Update

Hello fiber enthusiasts!

It's been awhile. I had foot surgery in early February that laid me up for a bit, but getting around better now. The good thing about sitting around, is that you get to hook, embroider, knit, read, etc.

Here is a nice little rug that I just finished. It's a Deanne Fitzpatrick rug that originally featured a Santa in a boat. I changed the Santa to a fisherman, knit him a hat, and turned it into a stormy day. A fun rug that didn't take too long and was small enough to use a lap frame making it easy to maneuver while my foot was mending.

Another project I'm working on is a hooked book of birds. I have wanted to make a book of hooked pieces for a long time. Two are done, and I am working on a third. I have not decided what to do with the back of the pages yet, but I'm thinking of a wool piece with the name of the bird embroidered on it. We'll see.

The first page is a Canada goose. You can see that in addition to hooking, I've added in some wool appliqué and embroidery. The piece is hooked on hand-dyed linen. I am finding it a bit challenging keeping the loops crisp and sharp in the beak. I may have to put a few stitches in to keep it from leaning to one side.

The second page is an American Crow. In this piece I embroidered and appliquéd flowers. Note also that the wing was hooked separately and sewn on to the body of the crow to add some dimension to the bird. (Sorry, the picture is a bit dark.)

My third page is in the works -- a barn owl in a tree. The background linen is a deep blue and is the perfect night sky for this piece. I'll post that as soon as I get a little further on it.

I have plans to do a warbler, a shore bird, and my favorite, the nuthatch. Not sure how many pages I'll do, but each piece is small, so not a lot of hooking is involved. What's great about this project is that I've been able to combine different types of fiber art into one piece.