Morris Forest

Dimensions: 56 3/4" x 32"
Materials: #3-cut wool on monk's cloth
Designed by Jane McGown Flynn and hooked by Tricia Tague Miller, Alstead, New Hampshire, 2005.
Featured in: Celebration XVI

"What I remember about hooking it was feeling a bit intimidated by its size! Nancy Blood, my teacher, suggested this pattern as an encouragement away from doing small pieces. It was also a good choice for I prefer hooking patterns with animal images. Offered also was the opportunity to use 8-value swatches for fine shading plus spot dyes  and 'as is' wool for other areas. Another lesson was in the value of integrating white into a piece. This offers a place for the eyes to rest especially in a design with a good deal of movement here given by the swirling leaves.

There were problems with the drawing of the pattern, and I had to redraw the rear end and torso to be in proportion with the rest of the lion's body. If I were to hook the piece today, I would do so differently. The lion as hooked looks like a worried juvenile! I would slim down the body and change the facial features to be more mature.

The most challenging was indeed the hooking of the lion's body.  

What strikes me the most is the contrast between the effects of the spot-dyed hooked areas and the fine-shaded ones. The hooking of the lion's body, for example, provides a quiet background that makes the fine shaded leaves 'pop forward."
- Tricia Tague Miller, Celebration Hall of Fame 2019