Love’s Memories-Fraktur design/Sunnie/rug hooking-Day 3

I am zipping right along on this rug…I worked on it quite a bit yesterday as I want to see how the center outline looks!   I sketched the outline of the center section on graph paper and was thinking of the outlines of designs on silver trays, painted wooden chests and some Bride’s boxes.    I wanted it curvy!!!   🙂

As I said, I am starting on the left side of the rug and will work across it to the right side.   I like to do a corner first, either at the top or bottom, so I can visualize what the whole outer border and center outline will look like.   If the effect isn’t pleasing, I can adjust…but I really like this one so it makes me want to see more!!!!

So Here is Progress on Day 3…The flower is the “Red Dragon” wool shown yesterday .   Do you see the tiny pink leftover strip I hooked into the gold center?   

The boot is the plaid wool shown under the “Summer Wine” wool in yesterday’s photo. I will have to change the green spiral on picture 3 here as it blends into the background too  much!  

And I really like the wavy outline with the light plaid for the separating strip, the quiet red border and the dark center background!   Happy Hooking!  Sunnie  🙂

“Love’s Memories”-Fraktur-adapted design/Sunnie/rug hooking-Day2

Today’s post has more wool pictures!   🙂  

I am using these wools in this rug…and, of course, will add colours as I go!   As you know, with plaids, you can use the darker and lighter parts of the plaid in different ways.  

For instance, in the green plaid, upper right, I can set the orange  vertical strips aside when I cut and only use the strips in between…where there is just the green, orange, green, orange on the strips cut.   The entire strips cut from the vertical stripe can be used for something else that needs more orange and less green.

The green plaid below the first one is great for separating lighter and darker green strips!!

Just wonderful wools!!!!!  Above… the “Deep Glade” and “Red Dragon” are from Sun and Wind Farm,  the plaid lower right is from Heavens to Betsy and you see it hooked in the “separation” line between the dark center background and the red border.   (day one photo)   I’m not sure where I got the other wool pieces.

Because I have had some of my wools for a long time, I don’t remember where they came from…but you can find similar wools sold by The Wool Studio, Heavens to Betsy and others.

The lower photo shows some of the wool used in the “day 1” flower.  I hand-dyed the purplish wool…it is my “Summer Wine”.   I used to do a lot of wool dying and overdying, but now living in an apartment, I am a bit hesitant to dye my own wools.   I said before that I might do some of the casserole dying that I used to do, but for now, I am content to purchase small wool amounts from other wonderful wool colourists!!!!

 

Here is Progress on Day 2…I am working on the left side of the rug first, doing the background and the border as I go.   I am leaving the circles in the border open until I have the left border background finished…then I will try out ideas for the circle strip colours.   I don’t want the border to overshadow the center…but I want the circles to hold some leftover woolworms that are softer colours that go with the center.   So I will experiment..!!!   …lol…

I have filled in the upper left border background and hooked the corner heart…!    The heart center is a plaid, the outline blue is a solid.   Again, you can see the colours in these plaid wools with the close-up  photo.   Happy Hooking!  Sunnie  🙂

“Love’s Memories”-Fraktur-adapted design/Sunnie/rug hooking-Day 1

 

Here we go!!!   🙂

This is not a true “Mystery rug” because you know what I am doing (!!!)   …lol…   and I won’t be covering up so much of the rug so you can see my scribbles, etc.   But I won’t show the whole rug until the finish.     Please feel free to ask any questions…I’ll try to answer!!!  

Many of us love the designs on old frakturs and samplers!    Also, many rug hookers over the years have used these designs for mats and rugs…either copying them exactly in a reproduction, adapting them or being inspired by the designs and drawing their own!   I said yesterday that Dover has many books of designs for Early American designs, Pennsylvania Dutch designs, Fraktur motifs and Sampler designs…so there are lots of motifs to choose from!

Since these frakturs (and some samplers too!) celebrated births, marriages and deaths as well as being given to students for good school progress, etc. I thought I would celebrate my marriage year-1988- on this rug.   I am also using lots of plaids…and will show you pictures of the actual wools-mill-dyed today– so you can see how they hook up.   Tomorrow, I will show a photo of some of the hand-dyed wool I am using!

