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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Thursday, August 20, 2015

A Primitive Home Tour! Come See My Friend Val's Place!


If you LOVE primitives!  And I mean the truly good, old and original pieces right out of the early 1800's you are gonna flip as you tour my friend Val's house with me!
I've been wanting to go see her place for quite some time and today my friend Sue and I took a little road trip and Val so graciously invited us to stop by!
And Oh My Word!!   Great old pieces displayed as if we were looking at pages right out of a favorite primitive magazine! 


Old wooden bowls are a favorite of mine to collect and Val had some DANDY  ones!  Each with a story as many of her pieces had to tell!

I love the simple and primitive linens displayed on a wonderful make-do shelf! 


Val loves the original as- found finishes on each piece! 


Even the old floor boards in her old farm house bear the time-worn original finish! LOVE!




Val opens a drawer and explains how some of the pieces were constructed! She's very knowledgeable and we loved hearing the stories and accounts of how she acquired such an impressive collection of primitives!


Another thing this kind lady possesses is talent to construct a useful piece from old things she has found. She made this wonderful table from an old crate and old boards for the top! Just like the pioneer back in the day would have done with things they had! 



This old cupboard was layered with pink and several colors of newer paint when Val found it! Did I mention she has the patience of Job as she dry scraped all the layers to get to the original traces of red paint!  I did that once on something small.... ugh... it is painstaking hard work... but as Val describes it exciting to see what's beneath each layer... the final outcome well worth it am I right?



Old brooms and iron latches pose in the morning sunshine for a perfectly primitive shot!






I wanted to take this old wood box with the salmon colored paint right home with me!!



Our gracious and most talented host!!  Thank you for letting me photograph your marvelous home Val!  Thank you too for being the keeper and preserver of these pieces of history which we are lucky to be able to touch and lay our eyes upon!
The simple life.... shared with good friends today!

It doesn't get much better than that!!

Cathy G



Tuesday, August 18, 2015

"Autumn Trio" Paper Pattern Release!


When the girls were here hooking last week  they spotted this rug I designed a few years back!  A request was made for a paper pattern! I had actually been thinking of doing that so I hopped to it and now I have them available in my Etsy shop!  
Look in the left side-bar and you'll see the link to my Etsy shop where all my paper patterns are listed!
I have also been toying with the idea of hooking this rug again myself! 
There are so many ways you could hook the pumpkins and the birds! 
What about in a neutral color scheme? 
Or maybe Halloween colors... a little purple perhaps?
A black and white pumpkin to join an orange.. Hmmmm... it sure has me wanting to hook it again!

It's a nice sized mat at 15 x 20 and as always the pattern is full sized ready for you to transfer to your own backing material.

So offering an old favorite as a paper pattern today!
Hope you like it!

Cathy G




Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Twelve Ladies Hooking!


After taking last month off from our regular second Tuesday of the month the gals showed up in full force today for a day of hooking, stitching, gabbing and of course eating!  Twelve, not counting yours truely, graced the studio with new projects,  rugs in progress and many many plans for new rugs to come!  These hookers are serious!! 


Karen, Saundra,Cindy and Betsy working away!!


Betsy hooked this adorable 3-D sheep!!  OMY goodness... she explains he will be getting legs made from old square nails!!  

LOVE this guy!!  Sheep are our favorite thing to hook!  Betsy is so creative she didn't even use a pattern!  A girl after my own heart!

Cindy smiles as Debbie ( behind Cindy's rug) shows off the fantastic finish on Cindy's Great Blue Heron Rug!!  I remember when we picked out some of the wools for this rug here in the studio!

Is this a fantastic rug or what!! Cindy's own design!!


Cindy is a hooking maniac!! Here's another recent finish depicting birch trees!  We all ooohhed and ahhhhed!!! 


Meet Tammi!!  She is fairly new to hooking!!  She had us all drooling over the colors in this one she's almost done hooking!  Plans are to frame it but she says that may change!  It is lovely as is she!! So fun to welcome new hookers into our fold!! 


Sharon is starting this beautiful pattern by Sally Kallin! Wow Wow!!  The wools are scrumptious! She buys a lot of wool from the studio here!!  These girls keep me busy in the dye pots and stocking wool on the shelves!  I love every minute of it!!

A close up of some of the colors in Sharon's rug!

Pat is working on a trio of rugs! Fun designs!  Pat had us all green with envy as she is leaving tomorrow to go to Sauder Village!  We all tried to sneak into her trunk as stowaways!!  LOL!!


Some proddy sunflowers by me and Betsy!!  These are so fun to hook!! And we all agreed sunflowers make us happy and can use up those bits and pieces of wool! 

Here's Nancy with her Harvest Moon appliqué, pattern design by Heart To Hand.  Nancy is an avid appliquer and always has many projects going at once!  Don't you love her background wools! She'll have this done in time to display for the autumn season ahead!

Nancy, Debbie, and Tammi working away!! I didn't get photos of everyone this time!  As you can imagine they keep me pretty busy writing up orders and helping to pick out wools for their projects! 
It just doesn't get any better!  Doing what we love and sharing it with each other!
Cathy G