Hooray, Hooray, spring is on the way. The first of my snowdrops are in bloom. I tried to get a picture of these lovely little blossoms but they are under the pine trees and the pictures were to dark to show the blossoms as nice as they are. Take it from me, they are in bloom!

I went to the McGown guild chapter meeting this past Wednesday. This group of ladies are my best hooking buddy's. I have been hooking with them for 6 or 7 years and they are the ones that have given me much love and moral support when sad and serious things have happened in my life. Meg is our expert on Oriental rugs. All of the floors in her home are covered with her beautiful hand hooked orientals. A sight to behold! She is just starting a new one and the colors are wonderful. Love this blue.

Many of the ladies of this group also belong to the Mason-Dixon chapter of ATHA and so our Ginny had the rug with her that the group is going to present to the church where we have met for many years. I love the rug. It truly has been a labor of love on the part of many of the guild members. I hope you will like it also.

The lions face is lovely. A wonderful hooking job. The little lamb has the sweetest expression. I am sure the church will love this piece.

One Friday Barb and Mary came for a hooking lesson. Barb was in the dye pots doing coat hanger dyeing for some scrolls that she is going to hook and Mary was working on the grapes on her fruit sampler.

I often do not sleep well so I read in the middle of the night. I like the mystery and intrigue genre. If you like those types of books I recommen two that I read last week. The first is "Storming Heaven" by Kyle Nulls and the second is "Total Control
by David Baldacci. Hope you have a chance to read these - they are good.

My thought for the day is as follows: Whaterver one possesses becomes of double value when we have the opportunity of sharing it with others.

Here is is the last Monday in February. A windy, blustery, cold day. Looking out of the window is very deceiving - it is cooolldddd.

Last Saturday, Richard and daugher Danyel arrived in spite of the cold to do some outside work. There has been a pile of tree and grass debris in my pasture for several years that has been "bugging" Richard - so the cleanup has begun. Actually, I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked at the south side of the property this morning - so much was done on Saturday - almost cleaned up. I still think Rich should have been a forest ranger - he loves to play in the dirt!

Happy but cold and dirty! The nice thing about grandchildren is sending them home to mother - but in this case - home to wife and mother!!!

This is the day of the month that the Cumberland Valley Hookers (Chambersburg) meet. I decided to stop at the Grant Street Wool Works first. I had asked Linda to prepare some burlap for a class I'm teaching in March and also had asked Pat to enlarge one of her patterns for me. The pattern is "PA German Parotts."

I'm really looking forward to starting this piece. I want to make the birds exotic! If you want to see more of Pat's patterns go to http://www.hookhandheart.blogspot.com/ - you will enjoy what you see. I am ever amazed with what Linda is doing with her shop. She has added so much more wool - some really yummy pieces that make you want to hook, hook, hook.

Then on to the hook-in with the Cumberland Valley group. Today we had a birthday - there was cake and lots of other goodies as well as some pretty bad singing of Happy Birthday.

The birthday "girl" is in the red sweater.

Also in attendance were Marion, Joyce and Sandra. Marion is finishing up a charming pictorial piece of a rabbit with a backpack of eggs and the cutest yellow chick ever. Here she is discussing something with Joyce. Wish I had gotten a good picture of her pictorial.

The human heart lives in hope and mine is full of longing for spring. Enough of this cold weather. I hope by the time I am reaady to update my blog some tangible evidence of spring will show itself. Until then, be positive, love thy neighbor as thy self, and hook, hook, hook.

Thank goodness for a my wood stoves. This has been a snowy, rainy, sleety, yucky day. The wood stove has been going great guns since early morning. It is equiped with a screen across the front so that one can enjoy watching the fire. It is a thief of time! Eloise and I really enjoy watching the flames and daydreaming in from of this stove.

I was a little short on light but perhaps you can get the idea that we really like to be warm.

I have put the wool to soak for the matrial I will need for my sculpting class in March. I plan to spend the day tomorrow in the dye pots. Also want to do some experimental dyeing. Brenda very kindly sent me a copy of the third TOD book which I did not have. I have been reading the formulas in this book and they look like they has some real possibilities. I like to "tweek" formulas and get the colors to my own liking. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

I spent Monday with my daughter Joan. We did a bit of shopping. We went to Joanne's and Michaels. I found some tote bags that I think will be suitable for adding small hooking pieces to and I think that they will make nice presents. We also located the new gift shop in Boonsboro, Nora Roberts' Inn Boonsboro Gift shop and it looks fascinating. I'll have to do more exploring of that on a day when the weather is nice.

I have completed about half of my stitches sampler. I am pleased with the results so far and hope that my students will be as pleased with theirs.

This next picture is a closeup of the sun. It is prodded. I am grateful to Cheri for the idea of clipping the ends of the prod rather than pointing or rounding them. It does look more like a sun with the ends clipped this way.

