27 December 2012

In between days

Festivities fade
The in-between moments
To reflect and hope....

and do a little rug hooking maybe?


Enjoy the remaining days of 2012 - Jill

15 December 2012

To give...

It's that time of year - present giving and present making too.
 
Here is a cushion Clare made for her friend Grace as a Christmas gift.
Made with wool pencil rovings,  using the punch-needle technique and working  on her  new wooden frame made by Tom (USA). 
The centre panel is cotton lawn on which Clare photo-printed the chicken design. This panel was then quilted.
Now the backing has been stitched to the front and the cushion is complete.
 I know Grace will be delighted with her gift.
 
 
MERRY CHRISTMAS and  A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL
Jill
 

2 December 2012

December meeting


We all enjoyed our Christmas Meeting at Craft Central in Clerkenwell. Everyone was working on different projects whilst nibbling on lots of scrummy goodies!

This photo shows  Sandra's seat pad - now completed. I just love the colour combination.

We are now looking forward to our January meeting when Annie Sherburne will be coming along to give us lots of creative ideas for our rug hooking.

Festive Greetings to all - Jill

6 November 2012

Clare sent me the latest Rug Hooking Magazine yesterday - some innovative projects within. Here is one of them...a combination of Knitting and Rug Hooking...
a colourful and interesting article.
Happy Hooking - Jill

17 October 2012

Goodies in the Post ....

 
Look what Mr Postie brought today! I thought I would share this photo with you.

My friend Clare visited a  Rug Event in York  last Saturday. She bought the above spoon for me. The rovings and yarn have been dyed by Clare. She is an expert on dyeing!

The wooden spoon  has  pyrography designed by Lewis Creed  - both he and his wife Louisa are rug hookers.

The cat picture shows a small detail of a rug designed and made by Louisa Creed. I so admire her work.

Happy Hooking - Jill



12 October 2012

I saw this rug hooked panel complete with found objects (objet trouvĂ©!!) at the Knitting and Stitching Show today. Well worth a visit.
Jill

2 October 2012

Clare's Artist Trading Cards....Hooked!

It's so great to receive a letter these days...although I wouldn't be without e mail...however this morning I received a letter and a small present.  Two beautifully hooked ATC's made by my friend Clare who lives in Skipton - I thought I would share them with you.

The cards have been hooked with Pencil Rovings, some dyed by Clare and some by Cilla Cameron.

See you on Saturday in Clerkenwell. Happy Hooking - Jill

1 August 2012

Ben Hall's rugs

A leaflet from a 1999 Crafts Council exhibition turned up recently - it mentioned a fingerprint rug by Ben Hall. Three cheers for the computer age - here it is on his website -
I also enjoyed the "carpet beater" rugs, of which this is an example -
Made of recycled denim.

On his website he says "As a maker/designer I have always been attracted to salvage and re-using materials that may have outlived their original purpose in producing something new. " He enjoys the limitations and constraints of the medium. Do look at his website to see other hooked and proddy work.

13 July 2012

Sheep rugs

Patty Yoder's hooked rugs are  on show in Shelburne, Vermont until the end of October. The show is called "The Alphabet of Sheep" and you can read about it, and see more photos, here (from which the picture comes). She published a children's book of the same name in 2003, but unfortunately it's out of print.

From the Shelburne Museum website:

Patty Yoder (1943-2005) created whimsical rugs with an acute attention to detail and an aesthetic eye for color. Born in Nebraska and raised in Ohio, Patty acquired her passion for the traditional art of rug hooking after she and her husband Ramsey retired and moved to a farm in Tinmouth, Vermont.

Together they began to collect rugs, particularly from Esther Knipe, a self-taught hooker, that fueled Patty’s inspiration. Yet it was not until 1992, five years after Esther’s death, that she began to make her own creations. Between 1992 and 2005 she completed a total of 44 rugs.

The Alphabet of Sheep series combines two of her favorite things: the sheep on her farm and the alphabet. Her rugs incorporate her family, friends, or sheep as the subject matter, a joyous celebration of one woman’s life. Through her affiliation with the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild, Patty helped to continue contemporary interpretation of this New England artistic tradition.

7 July 2012

Today, at our meeting at Craft Central,  Janet K created these wonderful corsages from scraps of wool, exotic fabrics and ribbon. They are  beautiful and I am sure the recipients will be delighted to receive them ....

9 June 2012

The Thames

Janet has completed her hooked 'chair pad' based on The Thames and made from scraps of quilting cotton fabrics... it's wonderful!
...best wishes with your new design Janet.
Jill

25 May 2012

Beneath The Waves

Yesterday I showed some Year Five pupils how to make flowers using the prodding technique...they made a good attempt at producing some very colourful and unique coral reef plants for their artwork titled Beneath The Waves...

