Basket weaving!

I attended a class at Praire Moon Primatives down in Wayne, OK this past week.  This is the new place...The awesome new place that Ginger and Danny have created that is a crafting haven for retreats and classes. The facility can handle 20 overnight guests and Ginger and family take care off all the work providing a comfortable environment and meals with snacks.  I have attended classes there before when she was doing the classes in her house and it was called Happy Trails.  A couple classes were with Frank Bielec (DIY Frank from Trading Spaces) doing Oxford Punch Rug Making.  First class we covered the ends of a wooden crate basket that Frank had made with hooked/punched pieces.  Second class we made a rug punch Snowman and Santa Claus.    Click the links and look them over!

The class I attended we made a woven basket and were given a choice of what style of basket we wanted to make!  I always said I wanted to learn how to do basket weaving when I retired and I don't think I will get much more retired then I am now!  Anyway…I attend a class with 14 others learning how to create these baskets from Pauline Asbury.  Pauline's  business is called Habasketry where she sells,teaches and exhibits at craft fairs, markets, libraries, galleries etc.  Pauline is what is known as a free style weaver and is part of a Basket Weaver's Guild.

My desk/table in the class.  Can you believe that the baskets start out a bunch reeds and wood pieces!  

Super glue of basket weavers!  A drop of this and a spray of that and it dries instantly and won't come apart!  I am going to have to find out where I can find some of this stuff!

After the rings are glued together they wrapped making a God's eye…the foundation of the piece.  

 Me working on my basket!  And yes it is purple…you would never know how much I like the color would you! ©Ginger Jackson

 Thought I would post several pictures on my basket for future reference when I make my next one.  I think I would like to make a larger maybe 12-14in Melon basket.

The done deal!  looking at the God's Eye inside and out!

Inside of the basket…same as the outside!

The braided basket handle really gives a finished look to the basket.  I was surprised at how easy it was to complete.  

A happy me with my finished basket!  I love taking classes where you go home with a finished project!  I seem to never get them done otherwise! ©Ginger Jackson

Ginger has a store for Oxford Punch and Hooking on site.  She carries just about any and every color of wool and yarn you could ever want and all the hoops, patterns etc that you could need to make your primitive projects.  Ginger and her Mother have made up samples of just about all the patterns they are carrying in the store.  

the check out counter in the Prairie Moon Primitives store!

Walls and walls of wools and fun patterns and books are to be had in this happy store!

See what I mean about every color of wool and yarn you could ever possibly want to make your hooked projects.  I love all the patterns that they have available in the store but decided to hold off buying any right now because I am still in the throes of trying to get my craft room organized!

Ginger and her Mother…two happy hookers! ©Ginger Jackson

Little picture heavy on this post but I had a fun time and wanted to share some pictures.

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Hobby Hill House March 2010

I was looking back through the posts for this year and realized I had totally missed a really important (to me)event this year. This was my third trip to Hobby Hill House in Bowie Texas. Our first visit was in May 2009 and the group was so enamored of the retreat that we all wanted to move in and stay. Cindy, the owner, knew we wanted to come back asap so she called Leslie and told her that she had an opening in August would we like it well...hell yes so we went back!


The third visit this past March was like coming home! We all had our beds and our tables and everyone was out to have a rip roaring good time. Cindy and Sandy out did themselves with hospitality and we had a blast.
Last winter and spring was snowy around here and the Saturday morning at HHH saw a snow storm roll in and we were all despairing of ever getting out of HHH...NOT!!



The cardinals are a little blurry but I wanted to post this picture anyway. HHH has tons of birds!The Swimming pool still looks welcoming even though it was only in the 20's on this day. The big barn is another cropping room and the smaller barn is Cindy and her husbands private quarters. The house is huge with 4 large bedrooms but they usually have all the rooms full of croppers in bunk beds!

On our last night there we always get together and have a dirty cropper swap and take a group picture. In this picture we all were showing off the frames we made. Fuzz brought the frames and all the stuff that we needed to decorate them.
sitting: Cindy, Fuzz(Stephanie), Shakira(Debbi)
Middle row: Deb, Leslie Jamie, Nita
back row: Kelly, Stacy, Nancy, Vickie(me)



Here is a picture of all our frames sitting on a shelf in the crop room. I was impressed how everyone got busy and made the frames up even though some got out of there crafting feel good zone. It was fun.







I really liked the way my frame turned out. Here is an up close of the upper corners. Nice. I love those colors together!





I am glad I found out that I hadn't posted about the third visit before the year had ended. I didn't post much past June of last year so missed posting on the second trip. I love the retreats mostly because of people that go and the rejuvenation I get from it!