I hooked this mat for the "Forest Secrets" Challenge on RHD. The challenge presented by Sunnie was to think of secrets that a forest might have and add a rock, a ring, and something royal purple. It could be any size and we had two months to complete the project. We were to S-T-R-E-T-C-H our imaginations and think creatively. I wanted to do this challenge to learn just how to do that.
The rugs and mats were just so wonderfully creative and clever. Actually, I learned more from seeing the finished rugs than from working on my own. I could see things differently after seeing them all.
One rug was a castle in the woods with a sword in a rock and a ring on the handle. There was another of an owl in a birch tree and and little bird holding a ring in its beak. I loved the one of a tree showing the roots growing, and a cross section of the tree with it's rings behind the tree and a few scattered purple flowers (hard to imagine that one, isn't it?). There was one of a hand with a purple ring gathering mushrooms by a rock. A sweet little frog and a purple salamander surrounded by a ring of moths was another. A cute one was of a little girl by a tire swing. There was a bag made of a mat hooked with a little purple fairy. Sunnie did the "Spirit of the Forest" . . . so creative, and one of a walk in the forest with the pet dogs. It was all so much fun to see how hookers think.
We also had to write a story that went with our rug and I was NOT prepared for that! So here is my 'short' story . . .
My 'Secrets of the Forest' is 28"x10". I used mostly #8 cuts of my leftover strips and I only had to cut wool for some of the sky.
When I first read of the challenge, all I could think of was trees. I guess you could say, I couldn't see the 'forest' for the 'trees'.
The trees were so much fun to do, especially since blues and greens are my favorite colors.
I love a crescent moon on a clear night because if you look hard enough, you can see all around it with a tiny bit of light on
the shadow side of the moon. The ring around it reveals the secret that the moon isn't a crescent after all.
My rug is more about . . . not what you see, but what you hear when you look at it. I hear serenity, interrupted only by the noise of the cicadas and the trickling of the nearby brook. . . with shadowy purple rocks. A quiet noise that is soothing and peaceful.
Our next challenge will be in January.