What Rug/Mat are You Most Proud Of?

I have many 'favorites', mostly related to memories of camp camaraderie and my teacher.  The rug I'm most proud of can't be narrowed down to just one, but rather two.

For those of you who followed my blog for a while it should come as no surprise that one of those rugs is Rottweiler Memorial of my departed Shumba and Panzer.  Not only did I capture their likeness but feel their spirit when I look at it.

Another reason I'm proud of that piece is because I'm a wide cut hooker who, at that time, hooked with #8 cut.  Now my go to strip size is #8.5 and higher.  The Rottweiler Memorial was hooked with #3 strips for the dogs and #5 for the background.  Hated the #3 so much I refused to do the background in that size too.  

Also I've a sense of pride in accomplishing what I thought impossible of me and proved to the people who said 'wide cut primitive hookers aren't real hookers' ARE real hookers.  Now I've nothing to prove to them or me.

Here is the photo from which the pattern was designed.

The other rug I'm quite proud of is one I had no clue how to color plan and was scheduled to hook it in a class with Barb Carroll ~ that is until I had to drop out of class as my ex was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and could not come take care of my boy Ben.  This was about a week before camp and couldn't find a kennel to take a Rottie.  Of course I was sad to hear the diagnosis and my missing camp and staying home with Ben was minor compared to the devastating news.  In case you're wondering, my ex is still walking and breathing due to his continued healthy lifestyle but does still have cancer; we email often.

That second rug I'm quite proud of is Gossip, a pattern given to me by friend Deb, designed by Bill Laraway, and sold by Woolley Fox.  My friend Deb accidentally purchased the same pattern twice and didn't know until organizing her rug hooking closet.  Below is the original design.

Deb was working on hers at one of the Barb Carroll camps we attended and I snapped this photo of her work in progress, little did I know that in a year or so I'd have the same pattern.  Deb hooked the motifs on the side similar to a Magdalena Briner leaf.

Even tho I could not attend camp with my gal pals I decided to go with my plan on hooking Gossip the week everyone else was having fun with Barb and do the color planning myself.  What the hell to do now?

Upon studying the design those tiny shapes other than birds just weren't me and didn't care to hook them like drawn.  And, I could go for the leaf look too... or would I????  So it was then it all came together for me!  If I hooked that big top bird (think crow) in black and instead of making those side and bottom motifs leaves, what about feathers?  Thought was it would provide a very dark framing of sorts.  

On my own to color plan and a little re-draw here and there I'm quite pleased with the outcome with having no one else's help.  So proved to myself I can (sometimes) color plan on my own successfully.

Notice at the bottom left I hooked a heart ~ that was for my ex who is still in my heart.

A question to you who read my blog ~ do you have a rug you are most proud of?  If so I would LOVE for you to share the picture with me.

Saundra
www.woodlandjunctionprimitives.weebly.com