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Welcome
to Red Cape Rugs Gallery
About
the Hooked Rug Patterns
I have been designing and hooking rugs here in Fredericksburg Texas
since 1980, and two years before that in Ft Worth I am still seeking, still working to learn
more about my chosen art path.
I enjoy the designs of early chintz, crewel
embroidery, samplers, theorems, woven coverlets, and of course, old
hooked rugs. Old textiles display many “Tree of Life” designs.
There are countless birds, squirrels, and little deer, as well as
baskets and urns filled with flowers and fruit. These designs are a
treasure trove, not to copy exactly, but to simplify and translate into the
vocabulary of a rug hooker. Rug designs inspired by these sources
are charming to use with early furniture, and create warm passages
of color on worn pine floors.
If
fine tapestry hooking, with its lovely formal shading, is
needlepoint’s first cousin, then primitive hooking is a joyous
country cousin, twice removed. My hooked work has always been of
this country cousin sort. Primitive florals, simple figurals,
house rugs, and scrolls or geometric designs are my choices. My
hooked rugs should fit comfortably among the antique pieces we live
with, rather than making too strong a statement. There are so many
ways to use the hooked pieces, rugs on the floor of course, but also
pillows, chair seats, footstool covers, table mats and a few on the
wall. I move them about and do not keep them all out at one time.
Here is # 72, "Schooner" 35 x 45.
My white is tan and cream, red is rust
to faded rust to almost wine, and blues include light blue green to
indigo.
The brave and fast little schooner operated in 1775 capturing a
number of British prizes even though the "SPY" carried only 6 guns.
When the "SPY" was first fighting, neither the nation nor the flag
had been born, but the spirit of both swirled around her.
Later the fast "SPY" was chosen by the congress to carry a copy of
the treaty with France, which helped us prevail in the war, although
the schooner herself did not make it home safely ever again. If any
Stonington historian or perhaps some descendant of Robert Niles the
captain, can add anything to our history of the little Schooner,
please do! Thomas Rice, the first owner of our CT cape house was one
of the crew.
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#1 Old Chalk Deer 29 x 36
 On a
shelf of my corner cupboard an old chalk deer sits contentedly
and gazes out from among old pewter plates and redware jugs.
This inexpensive chalkware, called poor man's Staffordshire,
was made to imitate England's charming ceramic figures of 1750
to 1850: wonderful horses, dogs, birds, sheep and deer, to
name just a few.
I have hooked this chalk deer in a rug, with
lots of rusty reds. The curved lines of the plinth stretch
around the rug to make a rope-like border. The dark scrolls
beside the deer are almost leaf shapes. There are dull, dark
purples in the scrolls and in the deepest values of the
border, along with dark rust and brown strands. The background
is a mix of gray and tan, with the lightest gray of the
background used next to the darkest shade of the deer, scrolls
and border.
Figural designs with animals make very pleasing rugs to
use with Early American antiques. I use this one near a
collection of redware in our dining room, the room with the
great cooking fireplace, once the old kitchen of our red cape. |
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#38 Ohio Coverlet 28 x 42
Early American woven coverlets from the first half of
the 19th century are found in a great many
patterns. An appealing group of coverlets woven in Ohio, has
birds and flowers for a border, and is the basis of this
hooked rug design. I have hooked it once in only two colors,
indigo blue and ecru, as the original was, and again with
bittersweet berries and outlining. The main background is a
mix of dark heather brown, varied with deep green, blue, and
eggplant. The outer frame is a mix of blending blues. Here we
see the complements of blue and orange. |
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#40 Oliver Cromwell 37 x 49
A few years ago, my husband and I purchased a dismantled
Connecticut farmhouse. While restoring the house, we have also
tried to reconstruct the story of the people who first lived
in it. In 1768, Thomas Rice moved his young wife, Thankful,
into a sturdy little post and beam house in Willington,
Connecticut. Thomas carved his initials behind a board above
the large cooking fireplace. During the American Revolution,
Thomas served aboard the ship “Oliver Cromwell,” built in
Essex, Connecticut. The sea wave border is drawn as paisley shapes,
and the whale is just paisley with a tail. |
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#9 1790 Eagle 26 x 38 linen
In the early days of our Republic, its symbol of a
fierce eagle was proudly displayed in American homes and
places of business. He was stitched into quilts, painstakingly
inlaid in fine furniture, painted on clock faces and on inn
signs. I have hooked an eagle rug for our cape from my
adaptation of one of these old inn signs.
Throughout the rug I have worked for variation of
color. A narrow palette of pale and muted red, white, blue,
and gold on a dark brown-black background make the eagle and
the border stand out boldly. Each lamb's tongue of the border
is a bit different from its neighbor, with ever varying
strands of color. The dark brown background has strips from
more than half a dozen different fabrics, including dark green
and indigo. The pale blue outlining is worked from gray blue
plaid, to solid light blue, to gray blue heather, to medium
blue plaids. Avoiding areas of monotonous solids, helps to
achieve the look of an antique rug. |
#15 Yellow Basket 14 x 18
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click to enlarge |
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#50 Adam and Eve
Sampler 33 x 52 |
Hadley Welcome
36 inch HR |
Ipswich 28x35 |
York 13x15 |
 Greenfield 13x15 |
 Coventry 13x15 |
 Windsor 13x15 |
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