RANDOM THOUGHTS -



Ruth and Debbie come to me on Saturday's for lessons. Debbie is a first time hooker - has had no teacher until now and has been struggling with just getting the loops up. We have had about 4 lessons and she has accomplished this morning glory. I publish this picture of her accomplishment because I think that she has done a great job of capturing the depth and looks of the flower. We are starting to work on leaves and will work on a large rose in the center of the piece next.

This piece is Ruth's. Ruth has attended Buckeystown camp several times and has some self confidence issues when it comes to hooking. She is a really capable hooker just needs to be more sure of herself. The piece above, that she is hooking, is really charming. It is a fence, with flowers and bird houses. We have talked about what she will accomplish over the summer. Only one more lesson before we recess for the summer. Summer seems to be a time to rest and renew our spirits before starting a new season in September.

It is my habit to let Eloise go out through the back kitchen door into her play yard. I have done this for so long that I have the bad habit of not looking first. Several Friday's ago I simply opened the door and out she flew as she sighted a young raccoon in the yard. THE CHASE WAS ON! Els is very fast but fortunately the raccoon was faster in this instance and managed to get over the fence and into a tree before Els could catch him. The very next day (Saturday) Richard and Danyel came to mow the lawn and in the process Richard scared up a snake. THE CHASE WAS ON! Richard with the rake and Els wagging, barking, and running. Poor snake (just the garden variety) managed to find a hole to hide in. Poor Eloise, so tired she had to get a belly rub and words of consolation.

A few weeks ago when I had my car repaired, while I waited, I sat next to a lady who also had to wait for repairs. We engaged in conversation and discovered that neither of us had someone to take us back and forth while the car was being worked on. I am an old lady but this lady was apparently somewhat older. She told me that when she was a child that something happened in 1918 but she couldn't remember what. Also that she graduated from highschool in 1932. Mentally I started to figure her age and decided that something must be wrong with my math. She also remarked that something also happened in the 1940's and again in the 1980's. She was delightful to talk to. What was so remarkable about the whole incident was the gallentry that was shown by the very young mechanix as he escorted her to her car and saw that she was properly ensconsed, seat belt fastened, and ready to drive home. It made me smile to see a young person care so much - ah, youth, gallentry is not dead!

This darn machine is determined to beat me when it comes to choosing type faces. Hope you don't mind the change. Enough musings for this posting. I will be going to the ATHA guild meeting on Saturday and will post its happenings.

Until then, have a wonderful week. Don't forget to tell your family that you love them -

HAPPY HOOKING.

Doris

A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY -

In addition to being a member of ATHA, I am a member of the Cattail River Chapter (Chapter49) of the National Guild of Pearl K. McGown Rug Hookcrafters. I have belonged to this group for a number of years and the ladies in this group are my oldest and dearest hooking friends. We meet twice a month in the homes of members and every June we have a pot luck luncheon at which time we share with each other some of the hooking that we have done during the year. All of the ladies in this group produce prize winning rugs and several of them have had rugs in Celebrations, not just once, but one member 9 times!

The other thing that this group does is eat! Good cooking, rug braiding and quilting seem to go hand in hand with rug hooking. Here are two pictures of us at the luncheon table. Enough good food for a army.

The desserts consisted of a blueberry tart with chocolate, cookies filled with fruit that had been soaked in bourbon! and assorted other goodies.

This is Angie holding the newest member of the group. Her name is Nellie and she lives with Margaret R. whose home we were in.

And now for SHOW AND TELL - Ginny brought two rugs - this first oriental is just completed and really is a beautiful color plan. My picture seens a little washed out.

Ginny's second rug is just underway and is a beauty. She started this with Jane Hallowell Green who gave classes for the Mason-Dixon Chapter of ATHA.

This Iris rug is a Pearl McGown Design.

This next rug was hooked by Margaret B. It depicts Margaret and her two daughters and was done with a teacher that visited the Mason-Dixon ATHA from the West Coast.

This next rug is so long that I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture. It is almost finished and is being hooked by Margaret R. She has very high ceilings in her home and she is planning to hang it on a high, long wall. It will look great there.

The next rug was hooked by Lina. This is a really beautiful rug. All of the material was coathanger or dip dyed ( depending on which term you like best). The strands were so long that the young lady that did the dyeing had to stand on a chair in order to handle the wool. The rug is more vivid than shown here - I think some of the pictures washed out because of the light in the room.

