Six pulls of one wool strip and I was hooked – head over heels – on the art of primitive rug hooking. And my view of an old wool coat has been forever transformed.
Inspired and taught by artists Donna Sproule (Perth, Ontario) and Deanne Fitzpatrick (Amherst, Nova Scotia), I fell in love with hooking. The first time my hands held a wooden hook and my fingers pulled strips of wool through burlap, I discovered a way to recreate dreams. With just six pulls I felt connectedtothose incredibly resourceful and creative Canadian women of previous generations who reused the family’s worn out clothes and burlap sacks and made rugs. These primitive rugs warmed their floors and walls, protecting against blistering cold Canadian winters. These women created art, all the while documenting social history. Rich in Canadian history, these early hand-hooked rugs also told fortunes. In Newfoundland it was said that a young woman would know the number of years it would take her sweetheart to find her by the number of turns her cat took to lie upon her first rug. Judy Bedell |