Junking on the Way Home

The rug hooking class yesterday was great. There were only two of us, so we had the teacher's undivided attention :-), the teacher being the owner of Little Quilts, Mary Ellen von Holt. She showed us several rugs in her collection, ones done by her and also by rug hooking friends of hers. She had done an extraordinary large, square, very antique-y looking Tulip Cross, which looked like a block from an antique four-block quilt. It was approximately a yard square and she displays it in front of her fireplace. The background was a variegated lamp black dark. The greens were a combination of dull greens in one area contrasted with a brighter variety of greens in the four feathered leaves, super variegated. The whole thing was totally gorgeous. The pattern is from Mary Lou Lais' book American Primitive Hooked Rugs A Primer for Recreating Antique Rugs. Mary Ellen had begun this at a workshop with Mary Lou.

She had so many wonderful examples, another being the cutest dressed fox sitting on a log with the forest, sky, and large moon beyond, that was done by a woman who works at Little Quilts and has hooked rugs for years.

My fellow student had a lovely blue Puritan rug hooking frame and a collection of pencil-style rug hooks that a friend's husband had made for her. I borrowed one and borrowed Mary Ellen's hooking frame and they were great to work with. I definitely need a hooking frame with the gripper strips.

Here's my little class heart:



Thankfully, Mary Ellen knew why I was constantly coming up with a twisted loop, so it was great to get that problem solved. She asked me what color I was planning to use for the background on my other rug, the Pennsylvania Quilt Bird, and as she suspected, I had no idea. I was just plugging in recycled wool as found from the secondhand stores, so the color scheme is a bit erratic. I had plugged in a bit of beige as a possible background, but it blends in too much with the vase and the berry. Not only do I not know what color to use for the background, I know I don't have it yet in my recycled collection, so I'm going to stop in at a few places this morning to see if there are any wool clothes. In promising colors.

On the way home, traffic on the expressway was stalled, so I pulled off and found these treasures at the secondhand store, My Favorite Place. All this great stuff for $26 total! I never see dolls from the 50s just sitting around in vintage stores, so it was amazing to spot her from a distance, and closer up to spot the price tag of a measly $3.50. If any of you collect vintage Vogue dolls, you know this is a small Baby Dear from about 1960, very collectible. She came with three bits of her clothes, all Vogue, two of which are very hard to find (her diaper and her bunting). All filthy and stained, but they should all clean up fairly well. They've been soaking overnight in Perk. Baby Dear has stains remaining on her vinyl, so that will take longer to treat (with Twin Pines RemoveZit), but at least she's clean now. The boxes are to hold small quilt blocks and sewing supplies, and the primitive chair is for the front porch.


Even though she has had some treatments, her hair troubles aren't over:



Thank you for your comments re work and painting. Judy, I just love the Corn and Beans, too. What a great block!