Our new “raised gardening beds.” Water goes down the PVC pipe from the hose and collects below the soil in each tub. From there it “wicks up” and reduces the need for daily manual watering. In theory, that’s how it works. We shall see.
Gardening, rug hooking in Albuquerque – what’s old is new again for us here in Albuquerque. At least for Tom and me.
First the gardening. In Massachusetts, planting didn’t happen till mid-May, even early June some years. Not here. Pansies started in late February, and this week we were at Lowes buying herbs and flowers. Today we started planting. Forget the garden bed in the middle of the yard or digging into the soil, though. Instead of dirt, our yard is basically hard-packed sand. So Tom did some – pardon the pun – digging online and came up with these contraptions on the left.
Given how dry it is here in the high desert, they’re supposed to help with watering too. Next week, we’ll pick up a large horse trough and tomato plants. Back east we used to do yard work on automatic pilot. Here it’s gardening 101 all over again.
New mat made out of old bed sheets.
Then there’s my newest rug, one I previewed a few weeks ago in the Experimenting post. I’m just finishing it up now – whip stitching, of course. (From last week’s post, you know how much I love doing that.) The fun thing about this mat is that it’s hooked completely out of bed sheets on a latch hook background. It came out nice and fluffy. Perfect, perhaps, for a bathroom. Already, I’ve been out collecting more sheets at my local Savers so I can start a new one.
I’m so excited to be giving new lives to old linens and clothes. Recycling, upcycling, whatever you choose to call it, keeps stuff out of landfills and looks pretty fine as well.
Whip stitching along the backside of the bed sheet rug.
Many hookers have branched out to alternative fibers these days, if only to add texture and other layers of interest to their rugs. Please post pics of your experiments on High on Hooking’s Facebook page.
Now I remember why I stopped whipstitching and went back to finishing rugs with binding tape. And why so many asked about my method of sewing the tape to the edge of the rug before I pull a single loop. ‘Cause whipstitching is a BIG pain in the heiny!
I can say that because I’ve spent part of the past couple of says whipstitching two small rugs. In order to save some of my dwindling supply of monk’s cloth (my old supplier closed over a year ago, and I bought a LOT then), I drew the two mats pretty close together and didn’t bother to sew the twill tape on. I’ll finish them differently, I told myself. Idiot.
The reality is that I find sewing on binding tape BY HAND ALWAYS pretty “zenning.” I listen to music or Prairie Home Companion while I do it. Not so much whipstitching. But it had to be done. And so it was.
In other news, last Thursday evening, Tom and I headed down to the University of New Mexico – Valencia’s Fine Arts Gallery in Los Lunas to hear Adobe Wool Arts guildmate Mary Schnitzler lecture on rug hooking in general and Grenfell mats in particular. Great job, Mary! Then a group of us walked over to the artists’ reception to look at all the mats that are hanging for the month-long show. If you’re in the area, stop by. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos.
“Great Aunt Margaret on Slovenian Family Farm” by Mary Schnitzler.Guild member Mary Ramsey on demo duty.
“Ketchikan Mask” by Cathy Kelly.
Rugs by guild members: Cathy Kelly, Mary Schnitzler, Pat Wagner, and me, Laura Salamy (“Fireworks”). The large rug in the center is the “guild rug” worked on my members a few years back (before my time).
Memory Lane can take you to the best places. In this case, New Hampshire’s Story Land around 1970.
Memory Lane’s got me in her grip, but I managed to come up for air for a few moments. For one thing, this post is due tomorrow. As long as I can get a draft done today…
I’ve been going through hundreds of old family photos that my brother and his wife generously uploaded to Shutterfly from slides my father’s been taking for decades. It’s a huge undertaking and the job’s not done yet. But at least family history – the good and bad of it – won’t be lost, and the collection of pics doesn’t have to be split between the four of us kids.
Why am I going through photos today? And not just my father’s but my own family’s as well? It actually has to do with rug hooking. Really! In less than a month Cheryl Bollenbach is paying a visit to Albuquerque, specifically to the Adobe Wool Arts guild, to facilitate an open class with us. I know, it’s exciting. It’s open, so we’re choosing our own projects. Cheryl will be informed ahead of time, so that she’ll know what we’re looking to learn and what we need help with, then she can prepare accordingly. Actually, she’s waiting to hear from us, um, me right now. I received her email Friday. Still haven’t responded.
Dancing with Grandpa. Maybe I was 13-ish.
See, between creating hopefully saleable small mats and working on the bed-sheet rug (which presented a not-so-small backing challenge this past week) in order to have enough inventory for the Rail Yards Market come June 5, I haven’t been thinking too much about the class. Sure, now and again – usually at 2:00 a.m. in bed – I’d agonize a little over it and what I wanted to accomplish with Cheryl, but I’d comfort myself with “Hey, it’s not till May. You’ve got plenty of time.” This week I realized that May 4th is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
Deep breath. More thought. One goal I’ve had for 2016 is to hook a sefie. Not something particularly realistic, but one of those whimsical, full-of-color mats I’ve seen some of you put up on Facebook and Pinterest. What fun! I’ll do that. But then I got to thinking, I haven’t done
Tynan, family dog extraordinaire. (We all say that about our dogs, I know.) Love his color, but not interested in hooking that much Welsh springer spaniel red and white.
