Small Square Rugs or Pillows

‘Blue Columbine’ designed and hooked by Laura Pierce, 2018

Designed for ATHA Biennial 2019, Denver, my class was about blending wide cut wool to create this beautiful Colorado state flower. I painted the petal wool and dip-dyed the leaf wool. Outlined with my favorite gold texture, it creates a vibrant little rug. It’s only 16×16″, so really not a rug, more of a tapestry. I show my rugs at the county fairs, library shows, rug conventions, shops and art shows, so they are finished, labeled and ready to hang.

‘Barcelona Tile’ design by J. Flynn, hooked by Laura Pierce, 2019

Here’s another small square rug for a class I taught on ‘mock shading’ at Teachers’ Workshop. This time I outline with a bright ombre wool, which livens it up! The leafy scrolls use 3 values, while the pedals use 6 values. With the dark background, it pops! The flower centers and one of the rose hips are 3-dimensional; ‘sculpted’. It is a smaller tapestry and could go anywhere, but it might be very fun as a small pillow.

‘Persian Border Piece’ adapted and hooked by Laura Pierce, 2022

This little piece is based on a small section of the border on a Persian rug. Only 14″ square, this section of the border is in between two elaborate floral motifs, flowing in between, all leafy and scrolly. The palette is different for me and I enjoyed it! I plan to hook the two floral motifs, but have used ‘hand-me-down’ noodles and recycled wool for this first section. I wonder how well I will match them up. Meanwhile, I think this could be a chair rug for an office chair, rather than a pillow.

‘Heraldry’ design by J. Flynn, hooked by Laura Pierce, 2021

This was an old project from Teachers Workshop, that I hung onto. It has a William Morris feel to it with folding petals and swooping leaves. Outlined with a burgundy ombre wool, I used the dip-dyed leaf wool again along with hand-me-down noodles and a light texture wool in the background. The pattern originally had more leafy bits and lots of do-dahs, which I eliminated as they cluttered up the piece. At 20″ square, it will make a fine pillow.

‘Hollyhocks’ designed by J. Flynn, hooked by Laura Pierce, 2022

Another Teachers Workshop project, cut down to 12×13″. There were many more hollyhocks, but not much more enthusiasm for ‘fine-shading’! I got quite a bit done in class and wanted to save it, so I re-composed the pattern a bit; mostly by elimination. In trying to square up the pattern, I was limited to 12″ wide by the material, but needed 13″ to add the buds. Not quite square is fine with me. I was running out of my background purple and had to switch over to a darker purple. You can see how I ‘echoed’ the 2 purples until I ran out, in the upper right corner. It’s traditional to run out… when you’re recycling. I’ll probably make a custom pillow for this rug, since it is an odd shape. A commercial pillow 12×12″ would be too short and a 14×14″ would be too big. Maybe they make a 13×13″… I think it would work.

‘Cachemeres’ design by J. Flynn, hooked by Laura Pierce, 2021

I’ve never done ‘Paisley’ before, so taking this class at Teachers’ Workshop was my introduction. I immediately started to make changes to the pattern to simplify it and make it more balanced to my eye. The paisley is an ancient design element with many interpretations! Most are a tear shaped with designs on the edges and within. Tulips and paisleys are from the ‘Middle East’, so I included a tulip in one of the paisleys. Now I knew this little square rug would be a pillow, because the tulip goes one way and the other paisleys go another way. There’s no top or bottom, so toss it on the couch!

‘Ribbon Flow’ designed and hooked by Laura Pierce, 2022

Looking for a simple project, I used one of my sketches to create this design. The outlining is from a dye class where we spot dyed wool with paint brushes. It varies from light yellow to dark rust, so sometimes it’s an outline and sometimes it disappears! Using up rainbow noodles for the backgrounds; warm tones on one side and cool tones on the other. I was trying to create depth; there is a bit of push and pull. The flowing lines start to twist into ribbons at the dividing line. Another design to toss around!

‘Peace’ designed and hooked by Laura Pierce, 2022

This little rug started out as a 10×10″ starter pattern. Our guild had a ‘Garden Party’ to introduce rug hooking to friends and neighbors. This pattern with beautiful ombre wool was selected quickly, but discarded just as quickly! After struggling to pull a few loops, this friend was not interested in ‘work’… she came to ‘party’… ha! I was happy to hook it and expanded the pattern as close to the edge as possible. Now, 16×16″, I could add circles around and have more fun. The Ombre wool is a rainbow of colour, so I decided to colour each little circle with my rainbow pastel noodles. I had 9 pastel colours, so I squeezed in 1 more circle. I thought about making it circular, but needed space to leave my initials… a pillow it will be!