This next rug is being hooked by Meg. She is a specialist in orientals. Note the beauty of the color plan. The blue is marvelous. The floors in her entire home are covered with the orientals she has created. A truly talented hooker.

This next rug is being hooked by Denise. She is new to our group having only attended 2 meetings - also a new hooker. She designed this piece to depict some of the things on the farm where she lives.

And finally we come to Barbara's rug. This is her "bug" rug in progress. We have kidded her about this rug for some months now. It is really curious and very cute. She is making it for a grandchild.

Angie, Carol and Violet did not bring anything to share with us. Angie and Violet are both working on big rugs probably to heavy to cart around. Carol just returned the day before the luncheon, from a months vacation - two weeks in Hawaii and two weeks in New Zealand. Still a bit jet lagged I suspect.

The final pictures show members of the group as we sat and watched a video of the McGown National Rug Show. Of course, there were many comments about the quality of workmanship and the color plans shown in the video.

All in all, a great time was had by all. For my part, it is always a joy to get together with good friends and break bread. I consider it a pleasure and an honor to be a member of this group.

I hope that each of you who are intersted in hooking can find a group that is as loving and sharing as this group. If you do, your hooking will have many rewards other than rugs and the bonus of friendship cannot be beat.

Hope to all of at the Boonsboro Library for the June meeting of ATHA. Until then HAPPY HOOKING.

MEMORIAL DAY MEMORIES AND HOOKING, HOOKING, HOOKING!

Richard, Danyel and their friend Kerry came on Saturday to mow and do other chores. At that time Richard said that he would be turning the grills on (he has 2) when he got home and that they would be going until midnight on Monday - you all come! So, on Saturday afternoon I came. Here are the pictures, taken randomly, of the clan as it gathered in the backyard.
Richard and Max - the kindest gentlest dog, with china blue eyes, always ready for a cookout.

Burgers on one grill - getting the other grill ready.

Joan starting the corn shucking.

Joan recruited Sherri's mother, Stepfather and brother to help with the corn.

This is Madison - the youngest member of the clan - a joy and delight at age 6. A great time was had by all. More food than any group could eat with all the goodies anyone could think of. Its truly great to have these family days. We have had several lately and I only wish that it could happen more often!

I have had a "thing" lately about strawberries. Can't seem to get enough of them. This is part of the last box I bought. I think that they must have been taking steroids!

For some reason I can't seem to get enough fruit. Now the kiwi's are in season - a great taste combination with the strawberries.


On Friday there was a hook-in at Judith's home in Waynesboro, Pa. What a beautiful place she and her
husband have. Just lovely - the view from their front steps is not a view but a vista of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Barb has finished the hooking on her ship rug and was putting the kick strip on - what a lovely piece she has created - I love what she has done with the water.

Judith is checking out the background in the piece she is hooking. This is an interesting piece that has gotten very "arty" and is most attractive. She has done some sculpting in the background and has gotten a nice flow of color in the lower left had corner. Altogether a lovely piece.

Judith had sorted out some of her wools and was offering them to us. Here is Barb looking thru the stash to see what she needs.

I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of Jack. He got into a lounge chair and decided that he would "contemplate " hooking for the rest of the day.

I missed the Chambersburg hook-in on Monday. I just don't like to travel on holidays - to many crazies on the road. So, after the cookout on Saturday I decided that Sunday and Monday would be days of rest. I spent Sunday afternoon working on my Scraps rug and Monday working on a small piece that I have been trying to get to for several weeks. All in all, two good days of rest. Just one mishap the whole weekend - my microwave died so today I am off to the mall to see about a new one.

I plan to go to the day-long hook-in at the Grant Street Wool Works on Wednesday. Hope all of you can come too, as it promises to be a lot of fun.

The quote for the day is as follows:

The unspoken word never does harm -

Kossath

Happy hooking, everyone!

LAST WEEK'S HAPPENINGS -
Richard and Danyel came last Saturday with full intentions of mowing the whole place. As you know, it had been raining for days but Saturday looked to be a fine day, lot of sun and some humidity. It proved to be unsuitable for much mowing - the grass was still to wet. I snapped this picture of the
two of them mowing in the pasture. They usually have mower races or mow in circles each trying to out do the other. This view if from my kitchen door, some distance from where they were mowing.

