Rug Of The Day-Welcomed Guests

Welcomed Guests-hooked by Kris Miller

Pattern adapted from Ann Willey artwork by Spruce Ridge Studios (2011)

Monks cloth: $50.00

Linen:  $64.00

Ann Willey is a Michigan artist (and also a rug hooker) and I have been adapting her artwork into rug hooking patterns since 2011. I like her designs because they have a serene and dreamlike quality. Many times while I am drawing up patterns, I start color planning them in my head, so that is why I decided to hook Welcomed Guests. I started to feel like I knew these two characters and they needed to be brought to life!

  It was fun to "dress them up" in some fun textured wools, a few of which I had purchased from Barb Carroll.  A striped off-white wool was cut along the stripe and hooked directionally to give dimension to the table cloth.  The textures for the clothing were also hooked directionally to create shape.  Faces can be intimidating but if you hook them first, you get the hardest part of the rug out of the way and then you have a happy little face looking back at you while you complete the rest of the rug!

Sometimes it is utter joy to hook a rug.  Everything falls into place and your color choices sing in harmony.  There is not much ripping out or starting with a different wool.  It all seems to come together.  I am almost sad sometimes to see the completion because the journey was so satisfying.  And so, for me,  it was that way with this rug.