Lady in Water by Betsy ArcherFrom Our Readers
Welcome Rugs
A semi-circle welcome mat for the door. I found this pattern in a store in Cape Breton. Hooked with #5 with found materials
"Willow" was my second rug, and remains one of my favorites. It was a leap of faith for me to use red for the background, but it paid off. It took second place at our county fair in 1997.
This traditional symbol of Welcome has graced my studio/shop door for 6 years now. The pinepple was hooked with one of my spot dyes, a beaded border adds the perfect frame.
EARLY WELCOM is a very old design. Designed by Ruth R. Hall of Rye, NH, it is available through Cushing (H136). My dear friend and mentor, Yvonnne Miller, helped me color plan this rug.
The design is taken from an early American stencil design. The motif is hooked with a #3 strip, and the background is worked with a #6 strips. Patterns available for all rugs submitted.
My version of Home Sweet Home...I love "wonky" houses! The plaid in the background was so much fun to hook...adds just the right amount of movement.
Three friendly cats of assorted coloring are shown against a floral and striped background.
I noticed this design on a black wrought iron door mat in New Brunswick. I took a picture, enlarged it, transferred the design to red-dot and then to the burlap.
This was originally a cat rug, but not being a cat person, I asked Steve DiFranza to make them into generic dogs. It was much fun to spread the bright colors around the rug, and to try to find something that would work to keep the dogs from blending together. The pink dog -- well why not? Maybe he was a stuffed one!
The rug shows elements of my surroundings. The rhododendron is in the woods around my house. The mountain goat is in the mountains across Hood Canal where I live. The salmon are in the waters. It all represents my part of the country.
This was a wonderful rug to use leftovers. The background has spot dyed pink and green in it that brings out the colors of the flowers. It welcomes people into my rug hooking studio. I like the font used for the Welcome.
My 23 year old daughter started this rug in a class with Margaret Lutz of The Hook Nook when she was in her early teens. She never completed the hooking so I picked it up when she left for college as one way to cope with her departure. I added the initials of her closest friends and her new roommates to each heart. Her oldest and dearest friend's initials are hooked with a few strips of very special old paisley. One heart has no initials as there should always be a spot for new friends.
Originally designed for stairs,I added the words and prodding. Color assistance by Dianne Kelly of Ohio.
This was designed for Wanda Kerr's 20 in 10 colour challenge on the Welcome Mat (online rughooking forum). I've always liked the clamshell quilt pattern, so thought I'd try it hooked. A basic, old fashioned mat. 10" x 18", 20 colours.
The flowers in this rug are required elements for part of the OHCG Teachers accreditation.
After seeing a demonstration of rug hooking at the NY State Fair I was smitten but it wasn't until I saw someone hooking with yarn at a camp store in Maine that I saw my way in. Yarn! This was my first design and first hooked piece.
This has been one of my favorite rugs and people always comment on it!!
I looked at a series of paintings that Vincent Van Gogh did of various sunflowers. Some were very pale and yellow in comparison to the version that I chose to hook. I loved the vibrant colors. I tried hooking with higher loops to give it lots of texture and make it look like pallet knife painting I left the ends of the sunflowers petals at various lengths for added interest. I am happy with the end results.
This rug was hooked with a #8 cut. I loved hooking the sunflowers! I used a black and white honeycomb to add texture to the center of the flowers and used it again around the border. A warm mix of browns were used in the background. This pattern is available at www.designsinwool.com.
Tongue and cheek welcome mat for my husband. We love dogs! My granddog Taylor is black lab and Sadie just can't help herself as she is just that height. This is how dogs are welcomed to our home.Red is mostly heavily felted sweaters cut #8.5 and the rest is #8.The binding was put on prior to hooking using "The Eaton Edge". This was shown to me by Doris Eaton several years ago and worked rather well.Lucy RichardMoncton NB Canada
My sister-in-law loves frogs so for 2010 Christmas I made her a rug for her entry way in her home. She loves her rug.
This is a beautiful Welcome Rug pattern by Edyth O'Neill. I hooked very bright colors making the rug very cheerful.