Sheep and Sunflowers Rug Finished

Sylvia finished the rug she started at Prairie Rose Rug School in Richardton, ND in August. It was finished last month but we are just now getting it on the website.

We are so excited about the new rug hookers who are joining our group. We learn so much from each other and in such a remote area for rug hookers it is so wonderful to find other kindred spirits.

Our meeting for November will be on the 15th at the Park County Library from 9:30 to 4:30. All are welcome so please stop by and join in on the fun.

September Wool

September has been a busy month for wool. The Paintbrush Piecers put on a great quilt show called Yellowstone Quilt Fest where I was a vendor under Woolin Rouge Designs. Kathi Charles was a wonderful helper and insisted I bring my Sheep and Sunflowers rug to display in the booth, even though I didn't have any rug kits for sale. It really was a great idea. A lot of people stopped by to look at the rug and a few were interested in learning to hook or wanting to finish rugs they started years ago. I will also be the guest speaker at the Paintbrush Piecers meeting this month to talk about wool. I plan to bring my rugs, wool applique quilts, and Woolin Rouge patterns and kits to sell. 

Wild West Rug Hookers also had our hook-in at the Park County Library. It is always such a pleasure to chat and hook with such a fun group. We discussed having a class in Powell, other rugs we were going to hook, and problems and solutions to rugs we are working on. Gardens seemed to take the bulk of time for most of the hookers in the past month, but we still found time to do a little bit of work on our projects.

Patty Tyrrell has really made some progress on her Lacy Heart. She got a lot of the blue done. I love the way she is outlining is a size 4 and hooking in a size 7. 

Carol Messerli has been working on her background behind the elk. She had a lot of berries to make into jelly so hooking had to take a back seat, but she is sure getting a lot done. Keep in mind that this is her second rug and is a design from a photograph. I'm so impressed with her work.

 In between working, weaving, and life, Barb Pearson has been working on her background of the design she created using Laurel Burch elements. I absolutely love Barb's eye for color!

 This is my (Sylvia Gauthier) Sheep and Sunflower. I have a little bit of the background left to do. I had to lighten the blue around the two red sunflowers up because the values of the petals and background were so similar that the flowers got lost. I did a lot of work on the sheep's face and with the help of my future daughter-in-law Shelby Olsen I think it came out great.

 Craig Pearson is moving along with his Lamb and Ram rug. I especially like the way Craig hooked peach colored apples instead of the red. He isn't afraid to put in purple strawberries instead of the traditional red either. If a different color accomplishes the feel he wants, he'll use it. That's a good lesson for all of us.

Kathi Charles started a top for a footstool but somehow we didn't get a picture of it. I'm hoping that by the next meeting she will let us show her progress.

We would all like to invite anyone wanting to learn about Primitive and Traditional rug hooking to stop by the Park County Library in Cody, WY on our hook-in days to see what we are up to and hopefully join in our fun. New rug hookers are always welcome. Our time and meeting days are posted on the sidebar of this blog. We only book the room three months in advance, but try for the 3rd Saturday. Come join the fun!

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier

Some Rugs from Prairie Rose Rug Show

One of my favorite things about going to Prairie Rose Rug School is seeing the amazing work of other rug hookers. Just looking at other rugs a person can learn so much about backgrounds, borders, shading, or even the beauty of a very primitive piece.
Our teacher Joanie Reckwerdt took us on a tour of the rug show to discuss different sky techniques. Lessons in art are all around us if we take the time to look. When you look at the sky do you pay attention to how it flows, how the clouds look, or what colors you see? When you look at a tree do you see how the branches grow, or whether you see leaves or just color? The lessons are there if we take the time to see them.

 Sue Cunningham designed Chief Black Hawk. He is a very large rug and the only way I can describe Sue's work is insane OCD. She is as meticulous as they come. She also designed the purple geometric below. This is the rug she was working on last year at Prairie Rose.

