How to clean your Hooked Rugs
 
Cleaning solution recipe:
1 tablespoon granulated Tide (no additives of any kind)
1 cup white vinegar
1 gallon of warm water
Mix vinegar and water together in a bucket. Dissolve Tide in water solutions. Make soap suds. Put suds on rug and rub suds in a circular motion moving from center outward. Let dry and then vacuum rug.
 
Provided by Laurie Manthorne
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1.    Press and prepare Hooked Rug to be finished. Machine stitch about 1 inch from hooked area all around rug.  Cut linen away from rug along the outer stitched line. Fold the linen edge to the back of rug and press down. See pictures A and B.

2.    Cut strips of 3 inch wool pieces to go around the entire piece adding at least 6 inches for overlapping at the ends. It is best to use as long a strip of wool as possible to eliminate having too many seams. Machine stitch ends together making one long strip of wool. Lay cording on the 3 inch strip of wool and fold over about 1 inch.  Machine stitch as close to cording as possible.  See pictures C and D.

3.    Lay the sewn corded wool strip to the bottom edge of the hooked rug. Begin hand stitching about 3 inches from the end of trim. See picture E.  Make sure to stitch between your loops and not through the wool loops. Stitch around the entire piece leaving about 3 inches at the very end for overlapping. See picture F.

​4.    Your finished rug trim should look like picture F at this point.

5.    To finish the corded edge take one end of trim and pull back the cord and place the wool over the other corded end. You may have to trim some wool off the end to make it lay flat. See picture G. Snip the cord ends and place the wool together. See picture H and I. Hand stitch the wool around the cord. See picture J.

​6.    Hand stitch the corded wool to bottom edge closing up your overlap. See picture K.

7.    To finish the corners pinch the wool together and snip at an angle. See pictures L and M.

8.    Hand stitch the corner angles together. See picture N.

​9.    Hand sew the wool binding to the back of the rug. See picture O.

Enjoy your finished Rug!
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Sibyl Osicka came to Sebastian for a three day workshop on January 21st – 23rd for members of the Gator Group Rug Hookers. A total of seventeen members signed on to the workshop to learn from one of the best McGown instructors in the nation. Her emphasize was on fine shading, however, she stated “Not everyone is interested in fine shading and that is fine, but some of my thoughts can be taken over to wide cut and applied.”

This was a very well organized workshop and many different areas of rug hooking were covered. Sibyl covered so many avenues of rug hooking that it did not matter if you were a beginner, intermediate or advanced hooker, everyone learned something in this workshop.
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She shared many helpful hints during this workshop. Some of them are listed below.

• Good rule of thumb; hook your loops as high as your cut wool is wide.
• It is very important that you keep the canvas of the rug pattern as tight as possible on the frame. This helps to keep the loops even and enables you to work faster.
• The back of the rug should look as neat as the top surface. Bring all ends to the top.
• Be sure to place the pattern on the frame so it is straight and not on the bias. If placed on the bias it will distort the pattern and will never return to its original shape before or after steaming.
• Wool fabric should be cut with the selvage or on a torn edge, as the threads must run full length of the strip. Material that is cut the least bit diagonally will fall apart.
• When planning a rug pattern, always choose the background color first and build the colors of the design around the background color.
• Remember to hook inside the line of the motif otherwise the motif will become too large and you will lose the shape of it.
• Periodically, all artist step back and view their work from a distance to see if they are achieving the effect they desire.
• NEVER fold your pattern, this will break or weaken the folded area. Roll it on a tube for storage.
• Balance dark colors with light colors.
• Do not store rugs in an airtight bag as this can cause dry rot. Instead roll them right side out, in a clean sheet with some moth flakes.
• Always hook highlights higher and shadows lower. Remember highlights come forward and shadows recede.
• When hooking the background, hook the first row around the motif a little lower. If you do it the opposite way the motif will look sunken in.
• Always date and sign a rug picture. Use a value of one of the swatches in the rug for the initials. Place date on one end and initials on the other end (close to a motif) for balance.
• Fingering with a shaded swatch, is done by hooking two rows of one shade far enough apart at the ends so another shade can be hooked in between and extended farther out than the last shade. Repeat with the next shade so there will be no definite line stopping and starting from one shade to the next.
• Always use 100% wool yarn for whipping. One way to figure how much yarn you will need is to calculate 17 to 20 times the circumference of your hooked piece. (width x length x 2= circumference) For the herringbone stitch multiply by 22 to 24 times the circumference.
• Be aware of horizontal lines that may cut your composition into equal parts. They should be either low or high horizontal lines, but never in the middle of your pictorial.

