The first side of the hooked house runner is all but complete. You can see how much I drew on each side, hoping as I hooked that I’d find inspiration for sky and border. At one point I thought half circles would work for the border, but I didn’t like them at all. I’ve decided to do rectangles of teal, turquoise and related colours on the two longs sides and something different for the shorter sides. Possibly circles. And the sky? Still waiting…
I do love hooking houses. If you follow the blog you know I’ve been working up to this, doing smaller studies. I use mostly remnant strips and small pieces. I pin together 2″ strips of related colours to keep a little order in the chaos and that forms much of my supply basket. I love what happens when the supplies are scarce–just a line of red, or a final strip of a favourite wool, placed just so. Somehow it makes things more thoughtful. And it’s a crazy thing, but I’m emotionally attached to my wool–it often has a history with me–someone significant dyed it or it came from another project that I laboured over–or the colours combined perfectly in the dye pot. By using it again here, I capture a little of the magic.
It’s always interesting to follow the development of an idea. Here are two small studies from December 2016, the start of my hooked house mat obsession. I’m at the gallery tomorrow, so I’ll take my stand and a pile of strips from the turquoise/teal bin and see how much progress I make on the border. And who knows, maybe amid the paintings on the walls, I’ll get inspiration for the rest of this piece. 
I love the colors and the sense of whimsy in the designs. In looking at the two earlier small studies from 2016, it occurred to me that using the swirling colors of the skies in those might be a good approach for the runner but in lighter teal colors with maybe a few white-yellow clouds to break it up. What do you think? Whatever you end up doing with it, I’m sure it will be beautiful.
So great to hear from you, Jeff. Your suggestion is very much what I was considering. Some circles to complement all the hard edges. I thought maybe yellow/pink at the horizon and then moving up to blues and teals. I tried something similar in this piece and I think it worked. https://birdbraindesigns.ca/?s=northern+harbour Hope you are painting lots!
Love the long row of houses
(ohhhh, that purple one with the bright green tree next to it …!)
Ahh Els! You are so sweet! Thank you for your encouragement!
xine