My large abstract rug is finished and now residing in its new home.
In preparation for its arrival, the purchaser had her furniture reupholstered and found paintings for her walls which echoed the colours and mood of the rug. I am so gratified by how much she likes it and the lovely home it now has.
After a few days with no hooking during which time my hooking area (i.e. our bedroom) received a thorough spring cleaning, I was once again anticipating my next project. I must admit I’d been thinking about it for some time.
Although I had at times said my next project would be tiny….I lied!
It is planned to be 40″ x 60″. Much smaller than the abstract, but I plan to put it in the upstairs hall where I had originally intended to put the large rug. This mat however will be entirely different. (and have lots more floor showing around it)
I’ve long been fascinated by quilt patterns and log cabin patterns and decided I wanted to do something ‘hit and miss’ using some of the leftovers in my stash. I went hunting. Bea Brock’s book on making ‘Scrappy Rugs’ was a great resource and inspiration . (thanks Jean for lending me your copy ) I was drawn to her pattern ‘Wonky Diamonds’ until I discovered that a friend had just started to hook it. Back to the drawing board.
Some time ago, I saw this traditional quilt pattern and loved the idea of the layering of the ‘squares’. 
As I thought about my new project, I went back and found the picture and decided that this idea was just what I wanted. This time I plan to take Hygeia into consideration. She hangs in the stair well overlooking the landing so the dominant colours will be reds and yellows with a neutral background.
I started sketching ideas….
I’m hoping that the neutral background will make the blocks look as if they are floating.
Last night I got a little more serious. I got out graph paper and drew a scale model of the mat….each square on the paper equals 2″ for my 40′ x 60′ rug. This would let me decide on the best size for the blocks.
After trying various sizes, I’ve settled on both squares and rectangles, sized 6″ x8″, 6″x6″, 6″x4″ and 4″x4″. This is by no means a set pattern as I’ll determine placement and numbers as I go along.
This morning, Ray made patterns for me using some left over matting board.
This will make it much easier to draw the overlapping blocks on the backing without having to worry about measuring.
So now the fun begins. and I plan to start the actual drawing of the pattern today.
I hope you have fun creating your rug patterns too.
Thanks for stopping by.
I remove the strip that is too close….
….carefully cut it down a bit, and rehook it in the same space. I did that in a number of spots and it worked well and the rug lay flat.
I took out some sections, and shortened many rows at the border. I ended up cutting some new strips in a 6 cut rather than cut them down by hand. 
Ray helped me by setting up guides….with nails and mason’s cord.
When I had it as straight as possible, he nailed the edges in place to hold it even. It was a lot of work, but yippee! The edges were now straight.
This morning I removed the towels and it is now drying in place. I still haven’t decided if I will give it a light steam or not before I remove the nails holding it in place.
…so I set about to fix it right away. Fortunately there was plenty of backing to extend the rug on either or both sides. I chose the right side since the bright blue was really closer to the edge there than I had wanted. This would fix two problems at once….better balance and proper proportion. I added two new rows for the wider edge line.
….and suddenly realized that this would not be quite as simple a fix as I first thought. The echo background swirls and undulates as it follows the shape of the pattern outward. I would have to extend this movement two inches more so that it was a seamless transition. Not a simple job.
It requires matching both the wool and the direction a further 2 inches.
It is slow, tedious work, but I feel well worth the effort.
I’m about half way down after working on the fill for two days.
At last I’ve come up with motives that I like for the bottom left hand side of my rug and I’m finally pleased with the overall look of the pattern…..not repeating, not symmetrical, but balanced and satisfactory to my eyes.
I like that the bottom flame motif now sweeps upward and blends toward the upper section.
….and the brilliant blue in this section has some interest and motion. Whew!! I’m satisfied at last. Now just a few more details to add and then the background to complete. I’ll need to have one more large dyeing session to get enough deep blue to finish it.
….again I wasn’t pleased and decided to just use half of it. Then I was faced with how to hook the base of the flame motive and have it work with what was already there.
This section is in the way and it’s pushing the flames out of alignment. I need to hook all the ‘flames’ and then fit other details in later.
I now have a clear way forward for the bottom section….finally.
Now that I’ve figured it out, it seems so obvious. What took me so long?
While Jennifer Manuel ….of Fisheye Sisters (who sells the batik strips) uses the strips as is, I have found them too wide, so I’ve been cutting each one in half, and I find that much more manageable.
This huge piece of wool seemed perfect.
I soaked it (this is just half of the piece which was nearly 2 yards)
…….used three pro chem blues…navy, brilliant blue, and national blue. 1/2 of the navy went in the dye bath, the wool was added, then the rest spotted over the top.
One piece I stirred to create a more consistent colour, the other I left purposely blotchy. (the wool is actually quite a bit darker than it appears in the photo)
Most of it is other wool from the swap box, and the solid blue and green are from the wool Mary Lou Justason was selling from her stash at R..U.G. to raise money for the Hooked Rug Museum of North America.
