By Guest Blogger Mary Doig
Linda MacDonald, owner of Rags to Rugs Hooking Studio in Pictou NS, graciously gave me permission to make a smaller version of her famed heritage pattern, for my own use. Linda has purchased, and is painstakingly rescuing and restoring the Garrett’s Bluenose
patterns, preserving this important part of Nova Scotian rug hooking history. Here’s her web page:
http://www.ragstorugs.com
As a child, I remember the Three Bears rug well in the homes of friends and relatives. I suspect that it is the most loved, and most well known of all the Garrett’s Bluenose patterns.
Years before Linda bought the Garrett’s Bluenose designs, I drew a design of the Three Bears from a booklet that had been compiled of them, changing the dimensions to be smaller, but keeping the body of the design true to the original. I made this rug for a number of babies in our circle of family and friends.
After Linda started producing the Bluenose patterns, I bought them from her. The original Three Bears Bluenose pattern is larger than I wanted for my next project, because I wanted to add a large border to it. I contacted Linda for permission to use my old drawing. She gave me her permission, and accepted the copy fee that I insisted on sending her. Linda has done so much work to restore these patterns, that I would not feel right about making the rug without her permission, and without giving compensation for her investment of money and time in rescuing this design. Please do this if you are considering amending (or copying) someone else’s design, and contact them to arrange a situation that is acceptable to each of you. It is important for our rug hooking community to respect copyright law, and equally importantly, you can take pride in your finished work.
Now let’s talk about hooking the rug!
With the impending arrival of our youngest niece’s first baby, I wanted to make a special gift. Some reconnaissance from my sister-in-law informed me that the nursery walls were grey, so I thought I’d do a Three Bears with a mottled grey sky. I mixed some as-is grey texture with leftover soft greys that I had dyed for previous projects. Then I thought I would do the rest in plaids. I had just finished a project that had some rich red and blue abrashes, so it seemed reasonable to match my plaids to these colours, and so it wouldn’t be too crazy busy with too much plaid, use some of the abrashed material with them.
The best thing about working with plaids is that you have an automatic colour plan. Just match your colours to the plaid and it all goes together like magic. You can also strip different areas of the plaid to get more of one colour, or darker and lighter shades. It’s fun to play with plaids.
The Three Bears practically hooked themselves, this mat was so much fun to do. It’s all ready to give to little Paisley Rae, who arrived safely on February 26, 2013.
If you want to read more about the Garrett’s Bluenose patterns, here is a link:
http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/cat2102e.shtml
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