All sorts of mats to show today - from Hella, Karen and Sandra

 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")