Diane Phillips: Developing a Recognizable Style

Notes to Myself. This is one of five panels designed and hooked by Diane Phillips of Fairport, New York in 2009.  Diane used #7-cut hand-dyed wool and novelty yarn on linen.

Diane Phillips began her rug hooking journey in the mid 1990s when she responded to a classified ad in her local newspaper. The ad mentioned that rug hooking materials were being offered as part of an estate sale. At the time, all Diane knew about rug hooking was contained in a few pages of the book, Little Quilts: All Through the House by Alice Berg and Mary Ellen Von Holt. After the sale, Diane says, “I must have read the rug hooking section of that book 100 times, hoping I would find answers about what to do with all of the #3-cut strips of wool I had purchased!” 

A small group of rug hookers in her town suggested that Diane sign up for a class with Marion Ham in Maine. Diane traveled to the workshop with her cache of #3 strips only to learn that Marion works in a #9.

“This was just one of life’s little ironies,” Diane explains. “The wool I had bought had been used by a woman who made Orientals. I don’t know why I was interested in that wool, because since learning to pull loops, I have never wanted to work in a #3 cut.”

This article is from the September/October 2012 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.