Ten-Minute Challenge Winners for third session

Thanks for your patience in the revelation of the winners of our Ten-Minute Challenge.  This is for our third six-month session, August 2010-January 2011.  We have two winners drawn at random, although those who posted rugs get as many chances as the rugs they posted!  I'm finding that this really increases the odds.

The prize this time.  Both winners will receive a "Dyeing to Hook" apron and a Palette Pack of wool.  Winners should contact me so that I can arrange to have their prizes sent.

The General Ten-Minute Challenge winner is Allyson Marcolini.

The Holiday Mat Sub-Challenge winner is Jo Leland.

Super congratulations to the winners and to all the Ten-Minute Challengers.  There will be another two drawings at the end of July for the General Challenge and the Animal Sub-Challenge.

Keep hooking and posting those mats!

Ten-Minute Feature: Apollo by Lynn Deitz

As time permits and I get permission from the artists, I would like to occasionally feature rugs finished by the Ten-Minute Rug Hooking challengers.  I hope they inspire us to keep those hooks at hand, and make hooking rugs part of our everyday.

The first feature is to help get the juices flowing for our animal sub-challenge.  It is a rug that Lynn Deitz just posted in our Ten-Minute forum.  She finished it in January 2011.  The rug is called Apollo and was adapted from a photo taken by Lynn's son Leigh of his dog.  Last year, Lynn had hooked a dog rug for her other son Glenn (T-Bone).  When Leigh saw it he asked his mom to hook a mat of his dog Apollo.  Since Leigh lives in southern Florida, she decided at the last minute to add a palm tree to the design.  This threw the design off-balance, so Lynn choose to add the orange blossoms to the right, and prodded them in for extra weight.  The wool Lynn used in the face was from swatches dyed by Betty McClentic.  Lynn overdyed with green dye unused wool noodles from her left-over stash for the palm leaves.  She used a gray plaid with lavender for the background.  She worked the piece with cuts 3, 4, 5, and 6.  The mat is 100% wool with a Paternayan yarn whipped edge.  It measures 12" by 16".  Lynn continues to hook animals in order to improve her skills, recently working on designing and hooking some mats of alpacas that belong to her friend.

Posted with written permission of artist Lynn Deitz

Ten-Minute Rug Challenge Second Drawing

I have finally had a chance to put together the prizes for the second installment of the 10-Minute Challenge.  This time I created Wool Wallets for each winner and am including a pack of my palette wool.   The Wool Wallets have leaves in them to separate your wool strips.  You lay different wools between the layers to organize your wool for a particular rug, or to separate values.  Then you just pull out the strip as you need one to hook in your rug.

There are two winners.

The first is the winner of the general challenge.  The winner was drawn from all the members of the challenge.  Members who posted finished rugs in the monthly forums had extra tickets, one for each rug posted.  The winner of this challenge is KIM JONES who finished at least one rug a month!  She posted several rugs including these beauties.

The second challenge was the UFO subchallenge.  The winner was drawn from those who completed and posted pictures of their finished UFOs in the UFO forum.  The winner of this challenge is LYNN DEITZ who completed this lovely handbag.

This is Lynn's handbag.

Congratulations to the winners who need to contact me with their contact information.  And congratulations to all who are 10-minute hookers.  Our shared reward is the friendships we share and the rugs we are finishing!

Second Sixth-Month Roundup for Ten-Minute Challenge

The Ten-Minute rug hookers have been busy during the second six-month installment of the Ten-Minute Challenge. So busy in fact that together we have produced over 50 rugs! These rugs were posted by their creators on our Rug Hooking Daily forum, and here I share them with you in this Ten-minute Roundup collage format. To view the rugs and the comments of the creators, please visit our RDH forum HERE. The creators of the individual rugs are Cynthia Bell, Jennifer Croggon, April DeConick, Tiffany DeConick, Lynn Deitz, Pat Freasier, Sondra Ives, Sharon Johnston, Kim Jones, Melaine Lambe, Jo Leland, Phyllis Lindblade, Allyson Marcolini, Lurie McAdow, Robin from Bandon OR, Lisa Zimmerman. Congratulations to all who are Ten-Minute hookers! I will draw the names of the winners for the two pocket purses at the end of August.

The third six-month installment of the Ten-Minute Challenge starts today. Make rug hooking a daily part of your life. Take up the challenge. If you want to join in the fun, send me your name via email (adeconick@rice.edu) and join the Rug Hooking Daily forum HERE where we post about our progress !

