Hooked on Fairy Tales

Once upon a time, bored during the pandemic lockdown, I was spending the day organizing my rug-hooking book library. Mixed into the shelves was an old, worn volume of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, illustrated by Kay Neilsen. Almost fifty years ago, when I was in college, a friend handed me the book at a New Year’s Eve party.

He said, “I know you love fairy tales. For some reason, I think someday this book will change your life.” “Odd,” I thought, but we were theatre students given to dramatic statements. As it turned out, he was right. Finding that book accidently created Hooked on Fairy Tales: The Golden Age of Illustrated Fairy Tales Rug Hooking Challenge. The book has stunning pictures, as do many fairy-tale books. I was inspired to pull out other fairy-tale books and soon had a long list of fairy-tale rugs I wanted to make. How to accomplish so many rugs in my short life?