My daughter Joan works strange hours and as a result she has every other Monday off. We try to get together for shopping or just browsing at least once a month. Last Monday was out day out and what a nice time we had. She had been wanting to meet my friends at the Grant Street Wool Works so we went to Chambersburg. She, Linda and Pat really hit if off! She and Linda discovered that they both had a shoe fetish. I gathered from the conversation that it is a toss up as to who has the most shoes. The last time Joan and I had a day out we went to the mall because I needed to get my hair trimmed. This takes about a half hour. She said she needed a pair of brown sandles and would look for them while I get the cut. She returned in the half hour time with 6 - SIX - pairs of shoes! However, after we left Chambersburg we did not go to the mall this time. Instead we went out on Rt. 30 to a resturant that we like and had a very nice lunch. After that we headed home via Greencastle where we stopped at the antique mall. We shopped the whole mall - I was very good and did not find anything that I couldn't live without - however Joan did find a small piece for one of her collections. All in all, a fun day with lots of laughs and good companionship.

My yard is beginning to bloom - a reward for all of the hard work that Richard did last fall.

The first of the peonies is in bloom. This one is a particulary pretty one because of its deep color.

I have only two of these plants. They

are at the bottom of the stairs leading

to my front door. The are prolific bloomers and give much color to the front of the house.

The iris is my favorite flower and we have planted many of them in the yard. They are just beginning to bloom and I just had to picture them.
The main iris garden runs the length of my driveway and is a thing to behold when most of the iris are in bloom. There are many colors and combinations to enjoy.

This is just a short view of the driveway.

This is truly a beauty! Pale lavender falls with yellow uprights. One of my favorites.

Pale blue/lavender a very prolific bloomer with blooms as big as a dinner plate and ruffles everywhere.

A beautiful red purple - with a yellow beard. Also large ruffled blooms. I do so love these flowers. I tried to get a picture of several of the "black" ones but my photography is not good enough to really show off their beauty.

I hope you have enjoyed this short tour of my garden. I get so much pleasure from it that it is hard not to share. I sit at my computer, which is in front of a window overlooking the front yard and really enjoy what I see.

I have started to give some thought to another workshop for rug hookers but it has not jelled as yet. More on this later. In the meantime I will be giving a dyeing workshop (dyeing 102 for those of you that have taken 101 - this is different) in my home on June 19 from 10 till 2-3. Fo more information e-mail me at daymar@myactv.net

My quote for this blog is as follows:

Dreams are postacrds from our subconcious.

Dennis Koenig

Happy hooking, one and all.

MY HOOKING WEEK!
The week before Mothers Day was a hooking week for me. When I posted last it was all about Mother's Day - this posting is all about hooking. My friend Traci did not get to take my sculpting workshop altho she really wanted to sculpt the strawberry piece. So she and I had a private lesson one day last week. Here she is hard at work and you can see from this picture what a great job she is doing on her strawberry. We will meet again next week and work on the leaves. Brenda, who lives in York, Pa. works and cannot take lessons on a regular basis comes to my workshops. During one of those she fell in love with this blue color. I have always called it something like #47-1a but think that I will change it's name to "Brenda Blue." I dyed some for her last Saturday and thought you might like to see how it looked as it came out of the dye pot.

Judith took my stitches class and was so enthuastic that she went home and promptly finished her piece. Judith is also a quilter and expert sewer. She mounted her piece as a pillow and it is really cute.

She showed this at the Gettysburg hook-in last week. I also attended that hook-in. The turn out was terrific. Lots of hookers working on many different pieces. Marion S. is working on the most beautiful piece done on rust colored wool. Very unusual! I did not take lots of rug pictures but did get this picture of Nancy and Joan talking and working on their pieces. Joan is working on an oriental and doing it in pastel colors. Very interesting rug.

I am in between projects at the moment. Pat at the Grant Street Woolery is putting some pieces on linen for me but they are not ready yet. I didn't want to get into a big project while I waited - soooooo I pulled out my "leftovers" rug and have been working on that. I am using only things left over from rugs I have finished - broken swatches and small pieces that are not enought to really use for anything of any size. I thought you might like to see what I am doing. There is no rhymn or reason to where the colors go - just dark one direction and light in the other.

This rug is 3 x 5 printed on burlap and designed by P. K. McGown and is called "Postcard." The price tag was still on the rug $9.00 can you believe it? Imagine what it would cost today.

