Replica of 1910 Hooked Rug

My version

Original


WELL! I finally finished a rug that I have been working on. It is a replica of a pre 1910 hooked rug that I saw online. It really looks more like 1920's/30's to me from all the rugs I have seen in that era . . . the hookers of that time liked to add an outline around the design. I'm hoping that it will pass for a 1920's rug for the Topaz Award in the Merit program, and I'm thinking who really knows for sure what era the rug is from anyway.

I fell in love with the rug the moment I first saw it. I loved the flowers and turquoise vase, but I think that I was drawn to the background the most. It is a stripe using gold and cream, hooked straight across like the Grenfell rugs. I was thinking that it would hook up easily since it was mainly straight rows, but I forgot that the stripes would have to meet eventually. That was tricky, especially since I had hooked the flowers and vase first. I tried to place the rows at the same place on opposite sides of the vase and then used my hook to 'run' across the canvas to find the same row of holes to hook in on other areas of the rug.

I used a #7 cut with a #4 cut for the outlines and used Michele Micarelli's hairless linen canvas because it has such an even weave to it. It is a little more expensive, but it hooks fabulously and I really loved the even weave. The background wools were plaids used 'as is'. You might notice that the cream plaid looks a little 'dirty' in places. That is the darker parts of the plaid which gave it that "I've been used and loved" look or, just plain "OLD" look. I bound it using the technique of whipping the binding tape on as you go. I learned that from Nola Heidbreder at a workshop. One of my friends from RHD told me pictures of how to do it are on Gene Shepherd's blog.





I loved working on this rug and I love it more now that is it finished! Now, on to something new.

Tertiary Colors (Merit Program) Peridot Award

I just finished hooking my tertiary colors for the Peridot Award on the Merit Program. I decided to do proddy for my flowers mainly because I had just bought the book "Prodded Hooking for a Three-Dimensional Effect" by Gene Shepherd. It is a fabulous book AND it comes with a wonderful DVD. I enjoyed prodding so much that I prodded some flowers on a hooked purse I have been working on. (Hopefully the purse will be sewn together very soon).

For my tertiary project, I used at least one value of all of the six tertiary colors.

Hydrangeas used values 1, 2, and 3 of blue-violet (110).
The marigold is value 3 of yellow-orange (104).
The flower top left uses value 1 of red-orange (102) for the center and value 4 of red-violet (112) for the petals.
The flower bottom right is value 5 of red-violet (112) and the petals are value 5 of yellow-orange (104).
Leaves are a mixture of the first 6 values of yellow-green (106).
The background is value 1 of blue green (108).

I used a different method on my hydrangeas than in Gene's book on his delphinium. Gene knots each flower separately using a fine cut of wool, trims off the tail, and then places a drop of Fray Check on each knot. I took yarn and attached each flower with a french knot, just like one would in embroidery. My thought is that it would be faster (love that!) and perhaps a bit sturdier. I would like to put my rug on the floor occasionally and I think the flowers would be less likely to fall off using the french knots.