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.

Topaz Award, Merit program, McGown Pattern

One of the requirements of the Topaz award for the Merit program is to hook an early McGown pattern. To learn more about McGown patterns, I found (on the internet) an old copy of Pearl McGown's book "YOU . . . can HOOK RUGS". It was reprinted in 1953 and smelled like it had been in someone's basement since 1954, but I read it anyway to learn more about the woman and her patterns.


Pearl was definitely my kind of woman! In 1930 she hooked her first rug and took off running from there. Although she loved hooking, her interest was more into creating patterns (she had well over 1,000) and her business had gotten so big that she enlisted help from her son, two sisters, and her father-in-law. She bought the larger house across the street (she named it the 'Rose Cottage') just so that she could hold her patterns and swatches, and have a place for hookers to get together and share their rugs and discuss the aspects of technique, color, and teaching others. She and her helpers would hand draw on burlap the patterns that she designed.

Pearl McGown was very much into an artistic effect when hooking a rug. She realized that the only way to achieve this effect was to use a graduation of hues to hook flowers, leaves, or to accentuate a scroll, all with using fine cuts of wool. Her book is a wealth of information! She covers all aspects of rug hooking, my most favorite is the drawings which illustrate where to put each value in different leaves and flowers to help you 'see' that particular item in a realistic way. It is such a shame that the majority of the beautiful rugs in the book were not in color. However, the ones that are were beautiful.

For my project, I chose one of her chair pads that I squared off for a pillow. Recently, our rug hooking group offered a workshop with Nola Heidbreder, a certified McGown teacher, so she helped me with my pillow. Nola is a fabulous teacher! She is so into the 'fun' aspects of hooking and embellishing. So I wouldn't miss out on the fun, I would hook on my pillow for a few minutes then go and do some of her fun things she taught us in hooking. If you EVER get the chance to have a class with Nola, I HIGHLY recommend her. Anyway, I got the jest of hooking the McGown way. There is a lot to learn and my attempt is puny at best in comparrison to rugs in Pearl's book. I used a #4 cut with some of the Palette Dyed swatches I dyed from April DeConick's virtual class "Palette Dyeing' on RUG HOOKING DAILY.
I may also get credit in the Garnet Award for using a fine cut. I'll check on that.