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