Tynan. He’s our dog who simply must be immortalized in wool or t-shirt or something. Again, not looking to make him realistic either. Did that with another dog and really didn’t enjoy it. Ripped out a LOT of loops. Hooking’s supposed to be my happy place. And what I want to do in one of these rugs is show that and the joy that Tynan and/or I get from life. That means bright colors, people.
So, I’m looking at pics, and I see my beloved grandmother. And my brother who passed away from cancer at 14. I could hook them! Or pictures my dad took of Nova Scotia during our camping trips! What about the mountains of New Mexico that I’ve fallen in love with? Or my daughter behind a feathered Mardi Gras mask circa 5th grade? Now I’m out of control. Really, I’ve never mined my photographs for ideas given my love of abstract. I guess it’s time.
I know that many of you do use your pics to hook. I’m looking for some advice regarding Photoshop. Looks like it can definitely be a great tool. Thoughts? Ease of use? (I’m Windows based, not Mac.) Happy to hear from everyone. And I’ll let you know sometime soon who’s getting a portrait done.
The Colors of the Southwest show put on by the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council is history. It opened Friday morning; there was a “meet the artists” reception that evening. Saturday it ran all day. I was there Friday evening to view and schmooze and Saturday afternoon to demonstrate rug hooking. Took a LOT of pics as there were many, many talented artists represented. Enjoy!
This is Cathy Kelly’s rug dedicated to her good friend Emma Webber.Very southwestern. “Joya Voladora en la Puesta del Sol” by Molly Gallegos
“The Rare Desert Elephant” knitted by Tara Cummings
A close-up of “Sitting Pretty” by Rod Daniel
The vibrant “New Mexico Vortex” by Margaret Shumaker
“Intergalactic Tourist” by Nancy Ellis-Hines. (Oddly enough, Tom and I headed out to the movies to see “Star Wars” again after we left the show Friday night.)
“Abundecia de Flores,” an example of colcha embroidery, by Annette Turk
“Roadside Bloom Plastic” woven by Mary Colton“Flamenca Naranja” by Dana Helms
“Beauty in the Wilderness” quilted by Anita McSorleyTapestryAnd lastly, the too cute “Desert Trolls” by Tara Cunnings
My own “Ribbons Over Albuquerque”
Congratulations to the Albuquerque Fiber Arts Council and member guilds on a show well done!
Experimenting. I’ve got plenty to do this week, still I find myself trying something new. Last
Rug hooking with old sheets. My new Anderson frame came in handy as the backing is so stiff.
Thursday, I started a new rug. One on latch hook backing. Made out of old sheets. This re-cycling – or the more virtuous sounding “up-cycling” – thing has really grabbed me. I’m hoping it’ll grab buyers too when I start selling at the Rail Yard Market in June. Rag rugs are in vogue these days, you know.
Experimenting with old bed sheets. The loops pull smoothly and give a “fluffy” look.
I’ve included a couple of pics to show how it’s going. The design is simple, paisley-like, as I needed to see how the sheets would hook up before I went crazy. The strips are about a half-inch wide. No need for real precision here. Savers (a used goods store that I frequent) provided the sheets. I’m hoping to find brighter colors next time, though these are fairly desert-esque. That’s fitting for here in Albuquerque.
The desert colors will work nicely in a bedroom or bath.
I’ve sleeved and handed over “Ribbons Over Albuquerque” to the “Colors of the Southwest” fiber arts exhibit. It runs this weekend at the Garden Center (in itself a very cool place to visit) here in town. I’m looking forward to the show’s opening Friday evening along with the artists’ reception. Saturday, I’ve been tasked with demonstrating. That means that I need to get on the stick and finish prepping my next piece. (I figured I’d show them rug hooking in its more traditional form, so I’m leaving the sheets at home. And using t-shirts. 😉 ) Because I sew my binding on before I hook, there’s a needle and some thread in my immediate future.
Before I head back to that mat, though, I need a favor. Yesterday I created a Facebook page for my Adobe Wool Arts guild here in Albuquerque. It’ll let us share what’s going on in the guild as well as communicate with all the hookers out there in cyberspace. If you’d be so kind as to give us a looksie at https://www.facebook.com/AdobeWoolArts/, we’d be ever so grateful. Feel free to comment, share, educate, whatever. And then LIKE us. We love meeting new friends.
How much experimenting do you do when you hook?
The official rug of the Adobe Wool Arts guild here in Albuquerque. Our Facebook page only shows a tiny part of it. Wish I’d gotten here in time to help hook it.
