A Little Bit of Everything

 I had to stop hooking tonight. I dyed my background wool and I will wait until I have day-light to see if I want to darken it a smidge or leave it as it is. This picture was taken in pretty bright light and I want those soft swirls to show but I also want them to be subtle. I will decide in the morning.

Both girls are going to be holding bouquets of , I think, lilacs. I have been thinking back into my days painting thinking on how I would paint lilacs and how I could do something similar here. 

 This is from a few days ago when I was trying to decide if I wanted a red dress or not. I really thought of doing a dress in a different shade of blue. I don't ever like too many colors in one rug- I am always worried about it looking too busy. I like to use different shades of the same color but never using more than three or four colors in a rug. By the way, this was taken in my little wool shop where I spend a few hours every day preparing orders and dyeing wool.

 My first and only 'selfie.' I am pretty exited about this issue of 'Wool Works' Magazine. It's me! And a two page article about my little rug hooking business. My heart has been very happy this week! I will be doing another project for Wool Works later this year and it is one I am especially exited for!

 Have you ever worked with the Amy Oxford punch needle? This I did with her #14 punch needle- the one for fine work. I hand dyed all the yarn for it- hoping to give it a variegated look and sure enough- there it is! Below is yarn I did for an order. I am very exited about doing more of these. 

Before I sign off, I want to show you a picture that was taken this last October up in McCall, Idaho. I went on a rug hooking retreat with the Treasure Valley Rug Hookers. I had the time of my life! We stayed in a retreat center, all our meals were prepared for us. We did venture into town to a fiber store and for dinner. We had so much good conversation- my favorite conversation was about our dogs. Yes, that was my favorite conversation!

In my dreams, I live up in this area. I would love a little cabin where I could live very simply- very simply! This is a real fun bunch of ladies. I am the one holding my coffee cup. It was a brisk fall day-beautiful!

A Face Like Kim's

           I have a couple pattern ideas rolling around in my head. I have been thinking on them and drawing them out over and over. One I am just not sure about and the other I am having a difficult time figuring out how to keep it fairly simple as I try to do when I design a pattern. Anyway, so I have been feeling very 'in-between' projects. Well, I have not worked on a face for quite a while...so why not practice faces again while I mentally sort out those patterns I want to do? I put two faces on paper and thought that was all I was going to do but decided to add dresses and take them over to my printer where I could have them blown up to pretty large.

      This is the largest face I have ever tried and I am pretty convinced that's why I had an OK time with it. Got it in first try! (For anyone wondering, I am using #6 cut strips for this whole rug.) To my amazement, this girl I hooked looks incredibly similar, if not, just like my daughter Kim. The eyes and the mouth are HER! I told her last night that someday I am going to give it to her. It is so her.

 Close up over my coffee this morning. I used dip-dyed wool as I often do for this dress. In fact, this is the color I call in my Etsy shop, Midnight in Paris' blue.

I love this angle! She looks as beautiful upside down as she does right side up!

Now on to the girl that 'Kimberly' is standing next to. Thinking on what color to make her dress.

I have to share again with you my rug that is on the cover of the Premiere issue of 'Wool Works' Magazine. This pattern is in the pages. This is a beautiful publication full of a variety of wool projects- applique, rug hooking, punch needle and quilting. Subscribe! You will not be sorry! I can sell the pattern on linen or a full kit. Contact me at hooknwool@gmail.com for information.

~Yvonne

'A Little Dancer'

    I am a terrible blogger. I never know what to say. Today I am in my wool shop dyeing up wool for a couple kits, some wool orders and a rug I am working on. And I have not given a thought as to what I am making for dinner. I did get a lot of housework done this morning. I used a technique that we used when I grew up in a very large family. I am the oldest of 14, but when I left home at 19, mom was on about number nine or so. My brother, Greg, would set a timer for thirty minutes and we would go to town picking up and straightening. I always liked that method. I knew there was going to be an end! So, to this day I do that myself. This morning I set the timer for a full hour! I felt so much better!

When I come out to my wool shop I never set a timer. I love it out here!

     This little ballerina I did (available as a pattern or kit) because I wanted to make a pattern available that would be based off my ballerina rug, 'Tutus.' I have been procrastinating finishing that rug for TWO years. Well I am almost finished. I have about a foot and a half to go and I will have the edge finished. Would you like to see it?

