Learning to Locker Hook!

I worry when I learn a new craft that I will leave the old ones behind.  Do you?  I can't tell you how many things I love to create!

Being I'm a complusive/obsessive crafter, every time I learn a new craft, I become possessed with gathering all the materials to begin the new adventure and then some.  Is this a throw back to the gathering women have been responsible for through the ages???

Locker hooking has focused me more on the project because I actually have all the parts needed to start and finish!  Yea!!!  Well, to tell you the truth I didn't have the rug canvas so I bought new canvas on a road trip with my Curves/Farmgirl friends.  But then I roamed local thrift stores for more canvas...the kind that comes in the latch hooking kits that no one finishes.  I found the canvas mother lode in a huge bag along with the latch hooking yarn.  But I pulled out the printed canvas and donated the yarn immediately to another thrift store.  I have a storage problem...I have lots of room but I've filled it up.  So I shouldn't store stuff that I will never use.  At least I hope I never need latch hooking yarn!

Doreen taught us locker hooking at our Farmgirl meeting.  I was "hooked" so to speak right away.  So when I got home, I pulled out the practice piece fabric and set out to make a journal cover.  I used Batiks because they look good on both sides (the back will show as you make the loops) and have a high thread count - less raveling.  I love their vibrant colors.  Decorative yarn was used along with the fabric for texture and interest.  My first piece has a few flaws but I'm not much of a perfectionist.  After all, its just a journal cover.  It's nice and thick and feels very good in your arm when you carry it around.  Can't have flimsy journals.

The directions (sometimes I pay attention and sometimes not) suggested that you paint the canvas with a fabric paint and let it dry a day before you begin hooking.  That didn't happen - I was anxious to begin so I painted the areas that showed on the inside of the cover when I was done locker hooking.  It worked fine.  Jello will work to dye the canvas for the next project that needs colored canvas.  If you color the canvas close to the color of the fabric strips, then the canvas won't show through. The object is to cut your fabric strips to fill the holes of the canvas.  I also use a matching string/yarn to anchor the loops that are created in the process of hooking. 

My second project was a basket and it is worked in the round.  The bottom is made separate and attached when the top is complete.  It was fun and will hold more of my stuff...

If I've piqued your interest, check out the book, "Hook, loop & lock" by Theresa Pulido.  Her directions are clear and the projects are fun and easy.  There is even a rug made out of plastic bags.  I'm looking forward to trying that next...after I finish another journal cover.  I used my pinking rotary cutter to cut my fabric strips this time.  I am using muslin and red pillow ticking to make this cover. 

This next picture shows you the hook, the canvas, how the fabric strips are pulled up through the canvas from the back and anchored with the string in the end of the locker hook.  The hook looks like a large crochet hook but has a hole in the end that carries the anchoring string through the loops. 

It rained lightly today so it smells very good and it looks very green out my window.  The sun is out now, the birds are busy singing and the bees are quiet after pollinating my crab apple tree all day.  The temp has dropped to 50 degrees so it is just perfect for me.  It's good that I like it cool because in order for my Sprint card to work I have to have my window open.  We have some drawbacks Upnorth but the pluses outweigh those little (?) problems.  The leaves on the trees prevent my high buck Sprint card from receiving the signal it needs!!!  In the winter the reflection of the snow and no leaves on the trees allow me to have my window closed.  Whew!

Maybe next time I will share another new craft I've started...Mixed Media Memory Purses, etc.   I'm spending some part of every day outside - it invigorates my life - won't you join me? 

Living the good life!

Let's see - quilting, friends, laughter, chocolate - ingredients for a wonderful weekend!  Just got back from Stitchin' Chicks Quilt Camp.  Three times a year our group of 12 - 16 like-minded women gather in a local AmericInn and sew and laugh and joke and eat.  It's like going back to college only the curriculum is lots more fun than the college I remember.  The camaraderie is similar and we do act like we've returned to those carefree days again.  Everyone is so talented and sharing what we've learned is so much fun.  When we finally retire at night, dorm life comes to mind.  It's kinda amazing that we haven't had that knock on the door by our dorm mother.

At one camp, one of us (not me) decided to clean one of the irons before it had cooled, smoke filled our large sewing room and then the fire alarms began blaring.  The manager had to be called at home because no one knew how to turn the alarms off.  Oops! 