 The owl is a rug that Catherine Vance hooked as part of her McGown certification. Notice how she hooked the background up and down with the dip-dyed wool instead of across. Beautiful.

 This little guy wasn't in the show but I had to get a picture of it anyway. JoHanna Hergenrider hooked the Blue Gill and she was finishing it at Prairie Rose.

One of the teacher at Prairie Rose, Sharon Saknit, designed and hooked this outstanding colorplay rug called Geometric Squares. Perfection is the only way to describe this rug.

Terryl Ostmo hooked this 1790 bed rug adaptation called Norwich. This is such a dramatic rug and beautifully hooked.

 Doodle Dala is a Jane McGown Flynn pattern beautifully hooked by Bonnie Pelczar. 

The Carpet Bag designed by Karen Kahle was hooked by Darlene Buckner. You can see part of Carol Messerlie's floral rug in the background to the right.

 Darlene Buckner also hooked this beautiful Primitive Squares. Darlene is as much fun as she is talented.

 Valerie Begeman designed and hooked this stunning sunflower design.  Beautiful design Valerie!

 The Day Lily Pillow is designed and hooked by Caroline Godfread. All of Caroline's work is original designs. Anne Bonney hooked the floral rug in the foreground on the right. Stunning work ladies!

 Caroline Godfread wanted to try her hand at a wide cut so she designed and hooked Karen's Rocket. You can just feel the movement in this rug.

This concludes the rug show for today. I need to find better picture for the rest of the show before I try posting them. We all know my photography skills are lacking.

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier

Prairie Rose Rug School 2014

Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota is the perfect setting for a successful rug school. You can't ask for better hosts than the Monks who call the Abbey home.

Patty Tyrrell , Barb and Craig Pearson, and I, along with another Wyoming rug hooker Sue Cunningham, from Laramie, Wyoming, all shared Joan Reckwerdt as our teacher. On our first day of class Joan told stories that were so funny my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. Besides her ability to tell a great story, she is an outstanding teacher.

 Joan is the teacher behind Barb Pearson's crewel rug. Barb has taken classes from Joan at Friends, in Oregon as well as at Prairie Rose. Joan has been the teacher throughout this outstanding rug.

Below is the rug Craig Pearson was working on and below it is a pictorial he got a little help with also. The pictorial is mind blowing. He also did another pictorial that is in the rug show but my picture turned out very blurry. Maybe Patty took one that turned out better. If so, I will show it later on.

Joan color planned and dyed the wool for Patty Tyrrell's Lacy Heart by Bea Brock. It has a stained glass feel to it. I can't wait to see it finished. We made the comment that Patty seems to like burgundy since her last rug had burgundy also. 

 I know the angle of this photo is upside down but I wanted to show the pattern right side up. On the left is my Sheep and Sunflower rug. My other two sunflowers will both be red. I learned one major lesson on this rug. Never draw on your pattern with colored Sharpie. It will bleed on to your wool when you steam it! Since I will be adding a dark background to the rug, I will be hooking a white face on my sheep. I changed her face with the red sharpie so I spend the first night of rug camp washing the red out of my face.

The rug s next to mine are done by Katie Knoelke. She was in Ingrid Hieronimus's class and I was so impressed with the backgrounds she used at Ingrid's suggestion. One stripe went horizontally and one went vertically with a red line and the background extending out from it. Ingrid has a plethora of background and border ideas as well as being a fabulous teacher.

Carol Messerli, our other Wyoming rug hooker's elk came to life in Ingrid's class. Carol learned so much from Ingrid and I can't wait to see how this rug looks when it's finished.

Our other Wyoming gal Sue Cunningham, who has been going to Prairie Rose for years, was working on a beautiful Poppy design that Joan was helping her with. Sue's work is meticulous and I will show more rugs from her and others in another post.

The week went so quickly. The company was wonderful, the food amazing, and the teachers were all top notch. Suzy Jones did a fabulous job as our Director and we can't wait until next year.

