My dad found this latch hook rug in the attic recently, and yesterday at Thanksgiving at my brother's house he surprised me with it. I designed and made this rug when I was fourteen or fifteen years old. I entered it in the county fair as a 4-H project and ended up getting a blue ribbon at the State Fair. I had been looking for it for years, thinking it might make a nice wall hanging in a child's room. Or an adult child's perhaps. :)
This rug began as a photograph I took when I was vacationing at my grandpa's house in Florida. I always loved going to the beach, and that particular day at St. Augustine Beach there was a catamaran regatta. Yes, those are supposed to be catamarans, but I simplified it a bit. The bright colors of the sails against the blue sky and the bluer ocean was a scene I could not forget. I had also just recently completed a couple of latch hook rug kits, and thought "wouldn't it be nice to design my own rug." I took the idea and ran with it. First I managed to sketch the details of the photo out on some big paper, and fill in the desired colors with markers. And here I am now thinking I couldn't draw anything if my life depended on it! Then I transferred the areas of color onto a latch hook canvas, bought my yarn, and started hooking.
It made me really happy to see this rug again for the first time in maybe fifteen or twenty years. As an adult I tend to think in terms of limited possibilities: I'm not an artist, I'm not a crafty person, I can't learn anything new. I often admire the knitting and quilting and other creations on other blogs, but I think that's something way out of my league. Maybe it isn't; I used to crochet too, and embroider, and I think I even enjoyed it!
6 comments:
It's a "rug - ata".
If you can sew a straight line, you can quilt. If you can sing, and play an instrument, well, there's just no limiting the possibilities.
Love it! You go, girl!
Very nice. Especially since you designed it too! Better get to crafting now, before the joint problems show up... my grandmother had to eventually stop quilting because of arthritis.
I remember those Hobie Cat regattas on the beach!
How can you say you're not an artist when you read, write, and play music.
The nonmusicaloids (me) are in awe of that artistry.
madcap- well, that's one thing my mom taught me to do: sew in a straight line. My grandma can still teach me the rest.
Laura- Thanks!
Rurality- Thanks. My 87 year old grandma made nice quilts for all of her great grandkids. I don't know if she stopped due to arthritis or no more great grandkids. I'm not planning on testing that theory. :)
FC- I was wondering if you were there. :)
I guess I was saying I'm not much of a visual artist. But I can change...I have sheep, and I plan on shearing them, and learning to spin, maybe dye, and knit!
Oh Deb, you were obviously "crafty" at 14, designing your own hook rug and bring a blue-ribbon winner to fruition.
Craftiness isn't something you lose, it's always there waiting, when you make the time for it.
Mothering, housekeeping, homesteading and musicianship, combined with steady employment as a biologist, all require great degrees of craftiness, which probably doesn't leave much time or energy for other 'crafts'.
But, when you have more time, that will resurface.
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