     These are from left to right. They are all on the same rug which measure 5' across and 3' tall. It too pretty for it to be rolled up in a 'pile' of rugs to finished! I am so close!

     Have you heard of the new magazine 'Wool Works?' It went out in the mail yesterday and I have a pattern in the magazine and it is featured on the cover. It is called 'Garden Tea.' If you interested in the pattern on linen or a kit- contact me (hooknwool@gmail.com) and I will happy to get you set up.

     It is an awesome issue! There are women on this issue that I am in complete admiration of. There are so many wonderful projects- a little bit for everyone. There are articles included that are informational as well. I truly think you will love it! Subscribe! You won't be disappointed!

Signing off,

Yvonne

P.S. What is for dinner? sigh.....

Forget Me Not

"Please come to Boston for the springtime

I'm staying here with some friends

And they've got lots of room

You can sell your paintings on the sidewalk

By a cafe I hope to be working soon

Please come to Boston

She said, 'No, David, you come home to me."

~ Dave Loggins, 1974

For Neil

The Song I Hummed Every Time I Hooked This Rug
(Click on this link to hear the song! You can listen to the song while you read the blog!)

I am a hummer. I hum. I hum most especially when my heart is happy and sometimes when my heart is broke. Most every one of my rugs has a song that I attach to it. Most of the songs are classical music. Music is highly inspirational to me and when I listen to music as I hook, it seems my 'creation' springs a little heartbeat. The last few weeks I have been hooking the 'Forget Me Not' Rug. I have either hummed Dave Loggin's lyrics or I listened to his song over and over and as I do, so many memories have begun to surface.

This design started as a suggestion my husband made after we went up to our favorite mountain spot and walked this last April. I was still reliving the sunlit snow that hemmed in the path we walked that day. The air so crisp and full of pine- nothing to be heard for miles around except the sound of birds singing.

"Why do the smell of pine needles make me cry?" 
My Journal, April 2016

One of our first dates took place thirty years ago along a mountain river. We walked and talked as we got to know each other. He was on leave from the US Army and that was a prelude to our early married days that were full of long absences. Months and even two years at a time. All those times the only contact we had was through the written letters that I have hundreds of. Every time he would come back, the time was filled with laughter and disorientation as we had to settle in together...again.

Some of the letters. See the grungy one in the back? That one one was carried out on a field mission.

As I hooked this rug, the same song I hummed over and over- listening to it over and over. Over each loop, memories of all the letters we wrote back and forth, all the phone calls. All our mountain walks rushing through my mind. 

"Please come to Denver with the snowfall

We'll move up to the mountains

So far we can't be found."

For Neil and I it was not Denver or Boston- but Ft. Hood, Texas, Ft. Knox, Kentucky and Frankfort, Germany.  Home being Boise, Idaho. 

In my original plans for this design, I was hoping to extend the grass out pretty far and then have a treeline in the distance. That presented a problem as I realized that all that green would cause me to lose the bouquet and would not allow the couple to stand out as I wanted.

Would you like to know a little about this design as a pattern? Yes, it is available as a rug hooking pattern in my Etsy shop.

A Link:
My Vintage Heart Etsy Shop

This rug was made using both #8 and #5 cuts. The Forget Me Not Flowers were #5's as well as the bouquet stems. I also used a #5 for the little heart shaped stamp, postmark, and lettering. As always, I will gladly make a kit for you but DO KNOW that at any given time, I am working kits and they take TIME. I believe strongly in hand-dyeing each and every piece my self.  I really believe that color makes the rug and I see hand dyed wool as I once saw my paints- critical to 'painting' with deep expression- most literally a work from the heart and hands. That's just the way I see it.

"Are you the reason my happy heart sings? But definitely." ~Shirley Temple

Do you have a love story?

God bless you,

Yvonne

P.S. I love my guy. Can you tell?

Here he is sewing my patterns! Yes, he is my in house pattern finisher! 

Isn't he a gem?

A 'Compilation' of Photographs of Creating 'Dream'

Saturday morning was marvelous. I got to start the morning with my son, Justin, over breakfast and lots of coffee at a local cafe. I love well established cafes- I love people watching and the accompanying sounds and smells- clanking plates, wafts of bacon and coffee, and observing people as they arrive. Over our toast and eggs, we talked about art, art and more art. I spoke of what a lousy blogger I am. "I don't know what to say!" Justin told me that that is because I am an artist and the things I really have to say are made with my hands. He told me to just post pictures- so, OK!

