Wonderful Rugs hooked by Marcia Barton

who is my mother in law. About 12 years ago, I taught her to hook and as you can see, she could definitely teach me a thing or two about hooking. Her rugs are amazing when you think that she hooks most of them with an eight cut. Can you believe that she is able to get all that detail with a wider cut? As you can see, she is very artistic and has won several awards for painting. Below is a rug of Dave's house when he was a little kid. She hooked this rug from a photograph of the house. I just love how she was able to make the snowman stands out from the snow on the ground. The trees in this rug and the next rug are awesome as well. If you look at the rug, it only has about 5 different colors in it, blue, gray, beige, dirty white and some red. How she made it so warm and full of life with only those colors is amazing!

The next rug is dear to my heart as it depicts one of my favorite things to do.....skating.....well playing hockey while I'm skating....Isn't this rug great as well? This one is a bit more colorful and just fun. The ice looks real and the snow on the roof in the house in the background is terrific.

And finally, this is a rug that she hooked for Dave and me. It is a rug of our two dogs that are no longer with us. Bear was my wonderful black lab and Dolly was Dave's sweet little English Setter. They were with us for a long time and this sweet little rug depicts them perfectly and is very special.

I found a picture of a rug that I hooked several years ago for my sister-in-law, Lynne. It is a rug depicting her Jack Russell Terrier, Nick. The green background was something a little different for me but I liked the way it turned out. Enjoy the pictures. Maria

~*~Happy Easter~*~

I hope you had an enjoyable day celebrating Easter. It snowed here all day. Yesterday was the local Easter Egg hunt. They snowplowed a soccer field and scattered all the eggs over the grass. Look at all those little kids bundled in winter coats, boots, hats, mittens and snow pants. They all enjoyed themselves and sure didn't mind the cold! I couldn't resist taking a picture of the snow, grass and kids. Not the normal scene for an Easter Egg hunt.

While looking for some rug tags today, I came across a rug that I wanted to share with you. I hooked it in 2005 to use as my logo for my business. It is a huge rug, 48 x 56 inches, and weighs a ton. If you can't tell yet, sheep are one of my favorite subjects to hook. I'm working on yet another sheep rug and I just love it. It will be a while before I finish it though.
In the next couple of posts, I'll share some rugs with you that my mother-in-law hooked. About 10 years ago, I taught her to hook and because she is an artist, her rugs have a neat pictorial and impressionistic look to them. They are really neat and I can't wait for you to see them.

Maria

~*A New Pattern*~ Lazy Cat

Well I just couldn't resist another pattern based upon the "Lazy Animal" theme. So here it is- the Lazy Cat.

It is 16 x 24 inches and available on Linen for $48. Email me at starrugcompany@freeway.net to order. Happy Easter. Maria

Here are some pictures of another completed rug

Several posts ago, I promised to work on my unfinished projects and hoped to get one done each week. I have fallen a little short of that goal but did manage to complete another one this weekend. With this rug, I have completed four rugs with many more to come. This is probably one of my favorite rugs. The background is wonderful. I used only wools from my scrap basket and tried to keep the colors similar in color value by using what I call neutrals and light colors. You'll see blue, grey, beige, cream, pink, yellow, and green wools in the background if you look closely. It is very colorful but blends beautifully. The background reminds me of one of Kelley Belfast's backgrounds. I've posted many pictures of the background so you can see all the different colors of wool used in it.
This pattern is one of Sally Kallin's from Pine Island Primitives. It was a free pattern insert in Rug Hooking Magazine several years ago. I'm partial to this pattern as my nickname at work is Eagle. Maria

Picture in Rug Hooking Magazine

on page 50 of the March/April/May 2008 edition shows a picture of the sisters rugs that Wendy Miller, The Red Saltbox, and I hooked for our sister rugs at Sauder Village last summer.

http://www.rughookingmagazine.com/issues/article.php?id=2685

Here is the link for Sauder Village which hosts great classes and a wonderful rug show each August. www.saudervillage.org/Creativity/Rughooking.asp

For the rug show at Sauder last August, participants partnered up with another rug hooker (friend or sister) and hooked the same design. Alot of hookers participated and it was neat to see two rugs side by side hooked with different color palette. Here is my picture of the sister rug.

It is one of Wendy's designs, Deer Fraktur, from her antique inspired pattern line. Visit her at http://www.theredsaltbox.com/ Her patterns are just wonderful.

Ok, I have to give equal billing to my two kitty cats. Meet Iggy.

He is such a handsome cat and perfectly marked. And here is my sweet Maggie named after my favorite rug hooker Magdalena Briner.

She is the sweetest little kittie! Maria

Sweet Offering on Ebay

My friend Lori Rippey has the most wonderful little hand made bunny on ebay right now. It is sitting upon a fabric covered paper mache box. Inside the box, she has attached the sweetest little sampler. Her work is just amazing. Her is the link to this listing. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190203852120&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Remember I was mentioning in the last post, that it was warm and hoping Spring was on its way.

Boy was I wrong. You can't see it but it is snowing again in this picture. This is the view from my family room. To tell you the truth, I don't really mind winter all that much because this veiw is pretty awesome.

I couldn't resist showing you this picture of my puppy, well almost a year old, Josie. Isn't she sweet? Well, sometimes...she is a chewer and loves to eat my wool. The rug she is sitting on is a reproduction of an antique rug. I bought it at my sister-in-laws store Yellow Creek Trading Company in Peninsula, Ohio. http://63.84.59.169/page.aspx?ID=67. In addition to home furnishings, they sell the best food items. The spicy corn relish is a must! Maria

Just found another rug

that I had hooked a while ago and tucked away in my studio. Geeshhh...I need to stop doing that. Hopefully, I'll get it loaded on my website later tonight. I had a hard time getting a good picture of it color wise due to the lateness in the day. This rug is similar in design to my Ohio Farmhouse rug but has different trees...which I like. It is 16.5" by 28" and the pattern sells for $50 plus shipping.

It was warmer here today, in the low 40's, but still good weather for winter sports. Dave went snowmobiling for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We'll have snow on the ground til mid April maybe later...boo hoo. I envy all of you that will have daffodils, hyacinth and tulips soon. Here's another one of my little hooked mats that makes me smile and think of spring.

Last night Dave and I went to a charity fund raiser for our local Fireman's association. It reminded me that our firemen are brave men and women that put their lives in danger each and every day for our safety. Please remember what our firemen do for us and keep them in your thoughts. Maria

Lazy Sheep Rug

Doris Danner hooked my Lazy Sheep pattern and sent me a picture of it. Didn't she do a great job? I just love how old this rug looks. She sells rugs on ebay under the name Wellingtonwoolies. I think she is keeping this rug though. Maria