The Grinning Sheep Blog by Kathy of Briarwood Folk Art: Shep's World by Connie

Connie Phelps of Illinois sent me this series of pictures from her rendition of my pattern Shep's World. I love how Connie hooked this rug. It makes me want to start the rug all over again (and folks, this is a big rug).

Connie went to town with color in a very Magdalena style. I love the free abandon of color that she used.

I know with this kind of hooking it's not as easy as it looks. You really have to think about your color changes, background contrast with motif(s), etc. I asked Connie how she color planned the rug and this was her response:

"I should tell you that I actually pulled a lot of color out!! I have always loved color so have to edit sometimes!! I started with the dog and used Magdalena style for my inspiration and when I was at a Fiber event in April I actually bought wool geared for this rug. I used a neat gray-blue plaid for the background around the dog because I was told that it made a great sky. I really wanted to use reds throughout and hooked with a lot of the wool I had marbleized. This rug was so much fun because each animal was a joy to hook. I got the pink pig wool with it in mind. It is a pink/coral color and so pretty. I went from animal to animal and filled in a bit of the background as I went but found out that after they were all done it was way too busy with my blue~green~purple marble wool. I wanted to use them all and it just didn't work! It might be too busy now but I like the colors. My cat in front of the pink pig is "owlish" so I call it a Cowl! I would lay the rug on the floor and stand on a chair and squint just like I would do when I would paint. I then saw that I needed to balance light and dark backgrounds around the animals to give it more movement. I really don't know what I am doing but go by my eye and I am learning with each rug that I make. I really did love doing this one but still do not enjoy all the hand stitching on the binding!! Does anyone?"

Here are pictures with detailed closeups. And for fun of comparison, I show Trudy's rug (featured previously on this blog) and my rug at the end for examples of other ways this pattern has been hooked.

Good work Connie! Now, please hook one just like it for me???? Pretty please????