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.

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..........

flora and fauna, Pastimes PEI style

https://www.facebook.com/pastimesshirlee#!/pastimesshirlee


Pastimes PEI window box

Lots of flowers now in the garden, a little late but most appreciated for September here on the Island.

The climbing nasturtums are 'up the walls' of the house and the garden shed.

the coleus and petunias in the pots are great to see every morning too. 

'Little PEI Cottage' Rughooking kit and the dust bath today

Also new at the shop..bette's latest Island Scene, wool on Cotton Warp.                   

It's always nice to put new things on the wall so the new Little PEI Cottage kit and the origional hooked piece fit nicely with Bette's new work. She modelled it from a homestead she saw in orwell. prince Edward Island. it looks exactly like Orwell because, the houses are set back from the road on that drive to Eldon on the Trans Canada Highway, Route 1 on the way to the Wood Island's ferry.

We have already sold a couple of the new little kits; we are always happy when people like them as much as we do. You can see that we are carrying a few select pieces of Brenda Watt's Woodworking. the cutting boards and wine stoppers are very popular items as well as the acorn doorstoppers. .. easy to pack and bring back to friends as an unique souveneir of PEI.

Yesterday a really nice flower in the garden was damaged by some of the folks here; I'll show you what I mean via this morning's pictures in the garden:



The 'people' disturbing the flowers for their own pleasure..





and their friends joined in....



they are not that cute.....look at me, guys...

Cock of the Walk...



getting reaady for harvest...



PEI Lighthouse Pattern to Hook from Pastimes PEI

We had time to print patterns this afternoon while everyone else is at the beach on PEI or at the Old Home Week.  I just posted the pattern picture on my Pastimes PEI Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pastimespei

first customer at Pastimes PEI today

 We get a variety of customers here at the shop: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pastimespei



buying anything??



August on Prince Edward Island - the view from here at Pastimes PEI....

July and August bring out the best of PEI. The weather usually cooperates with all the events that take place outside but when it doesn't, there is always a kitchen to sit in or a hall that is hosting a ceilidh, just a kitchen party with a few extras. Today Jack and I are home alone. I put out my new sign "OPEN" because Jack thinks it's nice but not nice enough to pose with. He thinks it looks better from a distance. I'll show it to you.. and Jack looking at it from a distance... we sit on the doorstep to contemplate life in general. And look at the gardens around us that include alot of Barry's machinery, like the old plow down at he gate. Brenda Watts of Cattails and Brenda Watts Woodworking http://www.brendawattswoodwork.com/ made my 'open' sign to replace the tacky one we had. She does lovely woodworking and has a lot of really cool painted vintage-inspired signs to go with her acorns, cutting boards, rolling pins and and all manner of natural wooden products that she turns out in her shop.

Down here we have lots of birds to keep an eye on. Weare hoping formore ducklings before too long as only one baby survived this spring of the two that hatched alive.

Our Arts and Heritage sign finally has some lilies around it. Most of them are from http://www.redlanegardens.com/ just a few miles from here.

here's Jack looking over his kingdom this morning.




And the window box that is finally getting some PEI sunshine.

These roosters are brothers that hatched last summer. Lets just say that they rool the roost even tho Jack thinks he does. have a great day, everyone.

Pastimes PEI rughooking wools -greens - Jack's Picks



Jack's Picks - greens



what would lupins be without green behind them?

It would be safe to say that today Jack and I could have picked any color of the rainbow in the wools in the shop today but we chose greens. that's because Heather has just finished a pretty little sampler that could hang on the wall or be the front of a cushion. So it's greens for today. Greens set the mood of your hooking... bright for a springy feeling or more to the orangy side for the fall. I've set out some to show you with the hooked piece in the background. It contains lots and lots of greens so don't be afraid to dig out your scrap bag to invent your own kind of landscape.....or leaves or whatever needs to be green....As for the lupins I found down the road, what would blues and purples be with a gorgeous green background? Pretty dull. Colors need each other..... You'll find lots of wools in our shop today as I have been filling up the 'hit and miss' baskets and all the other baskets of small treasures for rug hookers. We have restocked - I mean, Heather has hand drawn lots of our most popular summer patterns. We have photo cards of our hooked work here too. Cheers, Shirlee and Jack

My Friend's Sunflower Hooked Rug from PEI

nice mat....did you do it yourself?

I have to be in every picture, you guys...

