Thursday, August 20, 2020

Rug Of The Day - Flowers and Stars Antique Runner

 

Flowers and Stars Antique Runner
Adapted from an antique hooked rug
Hooked by Kris Miller

I decided to follow a floral theme for the next few days since the calendar says that we are closer to September and almost to Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer (although we definitely have some hotter days coming!).

I adapted this pattern from an old antique rug and I tried to stay true to the same color story, but using mostly as-is wool textures.  Since this is a fairly large rug, I used a lot of #9 cuts, but also my favorite cut, #8.5. There might have been a few #8 cut strips in the border, especially when I was going around the corners and had to fit in little pie-shaped wedges of color so it would flow properly.  Even though the border is considered hit-and-miss, I did not add a lot of different colors and preferred to pull from the other colors and values in the rug.  The antique rug was hooked much in the same way.

If you have ever taken a class from me, you have probably heard me say that "#8.5 is the new #8."  When I first started rug hooking, most people that I came in contact with thought that a #8 was wide and didn't venture too far from it. It seemed to be the popular choice amongst primitive hookers.  I used #8 for a while, but then people started talking about an #8.5 cutter wheel. I discovered that #8.5 was just a tad bit wider but I loved the way it looked and how I could cover a lot more territory on my pattern.  Now it seems to be a more popular cut than ever before.  So if you are hooking mostly with a #8, go up to a #8.5 and you will feel like you have been set free into a wonderful new wide-cut world!  haha!

You can find the pattern here:

1 comment:

Saundra said...

Totally agree with the the #8.5 as being my 'go to' cut also. Now the #8 seems so narrow. Like how you hooked the adaptation and it sure does look like the antique. I've a photo of the original on a flash drive and always thought I'd hook it. But....too many on the list and the order of priority always seems to change.