I finally have finished all of the medical tests that I have been taking for the past 2 month and most results were positive. I am feeling very upbeat about the future.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful hooking week and that it stops raining!

My quote for this blog follows:

All you need is love - but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

Charles Schultz

THE JOY OF MOTHER'S DAY!
Before I get to our Mother's day celebration, I have to show you these beautiful roses. We have just planted 2 of these gorgeous climbers on the fence line by the north roadside.

And now for Mother's day. Richard and his wife Sherri had invited all of the mothers in her family and his family, and their children, to dinner on Sunday afternoon, at our favorite Chinese resturant. This is my daugher Joan talking to her daughter (out of camera range across the table) Victoria. We were all so glad to see her and her husband Paul, because they live in St. Mary's county and it is a 3 hour trip for them to join us.

This is Richard. Several of my friends have asked that I post a picture of him since I refer to him so often in my blogs. He is the good guy that mows my yard, plants my flowers and does all of the handy man chores for me. He is much loved!

This is a bit of the overall table. It was hard to get a true picture of everyone at the table because the service was buffet style and all of us were coming and going at different times. The lady with the blue shirt is Sherri's mother. In all, there were 15 of us. Lots of talk, lots of laughter, and all glad to be together on this day for mothers. To bad we don't have the opportunity to get together more often

When I went to my car to go home, I found this beautiful bouquet of flowers in my car from my daughter Joan. Also a box to be opened when I reached home. She is aware of my love of wine and cheese and so this lovely gift basket with a wonderful assortment of goodies.

I hope that each of you had as wonderful a day as I did. Family is the most important thing in life. I hope you remember to tell some member of your family that you love them on a daily basis. I often think that we don't say if ofter enough. I know that each of us tries to show love each day, but somehow it is also important to say.

Since Mother's day I have been to the Gettysburg hook-in and have done several other things pertaining to hooking but I will leave them for the next blog altho they may be a bit out of date.

I will post no quote for this blog - only remind you of the love it takes to be a member of a functioning family. Keep the love warm!

Happy hooking -

A FUN DAY!
On Saturday I taught my stitches workshop at the Grant Street Woolery in Chambersburg. It was attended by 5 ladies from Pittsburgh, 1 lady from Virginia and Pat and Linda, both living in Pennsylvania. What a nice group! This is Jill and several of the ladies from Pittsburg. The Pittsburg group call themselves the "Wooley Weavers." It is a social group of 6 (only 5 could come on Saturday) that meets once a month, taking turns in each others houses.

Here is Jill - her usual intent self. She always works so hard in a workshop. By Mid-afternoon she said the tension of trying to get everything done had gotten to her so she walked around, ate a cookie and felt much better.

Luncheon was included in the price of the workshop. Look at this spread! Linda's hospitality knows no bounds. We had a sumpious lunch and later cookies and more fruit to break up the afternoon.

Bo smelled the food and came to lunch. He is adorable and everybodies friend. It you go to the woolery make sure he isn't in you car when you leave. He loves to ride. I hope when you looked at this picture you got a good look at Linda's feet - fancy slippers! A really formal affair!

The two ladies in the foreground are Nancy and Eileen. Everyone was so diligent about this project that we got 7 stitches accomplished and nearly everyone got their large sheep hooked and several of the ladies got theirs sculpted. Good job done by all.

Pat and Linda hard at work. Pat e-mailed me the next day and said that she had hooked all evening until her hands were sore. Most of the day Linda wore her glasses between her nose and upper lip. I didn't know that noses could be near sighted. See, you learn something new every day!

All in all, there there lots of laughs, lots of comments and I do believe that a good time was had by all. In my opinion, it was one of the most successful and best fun of all of the workshops I have taught this spring.

The ladies from Pittsburg were going on to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival on Sunday and would probably not go home until Monday. I only wish that the weather had been nicer for them.

Now for news of the home front. On Saturday while I was teaching, Richard and Danyel came and planted the 2 new azalias that I have purchased. They worked on a fence that needed a bit of help and laid out the vegetable garden sections, covered them with that black stuff and now the garden is ready to go if it ever stops raining and gets warm. Daughter Joan came during the afternoon and played with Eloise so that when I got home she was tired out and ready for her dinner. All in all a very good day.

My thought for this blog is as follows:

One thing you can give and still keep is your word.

Happy hooking, one and all. I hope we can all get rid of the mildew and not rot away. Have a good week.