New Designs

I've been playing a little lately, making up some new designs.  Making designs on the computer is so fun and relaxing for me.  But tell me, when will I find time to hook these designs?  And which one shall I work on first?  After all, I have a huge number of patterns I want to hook besides these new drafts.  The colors below are for purposes of illustration and not color plans for the ultimate rugs.

I am not really a big angel fan, but I have always been fond of the Fractur image of two angels arms up to one another.  This general design has been used in so many art images and hooked rugs with the angels grasping candles, Christmas trees and whatnot.  Mine are passing on a message to be true to yourself, love yourself and take care of your heart.

To Thine Own Heart be True:  Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art, all rights reserved.

I was sort of itching to work on a pictorial rug and I usually head for the dogs on my pictorials.  But I have been doing a lot of dogs in the past two years and I figured it's time to expand my horizon.  So sheep became the focus (what a surprise, huh?).  Capitalizing on one of my favorite antique rugs of a Ewe and lamb, I added in another sheep and a farm scene around the sheepies.  I have this rug in progress and am working out some bugs in the design.

Farm Life:  Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art, all rights reserved.

I want a fun rug to hang in the guest room that is whimsical and makes guests feel welcome.  The guest room is still "under construction" but it's getting closer to completion.  I am hoping to have some very honored guests here from Dallas TX in October.  Hint, hint Martha, if you are reading this!  And Pat, who sometimes reads this blog, when are you coming out dearie?!  This rug is next on my "to do" list so it can adorn the guest room by late September.

Friendship Message:  Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art, all rights reserved.

If you are interested in hooking any of these designs, please email me for more info: briarwoodfolkart@surewest.net

If you wish to pin a picture for Pinterest, please give credit to me and reference to my blog.

Little Scrappers - Stash Buster Cuties

By the time this blog is posted, I will be knee deep teaching in Texas.

When you are flying to camp it's hard to take rugs along for show and tell.  When I've attended camp and the teacher didn't bring rugs along, I was a little disappointed.  But I fully appreciate why teachers leave rugs at home if they aren't driving to camp.  It's hard to trust your rugs to the airline baggage check or shipping them.

A couple weeks ago I had one of those 3:00 a.m. moments and I decided to hook some small mats I call  "Little Scrappers." They are only 8 x 11 inches and made entirely from wool scraps vs. new yardage.  I can easily add the mats to my carry-on bag for air travel.  Each was hooked with a teaching point in mind to discuss old style techniques and/or finishing.

These little mats are so darn cute I am hooked on making them.  And they hook up fast.  I'm almost of the opinion I could go on a one year sabbatical dedicated to only hooking little mats.  Maybe that would use up my stash of worms, worms, worms.

Here are some examples of my Little Scrappers stash buster mats which I am also offering as pattern panels from smaller pieces of linen left over from making larger patterns.  I also include ideas for hooking and finishing off the mats with the pattern panel.

Antique Roosters

Little Scrappy Dog

Peacock

Two Cats

three Cats

Hit and Miss Hens

If you see something you want, just let me know (briarwoodfolkart@surewest.net) and when I get back from camp I'll make you up a panel.  I'm only charging $9 per mat (plus shipping) and making them in two, three or four mats to a pattern panel.

I also hooked this round mat I'm calling "Can You See Me Vintage Birds" to test some muted background colors and some intentional and extreme higgly-piggly type hooking (high, low, medium loops all mixed up instead of one consistent loop height).  I had a good thing going with the high, low, medium mix in the blue outside circle, but when I pressed/steamed the rug it flattened the loops to an even height.  So much for that experiment.

I want to point out something about this rug that I did intuitively and later found that my intuition was spot on.  I try to understand contrast in rugs because getting the contrast just right to make a rug look old is tricky.  I needed to give the birds some contrast; they were melding right into the muted beige background (which happens to be one of my favorite wool choices for a vintage look).  I didn't really want to outline them, but I'm not adverse to outlining because it was a frequent feature of old rugs.  But I also didn't want a very noticeable outline.  So my gut said to use the opposite of blue on the color wheel.

Can You See Me Vintage Birds mat by Kathy Clark, Briarwood Folk Art

I'll have some camp pictures for you when I return from Texas!

If you pin a picture from my blog for Pinterest, kindly give credit to the blog and Briarwood Folk Art.