Devonshire Cottage

Sometimes, hooking a rug you don’t think you want to hook is just the thing you need to do. This was a teaching assignment with the directive that I was to teach “how to hook a landscape.” Never in a million years would I have chosen this pattern on my own. In fact, I might have prayed not to be given this rug as an assignment. But then, this little piece sent me on a landscape journey. I read books on land scape painting and applied what I learned to this rug. I’m actually very pleased with what I was able to achieve.

In addition to hand-dyed wool, I used a flax yarn for the windows because it had a slightly shiny surface. For the roof of the cottage, I chose an off-the-bolt plaid. I used the lighter parts of the plaid for the part of the roof hit by the sun and the darker parts of the plaid for the area of the roof that is in the shade.

I like the undefined shrub with blue flowers on the right side of the house. It has an artistic quality to it, which is what I was hoping to achieve.

Two areas presented challenges. First, when I hooked the road, it was not sitting down like it ought to. Adding some dull gray-purple to it helped. Second, getting the sky right was difficult. At the time I hooked this piece, I had been asked to do a presentation on hooking skies and clouds. My first go-round with the sky was too plain. It was all blue, and I knew it was not good enough. I removed the all-blue sky and hooked in a gradient sky using darker colors that leaned toward warm at the top and a very pale cyan at the bottom. This gave the sky perspective, making it so much more interesting for the viewer.

Once I was done hooking, I rolled the linen back over cording and whipped the edges with antique black worsted-weight wool. I finished with rug tape. This piece taught me a lot about hooking landscapes. Deciding on the mood (cheerful), time of day, and season of the piece before starting it is very important. These decisions guided me all the way through the rug.

As previously mentioned, I learned to use color to create perspective in the sky. Warmer, more intense colors at the top create near-perspective. Light, cool colors at the bottom of the sky create distance. I also used very dull colors at the end of the road to suggest distance (dull farm field and hills). I balanced flower colors to keep the eye moving (yellow flowers and blue flowers). I used a strong red for the climbing roses to create a focal point.

One other point. My research on landscape painting emphasized the importance of not including absolutely everything in your piece. I edited out a few elements of this commercial pattern. For example, there were two people in front of the cottage, and I eliminated them because I wanted the cottage to be the story.

Devonshire Cottage, 18″ x 13 ¾”, #3-cut wool on linen. Designed by Jane McGown Flynn and hooked by Heidi Grevstad, Blaine, Washington, 2024.

Heidi Grevstad
BLAINE, WASHINGTON

Heidi has been hooking rugs since 2004. She first learned from her mother, Barbara Sendt, and has attended many rug schools, camps, and retreats. She is a McGown-certified teacher and enjoys teaching all levels of rug hooking. She has a nearly pathological love of dyeing. While she has no formal art training, she strives to apply principles of design in her rug hooking. A US citizen and Canadian permanent resident, Heidi splits her time between Abbotsford, British Columbia, and Blaine, Washington.