Embroidery labels

By Guest Blogger Patsy Langdon Gorveatte

Being my mothers child, I was always wanting to do everything she did.  She was a wonderfully talented woman.  When she was crocheting and knitting...I wanted to do it too.  When she started needlepoint and petitpoint so did I. This went on and on including, sewing, smocking, and crewel. All the while I had my eye on rug hooking. We did do the latch hook kind many years ago but never had the opportunity to try hooking with wool strips. 

Recently we relocated from Dartmouth to Black Point due to medical reasons.  It just so happens that we live an 8 minute drive from the Hooked Rug Museum of North America.  I dropped in there one day and bought my first pattern.  They promised me that if I came to their weekly hook-ins that I would learn how to hook. That, in combination with the weekly hook-ins at Encompassing Designs, I was off to the races.  

My friend Chris started shortly after I did and we are both like sponges trying to absorb every bit of hooking knowledge we can find.  We haven't tried dyeing yet but it's definitely on the agenda.
I have done 5 pieces since I started hooking at the end of May.  One of which I designed myself.  Its just a small trivet with a sheep on it, but its my own.

As you can tell from my "Bluffton Bathers" that Christine designed, I love colour.  I love clean lines.  I like things a bit more fun and cutesie than primitive or Victorian. I respect all rugs out there but they're not all my style.

My "Bluffton Bathers" was my very first sale.  So proud of that.  In some ways it was sad to let it go but it went to the best home possible.  Now I will be able to see it proudly displayed every time I visit Christine Little's awesome shop "Encompassing Designs".

I plan to go bigger and more complicated as I improve but right now I am enjoying the end result of smaller projects as soon as I can.   Since we moved, I have been on leave from work and have the time to work on my new passion.  Its therapy for me for sure.   I have met so many wonderful, talented people since I began and cherish every one of them.  I look forward to so much more. Thank you to everyone who has helped me get started.  Patsy

---

Christine here - Over the years all kinds of solutions have been presented for signing and dating a rug.  Lately I've been seeing some pretty creative alternatives to the hooked signature or initials on the front.  Patsy Langdon Gorveatte hooked my Bluffton Bathers and although the front is drop dead lovely, what's going on in the back is just as exciting.  She cleverly embroidered the rug's information, hooker, designer etc and because of the beach theme,  added a pair of flips flops.  How positively sweet!   Patsy has commercial embroidery machine and I'll post her business card. 

The embroidered labels below are an idea I had when I first opened the shop.  At that time I planned on hooking pieces to sell but as the shop got busy, that quickly changed.   I came across these a while back, forgotten in the closet all these years.