Friday 28 November 2014

Meet Sam the man, grandson number five

This is Sam, grandson number five.  He is 3/4 of the way finished. Still a bit of tweaking to do on the face, but I'll do that at the end. This is a very different background than my other portraits. I will be looking forward to doing a little girl though for my next and last portrait rug.





Saturday 15 November 2014

Canadian Rug Hooker visiting Australia



Katherine with her hit and miss horse rug














 It is always a pleasure to be able to host anyone who needs a bed for the night, but it makes it very special when that person and her husband is a seasoned Rug Hooker.

Her beautiful Pearl Mcgown roses rug
As I was talking to Miriam Miller on Skype last week she happened to mention that she had received a phone call and subsequent visit from Canadian Rug Hooker, Katherine Cornthwaite and her husband. Alan and Katherine are doing a two months tour around Australia and Katherine had a pressing need to catch up with Rug Hookers along the way. Well we all know what that is like. Katherine had brought along two lovely rugs to work on as they travelled. You have to be keen don't you. So after their visit to Miriam in Milton where they were received in the true hospitable Miriam Miller style, I received a phone call from Katherine on Friday evening. They were in Lakes Entrance and wondered if they could drop by.
They arrived on Saturday afternoon and we hit it off like a house on fire. I promise we didn't stop 'rug talking' until we went to bed that night.


As they are Christian people they welcomed the invitation to come to church the following morning. After lunch and more rug talk and sharing of ideas and links we parted company and they went off to continue their holiday, leaving newly made friends behind. Unfortunately they will be flying home before our next meeting in December. Katherine would have loved to come and join the Yarra Valley Rug Makers at their December meeting.






Thursday 13 November 2014

November meeting of the Yarra Valley rug makers

The day was bright and perfectly lovely for a Rug making get together. We started the morning off rather later than usual. Joy took the wrong turn, Anne was held up by road works and Sandra ended up in San Remo near Phillip Island. A good start to the day indeed. However it only got better from there. It was great to see our newest member Sandra again. She would be about my [Chris'] closest neighbour in the rug hooking world here in Victoria, being about an hours drive from Loch. it was great to see her.

Her Shaun the sheep rug was looking lovely indeed and more than half done by the time she left. Off course I didn't help things when I mistook him for an owl, having been brought up on the wrong side of the world I had never heard of him, while every one else had grown up with the mischievous little sheep.


Anne’s larger than life pear rug chair pad is looking rather grand with its lovely dark, contrasting background, and Anne now has the end of the rug in sight. But she is already thinking about her next project. 
In due time it too will appear on the Blog, so I better not give too much away. 
Joy is doing a superb job with her painterly, almost monochromatic moonscape rug. Her autumn leaf stands out beautifully from the surrounding landscape and really sets it off. It really is a work of art and will be a wonderful keepsake.
 
I [Chris] am working on two rugs at the time. One for at home, the other portable one is my fifth portrait of Grandson Sam, which is coming along nicely.
The Persian rug, purchased as a pattern on a Scottish Burlap backing took some time getting the colour plan together, but I think, so far I am happy with the result. It will be easier to get a picture of the whole when I have done a bit more.  

We missed some of our faithful members today and with Christmas nearly upon us we have decided to make our 13th December meeting a special Christmas celebration day with lovely goodies to eat and share. We will also partake in International Rug hooking Day, even though a bit late. IRHD will be celebrated on the 4th December, with lots of members all over the world stopping to share a cuppa or hook a rug together. Here in Victoria we will no doubt chat and share about personal and internet experiences we have had with our rugging friends across the world, as well as talk about how we can be involved in spreading the word about rug hooking to other Victorians.

And so our day came to an end, with each person hopefully arriving home in a relatively shorter time than they arrived.
Cheers till next time.