I'm hoping to finish this piece before the weekend. I would like to take it to Chambersburg on Monday to show Linda and Pat the results of Pats hard work in designing the piece. I am so pleased with the job she did for me.

Some months ago I helped my friend Traci put Mr. Iggy on a piece of burlap so that she could get hooking. She has finished the piece and he is cute .

Hope you enjoy these pictures. I get so frustrated with is Vista program. It won't hold the type face that I want to use. Please excuse the change in look. I do think that Mr Iggy is adorable and Traci has done a great job on him.

I hope everyone has had a nice day in spite of the weather. Remember, into each life a little rain must fall but if you keep smiling all will be right with the world.

I could not resist taking this picture. This was Eloise immediately after everyone left. She was so tired - mostly because she did not get a lot of attention during the day altho she got Caroline's number and was the recipient of some cheese to munch.

Well, my Valentine's day was a success and I sure hope yours was. Hope you spent it with your loved one and good friends. My best wishes for a great week for all - lots of hooking and lots of fun.

(needless to say this belongs at the end)

Whe I looked at Kathy's blog yesterday I had to agree with her. Last week was a week to forget! If it could go wrong it did and in a big way but I have decided not to dwell on that and to move on, after all Friday th 13th has come and gone and things have to get better.

I went to the Blue and Gray meeting in Gettysburg last Monday. Joan had brought two finished rugs for show. One was a geometric probably best described as a quilt blocks type of rug and the other a pictoral. Both were lovely. Marian had a new project she showed us. It is a vase of flower hooked on a coarse woven wool that has been spot dyed with a beautiful rust color, making no background hooking necessary. She has just started working on this piece and her flower were absolutely beautiful! Of course, I took pictures, however, one of last week misfortunes is that the camera has jostled in my purse and the pictures were in video and unsuitable for posting on my blog. I hope these rugs will be shown again so that I can get some decent pictures for all three were lovely.

Yesterday was my stitches workshop. Five pople attended and I do think that it was a fun time even tho it was intense work. I always feel I learn more from these workshops than the students. The thing that I learned from this one is that I should allow more time to teach all of these stitches - perhaps a ten to three or four workshop. That way it would not be so intense and there would be more time for fun. I have some pictures to show you.

This is the stitches sampler that Pat Wenger designed for me. She is with Linda at the Grant Street Woolery. What a wonderful job she did on this. All of the hookers really liked the pattern.

It lent itself very well to all of the stitches we were learning about and also gives some latitude as to where you can put your decorative work.

Ron and Caroline hard at work. I don't think that any of us thought that we would work so hard on Valentines day!

This is a closeup of Sherri prodding her sun. She decided to clip the ends of her prod like a shaggy flower and it was remarkably effective. We all liked what she was doing. I think that when I complete my pattern I will try to do this kind of sun.

Here you see Traci, Sherri and Patti all hard at work. Traci's hair looks frustrated! Such concentration!

We all know that after a hard day of hooking we are very tired. You get especially tired if you have been supervising for hours with out much response to your suggestions.

My computer is having a breakdown - it told me it could not post my blog properly and I believe it! Hope you can make heads and tails of this posting.

When I awakened the other morning the world was like a winter wonder land. I couldn't help myself, I had to take a picture. My barn, which needs a good paint job generally looks very run down but on this morning looked so pretty.

All in all, a good day to stay home and just enjoy. I put a nice fire in the wood stove and sat for a long time just watching the flames. My woodstove is fitted with a screen so that "fire watching" becomes part of staying warm!

I have finished hooking one of the samples that I want to show my sculpting workshop. The workshop is not until March 14th but I thought that I had better get going on samples. I do often work better to deadlines, like so many people but I thought that I would like to keep the "panic" out of my life for once.

I felt a little tired yesterday so did lots of little chores that required a lot of sitting down! I got extra materials ready for my "stitches class" and checked out the pattern again. I am most grateful to Pat Wenger for her great design. I talked with Pat about 6 weeks ago and told what elements I need in a sampler. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler!! - so I just put circles on a piece of paper where I wanted the different elements to be and she has come up with a truly workable and very cute design. I hope that any of you that have a special needs pattern will contact her at the Grant Street Woolery in Chambersburg. I have not taken a picture of the pattern because I want my students to see it first.

I put some 1/2 yard pieces to soak yesterday so am planning to get in the dye pots before the morning is over. Perhaps I will have some pretty wool to show you in my next blog.

I said in the beginning of my blog life that I would try to include a picture of a rug in each posting. I have been a bit remiss in this so for this blog I have what I think is a beautiful one. It is called Empress, a Persian Oriental, design by Pearl McGown and Hooked by Kristen Aymar. Altho it doesn't look like it in the pictures, this rug is 3" by 5" in size. I hope you enjoy the beauty of this rug.

Close up of corner and center motif show the colors much better.

well, enough said for today. I'm off to the dye pots! Have good day with lots of positive thoughts and love for everyone.