Sunday, June 16, 2013

IT'S  SUMMER!
I can't believe that I have not posted
since last Thanksgiving.
Our household was so upset at that time
that I guess I should not be surprised.
Our Joan was in the hospital and very ill.
She's well on the road to recovery now and
we are so grateful  


 I spent most of the winter just
resting up for spring!  Mom's got
some great "upside down" pictures of me.

Our deck has been cleaned and mom has
planted an "herb" garden.
This consists of two large planters filled
with herbs.


  1.  This is a brand new pot and it sure is
  2. pretty.  She put it on a stand so I would stay
  3. out of it.  It has chives, basil, parsley
  4. and oregano planted in it.

This is closeup of the herbs,
They are really growing fast!  Mom says that 
she will start cutting and freezing some
of them pretty soon so that we can have
them all winter in our soup. 

 This is the pot of basil only.
It has four different kinds in it.
The one closest to the front is
lemon basil.
This is the one that I like to eat.  I only do it when she is not looking (lol)
I got caught with a leaf in my mouth.
She just laughed!


 She also planted some lovely flowers,
She has petunias, begonias, vinca vines and
lots of other stuff on the deck.
It sure does look pretty.
We have our morning coffee and most
of the time our lunch on the deck.

So far this spring and summer I have only found
one snake and one baby toad.
That toad sure hopped a lot.  I showedhim/her 
that I could hop just as well as it could.
I hopped every time it did!

Guess that all the news that's fit to print!
We will be celebrating Christmas
on July 27th.
I can harly wait.
I need to rest up so I can be in
top form.  I'll let you know how
Christmas turns out
later


Monday, June 10, 2013

IT's ALL ABOUT RUGS!

Some little time ago (3 years) Beth S, the president of our ATHA Chapter told me that
she had a rug that had been hooked many years ago by a lady that had passed away.  
It was to be a wedding gift
for her daughter, who is now in her
seventies.  The wedding was a long time ago!
Of course, the rug was unfinished and
Beth,  who does mostly primitive hooking
wanted some help with finishing.

The rug finally made it to my house
and I was "hooked: on finishing this rug.
It was an early Pearl McGown
design called "Patrician. number 714."
Obviously an early pattern design.
This rug really spoke to me and this is what it
told me.

The lady that hooked this had had a
lot of experience hooking rugs.
Her technique was impeccable.
The back of this rug is as beautiful as the front.
My guess is that it was hooked in the
late 50's or 60's.
The rug is hooked in soft pink, 
dull green and a soft mauve background.
The background material is "off the
bolt" with nothing done to it.
In addition, the rug told me that
the burlap was getting stiff and dry.

Now, for the finishing of the rug!
All four corners need to be finished.

As you can see all of background of the corner and part of the design need to be finished.
I lucked out in that years ago I had
bought a bolt of the mauve background
color from Dorr and I still had some.
A perfect match!
This is what 3 of the unworked corners looked like.
When I looked thru my stach of old
wools I found a Colorama Swatch,
dyed by Leona Cook, the orginal owned
of Colorama.  Pink, and also a perfect
match.  How lucky can you get?
Beth tells me she has the green
wool in a closet full of "stuff" and will get it for me.
Close up of the center of the rug.
As you can see, the colors are very soft.
It is a beauty!

I can't wait to finish this project.
Hopefully it will be a Christmas present
for the daughter.

As for Eloise and me, we are in the dye
pots and coming to the end of our
teaching season.  Looking forward to a
relaxing summer.
Quote of day,
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, courage is what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill
Doris and Els





Sunday, June 2, 2013