Off to Sauder Village

Alexander and I are leaving tomorrow by train for Michigan to visit my sister and her family. So I am packing up for Sauder. I am taking a few rugs I hooked this last year to exhibit: Saint Nicholas 2009, White Tiger Beauty, Lady Sunset, and my Christmas rug 2010 which I am just finishing. It is called O Christmas tree. Here is a sneak peek. I used wools from the Norfolk family (my blue-purple family).

Alexander is going to display his prodded sunflower which I sewed onto a jean sack for him. He carries his sleep buddies in it.

I will try to post while I'm at my sister's house, but it won't be as regular. I promise to take pictures at Sauder and post them afterward.

Update on Alexander

Alexander is going to town on his sunflower. This weekend he picked out the wools he wanted for his petals. Since he is only six and I'm not comfortable having him use the big sharp scissors, I trimmed the petals for him the size he wanted and here he is (accompanied by Maggie dog) hooking in some of the petals. I showed him how to grab the little end of the petal and pull it up through the linen. He is talking about hooking a blue sky. I had him look at several pictures of sunflowers to decide how he wanted his center to look. He decided he wanted the very center trimmed down, while the outside left proddy. So again I trimmed the center for him because I don't want him using the fabric scissors until he is older and has more hand coordination.

Guess who's hooking too?

You guessed it. Alexander! He came to me yesterday and asked if I would show him how to hook his own rug. Of course. What did he want to hook? A sunflower! I set him up with short strips to prod the center because he is so young hooking loops is just going to be frustrating. So when he gets done pulling the strips up top of the foundation, we will shear them off. Then he wants prodded gold petals. Is he having fun? I just asked him. "Yeah, I'm going to do some now," he told me. It is after school, and he is stretching his foundation on the frame as I type this.