The ten-minute tote has a home!

Thanks to Gayle Burton for sending me this picture today! Congratulations again to Gayle and to all who are ten-minute challengers!

Rules for the Second Season Drawings

The SECOND SEASON of the challenge runs February 1-July 31st 2010. A UFO sub-challenge is in place (finish one UFO). These are the rules for the drawings for the second season of prizes. "Finished" project means completely finished: bound, made into a purse or doll, mounted as picture, etc. For fairness of voting, please post finished UFOs in the UFO forum, not the monthly finished rug forums.

1. Everyone on the "official" challengers list will be put in the drawing for the Grand Prize.

2. To increase your odds for winning the Grand prize (pocket pack), for every finished project posted with picture in one of the six month forums on RHD (Feb, March, April, May, June, and/or July 2010), your name will go into the hat again. So if you finish one project, your name goes in the hat once. If you finish eight projects, your name goes in the hat eight times. Size doesn't matter.

3. UFO sub-challenge prize (another pocket pack) will be drawn from the names of those who post finished UFOs in the UFO forum above (Feb-July 2010). Before and after picture is required. Same rules for drawing apply. If you finish and post two finished UFOs, then your name goes in the hat twice. Three finished UFOs, three chances to win.

If you are joining the challenge, please email me your name so I can include on the official participants list, and then join the Ten-Minute Challenge group on Rug Hooking Daily.

The Second Season of the Ten-Minute Challenge

We are starting the second season of the Ten-Minute Challenge strong. Three new challengers have joined the rest of us. A happy welcome to Sheila Kennedy, Sharon Dennison, and Sandy Johnson!

If you would like to 'officially' join, send me an email (adeconick@rice.edu) so I can put you on the official membership list and join the discussion forum on RHD.

My Ten-Minute project for the second season of the challenge

Now that the second season of the TEN-MINUTE CHALLENGE has started, I thought it might be a great motivation to those of us who have (many?!) UFOs taking up space in our closets and under our beds to encourage us to finish one of them in the second season (by July 31st). I've put up a special discussion forum for it on the RHD group site, and I invite any challenger to post the UFO you would like to finish, and then the finished project. If you don't have a UFO (how lucky you are!) or don't want to finish one in this second season, than just keep working and logging your time as you have been doing.

Here is mine. It is a huge rug (I forget the actual dimensions) and I call it the C.H. Moore rug because I used to hook on it while I was demonstrating on the lawn of the C.H. Moore Historical Mansion in Clinton, Illinois when I lived there years ago.

This UFO is taking up space in my closet that I could be using for other things. It is in a huge plastic box and the lid is broken because it has been banged around from here to there so often. I am tired of seeing the box and I am tired of dragging it around.

The rug was intended for my dining room. It is hooked with all recycled wool that I overdyed. I designed the rug because I wanted to try my hand hooking an oriental. I had no idea how utterly bored I would become hooking the repetitive patterns and limited colors. So I stuffed it away in the box and tried to forget it was there.

I need to come up with a creative way to get this rug finished. I have my thinking cap on. Some of my reading about abstract art (for the 2010 ABSTRACT ART CHALLENGE, also on RHD) has given me some ideas. So stay tuned...

A drum roll please....

It is January 31st, and the TEN-MINUTE RUG HOOKING CHALLENGE has been on for its first six months. So it is time for the first drawing for the pocket pack prize. Winners must contact me with shipping information within 5 days to claim their prize. If the claim has not been made in that time, another winner will be selected.

Congratulations to all who are participating in this challenge, making rugs everyday!

The next six-month session will start tomorrow with a drawing for another pocket pack on July 31st, 2010. Enrollment is ongoing and log keeping is your own business. Send me your name and email to be listed in the official list on the sidebar of my blog. And join the group's discussion forum on Rug Hooking Daily HERE.

Here is my son Alexander modeling the grand prize (hooked front and wool back): a 10-minute pocket pack.

Alexander pulled out of a bag the name of the lucky winner. It is Gayle of Dyeing2Hook!

The runner-up prize - a felted applique of a rug hook - goes to Sally Van Nuys of Amherst Antiques and Folk Art.

Ten-Minute Challenge Drawing

Can you believe it? The first 6-month session of the TEN-MINUTE CHALLENGE is about to come to an end, which means the first drawing for one of my hooked pocket packs is just around the corner. So I have been busy hooking the piece, which I finished last night and picture here. I need to bind it off and create the pack/tote yet.

