Day 660 – 902 progress on Room-sized Rug

Day 867 new flowers for border

My last post was day 659, but I’ve made a commitment to myself to get more time on my rug. I have been distracted by other responsibilities and other hooking projects, but during the next few months, I am getting back in the groove.

I’ve decided to use one of the flowers in the corner of the border from a new design I’ve been working on.  Because I will be hooking all day today during the Love of Art event in Pemberville, I should have some progress to post tomorrow.

Hooking this flower also gives me an idea of how large the new design, Flower Riot, pattern will need to be.  There is a delicate balance where a flower is too big or too small to hook.  I intend Flower Riot to be hooked with a wide cut.

Day 868 new corner design on room-sized rug

Here’s what I got done yesterday.  I wanted a lighter or brighter yellow to snuggle up to the red lines, but I was limited to my scrap bag.  I could not find what I wanted because about a year ago I had removed all the yellow and put them in a separate basket.  I tried a beige instead.  It works, I like the sparkle, but it does not work with what I already have hooked.

I pulled the scraps in the photo for a possible replacement for the beige.  If they don’t work, I will need something even brighter or lighter, but still yellow.

For those of you watching the progress of Flower Riot, this is one of the motifs and it is easily hookable in a large cut.

Day 870 minor border change

Today I decided to make a minor change to the circle border. I changed the inside boundary to a curved line at the corners. This will emphasize the flowers in the corner and give the rug a slightly oval look.  I need to make a decision on whether the rug will end with this border or if another will be added.  Right now I am not hooking the outer edge perfectly on the straight of grain.  I am still doing the forced crooked that I fell in love with during a class with Karen Kahle.  Once I get most of the corner and one edge hooked, I will know where I am going.

I changed out the beige that I had in the flower and used the golds that I had laid out in a prior photo.  The dots at the ends of the lines in the flowers were getting lost so I used some of the new blue green plaid, B11 (sold out), that is one of my new favorites.

Day 871 A little of this and a little of that

I set aside a chunk of time today for rug hooking.  I have some of the circles done in the corner.  Only the first outline and the first row of background are done on most of them.  When I add the little bits of color in between, I need to pick some lighter and brighter colors to bring in a little sparkle.  I’m trying to use up the scraps in my scrap bin, but I think I’m going to have to start cutting.

I’m playing around with the idea of putting words in the outermost border.  Should they be very subtle and hard to find or a bit more obvious?  What if I use cursive script?

I reduced the size of the rose because I used the wrong line to position the corner flower and I was planning on adjusting it anyways.  I ripped out just a few rows of the lower half and rehooked with the same wool.  I didn’t realize just how dark that lower petal is.  I need to punch up the yellow and/or add a brighter red.  I decided to add the viney (is that a word?) leaves.  I really like those.

I need to think about how I am going to turn the corner with the hit and miss.  I know I don’t want a simple miter, but something a bit more interesting.   I’ve been sketching some ideas and I will hook them up next week.  It will probably be about a week until the next post.

Day 880 unexpected time off = rug hooking time!

Due to possible bad weather later this morning, I canceled the Friday studio class but was able to get a bit of hooking done.  Here’s my progress so far:

• I added the viney leaves that I added to the rose to the corner flower.
• I ripped out some of the circles in order to place the next flower.  This is another motif from the new pattern, Flower Riot.
• I haven’t fixed the rose yet.
• I began experimenting with the corner of the hit and miss.  I didn’t want to do the expected miter.  I’ll play around with it for a while.  I don’t have enough of it hooked to make a decision yet.
• I’m playing with the idea of changing the background of the border.  I would leave in what I have hooked, keep the dark brown around the flowers, but where the viney leaves hit the outer edges of the border, I have the opportunity to make a change.

I decided to do a bit of doodling.  This is one method I use to generate ideas.  I’ve become very fond of irregular borders.  As I examined the photo above, I began to wonder if the lower line was too straight (even though it is no where near straight and NOT hooked in the straight of grain.)  But the question becomes, if not that then what?

I’ve blogged before about my Wacom tablet. What I love is how I can take a photo of my work in progress and then draw right on it. Update 2020: I now use an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil to do this.

If you’ve become a regular reader of the blog you know that I tend to experiment and let my ideas take me where they will.  Many of the ideas I propose don’t make it to the final rug.  Others will get tried but discarded.  But I am a firm believer that if you get an inspiration to try something and you don’t try it, you’ve lost that possibility forever.  Follow those ideas!

Thank you to my subscribers.  If you’ve told a friend, a special thank you.

Day 902 border progress on room-sized rug

I’ve made some progress today on the border. I did a chunk of the hit and miss and filled in the background in the area between two of the border flowers. I did add my first name in cursive. You can only see it if you are looking for it, but it adds interest to this background. I will probably add my last name in the next section and put the year I started and the year I finish on the other side. What will go in between the other areas is still uncertain.

I first hooked my name with the darkest black that I am using to outline all motifs, then filled in with the lighter browns. The writing disappears near the end because the value of wool I used for the letters and the background are very close in value.

I’m OK with that. It allows you to discover something as you study the rug.