My rug is 32 x 42 inches and I started my design with an adaptation of One figure from an old fraktur image.   The rest of my rug is simply  hand-sketched on the backing, drawing my own motifs while looking through my books.   And…as you know, I change my mind often and design as I go…so this rug is no exception!   …lol…

Here are some of the the wools I am starting with today…these are mill-dyed wools.   I have lightened the picture so you can see the colours in the plaids.   The three dark plaids are used as Center Background…they are mixed together or used around figures, etc.   The quiet red plaid on the left is used for the background Border.   The red plaid on the right is used for some flowers and the green and vanilla plaid is used for some stem accents, etc.

Here below is the photo of Day 1 Progress…you can see the 3 dark plaids used in the center background and the red plaid on the left above used in the border.   This photo is not lightened so you can see the dark wools used together.   With plaids, you can set aside some colours and use them for outlining, etc.   My main plaid used in the background is the one on the upper right.   I love the colours blending!   🙂 You can see just a little of the red on the right used in the flower…it is a great red too!

(I have lightened the second photo so you can see the colours in the plaid and how they bring some interest and “movement” to the background…I really like that..!   and yet, it “reads” as a solid, not spotty or scrappy-looking.)

I will post photos of the light wool, some of the hand-dyed wool and my “Misc.” wool tomorrow!!!   I am having a great time with this already…and looking forward to hooking today after morning chores and going out to lunch!!!   Happy Hooking!  Sunnie  🙂

 

March Mystery-“A Great Day”-Sunnie/rug hooking-Day 16-Finished!

 

He’s finished…!!!   🙂

I hope you will enjoy this silly rug and get a giggle out of it.   I think it will make a really fun mat by my apartment entrance!   Do you recognize me as a boy?   …lol…   (I think he has my smile!!!)   🙂

Remember I mentioned earlier that if I had “Planned” this rug and bought new wool for it, I might have changed the background wools to the darker outside and put the lighter wool inside by the figure’s head.   but only having a small amount of the darker wool, I used what I had!   Either way…I like him!!!

Also, think about the figure having large elf ears…and I think that the “Ladybug” mother’s influence would have been rather diminished, so I took the ears off!!!    (The “flower” ancestors are showing in his hair!!!!!)   …lol…

Thank you for coming with me on this adventure…I always enjoy your visiting and comments!  

***************************

Now  I have to confess, I have started on my next rug already.   I just got so excited to start it…!!!   …lol…

I was thinking about doing another rug inspired by antique samplers and frakturs  (I have done several of these over the years…all different..!) and I sketched out this one…another “Memory rug” for me.

So tomorrow, I start “Love’s Memories”…a Pennsylvania Fraktur-inspired rug celebrating the year Joe and I were married -1988-!   We celebrated 25 years together before he died in 2013.    Since I have been working with bright and “sweet” colours on these last 2 rugs, this next one will use the softer, more primitive colours…and I can use my more “grayed” leftover woolworms inside the border circles.   I will photograph the plaids I will be using so you can see how they hook up.   I have mill-dyed wools from Heavens to Betsy and The Wool Studio…and some wonderful hand-dyed wools from various sources.   Some hand-dyes from Frances and John at “Sun and Wind Farm” are especially nice!   🙂

As you know, frakturs were given to students for good work, celebrated births, marriages and deaths and decorated everything from music to painted wooden chests.   We can all use these wonderful designs as inspiration, we can adapt them to our projects and we can make reproductions of the ones in drawn in the 1800’s and before without fear of copyright infringement.  Sometimes, the creators of these works are not even known…but if they are, it in good to put that on the label of our mat or rug.

There are Dover books of Early American folk art or Pennsylvania Dutch folk art available for you to use if you would rather not draw your own motifs.   Fraktur artists today use these images too…but we can all use the same Source images…we just can’t copy the work of artists working now.   🙂

************************

PROGRESS ON DAY 16…”A Great Day” Finished…!   Happy Hooking!   See you tomorrow, Sunnie  🙂