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

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.

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

Wild West Rug Hookers First Blog

I thought for our first blog of the new year on our new blog I would catch you up on our group and our other two Hook-In's. I will post another post about the hook-in we had yesterday but I felt it was important to have all this on our new blog. Below are the two blog posts from my personal blog, Excessive-Compulsive-Sewing.

November Hook-In
Our second Hook-In was, again, a great success. Barb and Craig Pearson brought two more show and tells. I have to say that Barb's Heart, which is from a Laurel Burch quilt design, literally gave me goose bumps it was so beautifully done.

The camera on my phone didn't do the work justice. She uses (don't quote me) a size 3 cut. I saw a picture online from Laurel Burch's book that Barb took the design from and I have to say that Barb's rug outdid the original from Laurel. It says a lot when someone can out do the artist, especially one as talented as the late Laurel Burch.

Craig's show and tell was this whimsical basket. You can tell he had a lot of fun with color in this rug. His hooking is as perfectly executed and his wife Barb's.

We love hearing Craig and Barb talk about different classes they have taken. They are frequent students at Friends by the Sea and Prairie Rose Rug School. Their stories show the rest of us how much there is to learn at these schools. One thing I have been so amazed at, is the difference in cost between a Rug Camp or School as opposed to a Quilt Retreat and Classes. Roughly around $500 gets you room and board, plus your teacher, for a week. At both of these schools the meals are prepared by outstanding cooks and the atmosphere is light and fun.

Barb designed this whimsical hooked piece to be used as a pillow when she is finished. Her inspiration was Laurel Burch so I guess you could say this is a Laurel Burch adaptation. I only wish you could see the background better. Her teacher dyed it using all the colors left from dyeing the rug. She diluted the dye and spot dyed the white. The colors are so subtle and yet add so much movement. Don't you just love her cat?  



 





Here we have Barb, working on her rug and Kathi Charles, who had a Quilting day at her house on Saturday so she showed up to visit after everyone left. Two of the sewing gals stopped by for a visit too, which was so nice. We even had a young girl and her husband come in to see what we were up to. Of course, they got a crash course in Traditional and Primitive rug hooking.

 As you can see here, Craig loves rug hooking and it shows not only in his personality but his work. AND he is around 200 days until retirement! I wonder what he is going to do with all that time...





Here is Carol Messerli packing up for the day. She is doing such a great job on this rug. She is as new as I am at hooking. I'm so glad she is "hooked". We enjoy her company so much. I must say that we have such a fun group. We can always use more hookers though. The more the merrier.

 This is Carol's rug so far. Don't you love her color choices? She has a very artistic eye.

Patty Tyrrell is sitting here all packed up. She finished both of the projects she brought. One was her very first hooked purse that she designed herself. I just LOVE it!! She did an outstanding job, especially since she didn't have any instructions. She even sewed a zipper in the top.







 The other project she brought was the Santa ornaments that she started at Prairie Rose Rug School. I still haven't finished mine so she inspired me to get busy on them and get them finished. They will be so cute on the Christmas tree.

 

 

And this is what I have done so far on my Button Basket rug. The basket was a challenge for me. I truly had no idea what wool I should use but it came together better than I expected. Sometimes we just have to hook it and see what we think. It is easily changed if needed. Hooking is very forgiving art form, which is good because I've needed to change different areas a few times.

With busy schedules in the month of December, we are taking a break until January 25th. We really want to get more people stopping by to see what we are up to, if for no other reason, to educate more people in our area about rug hooking and it's history. So if you want to see Traditional and Primitive rug hooking, stop by the Bison Room at the Park County Library, between 9:30 and 4:00 on January 25th. We hope to see you then!

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Successful First Hook-In

The very first Hook-In for Patty and I was a great success. Craig and Barbara Pearson brought several rugs to show and Patty brought her finished rug that she started at Prairie Rose Rug School.
Craig Pearson started hooking a little over a year before his wife Barbara started. They are both the nicest couple. They hook with different size strips, both small cuts, and when they take classes they both take different teachers. Both are what I consider excellent, proficient, hookers. My stitches have improved simply by watching their work.

Barb Pearson Hooked and Proddy pillow is beyond adorable!

Patty Tyrrell's rug that she started at Prairie Rose Rug School. It just glows! and the church even has a sparkly stained glass window.

Craig Pearson was working on this amazing Mola rug.

Stunning rug by Barb Pearson. 

 Unbelievably beautiful rug by Craig Pearson.

Funky Chickens by Craig Pearson.

Barb Pearson's rug in progress.

Barb Pearson working on her rug.

Carol Messerli, Patty Tyrrell, Kathy Ewing.

Mola rug that Craig Pearson is working on.

Craig Pearson had so many wonderful stories to tell.

It was a great time for all of us and we plan to meet every month. I hope we can interest even more hookers.

Post written by Sylvia Gauthier