Louise is hooked on Deanne Fitzpatrick's free style of hooking and has done several of her mat designs.These two are her women, as Deanne says, reminiscent of her family and neighbours from Newfoundland (and Labrador).
On the left, Hortense and on the right, unfortunately, I don't have a name for her. Both are very expressive, with some details merely suggested. The viewer supplies the rest.
These are both done in wide cuts for small mats, not meant to be realistic, but rather 'impressionistic'.
Here are two wintry mats from Carol - both Deanne Fitzpatrick designs. The snow-covered trees were to be lupins, in Deanne's mind, but Carol asked if it was okay to change them to trees, and Deanne was agreeable. While we are glad to see the back of winter, I was slow in getting these posted, so I hope you'll forgive me the lapse back into snow and Santa.
Deanne's shop/studio is in Amherst, NS, about 3 hours' drive from us in St Andrews, NB. Well worth the journey! Quite a few of the Quoddy Loopers have done at least one of Deanne's patterns and several keep going back for more.
The third of Carol's mats was actually done before the other two. It is from a free pattern out of Rug Hooking Magazine, "Yellow Ware Pitcher Floral Pattern Insert"(designed by Wendy Miller, Jan/Feb 2006). It is hooked mainly with woollen yarn, on burlap. Carol added some nice interest in the background with random bits of colour. She has whipped these all in the traditional way, with wool yarn.
For most rughookers, doing a lot of solid background is not appealing. Me included - I'd far rather hook squiggles, circles, lines or something besides a solid area. Then there's whipping - my least favourite part, though it does a very good job of eating up time spent in an airport or any sort of waiting room.
On the left, a stained glass design, taken from one of the gorgeous stained glass panels in the Saint John Art Centre, a well-preserved Carnegie building in Saint John, New Brunswick.
Several of the Quoddy Loopers attended the hook-in of the Carnegie Rug Hookers in that building. Last year, the welcome gift for each visitor was a small pattern on burlap with a colour photo of the skylight. Several have done the pattern and all have taken artistic liberties; it's interesting to see each interpretation. Hella's has a luminous coppery-bronze sort of feeling. Hella's mats are done in 3 cut and yarn, with her usual meticulousness (10" sq).
Another exquisite small piece of Hella's on the right - a floral sampler. It may have been designed as a chair pad, but it will not likely be sat on! (14" across)
Below is Hella's version of the Rug-Rave mat for Rug-Aid.Rug-Rave mats are 18.5"W x 14"H.
And below, Karen's version of the same design by Heather Ritchie, begun in November, 2009, to raise funds for Rug Aid, which is a charity helping the blind in Gambia to make some money through hooking rugs.
Now for Sandra's recent rugs. On the right, a sweet little mat inspired by her grandson's drawing. Sandra said, "Here is a small mat measuring 4" X 11" that was taken from a drawing done by my 6 year old grandson Alexander. I hooked this piece to give to his mother as a keepsake."
The next, below, is done for Sandra's youngest grandchild, simply titled "Leigha's rug". Sandra works in #4 cut almost exclusively and uses commercial patterns as well as those, like these two, done from imagination. (approx 25" x 20")
The final mat today is also Sandra's, a traditional 'hit-or-miss' design that approximates basketry, and is done with all the leftover woolly worms that all rughookers pile up over time. These 'scrappy' geometrics are quick to work on, especially if one follows the tradition of no colour plan at all, but rather allowing a natural eruption of whatever colour comes next to hand. (approx 35" x 22")
Louise is hooked on Deanne Fitzpatrick's free style of hooking and has done several of her mat designs.These two are her women, as Deanne says, reminiscent of her family and neighbours from Newfoundland (and Labrador).