On the right…I want the “flame” motif to swing down and around in a more or less continuous sweep….so I drew this….
…..but I’m thinking the turn from sideways to vertical is too abrupt….on the other hand I think I can tie them together with a swirling shape much like the one on the top. The jury is still out on that decision…..so I’ve moved on to the left side for the moment.
The left top has long sweeping “stripes in a bit lighter blue than the background.
….so I decided to extend the little “nubbies” and create stripes similar to the top.
….and used a lighter blue once again to create the subtle stripe….
…. (which shows up dark here).
…I must admit it makes getting to the clothes in the closet a bit of a nuisance…..but it is oh so much easier to hang and I can dream away about how to progress while looking at the entire rug.
Now off to hook some more background.
Many thanks again to my son Scott and his wife, for the use of their 5th wheel, bringing it to the site, and setting it up etc. etc. etc.
….enjoy the surrounding area….
….the neighbours…..two retired clydesdales….
…..and celebrated Ray’s birthday with Baxter on the patio of a restaurant in Fenelon Falls (they even made sure Baxter had his own bowl of water).
I came home rested and renewed and ready to get back to hooking (and blogging) when my computer crashed and had to go away for a new hard drive.
The bottom right ‘flame’ bothered me and it took awhile to figure out why….it was paler than the others since I had only used one row of the darkest pink,it was a bit too small…and it lacked the pizazz I wanted…..a simple fix once I figured it out. (I’ve just started adding to it here)
I’m heading off now to finish that section….
I manage the large rug by draping it over the bed…..keeps it off the floor, and it’s easy to manage. The prerequisite hooking mess is conveniently kept on my bedside table.
…..and a glimpse of the finished Grumpy Owl….now hanging proudly in the hall.
I was hooking merrily along and had even finished the blue section farthest to the right when:
I began with a widely spaced zigzag stitch just inside the joining and overlap lines of both pieces. Then did a quick pin-together to make sure they still matched. (when I drew the pattern initially, I had drawn lines every 10 ditches to make the matching easier)
Then I did a careful exact pinning together and basted the two sections together both top and bottom.
Just an aside here……and a heartfelt thank you. I received this leather finger shield as a gift not too long ago and it is the most wonderful thimble alternative I could imagine.
If you are as useless with a thimble as I am it is a tool you’ll love to have available. If you ever see one buy it! (or have a friend like Isabelle). No sore fingers now for me! Thanks again Isabelle.
I’ll cut the fringe off only as needed to keep it from ravelling.
And what a suit it is…..
….absolutely gorgeous pure virgin Irish wool. I spent one evening with my trusty seam ripper and carefully took it apart, washed and dried it to ‘full’ the wool, and I have now the most beautiful stack of soft black wool you could imagine. 
I haven’t yet taken the jacket apart, that will be more complicated and time consuming, but I am truly grateful to Shirley for her efforts in getting this beautiful gift to me.
I had stalled for awhile, debating about how I would hook the large blue sections which swept off to the right of the centre part. I finally just grabbed a pen, drew some lines and started hooking. Since I am such a visual learner, that immediately showed me what I liked and what needed to be changed. For instance, I disliked these two “banana” shaped blobs, and altered them to this….
I had to pause and dye more of this vivid blue….It is just Pro Chem 990 (brilliant blue) ….
…..for 1 yd natural….1/4 tsp in 1CBW in the dye bath then spotted after 20 minutes and adding the vinegar with a further 1/8th tsp in 1CBW. (my sealpoint Akuma appears to approve). I like the highlights this provides.
I played with a variety of colour choices….
…and at first I thought I liked this but something just wasn’t right for me..
.Then I changed the muted raspberry for the rhodamine red, and immediately liked it much more.
That pops!
….and that is the essence of the joy of rug hooking for me….to create something which excites and pleases me. I hope your hooking gives you the same satisfaction.
One concern that needed lots of contemplation were the little rivulets of a slightly lighter colour of blue on the left side.
There will be many more of these, so I had to come up with a way to keep them subtle, but visible. They show up readily when viewed up close, but tend to disappear at a distance. I decided to try an outline just on one side. The outline colours are actually the main cantaloupe and raspberry colours dyed over an ‘oatmeal ‘ wool. I particularly like the ‘oatmeal cantaloupe ‘ wool for the small connecting details. It blends but doesn’t dominate. (I used this a lot when hooking Hygieia…creating a bright and dull version of the same red by using the same dye formula over both Dorr natural and Dorr oatmeal)
There has been a lot of drawing and redrawing on the backing to position elements so they will match when I join the sections.
So this is what it looks like to date. Lots of fun involved in the process and the decision making. This is a new way for me to tackle a rug (drawing the pattern freehand as I go along) and as usual I’m learning a lot from my trials and errors.