This rug is about a dream I had early last summer. I had experienced a broken heart in magnitude I could never explain earlier in the year. For months, I worked through the stages of grief that we all know. One morning I awoke from a dream so real and so meaningful that in the days to follow, I knew I needed to 'record' it with wool- one loop at a time. This is the very beginning and possibly my very favorite place to start- the face. It is always a surprise to me when a face is hooked in and my hooked piece from the onset carries personality and  helps me 'feel' the rest as I work away.

Rug hanging in wool studio where I can look at it as I come in and out- spotting problem areas or ideas. Here I have pieces of 'Midnight Blue' placed around to try to imagine what she will look like on the night sky.

I'm liking the night sky! A blend of my 'Midnight Blue' and 'Midnight in Paris.' The clouds and dress are both shades of Midnight Blue. I began hooking in segments of Sari ribbon through-out the sash.

At this point, I was trying to figure out how I was going to add the other details that I dreamed about.

In my dream, there was a cream colored 'globe' that represented the 'conflict' that I was so heart-sick over. My rug sat at this stage for quite some time until I decided to 'edit' what I actually saw. I was concerned that someone looking at it would not be able to figure out what was going on. What you see above is what I saw in my dream- soon to be 'edited.'

Do you see how I changed that globe to a moon? Oh, there is Mercedes who is at my feet every moment. She is a bit of a 'rug hooker' herself- she watches me dye and plan and hook and I actually talk to her as I work. 

"Girl, I love you, Girl! 

What do you think?

 Should I make a moon instead? 

Yeah, I thought so." 

Besides my dream, Mercedes (name meaning, ironically is 'Mercy, Pity, and Favor and no, I did not name her- she came to me with that name during 2015 while I was working through grief.) She has been the sweetest and most comical friend. OH! At this point, I noticed that the lady's neck looked like it had been scratched! I meant to suggest creases in her neck as she turned it but quickly saw that she looked like she had got in a tussle with an angry cat! Those lines were taken out and softened.

'Dream' hanging on my easel outside my shop. It will hang over my desk where I will always remember that dream that spoke to me about detachment and rising above.

So what is next? A pattern that I am actively working on only because I was dying to use a new color I have, 'A Rose By Any Other Name.' I simply think it is beautiful and want to use various shades of it to show how pretty it is and I am loving the whole idea...which was another topic of yesterday's breakfast with Justin. 

God bless you from my heart! Please visit my website at vintageheartrugdesign.com .

Dream

'Dream' That is the name of this design of mine. It will be like some of the rugs I have done- one of a kind- deeply meaningful to me and full of self-expression.

I have had 'Dream' drawn up on paper and hanging in my wool studio (ha! Its more like a cottage) for several weeks- the bulk of the summer. I have looked at it and known that I must do it. When I am finished, I will use it as an illustration when I need to when I want to convey the lesson I learned from a dream I had in the late spring/early summer. The lesson is detachment.

I have a relationship in my life that has caused me soul piercing pain. Should I admit that I have tried to find solace in a counselors office seeking emotion relief from a situation that I have been unable to resolve or make sense of. Last winter, I was over-run with pattern and wool kit orders. I worked from sun up to late into the night every single day. As soon as I would wrap things up for the day, the grief would overwhelm me all over again.

So, one night I had a dream. The dream consisted of three parts. In the first part, I was laying in a hospital bed. There were people gathered around me although I did not know who they were, except for my best friend, Louise. A nurse came in and asked me to roll over and as I did I saw my hands were swollen I knew I was very ill.

In the second part of the dream, I was in my childhood home. I am the oldest and all my younger brothers and sisters were playing and moving about the house like any other day from many years ago. However, in the dream, I was standing in a hallway that never existed in real life. It was filthy. Curtains hung torn and soiled. The floor was filled with debris. I stood there feeling like I must clean it up and that surely I could never just leave it. I needed to clean up that mess. Then I saw a snake in the corner. The snake started coming toward me, growing bigger as it it got closer. I lifted my foot and smashed it. Suddenly, I was in the third part of my dream.

