I Married the Coats Today - Really

We rughookers call overdyeing fabrics without using any dyes at all - just using the 'bleeding' from one fabric color into another - the marrying of the coats.  While I am sure no one knows how the name came about, people used the technique to make varying colors of black, navy, wine etc. to meld together in a hooked mat especially for a background. One article of clothing was not large enough to complete the project so they put enough fabric together in a pot and simmered it on the back of the wood stove until the colors ran into each other. Usually, that is not what we want for our usual laundry, but for rughooking it's ingenious.... using what we have without buying a thing.

my coat parts on the line



it's hard to see the variations....



birds had a lovely day too....

and Jack has recovered....

 Here are my coats on the line this am. They are actually too heavy and felted for rughooking so I plan to do some felting projects for Christmas.... plan, being the operative word here. The chickens and ducks were having a great day too so I thought I would show them off as well. As for Jack, he's back to his old self with the help of a dose of calcium evey day for the rest of his life.

Some history of PEI hooked rugs or mats as they are called

Not much has been written down about the 'everyday work' of women. We have found out what we know in bits and pieces over the years. Our desire to know more all started with my paper for a PEI arts course  at the University of Prince Edward Island way back in the nineties. I wrote the paper before I knew anything about the deep traditions of PEI and Maritime rug hooking.  But once Heather and I started finding out little bits and pieces about the women and their rugs, we wanted to know more. Luckily for us, Heather always took pictures. The pictures were a great way for us to talk to the people who had hooked the mats. They couldn't believe we wanted to take pictures of 'those old things'. There are a couple of places that have information on the history of hooked rugs. One is this article by Anne Nicholson of PEI whose short history of PEI mats is: http://www.gov.pe.ca/firsthand/index.php3?number=44601&lang=E

My paper on Rug Hooking is in the Island Collection at the UPEI library. One of these days I may get it retyped and on here for you to read directly.




Jack likes the vintage look, the Cavendish Mat




This is the new Cavendish by Heather

 You can read about our lives as rug hookers today at this site:
http://seaandbescene.com/2011/10/three-sisters-one-success-story-pastimes-pei/

We also had the Great Canadian Adventure guys visit us in September; they are getting their PEI stories on line. I am waiting with guarded anticipation for their story about Pastimes PEI and our collection of Barry's machinery outside the studio.

Celebration of craft - Cultural activities - The Guardian

Celebration of craft - Cultural activities - The Guardian

Sheep Frolic is latest pattern to hook at Pastimes PEI

https://www.facebook.com/pastimespei

What a Great Day at Pastimes PEI and Orwell Corner Historic Village

Today was the second day of the annual PEI Studio Tour. We met some of the most interesting people today... like Joni Black of  http://fullywoolyprimitives.com/ . It's always a great day when we get to meet people who love the wooly things that we do.



I have lots of laps to be a lap dog on....

 Some of our old friends visited and Jack helped pick out hand-dyed wool for Cindy.

ya need wool, Cindy?

we get all kinds of characters wanting to come inside...

Any hooked  hens in there?

No, we have a vintage Cavendish Mat display tho....

And at Orwell Corner Historic Village, we let people try their hand a rughooking, Prince Edward Island style; Pastimes PEI pattern of our house in Millview was getting started.




learning to hook is fun...........

Cindyis having fun and wants a ride on the wagon att the village



you guys are pretty big......or we are small..........

My Latest Painting Entitled 'Jack'

My Latest Painting Entitled 'Jack'

Save the PST | Discover PEI Studios

Save the PST Discover PEI Studios

We'll be featuring the Cavendish hooked mat and patterns called :A Piece of Cavendish on burlap and on linen.