A Happy 2008 to Everyone!

I am going to make a New Years resolution: I will finish my dog rug!

I started the dog rug at Sauder Village in 2006 and have been completely frustrated by the sky and water ever since. When I visualized the rug, I saw a pinky/red sun setting on a distant horizon where the water meets the sky. I hooked the rug half a dozen times with different colors, different cuts, etc. and didn't like any of them. I have hooked the sky so many times I am afraid the linen is worn out - I don't like the sky I have now but I don't think I dare take it out. I resolve to finish the sky and then do the water - and, like them or not, I resolve to leave them in. In fact, since I did my partying last night, I am going to stay quietly at home on New Year's Eve - maybe I'll hook the water in tonight.

Great hooking to everyone in 2008!!

A Great Antique Rug Hooking Book

A wonderful book came in the mail today. Handmade Rugs by Ella Shannon Bowles was written way back in 1937. The author learned about rug hooking from her grandmother, who was probably making rugs in the last part of the nineteenth century. Mrs. Bowles researched rug hooking, mostly in New Hampshire, and shares what she learned about the old rugs and the old methods. Reading her research puts the reader right in contact with rug hookers and collectors who knew the rug makers who hooked before burlap came to America.

A couple years ago - using my first copy of this wonderful book - I used the pattern Mrs. Bowles uses to explain how to hook, to create a challenge. Each person who accepted the challenge received a sheet of paper that had templates printed on it for the flower and leaf shapes and the basket found in the color photo above. They didn't get to see the photo so they wouldn't be influenced by it. They had to create their own flower arrangement and color plan with only those motifs and the rug size as their instructions. The rugs they created were really wonderful, each one similar but none the same.

I have set up an internet store with rug hooking stuff - mostly to celebrate Yahoo Rughookers. The url is http://cafepress.com/rughookers

Christmas 2007

I have explained in past posts that I moved to my mother's house last April and brought my mother home from the nursing home. She has been getting better and better ever since she came home. These are photos of her celebrating Christmas today - between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day she went to three celebrations and then we came home and opened presents. She had a wonderful time, but one of her presents was a large fleece throw and she threw it over herself and was sound asleep in minutes. I haven't been able to hook much since my mother and I became housemates, but I wouldn't trade this opportunity to be with her for anything. I will probably never find another person who thinks that every rug I hook is wonderful.