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier

Prairie Rose Rug School Here We Come!

All 5 of the members of Wild West Rug Hookers are going to be traveling to Assumption Abbey in Richardton, ND to attend the Prairie Rose Rug School. Barb and Craig Pearson have been attendees for many years, Patty and I were newbies last year, and Carol will be attending for the first time this year.

This is the beautiful Assumption Abbey where we will be hooking and eating. The monks take such great care of us while we are there serving the most amazing meals and snacks.

This is our view looking out of the wall of windows in the room where our classes are held. We see wildlife strolling the grounds as well as may visitors that walk by while touring this amazing facility.

The dorm rooms we sleep in are beautifully decorated and the beds are so comfy. I can't say enough about how wonderful Assumption Abbey is and how great we are treated by the monks while we are there. All five of us are so excited to spend the week with great friends, old acquaintances, and new faces.

Post by Sylvia Gauthier

Pleasant Surprise

Patty Tyrrell had a pleasant surprise at the Women's Tea in Shell Wyoming the other day when a former student of hers, Carol Miller, brought her finished footstool to show.

This is Carol's first piece of rug hooking which was started in a class taught by Patty. When I saw Carol at Patty's house one day she stated that her son was making her a footstool for her finished rug.

Well, Carol's son must be an outstanding woodworker because this footstool is beautiful. Carol's hooking and the footstool are a perfect match!
The pattern that Carol chose is from the website I Love Rug Hooking and it is called Cat and Ball by Fredericksburg Rugs. The kit is in the Beginners Section on the website. All of the kits used in Patty's class were purchased from I Love Rug Hooking and I was so impressed with the quality of the wool in each of the kits in the class.
Congratulation Carol on a job well done, and congratulations Patty on being such a great teacher.

Blog Post by Sylvia Gauthier

 

Summer Meeting of Wild West Rug Hookers

We have had such a great summer so far. Our May meeting was in a VERY small room at the Park County Library. They had double booked our room so we graciously gave the large room to another group.
There were 4 of us who barely fit in the small room. My daughter Shelly brought us a fan because that tiny enclosed space was stuffy and hot. We couldn't open the door much because the main part of the library was right outside the door and if there is one thing I'm not, it's quiet. Even though we were confined, we still had a great time. We are so lucky to have such a great group.

Barb Pearson was hooking this outstanding Jacobean rug at the May meeting. She is using a #3 cut and the rug is amazingly hooked. Barb has such a great way of keeping track of each flower and how it is hooked. She is amazingly organized.

Craig Pearson, Barb's husband, was working on this one. I wish I had taken a picture of it after he finished working on it at the June Meeting. He uses a #5 cut, I believe. Both he and Barb are such an inspiration to be around.

Patty Tyrrell was working on an Encompassing Designs pattern of crocks at both meetings. She had started a heart rug but has since decided it would make a great project for Prairie Rose Rug School in August.

I was still doing the border of my dog rug, and Carol Messerli was working on her elk. I am sad I didn't remember to get pictures of Carol's elk rug. She is really doing a great job. I promise I will have pictures of in in July.

Speaking of Prairie Rose Rug School, it is the first week in August at Assumption Abbey in Richardson, ND and all 5 of us are going this year! It will be Carol's first time, the second time for Patty and I, and Craig and Barb have been many times. It's hard to believe how far we have come since this time last year. Patty and I were nervous and could be since we had no idea what to expect. We hadn't met Craig and Barb yet and we certainly hadn't started our hooking group.

Barb had just been through so much with her breast cancer and they missed last years School. Barb is now a cancer survivor and I can't tell you what a blessing it has been to know such a wonderful woman.

Patty and I are now "experienced" at hooking school and we are even more excited than ever for school this year. What a blessing that Carol is going to join us. I can't wait to share that experience with everyone!

And for a little bit of eye candy, here is another antique rug of Sheering's grandfather's.

