Roses are Red, Violets are Blue

Come Little Bees, 23" x 27", #8 to 8.5-hand cut wool strips on linen. Designed, hooked, and embellished by Cathy Tokheim, Old Friends Woolens, Swea City, Iowa, 2015.

Recently, while finishing a garden-inspired rug, I thought about all of the wool appliqué and embroidery embellishments that I’ve been admiring on social media, like Facebook and Pinterest. I’m particularly attracted to the wool artists who use wool to make flowers and posies—I’m in awe of their creativity and skill. A little bit of embroidery and a little bit of wool and you have a garden . . . That got me thinking: Why not blend wool-crafted flowers and rug hooking?

As I finished hooking my rug, I decided that my simple design needed embellishment, so I looked to the wool flowers I had been admiring. My rug needed a contrasting binding since it did not have a contrasting border, so I designed a scallop border to add interest. First I added a corded edge to my rug, making a placket under the foundation by hand-stitching the 1/4" cording under the rolled-under foundation.

This article is from the January/February 2016 issue. For more information on our issue, check out our issue page.