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 ....

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

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

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

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

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).

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

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!

"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.

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!

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.

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!

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

NEW RAG RUG BOOK

Jenni Stuart-Anderson, who some of you have probably seen on her stand at the Knitting & Stitching shows over the years, has just brought out a new book: More Rag Rugs & Recycled Textile Projects.

The projects include brooches, shaggy doorstops, a wall hanging and a pegloomed rug, as well as instructions for making your own pegloom or large frame for hooking.

It covers design, materials and techniques with lots of pictures of rug, old and new. Price is £14.95 + £2.50 UK p&p, with a special price of £25.00 for both this and her previous book: Rag Rug Making, + £5.00 UK p&p. See her website for payment details: www.jenni.ragrugs.freeuk.com

Road rug finished

Designed and hooked by Margaret Cooter

It measures 64cm x 85cm and is made of wool strips, recycled from a bit of blanket and some charity shop garments. The roads are parts of routes we drive on quite often - eg to the grocery store and favourite museums - and some of it is just plain made up. Now that it's done I have the urge to join up those sideroads - they seem to be crying out to be joined up....

My blog shows how this is linked to some books I'm making - click here.

Silent Spirit

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

This large Wall Rug was hooked using 100% Dupion Silk and then sheared to create a textured surface.

It is very heavy measuring approx 150 x 80 cms.

I have named this rug 'Silent Spirit'.

The rug hanging will be exhibited within Textile Expressions Gallery at the Knitting and Stitching Show to be held at Alexandra Palace in London from 6 - 9 October 2011 and then exhibited at The Harrogate International Centre during late November 2011.

Jill

Karin's Chicken Rug

My friend Karin in Germany has just completed her chicken rug. I love it - It's so exhuberant, full of life and very feisty!

Ruth

First Punch Needle Project!

Designed and needle punched by Ruth Robinson

Having bought a set of punch needles from US some years ago, and failing miserably at the time in my attempts to use them, I recently decided to give it another go. 'Flower' is the result, using a Cameo Ultra Punch (with its largest needle) on 100% wool fabric, which is very dense, bought from Mary Drayton. It's much heavier than the recommended Weaver's cloth, which seems impossible to buy over here. I used 6 strand embroidery threads and tapestry wools. It's much quicker than hooking, but if you want to incorporate fabric strips, they need to be cut much thinner and used with a larger punch needle. I've now got some Weaver's cloth from US so will experiment further!