Halloween Is Calling

Here is a rug that I recently finished hooking.  It's adapted from a design by Johanna Parker.  I have recently added Johanna as an artist to the Spruce Ridge Studios roster of designers.  She is known for her whimsical Holiday designs but she drew up some perky florals for me too.

I started this at the end of April when I was traveling.  I had 3 nights in a hotel room all to myself.  It felt like I was on a rug hooking vacation!  Just me, my cutter, hook, and frame...I spent my time hooking away to my heart's content.  The nice thing about this pattern is that you only need 4 colors so I concentrated mostly on the direction I was hooking to give shape to the objects.  I saved the lettering for last.  I don't know why because usually I tackle the harder things first but I am quite happy with the way they came out.  I love the vintage  poster feeling of this design.

I have had many people ask me what cut I used and I have to say, I always use a variety of cuts in my rugs.  I just use whatever I think fits a motif the best.....so the "Halloween" word at the top was hooked in a #9 cut, "is" is hooked in a #6 cut and "calling" is hooked in #8.  The little swirls were #6, or maybe a #5.  Sometimes I don't want to get up from my chair so I'll just hand-cut a little strip from those fuzzy-ended pieces you get when you tear the wool and cut it. 

This rug still needs have the edges bound so for now, it is just pinned.  One of my friends once told me that I was a professional pinner!  Ha, ha!  I say, whatever works at the time, go for it!