“My Friendly Garden #1” is the name the designer/rug hooker gave to this hooked piece. Doris wanted to try hooking a “pixelated” effect into a rug. She chose to interpret a watercolour that she had painted of her garden.
The backing is rug warp because its weave is perfectly even, both horizontally and vertically. It took much time to draw the grid onto the backing.
Starting with the quince tree using greys and browns, she hooked the trunk first and worked her way up and out along the branches achieving the general shape of the tree. Then she added the leaves in many shades of green. Next, she hooked the flowers in front of the fence adding stones for the path follwed by the fence in whites with grey for shadows to give contour. Finally, the various shades of blues and mauves were added for the sky.
The entire rug is hooked back and forth in the small squares, four rows in each square, four stitches in each row. It made for an interesting pattern on both the front and the back of this rug. This was not an easy project. The image was all in her mind’s eye and required much concentration on the overall effect. Definitley a work of love. Artistry was Doris’s love.
Doris Eaton: 1928 – 2019. (Doris published a book called “A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking”. This rug is mentioned in her book.)