Don't you just love it! I know I do. Her grandfather didn't make the rug but he sure had great taste.

Antique Rugs

Sherring Burke from Shell, Wyoming, a friend of Patty Tyrrell, has some wonderful old hooked rugs that she was willing to share.

This is a rug Sherring purchased. I love the simplicity of the design and the color combinations. It shows that a design doesn't need to be completely filled in with elements to be an effective design.

This is another of Sherring's antique rugs. Her grandfather had this rug in his cabin so it was used for many years. Again, such a simple design with so much impact.

Sherring purchased this rug showing maple syrup production in Vermont. She sure has a great eye for old rugs!

Now this is a rug given to my friend Kathi Charles by a real estate client of hers.  His mother hooked the rug but it needs help on the edges. Kathi is going to add rug tape to the back to stabilize the edges which are rotting away. Besides being a great design, I love how the hooker chose to hook the inside frames.
There is so much we can learn by looking at the old "Masters" of rug hooking.

Featured Rug Hooker, Patty Tyrrell

Patty Tyrrell and four friends traveled to Billings Montana, 15 years to take a class to learn how to hook rugs. Out of the four friends, Patty was the only one who stuck with it. She has, since then, taught numerous others.

Patty is from the town of Shell, Wyoming. Population of around 100 people. In her Story Rug, which is her third rug, she shows the Wyoming ranch, and her childhood memories. Below is her story.

 

"This is our home with a backdrop of the beautiful Big Horn mountains. The W and Jirp are actually a natural part of the mountain. Our family calls Jirp mountain" our mountain" because Jerup my maiden name is pronounced like Jirp. Of course it was hard for me to hook in the real way the mountain looks..  In the rug is  my dad with his specialty of growing Tall corn and playing the fiddle. He was the bus driver of the Shell country school for 25 years. I took over his job when he retired and I'm on my 28th year of driving school bus!  My mother was a wonderful cook, gardener, and above all she only saw the good in people.  My brother and myself playing in the yard with our sheep, horses and dog.  I can still drive by my old home and smile..."

 
The first time I saw Patty's Story Rug I just couldn't stop looking at it. It is absolutely outstanding.
 
She is also very creative in the way she displays her rugs. For instance, these chickens are displayed in an old window frame that she has painted blue. This set is hanging in her dining room along with several other rugs on the main wall. 

 

Speaking of chickens, Patty hooked this adorable weather vane from a kit. It was her second rug.

The cabin rug, turned pillow, is one Patty designed for friends of theirs that live in California and still have a cabin in Shell. Patty said, "they are over run with friends inviting friends." Isn't that how it always goes?

Meeting on the Path is a rug designed by Deanne Fitzpatrick. Patty has made more than one of Deanne's patterns, one of which she donated to her church and hangs in the reception room. Patty is a generous and she is talented.

Patty has the rugs she had hooked, displayed all over her house. It is such a treat to see them all. Patty Tyrrell is a special friend and we are all so grateful that she is in our group.

Blog written by Sylvia Gauthier. 3/26/14

 

 

 

March Meeting of Wild West Rug Hookers

Saturday, March 15th was a small group of rug hookers but a very exciting meeting. Carol Messerli had finished her floral rug and it turned out great! It is her second rug and her first large rug.

Her background is Dorr's natural windowpane. It made an exciting background with a lot of movement.

Here Carol is working on her next rug. She has a photo of an elk that her daughter enlarged for her to use for a pattern. She is shown here outlining the lines she needs to draw on her red dot so she can see them better.  This rug is going to be a learning experience for all of us and I can't wait to see Carol create it.

Patty Tyrrell is almost done with her Cat Tails rug.  I absolutely love how it turned out.

Her lighter wool for the little hearts and outside border is a Rebbecca Erb wool. It is the perfect compliment to her red background wool.

Since it was National Quilting Day, Kathi Charles worked on a quilt. She brought her sewing machine just in case, but was still cutting the applique out when the day was done.