The drawing will take place at the Kirby Hooking Circle on January 16th. The winner will be randomly selected the old-fashioned way. I will take all the names that are officially enrolled in the challenge (see my sidebar where the log of names is being kept), put them in a hat, and ask one of the hookers attending the KHC on Saturday to draw out the name of the winner. I will post the results on January 31st, the official day the first session ends. The winner must contact me (adeconick@rice.edu) within three days to claim the prize and tell me where to send it, or I will have to redraw a new winner.

So if you don't see your name on the list, and are part of this challenge, you should contact me before next weekend when the drawing is held.

Weeks 13 and 14: Ten-Minute Challenge Round Up

Welcome to new challengers, Wendy Walsh and Terri Lehmer!

Congratulations to Jenny Anderson with this autumn beauty "Acorns" she posted on the RHD Ten-Minute Challenge forum; Robin H. finished "Rufous the Weiner Dog" as a tribute to her pet (also posted on RHD); I finished this oversized cabbage rose coaster for a Christmas gift (more on this in another post):

Week 12: Ten-Minute Challenge Round-Up

Phew! What a fast weekend and a fast monday. Sorry this is late in the day, but it comes with hearty felt congratulations to all who are part of this challenge, and especially to those who shared photos of projects they finished this week. Here is a collection of them as they were posted by their creators on our Rug Hooking Daily forum.

Susan K (paisley tote original; blue tote); and Lynn Deitz (Divine Healing).

Gayle Burton sent me a link to her blog, The Middle Sister, where she posted her stair runners that she just finished and permission to repost the runners here.

Week 11: Ten-Minute Roundup

We have some cute holiday projects finished this week and posted on Rug Hooking Daily. Lurie McAdow posted her stuffed Hagatha (Among Friends design): what a great tooth! Cynthia Bell posted a darling stuffed snowman and fir trees (Fish Eye Rugs design): love the use of proddy for the needles! Jenny Anderson posted a big original rug she has been working on since July called Wade the Green Man. It is a portrait of her husband as a Green Man in winter. Great use of verse combined with portrait! I finished my block of the Stash Sisters raffle rug: Pan the green (wo)man in November.

Congratulations to all of you who finished projects this week. Please post your pictures and information about your rugs on our Rug Hooking Daily group forum where we are centrally collecting our accomplishments every month! Every project finished counts!

Week 10: Ten-Minute Roundup

A warm welcome to the rug hookers who joined the challenge this week: Teresa Bogle (who writes: "I am really enjoying the 10-minute challenge. I usually get to work longer, which is nice. I feel like I am accomplishing a lot") and Miz Lauri T (who writes: "I actually began your challenge quite a while back...it's funny how long we hook when we only intend to hook for 10-15 minutes!").

Congratulations to those who finished rugs and projects this week. I repost here those pics put up by their creators on our Rug Hooking Daily finished projects forum. Cathy Kernodle (Primitive Gobbler designed by Anne Nichols); Jo Leland (Sharing my wool); Lurie McAdow (Primary polar fleece star - no pic yet).

Week 9: Ten-Minute Challenge Roundup

Wow there were lots and lots of projects finished and posted as we move into October. Congratulations to everyone who put in at least ten minutes a day, and to all those who finished mats and dyeing projects this week! Please post pictures of everything you complete during this challenge on the Rug Hooking Daily forum for our group so we can keep a good record of the inspiring progress we are making as a group.

This challenge in ongoing, and people can join whenever they are so moved. Just email me your name so I can put you on the official list, and join our discussion forum on Rug Hooking Daily which we are using for a central location to put up our finished rugs and talk amongst ourselves. I still hope we can break 100 challengers by Halloween.

The rugs I'm reposting here as part of this week's roundup post were originally posted by their creators on Rug Hooking Daily.

Congratulations to Vickey Brickle-Macky for hooking and posting these imaginative pieces, all her own original designs:

Congratulations to Robin Rennie who hooked these fabulous geometrics this month, both designed by her:

Congratulations to Sondra Ives for finishing her original design, "Oh so blue," and her Karen Kahle Moss Rose handbag:

Congratulations to Lurie McAdow for finishing her original design "Peek-A-Boo" this month! And to me for finishing Mr. Bonz (photo taken by Lurie McAdow):

Week 8: Ten-Minute Challenge Roundup

Can you believe we have been logging for two months already? Hope you are having as much fun as I am.

Welcome to two rug hookers who joined the challenge this week: Robin Haruna and Sally Van Nuys. The official count? 74 ten-minute rug hookers. Can we break 100? Invite your friends to join and let's see what we can do!

