New Rug Hooking Patterns!

Earlier this year, I had a chance to visit with rug hooker and designer, Sharon Smith, when she made a visit to Northern California. Her hooking is rich with color and her designs, many of which are inspired by her world travels, are full of life and whimsey. So naturally, when she asked if I would be interested in adding her designs to my product line, I said yes!

I've added about a dozen of Sharon's designs to my website in the last few days and will be adding more very soon. For those of you with sparse wool stashes, many will be available as rug hooking kits with the pattern and my hand dyed and off-the-bolt wools. Take a look at the ~~~What's New~~~ page on my website to see some eye candy.

I'm having a hard time deciding which is my favorite so I thought I share my top three....
Laundry Day, above, is just delightful....clothes whipping in the Fall wind, hair flying, a few scattered pumpkins. My friend, Marsha is going to hook this one but I think I'm going to have to hook it as well!

Sunflowers; primitive, vibrant colors, and they always make me smile. This design just says "Hook me!"

I'm in the process of dyeing bunches of golds, mustards and rusts for the wool kit for this design and I'm planning to dye a variety of deep, but colorful, shades of russett, brown, eggplant, olive green and antique black for the background.

How many hookers do you know who also knit?
Napping Knitter clearly lives her life just the way she wants to; wools in her basket, little naps now and then & chickens in the living room.....
this may be the one I need to hook.

My Irish Beach Project

My Irish Beach project is coming along nicely. I have been saving three different dark, textured wools to use for a good Fall-themed rug & I'm really happy with the way they are working in this piece.

As you can guess, there are leaves in this rug.

And maybe an unusual pumpkin.

Perhaps a stem or two?

Hooking at Irish Beach

You know you're a fortunate person when you get to spend 4 days with lovely and creative friends in one of the most beautiful places in the world, the Mendocino Coast in Northern California. We hooked and talked, hooked and laughed, hooked and ate, hooked and walked, and hooked!

China brought bags and bags of worms to work on her portrait of her granddaughter.

Chris worked on three different rugs.....she came up with this design to use up her worms and scraps. It's spectacular!












With this as inspiration, how could we not feel creative?



This landscape has inspired an endless variety of artists.... and as you can imagine, young people enjoy this spot for many other reasons :-)