New Spins on Fabrics

Paisley Hex, 29" x 12", #5- to 8 1/2-cut wool and antique paisley on linen. Designed by Jane McGown Flynn and hooked by Anita White, Overland Park, Kansas, 2011.

A few years ago, I discovered the glorious paisley-inspired rugs of Anita White. Around that same time, my friend Lou Ann Ayres hooked a Native American runner that looked like woven fabric. Of course I had also encountered the charming rugs of Polly Minnick, hooked as companion pieces to her sister’s lovely quilts, Pearl McGown designs that imitate crewel embroidery, and antique rugs that mimicked jewel-colored crazy quilts.

But the idea of a genre of textile-inspired rug designs occurred to me gradually. I recently took a long look at the antique coverlet rugs of Barbara Carroll. Wow! Old textiles! The mola my friend Jane Scott had hooked imitates a textile art of the Kuna women of Panama. At a workshop, I saw Anita’s intricate braided-rug design in hooked form. Suddenly I was encountering textile-inspired rugs almost weekly ...


This article is from the November/December 2015 issue. For more information on our issue, check out our issue page.