Footstool is finished!

The footstool is now finished, not without removing and adding some hooking here and there. After sewing the corners and checking the fit, I found it to be too loose around, and that it was about a row or two short at the bottom. I had to remove the stitching from the corners, remove some of the hooking from the corner area, then add a row or two around the bottom to lengthen it. I re-stitched the corners together, folded the excess corner area to one side, and then turned up about a 1 1/4 inch hem. The hem was slip stitched to the back of the linen. It now fits snugly. To hold the slipcover in place, I sewed some yarn to the very bottom edge, wrapped it around each leg and stitched it to the bottom side edge. I did this several times to draw in the sides and to hold it in place.
PLEASE CLICK ON ANY PICTURE FOR A CLOSE-UP VIEW.


Draw a line for a 1 1/4 inch hem.


Zig zag or serge at hem line. Notice that I did not trim off the corners. I am leaving them intact. If ever I would want to undo the footstool cover, I could always go back and hook the corner area and make a rug mat. There is enough of the hem to whip an edge. This corner area is where I needed to pull out a row of hooking on either side to make the cover fig more snug.


Pin corner area.


I used yarn and I used a back stitched from the top corner down to the hem.


Check for fit. Here is where I discovered it was too loose and I needed to add another row all around the bottom. I had to remove the corner stitching to remove a row from the corner area (each side of corner). Notice a little of the corner area hanging out? Before hemming, I basted the corner edges to the hem and then turned up the hem.


Here is a close up of the bottom. To keep the slip cover on securely, I took a stitch at the hem, wrapped it around the leg, then attached that yarn at the hem on the side. Do this about twice and then pull the corner area together with a few stitches. I did NOT attach it to the footstool itself.


Another view. Nothing fancy here!



And here you have it!

Just having fun . . .

Due to all the heavy rains and flooding that Atlanta has been experiencing, I haven't been able to pick up my white wool needed to do palette dyeing from my rug hooking group. I only had 12 6x16 strips of creme wool and my primary color dyes re-figured for the umpteenth time, AND I was so very anxious to see what the secondary and tertiary colors would look like. So I spent the morning figuring out how much of the mixed dye from the primary colors I chose would it take to mix one value of each of the 12 colors. I'm certainly not a mathematician, but somehow I figured it out. It is amazing how the dyes mixed to make all the colors from my three primary dyes. This is value 4 of the 8 values. Also, this is Max the barn cat . . . who is no longer a barn cat, ever since he got kicked by a horse and broke his hip years ago. Max has decided he likes 'our' barn better than his.

Palette Dyeing

I am having so much fun doing the Palette Dyeing, I just wish I had more time in the day. I figure it takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours start to finish (dragging out all the dye paraphernalia, dyeing the wool, and putting it all away again) to dye one set. If I didn't have to cook I would try to do two sets. I am working on finding my favorite blue, red, and yellow so I can start my color wheel. Here is a yellow I tried . . . I'm not using it because it is too brown for me, but it made a beautiful palette. It would be great for Sunflowers!

Hooking and Graduation

Since it is football season, and football reminds me of the University of Georgia (my family's favorite team . . . except for the Georgia Tech Grad that married my daughter), and UGA reminds me of my son's graduation this summer, I thought it would be appropriate to show the pillow I made for my 'baby' boy. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and now has a job! Good going, son.

Footstool Update . . .

I have all of the top and one side of the footstool hooked. I have decided to add a beauty line around the top to frame it and to separate the top from the sides. The muted green plaid wool worked the best, something subtle so as to not take away from the colorful top. I'm still thinking through what I want to hook on the other three sides.

Palette Dyeing with April DeConick

On Rug Hooking Daily, I am taking a virtual rug camp on April DeConick's 'Palette Dyeing' technique. It is an intensive study on color and dyeing colors in 8 values. It is so fabulous . . . I am learning volumes and I've just begun.
Here is my first attempt. It is very mottled, but I was so thrilled at my sample.

I tried my hand at mixing my own formulas with the Pro-Chem dyes that I had on hand. Each set looked like brown to me. I had red brown, yellow brown, green brown, and a brown brown. However, look at what my red brown and green brown dyes produced . . .







In upcoming weeks we will be dyeing the color wheel. I'm looking forward to that!

footstool progress . . . hmmmm

I am making progress on the footstool, however after ripping out and starting over I re-thought my wool selection. I took out some of the brighter colors and replaced them with more neutral wools. It still is pretty bright and I'm not sure if I like it or not, but I'm not going to do any more reverse hooking on it! i'll just go with it. Here are the new colors I chose . . .

This is what it looks like so far . . .



I am still trying to decide what to do with the sides. I will probably do something very simple since the top is so colorful, and use the brown as the background color.

Hooking a footstool with a "free spirit" . . .

I have been wandering around "Rug Hooking Daily" looking at all the wonderful pictures of hooked rugs and mats that are posted. There are so many talented hookers and so many delightful rugs. I am very drawn to the whimsical and primitive rugs that I see, but have never hooked anything I consider either.
I am striving to design something with a little more ... what I call "free spirit". Sometimes I feel like I keep myself in a box as far as creating a design or hooking. Today I have spend all afternoon measuring a footstool that I have been wanting to cover. I have the dimensions drawn off, so it is ready for a design. I want something colorful, something whimsical, something 'hit or miss', and something eye catching. The top, I'm thinking, will be the 'hit or miss'. Around the sides of the stool, I'm just not sure yet.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A CLOSER VIEW.


I measured the top of the footstool. I also took measurements both ways starting at the bottom of one side, up and across the top, then down the other side (allowing about 1/4 inch more to these measurements).


This is how the pattern looks drawn off on linen. I put on 'X' on the corners that will not be hooked.

More than a color wheel . . .

I am now following Wanda Kerr's blog. I first learned of Wanda from when she spoke at Caraway Rug Camp a few years ago. She is a delightful speaker and a very talented fiber artist and rug hooker. Anyway, today she has written a post on "Is there Help for the Colour Troubled". So much for the color wheel (and I was so proud of my sunflower cushions). . . however, I suspect that I will still lean heavily on the wheel till I grasp the concept of color. Her post is definitely food for thought and I suggest that you check out her blog "WandaWorks". If you pan down her blog, you will see videos of her dying the color "pewter". Thanks, Wanda.

Sunflower Cushions

Last summer I took a one day class on the use of a color wheel for color planning. I was wanting a small project to do to reinforce what I learned, so I drew a large sunflower and leaves (I sure didn't want anything too complicated to start off). Using a tetrad (a contrast of 4 or more colors, kind of like two split complimentaries opposite each other on the wheel), I used Navy for the background, Yellows and Yellow Orange for the petals, which left purple for the flower's center. I was so tempted to make the center the normal brown but then, what would I have learned? I was so surprised at how well I liked the purple center. This little project has given me a little more confidence to tackle other (maybe even bigger) projects.