In the eye of the Beholder

 

 Made, designed and owned by:Elaine Foster

 Size: approx 3’ x 2’ Made from: Wool fabric in 2008 made in North Yorkshire

My local rug group was in the final stages of planning an exhibition, and we were deciding on titles for our rugs. My rug, especially made for the exhibition, depicted ,I thought, two rams butting horns. I was struggling to think of an interesting title and turned to a friend for inspiration. She immediately came up with “Happy Elephants”.

 The rug never looked the same to me. Once the image of trumpeting elephants, albeit with somewhat skinny legs, had been implanted, it was always lurking in my mind. Some time after the exhibition I reworked the rug, changing the image to one of a single sheep

Blue Heart Mat

Made in Guernsey Size 18” x 24” Materials Used: Hand dyed and “as is” woollen material  Designer, Maker, Owner Alison Teed made in 2011

 

Red Hot Pokers

RED HOT POKERS

Size 30"x19"

Materials used: cottons, polyesters, leather and suede pieces

Maker:  Alison Teed

Owner’s Name: Alison Teed

Designer’s Name: Alison Teed
Made in 2000 in Guernsey
This rug was made after seeing a clump of Red Hot Pokers in my neighbour’s garden and thought how beautiful and elegant they were. I enjoy added leather or suede to my rugs for a bit of added texture.

Calgary Bay memory rug designed,made and owned by Jane Rushworth circa 2011. Size in inches 38" x21"  Materials used a mixture of woollen sources including blankets, tweeds and woollen jumpers. The rug was made in North Yorkshire

The story about the rug.  This rug is a memory rug of Calgary bay on the isle of Mull. I wanted to try using a wider range of colours and thicknesses of woolen fabrics to create more variety within the rug. It is also a memory rug including blanket from my Mother and material from friends and fellow rugmakers. It also reminds me of a fabulous place to be with beautiful blue sea and white beaches. The colours include pinks, greens, blues, purples, yellows, creams, black and grey all of which are as sourced. The thickesses are varied and the rug includes tweeds notably blue and purple ones.

 

Memories

Memories designed and made by Rosemary Beney in Derbyshire it is  20"x30" made with all wool, except for sparks of white leather in 2012-13

The story of the rug is the stripey Boden sweater that I begged the 'love of my life' to give me for the rag rug I wanted to make. He gave it to me and I used to say that I felt like Madame Desfarges as I worked on it, remembering the amazing times we've had together, always stolen, always passionate, exciting,  heavenly, happy, highlights of each year.

Blue Red Absract

Blue red abstract made and designed by Clare Hutchinson Skipton Nth Yorkshire.

I dreamed of a nice soft proddy rug to step onto when I got out of bed each morning. It needed to be the same colours as the velvet quilt which I hand dyed and quilted several years ago. So using an assortment of old blankets and various charity shop tweeds, I set to work with the dye pots. A 100% Merino wool Harrods blanket, a real find from a local Charity Shop and bright pink, took the dyes beautifully, even the blues.

During the dyeing process I used a variety of shades or red, orange, blue and turquoise, some of which I 'spotty dyed' as per Cilla's instructions. Even though I used acid dyes for the rug and reactive dyes for the quilt, the colours were much the same and I was thrilled with the result.

As I find pushing pieces of fabric through from the back of the hessian rather hard on my hands, I used my 'Bodger' (spring-hook tool) to make the rug. I am very pleased with the result and it is such a welcome sight when I get out of bed each morning!

Mum's Rug

This rug was made by my mother Esther (Tess) Mabe, nee Lupton.  She made it in the mid 1980s at the request of my sister Jan for her thatched cottage in Kent.  It now resides in my kitchen in York.  Mum was born in 1917 in the village of Little Crosby in Lancashire where she grew up, but spent all her married life in Kent. She died in 2007.  When I was growing up I remember proddy rugs that she had made in front of our open fire:  they were always of a geometric design with a black border.  But as we grew up and money became a bit more plentiful she stopped making them – I believe this rug was the first she had made for about 30 years. 

I took up rag-rugging and joined Ebor Ruggers in 2009.  My father then gave me her “prodder” which he had kept.  It was made, I would guess in the 1930s or early 1940s, by my mother’s Uncle Ned (born in 1881) of wood from a holly tree and simply shaped into a point.   I use it all the time for making proddy mats.  I wish I had asked Mum more about this craft and its history and practice within her family while she was alive, but I am pleased to think that I am carrying on a family tradition going back now for several generations.

The mat is 51”x 23” (130cm x 60cm) and made out of various textiles which my mother got mainly from the local charity shop where she volunteered.  It is backed with hessian.