Who is Orange Sink?

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Rice Lake, WI, United States
My home town is Rice Lake, a small town in northern Wisconsin. I own Red House Wool Studio~ an in-home wool and rug hooking business. I enjoy collecting and decorating with antiques and primitives. Orange Sink Blog is a journal of my interests and ramblings about life. Cathy Greschner

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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Strawberry to Go! My New Rug Design!


If you were a bird... perched on a white wire fence in the garden.... on a hot summer day.... you perhaps would be ordering one juicy ripe strawberry to go for lunch!  Oh my gosh!  I LOVE how this rug turned out!  I knew when it was only a figment of my imagination that it would have a hit-n-miss border... I envisioned the bird in brown with the red strawberry's. I just had to pick the right wools to do the job! So what do you think?  

It's 15 inches round. A nice sized chair pad.  ( oh maybe first I should tell you that YES! it is available as a paper pattern  Yay!   It's in my Etsy shop now... but wait...before you head up there I want to tell you a couple more things you should know about hooking this rug.
So.. a round chair pad 15 inches, but you could easily make it smaller to fit a smaller chair or just because you want it smaller by leaving off a couple of rows in the hit and miss border.  I used a #8 cut strip in the border which is 1/4 inch so leaving off two or three rows would chop it down in size nicely ( to perhaps 14 inches if that is your desire).

Now as for the strip sizes I used in the rest of the rug:
The bird in #7
The strawberries, fence, bird legs, flowers and stems I used a #6.

But go ahead and use any size cut you are comfortable with.  The wider the more primitive it looks.

Another thing, if you will allow me to voice my opinion here, is about using white wool in your rugs.  That's right.... evil white wool.  I seldom if ever use white wool in my rugs.  In a case where you need a really light color value, as I did in this rug... the flowers, fence, etc.  please use something that has a little color to it... the wool I used
 is actually a light yellow plaid. You can't really see that in the photos. There was enough color in it to  tone it down and not be so abrupt as a pure white. 


These are the wools I used in the rug.  
I love textures a lot when hooking, most of these are off the bolt or over-dyed like the green.

You may recognize the red stripe as a Heaven's to Betsy wool called Fortune Teller.  I just ordered five more yards of it and plan on hoarding it for myself!  LOL!!  It really made that little bird in this rug sing! 




So here I am blabbering on when I know you want to get up there and order the pattern! Thank you all from the bottom of  my heart for your loyal support of me and my little pattern business! 
Have fun hooking a little  along with your gardening and summer fun!!

Blessings!!
Cathy G 












16 comments:

  1. So Cute !!! Love the colors you used !!!

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  2. Love this little birdie! Better for him to sneak a wool berry than a real one from my garden! lol! These smaller projects are fantastic for Summer hooking!

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  3. Another fantastic job, Cathy. Thanks for the hint about the white wool.

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  4. I love that design! I think it's one of your best.

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  5. I never would have guessed that Fortune Teller would hook up so cool!
    Great design.
    Hugs :)
    Lauren

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  6. This pattern is so you. you keep on coming up with the cutest patterns. I don't know how you do it but you are full of creativity. Great design and great rug. I love that red wool too.

    Huge,
    JB

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  7. Oh, the colors of this rug are singing to me !!
    Beautiful ! And, I love the name - "Strawberries To Go".
    Rose

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  8. Love your new rug! And all that wool!! Enjoy your day cathy!!

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  9. Very sweet piece Cathy! Love the colors you chose. It looks darling on that little old canned chair!
    xo
    dulcy

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  10. Your patterns always make me so happy. I loved that color of the bird, and I of course had never heard of evil white wool. So nice to read what you have been doing.
    I love looking at your hooking Cathy.

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  11. Wonderful.......i like this one.

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  12. Cathy your creation is darling! And your 'pulls' - just perfect. I swear I will NEVER get mine to come out even no matter how long I hook!
    And as for that red stripe - I just bought a small piece and love it - I used it on the wing of the red cardinal in the mittens rug I purchased from you. So if you ever want to sell a half a yard of it I'd purchase it. I know you said you were going to hoard it but if you get a weak moment let me know.

    I too do not like pure white - I have been using a blend as well.
    Blessings,
    Karen

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  13. It is a beautiful chair pad! I love it! Hugs,Jen

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