Many thanks to Judi Overly who organized this workshop for our group. It was a huge success!

“Ode to My Wife, the Hooker”
 By Cyvia Simmons
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She learned to hook on Monday, her loops were going fine.
She forgot to thaw our dinner, so we went out to dine.
 
She hooked pretty daisies Tuesday, she said they were a must.
They really were quite lovely, but she forgot to dust.
 
On Wednesday it was strawberries, she said the fingering’s were fun.
What highlights!  And what Shadows!  But the laundry wasn’t done.
 
She hooked apples on a Thursday, so juicy, bright, and red.
I guess she really got engrossed for she forgot to make the bed.
 
It was violets on Friday, in colors she adores.
It never bothered her at all that crumbs were on the floor.
 
I hired a maid on Saturday, so my week was now complete.
My wife could hook for hours, yet the house would still be neat.
 
Well, it’s already Sunday, and I’ve gone by the book.
I’ve cursed, I’ve raved, I’ve raged, my wife taught the maid to hook.
Oh Lord, one more project!

​This was a very good workshop. Judith and Marta had many projects to show the many ways Proddy can be incorporated in your rug hooking designs. We had a hands on class where they were very helpful in showing us how to make beautiful Proddy flowers. They both stated that the book “Prodded Hooking for a Three Dimensional Effect by Gene Shepard” is a very good book to learn proddy.  All who attended this class was very appreciative of Marta’s and Judith’s contribution and time spend preparing for this class.

Christmas Luncheon
The pastor could not attended our Potluck Luncheon due illness. Judi Overly passed a thank you card around for all to sign.  Judi will give the thank you card along with our $100 donation to the church.

After the luncheon we had lots of fun playing “Dirty Santa” with the ornaments brought by each member. Judi had everyone draw a number and we all took our turn choosing an ornament from the table, or being a Dirty Santa and steeling from another person. This made for a very fun exchange!

Peggy brought a Primitive Santa Doll that she made using muslin and clothing of a coat, hat and cape made from wool to be giving away as a door prize. Debbie Rocco was the lucky winner. Also, Joan brought a basket of knitted dish cloths she made for all to take one home. We missed all who could not attend!

​Beginning Rug Hooking Class – Instructed by Marta Grinberg
This was a very good class that covered the history of rug hooking, backing materials used, and all the equipment needed for rug hooking. She also discussed the different styles and designs of rug hooking such as: primitives, pictorials, florals, Orientals, geometric, crewels, monochromatic. She had examples to show each of these styles and designs. Hooking direction, balancing color, loops, and borders was also talked about. This was a very informative class and she pasted on lots of helpful hints.  All who attended this class was very appreciative of Marta’s contribution and time spend preparing for this class.

See the "Beginning Rug Hooking Class" blog for the complete details of the class.

Judi Overly presented Rev. Finnin with our "Thank You" card and donation of $100 to the church. " He said they were very happy to have us meet there. They appreciated the fact that when we leave each hook-in they never know we have been there." 

A lady named Mary Moriarty stopped by the church today and dropped off a bag of rug hooking patterns on linen or burlap, one had been almost completed. She contacted me through our website about this rug hooking kit that she purchased for $10.00 at a thrift store and wanted to donate it to our group. I informed her of out meeting location and basically had forgot about it until she showed up. 


The kit came with wool and other literature. After looking through some of the papers a membership list for The Gator Group dated 1996 was found. Dee said she new the ladies on the list and most had passed away. She thought the rug was a group project that never was finished. 


Carol took the bag home with her and will keep it until we all get back next winter to decide what to do with it. She was copying a list found in the papers for Marta and found the followed items. One an Atha newsletter to Alice Valentine of Vero Beach dates Oct/Nov 1995, another date of 1991 and a Claire Murray sale for Christmas 1997. Carol stated  "It will be fun to see what we will do with the patterns when we meet next Fall. Perhaps we could raffle the one rug and make some money and get noticed by the media." 


It was a very successful and exciting luncheon! Already looking forward to next year! 


Happy Hooking!