Gene’s Rug Hooking Blog

Here is another surprise rug. Just like the ones I showed the other day, it was found when a family was cleaning out the attic, stored away with 2 other rugs, some patterns and a bunch of cut wool.  Only this rug had to wait 2 generations to come out to the light of day.  I for one am glad it was found!

Hi, Gene. Here are photos of my grandmother’s last rug. I found this in the attic, still on the frame, in my mom’s house after mom died. I think Grammy finished it around 1967, because she went blind shortly after that, passing away in 1973.

This note came in the other day from Deb McLean about her grandmother, Ellen (Estes) Anderson.  She was born in Perth, New Brunswick, but grew up in Caribou, Maine.  She raised a daughter,  painted china, did needlepoint, read, was a charter member of Florida Audubon, took piano lessons into her 40s, held down the home front in WWII in Portland, Maine, worked full time as an office manager for Monarch Insurance and hooked rugs.

I know she did a bunch of rugs, but I only have three.

Deb, At least one is finished!

As might be surmised, due to the illusions to the posts of a few days ago, the other 2 only have the designs hooked – no background.  Still, they are certainly worth close examination.

What is it with these wonderful rug hookers who do all of this stunning work and never finish the backgrounds?  This is just beautiful.  Of course, with that long list of all that Mrs. Anderson did, it may be remarkable that she ever got around to hooking the designs in the first place!

Then, there is this one.   I don’t mean to offend any of the family, but I think she should have given up her piano lessons and spent more time hooking.   It is rare that one sees a fine shaded rose with as much depth as found in this one.  The buds are quite nice as well.  Just imagine how they would pop with the right background.  I think you will agree with me that it is a good thing that Deb cleaned out the attic.

All of this brings us to the real reason Deborah wrote:

You can see that the garnet she used isn’t color fast! The boys  tracked a little snow onto the rug and the color ran. Obviously, I’m not going to keep it on the floor (it was only down for Christmas). Is there anything I can do to leech the pink color back out, or should I just leave it alone?   Thanks, Deborah

In answer to your question, I do not know any way to get that bit of bleed out.  To make sure I was not over looking something, I also contacted my local rug hooking legend to see if she had any advice.  (Although she is not from Maine, she is from Massachusetts and that is fairly close.) Neither of use know any way to remove that bit without causing bigger problems.  Perhaps other readers can make suggestions, but I would leave it alone.

When I look at this rug, even this detail shot, I don’t really notice the little bit of bleed out.  I notice her two values of tweed in the scrolls, the snazzy garnet for the veins & edging and several of the leaves in the center. I don’t think it is a significant problem since it obviously looks like an old rug.   I suspect, if she were around to comment, that she would be so happy to have grandsons running over her rugs … at least once, that it would not bother her.   I would hang it on the wall and make sure to keep any more water off of it, since we know that the colors have a tendency to run. However …

… if this really is a problem for you, it is only, at it’s worst, 3 rows deep.  I would be tempted, if I had to tweak it, to take out this bit of pink and use it to re-place a row here and there, right next to the leaves, where one might find a bit of natural shadow.  The natural removed could then fill in part of this spot – that would make the pink only one row of #3 wide in any given spot.   If you don’t like that idea, surely something light could be found to replace the pink.  Again, I would rearrange so the fill was never wider than one row.  I can’t imagine that anyone would ever be able to find that sort of replacement.

When hung on the wall, there is just too much great stuff going on in this rug to notice a little rug patina. Thanks for sharing.