ISSN 2207-001X – 27th October 2018
From the Wanneroo Rugmakers in WA (Western Australia) comes news of a first rug, designed and hooked by Daleen, on a PVC frame made for her by friend Kirsty from instructions for a “Playing Hooky” frame by Judy Taylor of WA, (State of Washington), USA. Could be confusing, both locations using the abbreviation WA!
Daleen had a wonderful time hooking her original cat face design using a mix of brightly coloured, upcycled fabrics. While hooking was under way, the cats face wasn’t easily discernible. The finished piece was turned into a cushion cover by another friend. Now, from a distance, the face jumps right out at you – especially the eyes, hooked high and sculpted – they seem to follow you as you walk past the cushion on the chair.
Daleen and her friends first encountered hooked rugs when they visited a Wanneroo Rugmakers Open Day at the Wanneroo Library. Impressed with the array of different types of rugs on display they were eager to start work on their own and couldn’t wait for gripper strips to be ordered and a frame made up – so Kirsty made one. She said she’d copied it from the internet ….
Oh No! is there going to be copyright problem – will the frame have to be dodged when taking group photos?
Kirsty gave me Judy Taylor’s blog and website address and said there was a note on the website to say the instructions could be copied and used for personal use (not to manufacture for sale). When I visited the website I discovered Judy lives in the State of Washington, not far from where I would be staying with my son and his family after I’d spent a week in Sauder Village Ohio at Rug Hooking Week.
An email to Judy confirmed her address and that she would be at home during the time I was in Washington. Judy also mentioned her latest book, hooking with T-shirts, about to be published and asked if any of our Aussie members hooked with T-shirts – what a question …. I told her T-shirts were used almost the exclusively by rug hookers in Australia. She asked if I could send images. As I was preparing to leave on my trip I put the word out to the Guild and several members sent photos directly to Judy who received them in time to show in her new book – “T-Shirt Treasures – Creating Heirloom Hooked Rugs from the Humble T-Shirt”.
Arriving at Judy’s house the first thing I saw were her Jacob sheep and Angora goats, raised to provide the wool she spins – so it was obvious why wool yarn was her choice of hooking material and the subject of her books.
Judy’s frame was in pieces when I arrived, she wanted to show me how simple it was to assemble her new “De-lovely” frame (patent pending). She has also shared instructions for making this “neck saving” frame for personal use. We discussed the fact that not all of the joints were glued, as she prefers to be able to change it from a lap frame to a standing frame. Judy was interested to hear of Kirsty’s modification – replacing the use of plastic clamps. To help hold the backing in place, all of Judy’s frame designs have rubber non-skid material (shelf liner) glued around the PVC pieces which make up the frame face (Note: PVC 3-way joiners are hard to find in that giant hardware warehouse! locally they were found in a smaller shop selling irrigation supplies)
Instead of the plastic hand clamps Kirsty used pool noodles on all four sides, making Judy’s frame design as effective to use and less lethal (on both hands and hooking) than the traditional gripper strip frames. With a couple of twists, the backing fabric is pulled drum tight across the frame and work area, and the “noodles” can be used over previously hooked work.
Discussing rug making and viewing Judy’s rugs, the afternoon went all too quickly. I told Judy about my trip to Rug Hooking Week at Sauder Village and the opening of the virtual exhibition and before I left we’d had an “exchange”; Judy gave me copies of her books on “hooking with wool yarn” and I gave her one of the remaining pieces of the Textile Tessera, No 7.
Before we knew it, her husband was home and we adjourned to the deck for coffee and cake and conversation about travel. Taking care livestock in the Seattle climate Judy goes through a lot of wellies and has found a good use for the castoffs.
Here are photos I took of some of Judy’s rugs, my favourite is the Gordian Knot rug into which Judy hooked a poem written by her son when he was only 18 years old.
More images of Judy’s rugs can be seen on her website and blog. She is still in search of images of rugs hooked with T-Shirts so if you have any to share, connect with her through her website and blog.
From the Editor: How serendipitous was this, to learn of someone with similar interests, living so close to where I would be staying half way around the globe. Thanks Judy for a lovely afternoon. 
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