In action

The next meeting is almost upon us and I haven't posted my photos from the previous meeting! Here's the big table at the start of the session, everyone working tidily -

A couple of hours later, it came to this -

Rag rugs get trendy

"Auriculas" by Emma Tennant is one of the rugs featured in Country Living magazine in 2009. There are seven more here.

Twenty years ago

At the February meeting, this magazine was floating around - the Jan/Feb 1991 issue, with a nice article on the rag rug revival -

Names mentioned in the article (with linkss, if available):

Kathleen Knight and Iris Sutton made rag rugs in their childhood
Moyna Lynch

Jenni Stuart-Anderson

Lu Mason

Ann Davies (British Rag Rug Association)
Hermitage Rugs of Roxburghshire (Emma Tennant)

Ali Rhind

John Hinchcliffe (author of Rugs from Rags, 1977)

Julia Burrowes ("textural paintings")
Gerry Coup

Winifred Nicholson (the 1960s Cumbrian revival)

Audrey and Dennis Barker (1970s)

"The history of rag rugs is almost entirely oral."

Hooking cookies

Moose River Hooker Cookies (Oatcakes)

3 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup sugar
1 lb 20/80 spread or butter
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup water
Mix above ingredients well. Divide in half. Sprinkle 12 x 15 cookie sheet with bran flakes. Roll 1/2 of dough flat with rolling pin. Sprinkle top with bran. (Same for other half.) Bake at 350 for 20 min.

From the website of the Moose River Rug Hooking Studio, in Clementsport, Nova Scotia, Canada. Too much sugar in them to be the oatcakes we know in the UK!

Coincidence

While looking at a friend's blog I clicked "next blog" and found this - it's on http://fromsherrysheart.blogspot.com, along with her other hooking projects.

Hi all

This shows a small section of a rug I'm making using Sari Silk ribbon.

I'll post another photo when it is finished...could be a while!

See you in a couple of weeks time...Jill

Hooked and clipped panel for bag

Designed and hooked by Jill Izzard

Here is the panel I was working on at yesterday's meeting.

Today I finished the hooking, clipped the loops to obtain a soft textured surface and neatened the reverse side. I then stitched the panel to a black hessian bag.

Here it is!

Jill

Another lively Hooked-in-London meeting held here today.

The Creative Hearts event on the ground floor was a bonus.

See you all on 5 March....Jill

Hooked - on Books

This Saturday, 5 February, is our next meeting (see sidebar for details) - and it's also a day of action around the country to highlight the plight of public libraries. Over 400 are set to be shut - and once a library is shut, it's gone ...

So, think about what you can do to support those buildings that let you read books freely, and would have all the new books if only they could afford it -- including books about craft of course - as well as being an important community resource.

For information about Save Our Libraries day - and to share your own story - go to the Voices for the Library website.

(I hope you'll excuse me beating this drum here, but I'm a former librarian and apart from this professional interest, in my poor-student and single-parent days, being able to use libraries meant a LOT to me!)

The "hooked" library in the photo is in Madison, New Hampshire.

More hooking tools

I found these when rummaging through bags and boxes - tools I've had for years but never used (yet)! Both are for use with yarn, I believe, and need the hessian or other base material to be securely stretched on a frame.

From Morocco

This is a "boucherouite" (boo-shay-REET) rug, made in Morocco - made of torn and used clothing. Read more about these in a NY Times article about an exhibition earlier this year, "Rags to Richesse". There are photos with the article, and a slide show.

Design sources

My "road monster" rug is nowhere near finished and already I'm thinking ahead to the design of the next one.

Where do designs come from?

One possibility is - paintings. This is part of a landscape by Gustav Klimt, from the webpage of Margaret Arraj (www.millriverrugs.com) -

Among her many designs are titles like "Tropical Tivaetivae" and "Afghan Sun" -- so, other design sources are other textiles, quilts, and embroidery.

Designed and prodded by Jill Izzard

Hi all

I have turned one of my 'prodded samples' from a previous project into a bag. This sample was made from 100% silk dupion.

I folded the sample in half, lined it with silk, added acrylic handles and voila!

See you all the next meeting - Jill

Hooked in Labrador

Back in the days before digital cameras, Canada House in London had an exhibition of, or containing, hooked rugs from Newfoundland - they were gorgeous. And here's a book with photos and information! I haven't had time to read it yet and will bring it along to the February meeting.
The book contains old photos of the landscape and activities that the designs are based on.
"Fish Flake" is quite well known - the designer is Rhoda Dawson, who went out to Labrador in the 1930s to work with the Grenfell Mission, which provided medical care. The rugs were fundraisers, and society ladies "down south" in the USA saved up their old silk stockings to donate as material for the rugs - Grenfell had married an American socialite, who got very involved in the enterprise.

The mats are still hooked today, in wool, to the traditional patterns - they are hooked in horizontal lines and use every hole in the "brin" (burlap/hessian).

Progress so far

At the meeting I got advice of width of strip and type of backing to use. This is enlarged from a small photocopy and measures about 80 cm wide. A small amount was hooked at the meeting - the rest is the result of two nights' hooking while watching television (or rather, listening to it).

The design is based on tracings from A-Z maps of the routes we travel most often in the car. This version combines parts of several journeys - so it's a bit of a fantasy.

First meeting at Craft Central

Our Meeting

I enjoyed the meeting at Crafts Central yesterday. It was so good to be with others interested in the craft of Rug Hooking.

With six of us each working on a different project, covering various techniques, it helped make the 'get together' a lively event.

Craft Central is an interesting building and the Art Exhibition we visited on the ground floor was a bonus.

I shall look forward to our next meeting in February. Maybe in the meantime we'll find others who wish to join this active group.

Happy Hooking - Jill

Creative Rug Makers

If you are interested in using fabric to create wall hangings and rugs then consider joining Hooked in London.

Jill

www.jilltextileart.com

Wreath

This wreath was made by progging strips of thin fabric through a hessian backing.

Firstly I drew an inner and outer circle, using a copper wire frame as my guide, onto a piece of hessian. I then prodded in strips of fabric into the hessian between these lines. When the circle was completely covered by these strips I wrapped the hessian around the frame. Finally I attached a small bird in the centre.

I bought my copper frame and hessian from Mary Dayton. She also has more detailed instructions for making a wreath similar to the one shown above. Jill

http://www.ragartstudios.com/

A Sunflower

I made this sunflower by pulling (progging) shaped pieces of woollen fabric through a linen backing.

The centre of the flower is made from an old tweed skirt my friend found in a charity shop. She kindly sent me some of this skirt which I 'hot-washed' so as to felt it.

Gene Shepherd shows how to make flowers such as the one above in his latest book/DVD; 'Prodded Hooking for a Three-Dimensional Effect'.