Cynthia Bell put up pictures on the Rug Hooking Daily forum (which I am reposting here) of her gorgeous footstool that she finished during this week of the challenge. Cynthia, I LOVE your name on it! Thanks for the photos Cynthia! If you have photos of projects you have finished, please post them on our Rug Hooking Daily forum.

I have been dyeing, experimenting with black and grays to create beautiful tones and shades of my palette. I also am hooking on the alternative fabrics rug every night, and planning out my Monthly Reflections Rug.

If you have been posting on the 10-minute challenge on your own blog, please leave a link on Rug Hooking Daily forum too. I am trying to collect all information in a central location.

Week 7: Ten-Minute Hooking Challenge Roundup

Welcome the new challengers this week: Kelley Fewer, Jody Cosby, Lynn Deitz, Kathi Pinkston, and Fran King.

Andrea from Kansas City wrote a cute peppy lyric for all of us to rally 'round and posted it on our Rug Hooking Daily forum group:

Ten-minute rug hookers.
That's who we are!
Give us ten minutes, and we will go far!

Whipping and binding? Not a chore!
Zigzagging and tracing? Give us more!

Give us ten minutes.
We'll get it done.
We'll take a challenge and make it fun!

Give us ten minutes.
That's our creed.
We're ten-minute rug hookers.
We're in the lead!

Go! Ten-Minute Hookers Go!

Rugs that were finished this week: Lynn Deitz sent me a photo of her rug via e-mail (Silver Leaf). These other beauties were posted on our Rug Hooking Daily group forum: Cynthia Bell (Star Chair Cushions); Ginger Jackson (Pumpkin runner; Peace on Earth; Thanksgiving Turkey); Lurie McAdow (M&M Chicken). I finished binding Transfiguration (those are my hands) and dyed my three primary colors and then my secondary colors for the Palette Dyeing rug camp on Rug Hooking Daily.

Ten-Minute Challenge Week 6 Report

We had four more rug hookers join the Ten-Minute Challenge this week. A big WELCOME! to Deborah Robertson, Jenny Anderson, Lucy Richard, and Jane Augenstein.

More accomplishments to report. Congratulations to Kim Jones (Welcome Froggie), Michele Phillips (Dad's Garden), Mary Pasquerette (Kelley Belfast autumn sampler), Sondra Ives (Karen Kahle's Moss Ross purse and autumn mat for Stash Sisters October challenge - no photos available yet), Tiffany DeConick (Donna Hrkman pear bowl from Sauder Village class - no photos available yet), Jennifer Croggon (Blue Willow cozy - no photos yet), Robin from Clinton Corners (rooster and sheep rug - no photos yet). I finished binding Transfiguration (sorry - no photos yet) and dyed tons of red wools for the Palette Dyeing Internet Rug Camp.

Photos and reports originally posted on our Rug Hooking Daily Ten-Minute Challenge group by the creators themselves.

If you are a Ten-Minute Rug Hooker and haven't already, please join Rug Hooking Daily and our group where we are keeping centralized reports by month of our accomplishments!

Check for week Five of Ten Minute Hooking Challenge

Comments are open for sharing anything you would like about this week's challenge. I have been losing track of everyone's postings on their individual blogs. I would like to keep track of what we are all accomplishing centrally, so PLEASE if you haven't already join our discussion forum on Rug Hooking Daily come on over and joins us and (re)post your completed projects there. I have FINISHED PROJECTS discussion forums for each month of this challenge.

Ten-Minute Challenge weekly check-in: week 4

How is everyone doing with the challenge? I'm seeing lots of progress being reported in the Rug Hooking Daily forum. There are 63 challengers on the official list (see sidebar). This is an ongoing challenge so enrollment is open. Send me your name and email address and sign in to our group discussion on Rug Hooking Daily.

If you care to leave a report here or a link to a post you may have made on your blog about the challenge, please use the comments. Otherwise, join the Rug Hooking Daily forum which continual discussion occurs in our TEN-MINUTE CHALLENGE GROUP.

These are two rugs posted as completed this week during the CHALLENGE on our Rug Hooking Daily forum. Congratulations goes to Jo Leland (Autumn cat) and Pat Freasier ("Mighty Oaks Hearth Rug" by Sally Kalin of Pine Island Primitives). I finished "Transfiguration" although I don't have a photo yet. So here is one where I am working on her last April at the Stash Sisters Hook In.