...other examples by Year Five can be seen in a new gallery within my website www.jilltextileart.com


Jill

11 May 2012

Living Crafts

Hatfield House and its beautiful Wisteria.....
I visited Living Crafts at Hatfield House today.
 This is a wonderful piece of Textile Jewellery I saw whilst at Living Crafts. Made from felt and leather. It can be manipulated into various shapes and worn as a brooch or a bracelet!

These handmade stitched chocolates were made by the Junior Embroidery and Textile Students at Hertfordshire branch of The Embroiderers Guild in St Albans. They were on show today at Living Crafts amongst many other exhibits.


Jill

28 April 2012

we cared not about the rain...

This beautiful piece of Kantha stitched silk shows a tiny detail of Margaret's scarf which she wore today.

It also reminds me of a wonderful day  spent at Janet's house with fellow rug hookers.

Janet also presented us with a great lunch...THANK YOU...

...it may have rained all day but little did we care!

Meeting Jesse for the first time and seeing Susana again was a bonus.

See you all at the June meeting - Jill

11 April 2012

Antique rug hooks


The September-October issue of Rug Hooking Magazine, which was one of the publications drifting around at the recent meeting, has an article of antique rug hooks - and in the article were instructions for making your own hook out of an old crochet hook. As someone who has suffered while using a "naked" crochet hook over a prolonged period, I'm eager to give the padded handle a go. After all, in the past, workers often made their own tools and those lasted them a lifetime.

Basically, you wrap the hook (sizes 00 to 5 work well, apparently) in strong, porous tape (like adhesive tape), using the tape to help pad the handle with heavy wool fabric or felt; then glue on some thin leather to finish wrapping the hook. Hold the ends with rubber bands, and let it dry overnight. Take off the bands, trim the leather neatly, and coat the ends with glue, then wrap the ends with string or linen thread; let that dry and finish with a coat of penetrating oil or leather sealer.

You can purchase the article here - or subscribe to magazine ($73 for 5 print issues in Europe -- or $35 for a digital subscription).

7 April 2012

The Thames


Today we held our April meeting at Craft Central. With nine members in attendance, and Jocelyn a visitor from Cumbria, it was a lively meeting with each of us working on a completely different project.
I caught sight of the reverse side of Janet B's intended chair pad so had to take a photo. I think you'll agree that The River Thames flows beautifully in this original artwork.
This is Janet's first piece of rug hooking and certainly deserves to be viewed in our blog. Janet is also an expert quilter and often uses left over cotton quilting fabric within her rug hooking to good effect.
A photo of the chair pad will be posted when it is completed.
Happy Easter everyone and...
Happy Hooking/Prodding/Progging and NeedlePunching too.
Jill

26 February 2012

Recycling in action at Craft Cental!



Contents of just one of the many bags of fabric scraps and offcuts left for us by Craft Central designer/makers, before we all dived in at our February meeting!

Seat Pad by Joan West




Joan's first rag rug is now finished!

4 February 2012

"Hola, Senorita!"

Not hooked - pieced and quilted! - definitely a Chicken Of Inspiration... It's by Cindy Potter Henneke and until 4 March 2012 is part of a fiberart exhibition in Round Top, Texas.

1 February 2012

An old worn office chair revived by Chickens!

I upholstered my old worn typist chair which I sit on whilst rug hooking during the warmer weather in The Summer House which is at the end of our garden. The chair was looking very jaded....so I found some wonderful gingham fabric, on which a cockerel motif had been embroidered, and used it to cover the worn fabric beneath!

The cushion on the ottoman was progged with hemp fabric. In the centre of this cushion is an antique piece of Indian embroidery.

Jill

And yet another chicken...

Designed and hooked by Janet Knechtel
And another great addition to the International Chicken Fest!

30 January 2012

More chickens

This late-19th century rug came up for auction in 2006, but the site doesn't tell us what price it fetched. I love the diagrammatic treatment of the chicken - sort of like one of those "cuts of meat" diagrams you see at the butchers - and the large-scale oak leaves. Not to mention that pink isn't usually a colour you associate with poultry! The white line under the chicken's beak makes all the difference, don't you think?
Something more modern (from this blog) -- could it be some of Henny Penny's friends?
A patriotic chicken rug up for auction.
And finally, for now, the 1865 rug was made by Diane and seen on this blog.

27 January 2012

Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Here's my contribution to the chicken challenge, four coasters -
Designed and hooked by Margaret Cooter

And you can hear the song (by Louis Jordan) via youtube - click here - enjoy!

11 January 2012

Hi Everyone

Here is my Bird Panel which will shortly be turned into a chair pad.

Made in tubular cotton yarn, hooked with a small basic rug hook, it measures 45 x 39 cms
(17.50 " x 15.50").

Happy Hooking - Jill

www.jilltextileart.com