ISSN 2207-100X May 2021
It’s been almost a year since the last post on this Blog, when the COVID19 restrictions began to ease, and groups could meet again in person even though in many places in Australia more lockdowns have occurred.
We’re still not back to “normal”, as those of us who live in Western Australia have no guarantee we can travel to the Eastern States without the possibility of having to go into isolation on our return. International travel is definitely not allowed!
Guild Secretary, Miriam Miller (Pres. Emeritus) kept busy during the lockdown – not only putting out her monthly newsletter but working on her second BIG rug. The first one graces the floor of her living room – 
Miriam’s 2020 project, 3 mtrs (9ft 10in) long with a depth of 80cm (2ft 8in) was destined for the wall.
Here Miriam tells of it’s progress, from beginning to end, shown hanging on the wall, of her home at Narrawilly, New South Wales, Australia ……….
“I wanted to make a wall hanging for my living room. The ceiling is high, it follows the roof line and goes up to a peak. I wanted the long wall hanging to hang high. I used primitive linen I had purchased in Canada for the backing.
As the wall hanging is 3 metres long, I have a join in the centre. I did this by lying one end over the other and stitching down each side. A little harder to hook through double. I hooked a line around the outside of the pattern area. Then a good friend Annmaree kindly drew drew a sunflower design with mountains in the background. 
Annmaree drew it beautifully for me, but I had to simplify some of the design as I could not hook all the details she drew. Plus I had to add more leaves in some of the spaces.
I started with the sky because that appeared easier for me. I gathered many T- Shirts in shades of blue for the sky. I had to make sure I used the same shade all the way along, and did not put too much in one area and then run out further on. I used colours as found.
When I started the mountains, I wanted to have a lot of the same colour, so I extravagantly ordered some wool flannel from Karen Kaiser in Canada. This I also used for the leaves, as wanted to stick to the same green. I also dyed plenty of blanket too for this rug. Materials used were T-shirts, track suits, overdyed blankets, dyed wool flannel. 
My son plants sunflowers in the paddocks around my house not for any reason other than to look bright and happy. I kept studying photos of these.
The sunflowers are many shades of yellow, because they were all the T-shirts I could find, and I think this looks better than all one shade. I kept looking at these photos to help me with colours and shadows.
Dyes, I used Landscape dyes for parts of the mountain. Using a dye called ‘Mountain Blue, sometimes mixed with other blues, and I used this too for shadows. I used a dye called Alfalfa for the leaves. And Alfalfa paler and mixed with other greens for the stalks and the veins on the leaves. The background behind the small flowers in the distance I used green spotted with blues. Landscape dyes dye wool and silk.
I worked this rug on my Snapdragon Lap Frame, and used a 6 ml hook made for me by Les Ritchie in Reeth Yorkshire.
I used a cutting board and rotary cutter as used by quilters for cutting the strips I cut off seams and hems and then cut strips
with roller cutter.
I worked three rows of loops of blue as a border. I did not want anything too distracting.
Finishing the edges. I cut away extra backing leaving about 5 cms. along each side and the bottom edge, and then using a spray glue suitable for plastic, cork and several other things besides fabric, I sprayed both sides, left until tacky then pressed firmly together. After this I used some hessian tape along the sides and bottom doing the same thing. I used this method on my large blue floor rug and after being walked on all the time for several years it is still as I glued it. With the wall hanging I next hemmed along the top edge as I wanted to have a pocket for a thin metal strip to keep the top firm and straight. Then I made 5 loops along the top edge, to take the hooks when hung
Here it is lying on the floor waiting to be hung
Hanging it – using Laser line for centre …….
Done – Thank you John and Shaun.
From the Editor;
Thank you Miriam for sharing your project with us.
During the past year, Guild members found many ways to get together – online groups and workshops. With extra time some entered Exhibitions or completed enough works to hold their own.
Watch this space for more; Stay safe and keep on hooking 