I was in the night sky. I could feel a cool breeze envelope me. Stars twinkled around me and I was running my fingers through the clouds. I felt unbelievable peace and joy inside of me- a deep contentment. I looked and I saw the earth which, in the dream, looked like a cream colored ball. But I knew that that hallway and that mess was beneath me and as I looked at that globe, it got smaller and more distant and I was OK with it because I was so filled with peace.

When I awoke, my husband was standing at his dresser getting ready for the day. I asked him to sit down and listen to the whole story. When I was done, he said, 'I know what that dream means. Yvonne, the hospital represents the fact that you have been very emotionally sick. The second part represents a 'mess' that you so badly want to clean up but you don't know how. The act of smashing the snake means that you are done----done! And the third part is a complete detachment and rising above the whole thing.'

For days, I kept thinking about that dream and the dream became a tool I had in allowing myself to let go of something I have been unable to.

So this rug is a 'snap-shot' of the dream I had- of course, a younger, slimmer me-haha!

Here is 'Dream' in the front and what I think I will call 'The Little Spinner' in the back-ground. The Spinner will be a pattern that I will sell. I intentionally made the face very simple so that most anyone could feel confident in doing it. I know that so many of the ladies that enjoy rug hooking love spinning as well. I hope that they will love 'The Little Spinner.'

Before I say good-night, I have to share with you a picture I took earlier of my Mercedes. That sweet girl. Always by my side- always.

Good night!

A Last Punch Needle Pattern....For A While

Being the oldest child of fourteen, I am naturally pretty goal oriented. When I make a list of things to do, and it comes to something I love as much as creating, I will follow through with that list. I had a few summer goals for myself and one of them was completing a few punch needle embroidery patterns. The above pattern that I have been working on, is what I consider the end of the line for a while unless I just happen to have an idea that sounds appealing to me.

I am eager, EAGER to begin really focusing on my passion and that is rug hooking. Tonight I dyed up some flesh. I have two designs I will be trying to work on together. One will be a spinner and the other a design that I have had hanging on paper in my wool studio for at least a couple months. It is called 'Dream.' It literally is a 'snap-shot' of a dream I had a while ago. It was a dream like none I have ever had. I woke up and felt a deep peace about a painful part of my life that I have been unable to let go of.

The Woolery

The above is 'The Woolery' based on my rug hooking pattern. I could not get a picture that even does it justice. By far, this is one of my very favorites.

This one was really fun to do- I mean A LOT of fun! I loved the applique part- another reason I need to take care of myself so I have many, many more years to do all the projects that I can possibly squeeze into my life time! So much to do! So much to do!

Now, I am so eager to get on my new rug hooking projects that I love so much. I liked the punch needle but I have dearly missed being able to concoct my own 'paints' and 'painting' with my hook what I see in my mind.

Before I say good night, I have to introduce you to one of the best things that has ever happened to me. 

Yes, that is me with my Doberman Pincher, Mercedes. I have dreamed for most my life of owning one. Every time I have ever seen one, I have always had to rush over to admire what I see.  About five years ago, my husband and I were up in the mountains. We had just got onto a trail and a jeep pulled up. Something inside told me that a Doberman would be jumping out and sure enough! there was one! The owner, a very husky and no nonsense man got out and I had to talk to him. He encouraged me to pet his dog and he shared that he was a veterinarian and had owned Dobermans most his life. As we talked, I watched his dog prance through the woods and my heart was melting. What a beautiful creature! His parting words to my husband was 'Go buy your wife a Doberman!'

A month ago, I found a Doberman girl- six years old. I really was nervous as I drove to meet her. Do I need another complication in my life? In the middle of everything, do I really need a rabid dog? They say this breed needs a confident and strong owner- I am the epitome of a nervous Nellie! Scatter-brained! As my son has teased, ' Mom, you zig zag through life.' LOL

In the month I have had her, my nervous heart has shed a few tears about how dear she is and what a friend she has become to me. She never leaves my side. While I am hooking, her head lays on my hip and she'll push her nose in for a little stroking which I love so much. When I go back and forth all day between my house and my wool studio, she's right there. Her funny antics keep me laughing every day. Everyday I just look at her and wonder where she has been all my life. I dread the day she is gone. I simply dread it. 

Anyway, this is Mercedes. 

Will be following up soon with the progress of the two designs I am dyeing wool for right now.