Bunnies in the Barn... Finished!!!

Two finishes this week...  I'm patting myself on the back (which is painful if I use my right arm).

I am not 100% sure WHEN I started this project, but I do know WHY I started this project.  I came across this...

...on an Art website - the kind where you can buy framed prints.  It was love at first sight.  I said "that would make a great hooked rug".  As luck would have it, the artist who painted the original image was "unknown".  Yeah!  Well wait, I guess that is sad in a way, but it meant that I didn't have to get anyone's permission to copy it.  I copied the image from the site and printed it out and didn't do anything with it for awhile.

I have worked on it off and on over the last several years... and now it is finally finished.  Ta-Dah!

I am really Quite Pleased with the way it turned out.  I decided at some point along the journey to put it in a 16x20 barnwood frame.  I found this frame at Hobby Lobby for $23.  Must confess here that I broke one of my cardinal rules - that is to never buy anything at Hobby Lobby that is not on sale - but I was in Gotta Have It NOW mode.  And I thought the $23 was not a horrible price. 

I mounted the hooking on a 16x20 3/16" foam core board.  The actual hooked image is about 3/8" less than 16x20 all the way around. (I did not want the hooking to be "under" the lip of the frame.)  To do this I had to remove several rows of hooking, but I felt that did not interfere with the design.  In the photo below you can see the 3/8" edge with no hooking and you can see two of the special pins I used to attach the hooking to the board. 

 Here's a close-up of the type of pin I used.  I found them at a fabric store here in town.  They were very easy to push into the foam core's edge - didn't even need a tool - just pushed them in with my fingers.  For this 16x20 piece I used 50 pins.

After the pinning, I folded the excess linen to the center and laced it up using cotton yarn.  My theory is that someday I (or someone who buys this at a flea market in 2055) might want to finish the piece as a mat rather than have it in a frame.  That is still totally possible!

The final step will be to put a piece of cardboard over the back and punch it all in tight with my hubby's special gun that shoots those little metal slivers into the inside edge of the frame. 

My favorite memory of working on this rug is this beautiful and darling handmade and hand-painted pottery bowl... shown here next to the bunnies and full of wool strips...

One day I got a call from Anita White, my rug hooking teacher.  She was in Texas and spotted the bowl at an art show.  I had just started Bunnies and of course she had helped me pick out all the wool.  The bowl made her think of my rug, and it is pretty easy to see why!!!  After she described it to me I said Yes - it sounds fabulous!   I could hardly wait until she got back to Kansas so I could pick it up.  I do not know the artist's name - there is a mark on the bottom but no name.  Anita said all her things were selling very fast at the show.  I feel quite lucky to have it.  Thanks Anita!!!

 Bunnies all around the outside!

 More and more bunnies!

Now I must move on to my next unfinished project.  I think I have one more, not counting one I just started a few weeks ago.  This weekend is the hook-in in Lenexa so I know I will be Very Tempted by all the patterns there...  bring it on!