the Pillow Construction Workshop I'm teaching in my studio next month.....I rather like the idea that I'll be using a piece that Gene helped me to learn from to help others learn some of what I have to offer.

The second piece that I worked on is my own design.....you'll see the finished version & the pattern at a later time but, for now, I just wanted to share the flowers I added using Gene's techniques & guidance. This piece makes me very happy!







Notice the wonderful vintage Bakelite buttons I used as centers for two of the flowers? I have quite an extensive collection of vintage & antique buttons and it's fun to find such a great use for a few of them!







Keep Hooking.....

Years ago I had the good fortune (and the time!) to study antique ribbonwork with Candace Kling, a notable artist who works largely with ribbon and other textiles. While best known for the magnificent floral forms and hats that she creates, Candace has made a study of vintage Victorian ribbonwork. Her teaching methods are detailed and exact. I still use my notebook, filled with measurements and scraps of folded paper, to construct fine fabric ribbonwork to embellish my custom hand sewn curtains.



This simple cocarde, or more precisely, galette, is one of my favorites and is constructed from vintage grosgrain ribbon and embellished with an antique hand- carved mother of pearl button from my collection. I wish there were still mills that would weave ribbon of this quality..... this vintage piece was a dream to work with.