Monday, July 16, 2012

A Cyber Rug Challenge Across Borders

A couple of years ago I made a cyber pen pal friend with Theresa of London, Ontario Canada by meeting on one of the internet rug hooking sites.  We shared compliments about one another's rugs and then began emailing privately to discuss our interest in making our rugs look old and antique.

Over time our discussions increased to include husbands, jobs, insomnia, mid-life crisis and the like - you know, womens' talk.  We emailed each other at all times of the night as stress and responsibilities woke us from a sound slumber.  Theresa's emails helped usher me through a very difficult time in my career when I worked for a truly crazy woman who was trying her hatchet job on me.  I hope I've helped Theresa through some hard times too, in order to return the favor.

After several weeks of sharing very enjoyable emails, I asked Theresa if she would do a rug challenge with me to replicate an antique rug.  And so the cross border challenges began.  We've actually completed two challenges in the past few years, but life often gets in the way and our most recent challenge got postponed due to other responsibilities.

Theresa and I have had the next challenge rug selected and in waiting for over a year.  This time it was my life getting in the way but we recently agreed to start the rug.  Loretta from Godfrey, Ontario Canada is joining us this time and we are hooking the following antique rug, circa late 1800's.

And with the drum roll please let's have a peek behind the curtains:

Oh we need more than that little peek,  please let's see more; oh, I see it's a celebration with up-raised glasses:

Aha, there's still more to come:

Oh my, it's a pair of dancing bears toasting one another!
Antique rug, circa late 19th century.
Isn't this rug a hoot?!  I wish I knew the background behind it.  I bet it could tell stories, don't you think? 

I started my rug last night and will share pictures of it in progress when Theresa and Loretta are also ready for sharing pictures.  Until then, standby for some beary good hooking fun.

PS:  I was asked if Loretta has a blog and the answer is yes:  here is the URL - http://hookedonthelake.wordpress.com/

As far as I know Theresa does not have a blog.

Please note:  research indicates antique rugs created before 1923 are no longer subject to copyright law. This is why many antique rug patterns are popular to replicate and are made available by commercial rug hooking vendors.  Before replicating any antique rug pattern, please attempt to determine the date of the rug's origination to be consistent with copyright law.  


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