Usually we sew and eat in the big meeting room but one of the daughters' of one of our group decided to bring in a miniature cow at another camp.  We have an outside door so she pulled up, out came the little critter and into the back door.  Well - until that day the day manager really hadn't visited us but of course on this day she made her presence known and then she discovered that we had smuggled in this little cutey!  It wasn't house trained but the visit ended without an accident.  Now management cruises through on a regular basis.  Hmmm...  

Sewing the binding on a quilt is the final step in the construction of a quilt. I made this quilt at our last camp, I had it quilted by someone locally, I sewed on the binding Thursday and now I will hand sew the final binding step. Their eyes need a spot of color I think (colorful buttons) and then I will be done.  I love the happy birds and the quilting is so unique! Thanks Karla! This one will be at our house so grand kids can cuddle underneath it on our cold Minnesota nights.

Scottie dogs, cabbage roses and cherries are fabric themes that find their way into my sewing room.  I made these three billfolds using a couple of these favorite fabrics.  It's amazing to me how much more fun it is to work on projects when the colors and fabric themes are special to me.  My local quilt group, Mora Quilting Friends, will be having a Quilt Show and Sale May 22 and I will be making and then selling more items similar to these billfolds so I better keep busy!!!

Sometimes I work on a larger quilt but this time I made this baby quilt top. I have hundreds of quilting books and magazines but this pattern was free in some propaganda to buy some quilt books. Go figure! Now to finish it - I think I will tie it so it will be nice and soft. It will be for sale at our Farmgirls Country Sale on June 4 & 5 this year.

My pat answer for complicated issues that come up in home ownership or computer demons or other left brain challenges is "I like to sew!"  Its my therapy along with gardening and reading.  So I should feel invigorated after the last four days...and I think I will after I catch up on the sleep I lost at camp.  I'm confessing that I took a little unscheduled nap today - now I'm off to put away the car full of stuff I brought to camp! 

Darn!  I see a huge rabbit out in the yard scampering away from my tender little garden plants!!!  Gotta go - see ya soon!

A wonderful spring day Upnorth in MN!

In Minnesota we wait patiently for spring every year.  This year it came quickly and overwhelmed us with warmth and sunshine!  Our yards and fields need rain but this early appearance allowed the farmers to get their fields ready and many have crops planted.  They are way ahead of schedule and with the expected rain this weekend we're praying for bumper crops this year.  Our farm is small - just 10 acres.  No fields of crops for us - just raised beds with a few tomatoes, pole beans, rhubarb, snap peas, white onions and maybe a few pepper plants.

I've planted my pansies in the barrel out by the flagpole, in the cement planters by the arbor, a few in a wooden box along the pathway to the house, and a few in the window boxes outside my kitchen.  As I write this I can see them - still short but blooming with more buds waiting to open. 

I haven't had much luck with daffodils in the past but this year I have multiple blooms out by the garden shed.  I wonder what makes these want to bloom and the others just wave their leaves as the breezes blow.

I don't like microwave popcorn so I make it like my Mom used to make it - in her Dutch oven.  My recipe consists of 3 Tbls. canola oil and 1/2 cup yellow popcorn kernels.

My gas stove is turned on high and I wait until the kernels stop popping. Add 2 or 3 Tbls. melted butter and salt.  My grandson, John, and granddaughter, Addy, think I make the best popcorn and that's the highest compliment for me!

On our first trip to our favorite greenhouse on Monday afternoon, we (hubby and I) bought a fun piece of garden art.  I love all things rusty so this fit right in to our outdoor decorating.  I'm not sure where it should go yet so I just stuck it into the first garden I saw.

As you can see, the perennials are coming up and the crab apple tree will be blooming soon.  The birds are so busy getting ready for their new future families.  The Canadian geese were very talkative about 8:30 tonite.  I thought it was a whole field full of geese but only two of them creating lots of noise.

I'm not really a Farmgirl but I live on a farm, barn and all.  I love knowing when I'm away from home that I have this wonderful 10 acres to return to and care for.  Unless you've lived in the country, you might not understand how I feel.  I love my barn.  It's over one hundred years old and its made out of Tamarack trees.  I wish I had the money to restore it...the roof needs some TLC but the barn will stand longer than I will. 

Check back again - I want to show you some things I've made. 

From the farm,

Bonnie