Linda Wilson was the originator, and a motivating force behind our “first Tuesday features” at Sunshine Rug Hooking…..and this week it was her turn to tell her ‘story’.

She grew up on a farm located between Elmvale and Wasaga Beach in central Ontario, went to a small rural school, and later graduated from Ryerson and U of T as a teacher of family studies. After a number of years in Northern Ontario, she and her husband Bill settled back in central Ontario, where  Bill taught highschool in Alliston, and Linda became involved with raising her family, rug hooking and a variety of other crafts.

She has been actively involved as a teacher of hooking, a member of SCACA (Simcoe County Arts and Crafts Association….I hope that’s the correct title) OHCG (Ontario Hooking Craft Guild), and hooking groups in Alliston, Barrie, and Orillia. She has been on the board of OHCG 3 different times, and highly involved with the OHCG teachers group . She is a wonderful teacher and organizer, and at present, is a co-convenor of the Canadian Barn Project…an exciting initiative to create a display of hooked pictures of Canadian Barns…a disappearing landscape. ….more info later.

She explained that most of the rugs she brought for display were from her 3 and 4 cut fine shading period…..at the time she began hooking…the only style one did.

I was fascinated by the shape of this octagonal rug in which she hooked veggies from her husband’s garden. It was designed to go in their family room…and a table sat on top of it in the plain area. 

That was in their last house….now it has a place of honour rolled up in a closet.

This was one of her earlier rugs…this is the right side…

But she displayed it from the back, since the front had faded quite considerably.

Linda explained that most of the hooking being done when she started…was of hangings, rather than rugs for the floor.

…….and most of the topics were flowers or vegetables. …Of course there was also the mushroom phase….and for her mushroom piece she devised this green padded frame which is wonderfully unique.

The bell pull in this picture was her second hooking piece. At the time, she knew nothing about colour, and naively chose the difficult colour yellow.

The lovely dress with the embroidered neckline, she made to wear when expecting one of her children.

Also displayed from the back due to fading…was this wonderful rug entitled “Back Home”. She put herself in it twice, doing activities around the farm where she grew up. 

She hooked it to go on the floor in a specific spot in her home…but realized there was a hot air register right in the middle. …..undaunted….she cut a hole in the rug for the register, and painted the register itself like a rose garden to become a part of the scene…..how creative is that! 

Linda usually enjoys hooking geometrics…but this one she says was a pain to hook…It was designed as a part of a presentation with the teacher’s group on ???????…style designs. (the name escapes me). The frustration came from choosing colours which were very closely related, and trying to keep them sorted out . It almost creates an optical illusion.. 

This lovely butterfly resides in her washroom, and her mom hooked an inch rug in the same colour palette to go on the floor. 

You can just see the edge of it at the bottom of the picture….somehow I missed taking a separate photo of it….I’m so sorry. 

This piece was originally intended as a bag….but when finished…it was too heavy to carry comfortably…so she converted it to a sign for her studio.

Her leaf bag however is much more practical…and light. She drew the leaves from ones she found on the ground and hooked them on verel.

The colours are beautiful, and the shading stunning.

One year, when she was convenor of the Annual, she made this vest to celebrate the theme….Shakespeare. 

The entire vest is covered with Shakespearean quotes about friendship

 She loves vests, and made this one featuring sheep. The ones on the back are hooked, and those on the front are appliqued……

…beautiful…but she says….very hot to wear.

She also loves teddy bears…and made this sweet teddy vest.

She belonged to the teddy bear club, and admits that she got carried away making them. She had a “teddy bear” bedroom, and made many for her friends.

She made Tetley for Luise Bishop…so named because he was dyed with tea.

One of her favourite pieces is this picture she did of her Dad…He was very proud of it and would point it out to friends.

I think this is sooo clever….the photo which inspired the hooking, has been mounted on the back of the framed piece…so when you flip it over…there it is!

Here is her motto rug….love the cobwebs, and bits on the floor.

Her latest rug is this depiction of her daughter-in-law and her two grandchildren…with a Klimt inspired background motif.

I love the realistic curls made from coiled wool…which actually hang down on Mom’s forehead.

I’ve taken several courses from Linda, and she is a wonderful teacher. She  hosts parties and courses (both her own, and ones given by other teachers) at her amazing studio in the countryside, works tirelessly on events like the annual Quilt and Rug Fair, and is a large part of the reason why Sunshine Rug Hookers is such a terrific group.