Cindy's original Sunflower mat with some of our wool

I could have done that myself....

This morning bright and early my hooker friend and her son visited Jack and I. It was quite a job getting a picture of them with the mat as you can see. It is not finished as she came for more wool to finish it. Later on she's coming back for more pieces from my rag bin. What we do not use does not go to waste, someone else can use it. That's what they used to do in the past, when things were used not thrown out.












I have fresh new baskets of of rags that I sell for those who have to have just one more color. I also have a great selection of MacAusland's PEI  http://www.macauslandswoollenmills.com/ wool yarn and Briggs and Little New Brunswick (http://www.briggsandlittle.com wool yarn in different plies for either knitting or hooking. We use this wool yarns for both hooking and for whipping around the edges of our mats. It's an Island tradition to hook in both rags and yarn so we like to carry on with the traditional materials as much as possible.

It's fun to learn to hook for yourself....

You may get to help us work on a mat if you drop by. There is usually a seat at the big mat frame. We have lots of new patterns that are hot-off-the-press too. Cheers, for today from Jack and Shirlee.

Hand-hooked eagle to fly on the weekend on PEI..



boring....wool...



She should be flying over Mount Stewart by Friday for the weekend of the Hillsborough Eagle Festival. I've decided that I should tell you how things are going and what I'm actually doing to bore Jack so much. I have hand-dyed the blue sky...

I have cut the wool into strips with the strip cutter and keep the strips in order so that I can hook them consecutively...looks easy but it's a little hard on the brain....every long strip in order, so that the mottled dye job will represent the colors in the blue sky.

keeping track is worth the trouble...you'll see...

Then you can get the full effect in the sky; but you have to look closely at the real thing. For some unknown reason the lighter spots on the wool hooked in around the bird...if I tried to do it, it probably would not work like that. Looks like I planned it that way; did you know that rug-hooking is like everything else in life: sometimes you win and sometimes you lose but always plug away anyway. I won this round so far but...I will not show you the finished ground in the piece until tomorrow....or until it works as well as the sky did....



she's flying over Mount Stewart PEI....



Now here is the latest version of her, flying happily over Mount Stewart - the river is in the shape of an S according to Rosemary Curley who sent me a Google map of the area...something mostly seen only by eagles  and other fliers.

Dogs and Eagles and Babies and Flowers

I never get anything done around here. Too many projects and not enough time for them all. so I do what I feel like doing and works for me. Housework is not on my radar, not even close so when you visit, you'll notice but I have good intentions, just not great intentions to waste my time slaving over dust.




I don't know why she plants more flowers...

 


I can hook but she won't let me...





Dar..n baby; they think she's cute and cuddly...

 


And Barry is no Better...old things...



And the birds are just plain weird around here...

These pics tell you why.... i never get anything done in the line of a day....

Hand Hooked Eagle for Eagle Festival

You can't have the chair..

Because we are going to be demonstrating rug hooking at the Eagle Festival next weekend in Mount Stewart, just a few miles from here, we'll be donating one of the prizes for their fund-raising raffle. I understand that first prize will be a trip to an eagle's nest. That would be quite the win for a naturalist or adventourous person, wouldn't it?  I am not sure how that compares to winning our original design of Canadian maple leaves on a traditions piece you could win it and take it home for your own 'seat'.  If all goes well this week, our eagle wall-hanging will be hooked and ready for viewing, if not it will will be our demonstration piece as we show folks how it is done in the traditional Island way. Perhaps we'll see you there.

Forget Me Not.............

Jack Running through the Forget Me Nots

Yesterday Jack and I borrowed some of the neighbor's rhubarb again and stole a few pictures of their hug patch of Forget-Me-Nots. Ours are not out yet and we tilled most of them rather than deal with the weeds in the front garden. Anyway, Jack made sure the house was safe and soundas they were away for the week.

On the rughooking side of things, I am creating an eagle for the Mt. Stewart Eagle Festival in June. love starting a new project....jack tho is not always happy as I get focused on something other than him.

This is spring on PEI

Jack was the look-out as I picked Wendell's rhubarb yesterday......





While I took rhubarb..

 Poor doggie today...Jack can't decide whether he's going or coming 'cause I have the door open.....first spring he's been here .....actually he's going out one door and in another, most times with a stick or shell(from my seashore stash),,,checking to see me and off again...I feel the same way......