My last grandchild portrait

Phew, my last grandchild portrait, Milly is finished apart from a little tweaking and binding. It will be nice to continue on my oriental rug and that one will only take me a couple of years to finish!!!

Hooking for Missions

 Learn how to make beautiful, unique rugs, from recycled fabrics, while supporting missionaries and children in Southern Asia and Uganda?

100% of proceeds donated to missions.

Book into a half or full day workshop with Chris at Loch in beautiful Sth Gippsland. No prior skills required but fun and fellowship guaranteed.

Half day and full day workshops offered.

Tools available to borrow for the day, or purchase.

Please show your interest by using the contact form on the right of the Victorianrugmakers Blog page, click  HERE to be directed if you are receiving this blog by email..

A bitterly cold day in Warrandyte

Brrrr it was cold and wet, but cosy and warm was the temperature and fellowship in Anne's home in Warrandyte. 

There were five of us yesterday as we met to hook rugs, chat, eat, drink hot drinks and just catch up with news.
But we miss one of our original members, Robyne. We miss your jolly company Robyne. Just know that we love you and we hope you come back soon. However her family must come first. 
Rug hooking is quality time for most of us as we relax and do what we love to do. The world is a busy place and taking time out to meet with like-minded people is a treat. For some of us, this is the only time we get to work on our rugs, but that's OK, that's what makes it special. This is the time to smell the roses in our busy lives.
Anne's santa rug is now ready to hang on the wall this Christmas. Her santa is a beautiful contrast with her choice of antique black for the background. She is now on a run to finish all those unfinished items she has sitting in the cupboard, which were forgotten for a time. 
Jen's rug is also a picture of contrasting colours, her beautiful yellow/golden sun in a brilliant blue sky. Joy continued work on the first tread of her five step staircase. Will she put it to use as soon as the first one is finished or will she wait until all are completed? 
Sandra, was busy finishing off Shaun the Sheep with a gorgeous brilliant orange border. It sets little Shaun off beautifully Sandra.

 












 
 I- Chris, am now working on the background of my portrait rug, grandchild number six- Milly. I will be glad when they have all been completed. I am looking for a change.
As usual, the day went too quick, but we lasted till 4PM, when we dragged ourselves away from our rugs and each other, satisfied and ready to return to our daily toil. Cheers.

Anne's magnificent rooster- 'Fowl Mood'

The back of Anne's punch hook rug

 

Lots and lotsa rugs

Have you ever wondered about all the different types of rugs that are made by crafters all over the world? There are our own hooky and proddy, but then there are knitted, crocheted, braided, amish knot or toothbrush or naalbinding, flat wrap, frame rugs, knotted shag, loom woven etc etc aaaand lots more. Have a look through this website and you will be amazed. There are a lot of very clever, artistic people out there. Enjoy them HERE

And if you would like to try your hand at some of them, HERE is a link to a website with tutorials.

It's a bit hard to see the link to the tutorials here but you will find them just below the photo of each rug in yellow. 

Rug Tufting- taking punch needle to another level.

Meg Little takes punch needle to a new level. This American fibre artist uses an electric tufting machine to fast forward punch needle hooking. She draws her design on the back of her canvas and starts tufting. That easy.

See her interesting You-tube video HERE

Here in Australia, fibre artist Bec Anderson, from Queensland makes rugs with a tufting machine as well. 
You will find her website HERE
and HERE you will find her video on the making of The Wishing Chair, a delightful pictorial on the process she used to make it. 

Continuing my travels through WA

And so, as we travel on along the the south west coast, we finally reach Perth, just in time to visit the Perth Quilt and Craft show. So, having met up with Marion from Strath Matters, a few times already on the way from SA to WA, the two of us braved the WA transport system, and took the train into Perth from Duncraig, as we both just happened to be staying in that same suburb at the same time. We thoroughly enjoyed each others company as we arrived in the city in good time and walked to the
 Convention

Centre where the show was being held. After locating Jo and Kath at the Rug Hookers stand, we left our bags there (but not our money. You never know what a girl might come across that she deperately needs) and choofed off to check out the variety of goods available. We oohed and aahed a lot but our money stayed in our pockets, except off course to spend on coffee and lunch. We returned to help out for a while at the ARG stand, while admiring the rugs on display.  Apart from the fabulous rug, 'Lest we forget', which was hooked in grey scale,  by the combined efforts of the Wanneroo Rugmakers Group and designed by Jo, there was also a display of Kira's standing wool rugs, and off course Marion's 'George'. The Wanneroo Rug Makers entry, Ebb and Flow, selected as finalists in the Common Threads Wearable Art Show, was also on display, and a great topic of conversation.
What a fine day we had. Back on the train, we arrived safe and well back in Duncraig,  ready for dinner.
The following day, Jerry and I took off from Perth, back home to Melbourne.

The One True's Standing Mat

'This here's the wattle
the emblem of our land
you can stick it in a bottle
or hold it in your hand'
(Monty Python's 'Bruce' sketch)

What you can't see from my crummy phone photo's is that the wattle blossoms are raised a bit.

My hubby has a lot of pets. Wild birds. They come and sing or chortle outside our bedroom window if they see us there. He's their friend. So when he said he wanted a pad to stand on while at his easel, painting, I thought, there you go.