Castleton

Dimensions: 51" x 32"
Materials: #6-cut wool on monk's cloth
Designed by Jane McGown Flynn and hooked by Jan Winter, Hollywood, California, 1998.
Featured in: Celebration IX

"As a longtime quiltmaker, I was immediately attracted to this pattern because it reminded me of applique quilt squares. I’ve always loved the Caswell carpet in the Metropolitan Museum that was the inspiration for this design.

I wanted to create a sophisticated primitive that looked antique yet went beyond the traditional “outline and fill” technique. To attain this goal, I used some shading with hand dyed fabrics, thrift store wool, and lots of tweeds for texture.

In creating backgrounds for past rugs, I had used mottling to create texture and movement.  In this rug, I wanted to try a richer and more varied background.  So, I gathered together blue, black, and brown solids and tweeds. Combined, these produced the effect I was hoping for and became my favorite part of the rug.

The hardest part of the rug was balancing the colors because the motifs vary considerably in size.  Too bright a color on a large flower would cause it to jump out.  So, I used red/orange in the large areas, and yellows in little bits around the rug to keep the viewer’s eye moving."
- Jan Winter, Celebration Hall of Fame 2018