Hooked Rugs
by Patricia Cummings
Recently in an antiques store, I spotted a hooked rug, and I was, well ... hooked! Oh, it is not that I have not seen hooked rugs before. When I was just a little girl, my mother and father took me to "Ruth's home" in Rye, NH. Her husband was an associate of my father, and we were invited to join them for an oyster stew dinner. The side benefit was the chance to see all of the older woman's hooked rugs. She was a prolific hooker, and the results of her work were everywhere: on the walls, and on the floors, and on the furniture! So, from a very early age, I was aware of how addicting the hobby can be.
Sampler Hooked Rug Finds A New Home - Mine!
More recently, a 16" wide x 21 3/4" tall rug with a pictorial scene, invited me to take a closer look. From the tell tale sign of two round, plastic circles sewn onto each top edge of the back, this piece, evidently, has spent time hanging on a wall.
Collection of Patricia Cummings; photo by James Cummings
Pink hearts on a beige background constitute the top, upper row. The letters of the alphabet are hooked into the top of the wall hanging, flanked by two sets of Overall Sam and Sunbonnet Sue type figures. A house, (school house?); a barn with a weathervane; two stylized round trees with "fruit"; five sheep, including one Black sheep in the center; a decorative border of trailing flowers; and the rugmaker's initials: "PF," all make you realize why I could not leave this piece in the shop. As you can see, it is delightful!
Even Smaller Antique "Postcard - Size" Rug
Immediately following this purchase, I realized that in a collection of textiles I was recently given, there is a postcard size, 3 1/2" tall x 5 3/8" wide, hooked rug that features a house, a shed, snow-covered Fir trees, a sky and mountains. In its diminutive size, this little rug is precious!
Lewis Collection, photo by James Cummings
I am not a "hooker," but I appreciate the way that they use wool strips in different shades and work them in varying heights to create dimensional works. This is one of the oldest "crafts," according to some sources. Of course, there are various deviations such as latch hooking, and punch needlework.
Rug Hooking Had Its Roots in Necessity
Rug hooking, the action of taking cloth remnants and using strips of cloth to create something useful, such as a rug, had its roots in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but was not elevated to an "art form" until the nineteenth century, according to the book, Period Pastimes: A Practical Guide to Four Centuries of Decorative Crafts by Felice Hodges (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989.)
Godey's Lady's Book and Petersen's Magazine were two of the popular journals, read by women, that helped to promote the transition of rugmaking to an art form.
In the 1840s, according to this source, rug hooking came into its own in New England and in Canada. Today, the art of rug hooking is experiencing a revival and within the last several years, we saw some wonderful new examples and heard a talk about rughooking, at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, New Hampshire.
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If anyone has any photos of their own hooked rug designs that could be shared here, please send them to: pat@quiltersmuse.com
To access more information and some free patterns and advice for beginners, please visit: http://www.rughookingonline.com/archives.html
©Copyright 2007. Patricia Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications, Concord, NH. Questions? Comments? pat@quiltersmuse.com