Here I am working on the border of my Buck rug. This is going to be the outside border. I decided this rug is big enough.

A special guest showed up to interview us about our hooking. Elaine Thatcher from Logan Utah is working for the Wyoming Folk Arts Program, Wyoming Arts Council. She has been in our area interviewing different people about traditional forms of artistic expression, life ways, crafts, history and lore from Wyoming. We all had a wonderful time telling Elaine our stories. She recorded the conversations and took pictures of our rugs, which will be archived at the University of Wyoming.

The Wyoming Arts Council provided leadership and invests resources to sustain, promote and cultivate excellence in the arts. They provide funding and support for projects big and small, all over the state. They reach beyond the obvious venues to recognize art where it happens, like our room at the Park County Library, living rooms, and community centers.

We had as much fun learning about the Wyoming Arts Council as Elaine did learning from us. We never know who is going to walk through the door next. Thank you Elaine Thatcher for such an exciting day.

This blog post is written by Sylvia Gauthier 3/16/2014.

February's Snowy Hook-In

The snow was coming down at a pretty steady rate yesterday but that didn't stop the dedicated Wild West Hookers who showed up at the Park County Library. I was the only local hooker so I must thank the other four who traveled the treacherous frozen highway to enjoy a day of hooking.

Barb and Craig Pearson are always such a delight to have in our group. Barb was working on her own design taken from elements of Laurel Burch's art. She uses a size 3 cut, and for those who don't know, that is a strip that is 3/32nd of an inch wide. That's really narrow! And she hooks with it perfectly!

I adore the cats and the dogs she has tucked in the flowers in her design. Her background fabric was dyed by her teacher using all the colors the teacher dyed for the rug. The dyes were watered down, and gently poured on the background wool with a tablespoon. It's such a great idea, and the background fabric will automatically "go" with the rest of the rug since it is the same colors but a different value. When finished, this will be a large pillow for a bed.

Carol Messerli is on the very last edge of her rug too! I am so proud of the progress she has made. This is her first big rug. She is a beginner hooker. She chose all her colors and I suggested, well more like insisted, that she use the natural windowpane wool from Dorr for her background. Patty and I had seen the windowpane in a rug by Pat Horn at the rug show when we were at Prairie Rose Rug School last August.

 

As you can see, she only has one more corner to hook and this beauty is hooked. She is thinking of spinning her own wool, from sheep she raised, into yarn and doing a crocheted edge for the finished edge. It is such a creative idea for such a beginner.

Carol's next rug is going to be an elk. I can't wait to watch that rug unfold.

Patty Tyrrell is almost finished with her "Cat Tails" rug. I think she is keeping it a secret until it is finished, which will be very soon. She took the pink heart out after seeing it on the blog and completely changed  the wool she used. It is the PERFECT wool for the job and I can't wait to show you the picture. Next time.....

I (Sylvia Gauthier) went back to my Black Dog rug that I had started before the Button Basket. I struggled so much with the outer border. You can tell by the 4 different designs drawn out with marker. Thank goodness I have a selection of different colored markers. I finally got so frustrated that I pulled out all of the background behind the dog and dyed a different color. I drew a free-hand vine design, and started hooking. The other borders were all scrappy borders using a multitude of different worm colors. I hated every one of them. Now I'm just going to keep on hooking until I can get this rug off my frame.  I loved hooking the dog. The rest of the rug, not so much.  I can enjoy it now and only hope that my son enjoys it when it's finished. It is his dog Buck so my son Randy automatically assumed it was his rug.

I didn't get a picture from Patty of Craig Pearson's Mola rug he is working on. Next month I'll get one though. Craig makes wonderful hooks, which I should post pictures of on here. Everyone who picks one up seems to have to have it. They fit perfectly in your hand.

We had a few visitors and two seemed VERY interested in hooking rugs. I hope they both join us and enjoy rug hooking as much as the rest of us do.

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier