Parpi of Cresus Artisanat applies her unique artist’s eye to rug hooking. Check it out.
The very first Hook-In for Patty and I was a great success. Craig and Barbara Pearson brought several rugs to show and Patty brought her finished rug that she started at Prairie Rose Rug School. Craig Pearson started hooking a little over a year before his wife Barbara started. They are both the nicest couple. They hook with different size strips, both small cuts, and when they take classes they both take different teachers. Both are what I consider excellent, proficient, hookers. My stitches have improved simply by watching their work. Barb Pearson Hooked and Proddy pillow is beyond adorable! Patty Tyrrell's rug that she started at Prairie Rose Rug School. It just glows! and the church even has a sparkly stained glass window. Craig Pearson was working on this amazing Mola rug. Stunning rug by Barb Pearson. Unbelievably beautiful rug by Craig Pearson. Funky Chickens by Craig Pearson. Barb Pearson's rug in progress. Barb Pearson working on her rug. Carol Messerli, Patty Tyrrell, Kathy Ewing. Mola rug that Craig Pearson is working on. Craig Pearson had so many wonderful stories to tell. It was a great time for all of us and we plan to meet every month. I hope we can interest even more hookers!
Crystal Ross discovered rug hooking. She dyes her own yarn and her designs are inspired by traditional Nova Scotian crafts.
Okay so I got behind again---so here is an attempt to get caught up before I start my carpal tunnel surgeries on Thursday. On Thursday I ...
A blog about quilting, weaving, knitting, gardening, spinning, embroidery and family.
May 2020
Crystal Ross follows in the footsteps of her rug-hooking artisan grandparents. Here's a sampling of her cheerful and whimsical work.
A collection of my ongoing craft projects, drawings, paintings and other ideas
A colorful new owl I hooked up this week for the next Queen of Arts Show Revisited at Syd's house in Ballard on Nov. 26. This was fun to do- hooking up a "hit or miss" from all the stray wool strips in my ever growing basket of "worms". And a new rabbit that I finished up. I really need some better lighting! Notice the greenish strips! I usually do my rug hooking at night and I thought these were grey. I kind of like it like this but will probably take them out and re-hook in grey. I didn't even notice this until I took it outside for a photo! And these are some little felt heart necklaces that I made and didn't have time to price for the last show. The necklace is a 2-3 strand cotton yarn crocheted piece. The kitties are sleeping while I sew and get ready for the next two to three shows I have lined up.
Sigh... Gasp... Faint... call 911..... What a privilege it was to see Bea Brock's rugs up close and personal. I had always been awestruck by photographs of them in magazines or on the web, but to view them in person...
Updated Friday afternoon... Before I moved here I started a hooked rug just for me...which I very seldom do because I just don't seem to h...
At long last, I have completed my latest carpetbag design... and I think it's my best yet. It's just become available on my website as a pa...
Rug hookers love wool and most rug hookers accumulate stashes - those collections of wool left over from previous projects and the wool purchased "because it is so beautiful and I know I will use it someday!" So how do you design a rug based on your stash of wool? There is an art to it, and this is the perfect book to get you started. Author Bea Brock is known for her scrappy, stash busting hooked rugs with a unique contemporary flair and she shares her tips and techniques here: Stash-busting ideas for hooked rugs Stash-happy color planning made easy Contemporary scrappy rugs from the experts Free scrappy rug pattern. 128 pages; $24.95
cross stitch, needlework, samplers, folk art, embroidery, applique, punch needle, primitive, notforgotten farm, lori brechlin, rug hooking
It appears that the stool on the right (Nils) has been discontinued!!! I do not have patterns for the one on the left (Sakaris), but I will adapt a few this winter. This course includes finishing instructions and downloadable patterns that you tape together and transfer to your backing. Never transferred a pattern? No problem. […]
Another FACE to look at- this time a hooked chairseat by Diane COX of the UK-
Hooker Hill continued Wool Poppies President Katie was in my (Brigitta's) class. She is working on a Karla Girard design. Top picture taken early in the week, bottom was taken on Wednesday. Katie didn't get to work on her rug as much as the rest of us do to her hosting duties. Katie shared the rug below during our classes show and tell. The rug won first prize in our local fair. My tablemate and Wool Poppy, Barbara is working on a rug to go in her cabin. This squirrel is so cute. She was still trimming his tail when this was taken. Another classmate is working on a pattern called "Sleigh Ride" designed by Wool Poppy, Carla Jensen. This will be a night scene. I learned a lot watching the color selection for this rug. I took a 2 evening mini class from Laura Pierce. On the first night I learned how to dip dye wool for fall leaves. On the second night I learned how to use the wool to hook the leaves. In future posts I will show this project as I work on it. I'll also post pictures of the pieces of wool I'm working with. I'll wrap up my rug camp post in my next post. Til next time Ronda
Explore Cathy Greschner's 66 photos on Flickr!
These past few months I participated in a rug hooking challenge, presented by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farms. She provided motifs drawn by her, based on antique rugs. Those of us who chose to participate were to use ONLY those motifs in a rug design that WE created. We could use one of the motif, all of them, or whatever inspired us. She had an alphabet, whale, mouse, cats, dog, flowers, scrolls, chicken, squirrel, I think about 26 different choices in all. The rug needed to be at least 17" x 24". We had three months to finish it, that included binding. The challenge began on October 3 and ended by midnight January 3. For the last ten years or so, I have hooked only my own designs. I guess I had many personal stories and ideas I needed to share and express through my rugs. But, lately, I have tried to say, "Yes," to the Universe, when it comes calling. The idea of using Lori's antique inspired motifs and to be part of a creative group of rug hooking women, seemed like a fun thing to do! And it definitely was! We were to share our designs and rugs with the Facebook challenge group, as we hooked along from start to finish! I was amazed at how some people had their designs on paper and were transferring them to a backing the next day just about. I am a "ponderer", so it takes me a while to get my designs worked out. It was good for me to see people jump right in with their ideas! Liberating really! And best of all, I thought it thrilling to see how other rug hookers, who may have never designed a rug before, made meaningful beautiful rugs for themselves! They were designers! So, how did I choose which motifs to use? When my daughter was a little girl and could not fall asleep at night, we would recite the poem All Things Bright And Beautiful, by Cecil Frances Alexander. When I saw the whale and mouse that Lori had designed, a line from that poem, "All creatures great and small" kept popping into my head. When I initially designed this rug, I was SO FOCUSED on the suggested size, 17" x 24", that I didn't take into account, how the color would flow once I hooked it. (An aside, I was already working on a rug, an antique reproduction, that is 30" x 36", which also had a deadline for finishing... more on this in another post.) So, I was trying to keep the challenge rug as small as possible. Originally my rug design, ended at the top, with a scroll-like wave just above my lettering... But read on! As I was hooking my rug, I realized I had a problem with my design, that would bother me unless I fixed the issue. But the "fix" required me doing something I have never done before. I would to need to attach more linen at the top of my rug, in order to adds the flower motifs, above that top scroll, so the colors used in the bottom would flow to the top. I contacted a friend and fellow designer, who often hooks large rugs and sews linen together to make the linen big enough for her rugs. She suggested that for this size of rug, I overlap the linen by three inches, using the largest zigzag setting on my sewing machine, so that my hook could fit between the stitches. I was very nervous to try this. I was possibly going to ruin my rug, and all the work I had put into it. I was pleased her approach worked like a charm! It was not difficult to hook through the double layers of the foundation, and once pressed I could not tell where the rug was joined. (Look closely in the photo below, you can see the zigzag stitching where the linen was joined. In between the TOP zigzag line and BOTTOM zigzag line is the three inches of double overlapped linen that I hooked through.) My goal was to hook a soft, pastel and muted rug, reminiscent of a vintage valentine postcard. I had recently marbleized batches of wool and thought they could blend in an interesting way for the background to look like the sun sparkling on the water. I also used some textured neutral wool, to blend with the marbleized wool, and to add interest. For my binding, I often use the technique of a crocheted edge. I had two ideas I wanted to experiment with. One, was to use yarn for crocheting the edge, the other was to use wool fabric strips. I had some beautiful multicolored yarn, that I thought would look beautiful, and it did! However, getting just the right color placement was going to be "fiddly". (This was the weekend before Christmas, and I had yet to wrap presents, or do any baking.) I needed to finish this rug, or risk mutiny by my family! So, instead of the yarn, I chose to use long wool fabric strips. I had used this same wool in the background and it picked up the lighter and darker tones of the background perfectly. I liked how it did not compete for attention with the overall design of the rug. Thank you Lori Brechlin for the wonderful motifs and challenge! Thank you fellow rug hooker and designers for the shared journey. It was a fun challenge!
I took a Class taught by Susan Feller, about using Fraktur folk-art as rug design inspiration
Binding A Hooked Rug, Traditional Rug Hooking, Wool Rug Hooking, How To/Tutorial, Binding, Yarn Finished Edge, Cotton Cording/ Rope, Wool Yarn, Whipped Edge, Rose Clay, Three Sheep Studio
Yes, it has been a long time. No excuse, really just life. Once I did decide I really needed to catch up on my posting I had issues getting into my account. It would be so nice if you could just pick up the phone and ask someone but that is not to be. So after many bad words under my breath and a lot of just trying everything I could think of I FINALLY figured out what I needed to do to get into my account. So, here I am, and I'm going to fast forward through all the rug hooking related things that happened over the past few months. First, I did finish my very large kilim runner. Ta Da! Picture is not the best. I took it inside atop a very tall ladder. It is 32" x 79" after all. Second, I attend a fabulous Hook In put on by the Merry Mountain Rug Ruggers in Asheville, NC. They are the best! Met some new hookers and caught up with a lot of old friends. I had a wonderful time and I was awarded Best Original Fine Cut rug in their show for my Beltie. Next, I was off to Ohio to teach the Buckeye Rug Hooking Guild, a great bunch of gals. They were very warm and welcoming and were working on some truly awesome pieces. Sadly, I can't put my hands on any of the pictures I took to show here today. My next adventure was to go hook with my teacher buddies at our annual meet up in Kentucky. Every year we do a different project. This year it was a zentangle. I designed and hooked a small piece for my Grand daughter. When I arrived back from Kentucky I had only a few days to regroup before I was off to our guild's workshop for 3 days. This year we had Vivily Powers come teach. I've known Vivily for a lot of years and know that she loves bright colors and excels at doing crewel jacobean type designs. I've had a chair that has needed a new seat for years and I decided that a Jacobean design would suit it very well. I drew up the design and sent it of to Vivily with some color swatches. I had wool I wanted to use for the background but she did the rest based on the swatches I sent. I think it turned out just lovely. Here's a close up... The last thing to report on is a class I recently finished up teaching at home. I had several students wanting to hook Tish Murphy Santa designs. I scheduled a series of classes and we dove in. I just finished mine up this past week. Here's mine. I did change it a bit from the original design. I wanted a moonlit evening sky. When the gals finish up their Santas I'll get photos to post. Well, I think I'm caught up now. Whew. I will make an effort to post at least once a week from now on, sort of a pre New Years resolution.
I’m often asked how to prevent twisted loops…this is what I share with my students… May people like twisted, uneven loops and that is fine! However, if you don’t and are struggling try this… My #1 tip is what I call "scooping"...it works with any width wool and any type of hook on any foundation!. Begin by holding your wool strip/yarn FLAT between your thumb and forefinger underneath your foundation. Hold it close to the foundation, my thumb nail often scrapes against the underside of my linen. To avoid twisted loops or splitting the wool, insert your hook so that the handle touches the top of your foundation. The shaft of the hook is completely underneath, tilt the hook slightly, catch the strip and pull the loop up, tilting slightly toward the beginning tail or previous loop. This way your loop is formed on the shaft, the “hook end” just keeps the wool from sliding off. If you only insert the tip of the hook, you’ll have difficultly pulling up a loop, it may twist or the wool may split and your loop will not be nice and full. By tilting your loops toward your beginning tail, the new loops are fed from the strip/yarn you are holding. If you move in other directions the loops are fed from previous loops, resulting in low, uneven pile. Some people prefer large shank hooks and that’s fine. I think most of those hooks are too heavy and fatiguing, and in my opinion not a substitute for good technique ;) The easiest way to keep ends from looking messy and forming a ditch is to stagger your cut ends. Hook your first row normally having a trimmed end on each side. Begin your second row by pulling up your tail in the hole where you would normally pull your 1st loop. Now go back and pull a loop in the hole you skipped, ignore your tail and pull your second loop on the other side of it. When you reach the end of the row, leave a bit of slack in your strip, make sure the strip is not twisted and pull the tail up in the hole before the last. Now pull up your last loop. Keep your hook in the loop and gently pull on the tail to tighten the strip on the under side of backing. Hook the rest of the hit-n-miss section by repeating this staggering of tails Trim tails even with loops. Another method is to actually hide the tail inside a loop. This is a bit tricky to get the hang of at first, but I know some hookers who hide or bury ALL of their tails. This technique is especially good when there isnt a bordering row. The downside to this method is it is a bit bulky. Not so pleasing with thicker wool. Another word of caution...be very careful when trimming, its easy to cut a loop! Beading... a great technique for beauty-lines, flowers, bird wings
If you are interested in learning to hook rugs, this introduction is for you. I hook a primitive style of rugs, which I sell on Etsy.
