Catching Up

After my long absence… Hello!

We are finally settled in our temporary home in beautiful downtown Lawrence, KS.  For us, 2013 was the year of selling our house and downsizing our possessions.  I give us a B+ on the downsizing effort!  Even so, our storage unit is…  hmmm… scary full.

I'm posting one picture from our old house, because it has in it one of my favorite rugs that I have hooked.  On the back wall, see Floral Sampler, framed.  The pattern may be found on Nola Heidbreder's website:  www.nolahooks.com.  It comes in two sizes - the one I hooked is the larger one, 29"x39".  I have framed a few rugs over the years, and I love the way they look.  I think some "rugs" are meant to be seen vertically.  And of course, no one is going to walk all over a rug on the wall!

Here's a closer look at Floral Sampler.  It really is a lovely design.  I love the animals.

Rug hooking here in our new digs has been a bit of a challenge! I do miss my little room in the old house that was dedicated to all my messy endeavors!  But I'm doing the best I can now here in the apartment, which involves a lot of vacuuming. 

Here are my WIP rugs:

This rabbit is a "rescue rug".  My husband's cousin started it as a first rug many years ago.  Hooking was not her thing, so I offered to take over the project.  All of her wool was BAD.  I can see why she didn't like working on it.  It was so loosely woven and weak, it just fell apart when I tried to hook with it.  So I pulled out all she had done and started over with new wool.  This gave me opportunity to choose new colors - so I went "bright".   I also added a checkerboard border, which I must admit is harder than it looks!  My current idea is to add one more row of hooking around the outside of checkerboard (maybe the lime green) and then whip the edge in that same color.  Those checkerboard pieces need an established edge on both sides (the rug background being one edge, and my new edge (lime???) being the other).  I'll let you know how that goes.

This next rug is based on an idea I've had for a long time.  Years ago, I cut the picture below from a catalog.  It is a rug, but I'm not sure of the technique used to make it.  You may recognize it as a form of the Log Cabin quilt design called Courthouse Steps.  In this case, there is no repetition of a color palette like you would typically see in a Courthouse Steps quilt.  Instead, it is "scrappy".

Below is my version (so far).  (Yes, I drew all those lines on there.  It is easy - just drag a Sharpie along the linen - in the ditch.  It will stay right in there and make a straight line.)  This rug has been fascinating to work on.  I thought it would be easy, but not so.  I started out with a color palette of about 7 colors then had to add more in order to get the right amount of separation between colors.  I see some things I want to change, but I'll not do that until everything is hooked and I can see the big picture.  To my eye, that light, bright turquoise (near the center) is too bright - it will probably get changed to the more subtle turquoise (there is some on the bottom row, just right of center).

I have one more WIP, but it is SO CLOSE to being done I'll save it for another post.

We got home a few weeks ago from our annual trek to Arizona.  It was warm and sunny and beautiful.  After the rough winter we've had here in Kansas, it was truly wonderful to be out there.  In Tucson, we visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens.  The butterfly house was my favorite part.  Here are a few pics of these gorgeous creatures and a couple of very creative frogs!

And a few "flora" from the gardens...

There were quite a few of these wonderful mosaic benches around the gardens.  This was my favorite - with the bunny and the sleeping javelina.  Betsey Livingston, you have a very cute bench.

OK - caught up!  Just a few more days until Spring arrives!  Around here that is no guarantee of good weather, but it means there is at least HOPE!

Zebra Swallowtail

Today, while replacing many of my old daylily markers with new daylily markers, I came across this lovely creature.... Eurytides marcellus.  AKA Zebra Swallowtail.  According to those who know about butterflies, my part of Eastern Kansas is on the outer fringe of the normal range of this species.

I first spotted him/her on the edge of a daylily.  I ran inside to grab my camera, but she had vanished when I got back outside.  Big Disappointment!

Then, there she was right next to me in another part of the garden... having a refreshing drink of nectar from some butterfly weed (of course).  What a treat to see this right up close!

Even though the wind was very, very gentle, she floated around a bit.  There were many fuzzy photos taken to get these few, as well as some bits of mulch embedded in my knees! 

I've had some lovely daylilies so far, but I can tell things are not quite right after our weirdly warm winter.  Everything seems a little confused, especially about timing, and some lilies are a little smaller and have shorter scapes than usual.  We'll see.  I know I'll enjoy whatever happens!  Here's a few from this morning...

Brand New Lover

 Lullaby Baby

I mentioned replacing my daylily plant markers.  It's a big job, but necessary.  You can see in the sample of old ones on the right how the legs start to get rusty and the name starts to wear off (that's Mother Nature's work).  And then there is damage from ME accidentally stepping on them in the garden!  To make the markers, I print the daylily names on clear labels (with my printer), attach each label to a new marker, then attach another blank label over that for added protection.  This is by far the longest lasting approach I have discovered. The ones I'm replacing are 4-5 years old.  I think there are about 80 to replace this year.

Although there have been many sightings of Twinkie this week, and many baby carrots consumed, I don't have an updated photo.  But I've got my personal professional photographer working on it.  Think "Big Camera Stalking Tiny Bunny" (it's kind of fun to watch).  So, in place of the elusive Twinkie, here's another bunny, much more well-behaved than Twinkie, to say bye bye this week...

Maybe the Zebra Swallowtail will grace your garden!