The 10-Minute Challenge Pays Off!

At last! After fourteen years, two and a half months, the hooking on my garden rug is finished!! I still feel as if I need to pick up my hook and keep plugging along, but it really is done. Now, I have the finishing process to complete, but that is something I can do while watching TV. With the weather cooling down, the rug will feel like a blanket. FYI, the finished size is 38.5" x 66". This is the biggest rug I have ever completed.

The background for this wool is a spot dye from Prisms I. I took the formula and doubled each dye to get a darker brown. This was one of the first things I ever dyed, and I was helped in the process by my teacher, Dick LaBarge. The pattern is a Patsy Becker design, and it was Patsy whose class I took at Green Mountain Rug School in 1995. She dyed the wool for the vegetables and got me started on the hooking. I learned a lot in that class. She taught us how to hook points, finishing techniques and did some dyeing with those who were interested. I know Patsy passed away recently, and I'm glad I got to learn from her.

This rug has been sitting around for so long most likely because of its size. I would work a bit on it, and then decide to do a smaller project. This went on for a long time. When April DeConick started the 10-minute challenge, I thought that this would be a great way to finally finish this rug. The best thing that came out of this, besides finishing the rug, was that I wound up hooking way past the ten minutes.

Here are two pictures of the rug. The first is a full size, and the second shows a close-up of the top part of the rug. The rug is dedicated to the memory of my father who was a master gardener.