Today's featured hooker!

As most of you know I'm just one gal trying to do as much as I can with the time I'm given. Luckily I have some great customers who are always willing to share what they are doing, while I'm creating more things to share with you.

Today I'm featuring Karen Barbera of Sparks, Nevada.

Looks like a pretty place to live!

She has graciously sent me pictures of a trout rug that she is creating for her father as a Christmas gift. She is using some of my "Forest Blend" wool below the fish's eye as well as some of the "Blue Angel Plaid" in the gills. I asked her to give me a little info on her rug inspiration and here is what she had to say.

"I am making it for my dad for Christmas. He is an avid fisherman, we used to fish every summer out near Mammoth Lakes, CA at a place called Benton Crossing--some of my fondest memories when I was growing up. Now, Dad and my Uncle Larry go to a place out in the CO Rockies called Red Feather Lakes and fish there, and sometimes my cousin Jeff meets them there for some 'male bonding' for a week or so--while my mom, aunt and Jeff's wife go to Denver to shop! LOL. I try and make my gifts each year, and while I have done fairly well for the ladies in the family, not so easy for the guys. Then, it dawned on me one day, I could do a trout rug for my dad. One of the ladies in my hooking group had made one for her granddaughter, and I started thinking about doing one for Dad. And what I wanted to do was one of the 'classic' shots of a trout leaping out of the water. I was talking to one of the workers at the shop where my hooking group meets and she said she had seen something simular to that in an applique pattern. It was very close to what I wanted to do for Dad! So I picked it up and started playing with the pieces until I was happy with how it looked, taped all the pieces down (since I had traced the pieces onto tissue paper and pushed them around till I was happy with the comp.) and traced it over onto red dot. I like the way it came together with the cattails and the dragonflies. I can just see the trout jumping out of the lake where my dad stays." This is going to be a large rug that measures 26" x 30" when it is finished!
Hopefully all you blog readers can encourage her to share more pictures as she continues on her journey.

Karen is fortunate to belong to a rug hooking group that meets on Tuesday mornings at Workman's Nursery in Fallon, NV. She says, "It is an eclectic little place, half nursery, half quilting/hooking/craft/herb shop, with a workroom in the back where we meet for about 2-3 hours between 9 and noon. It is a fun group of ladies and we just get together and chit-chat while we work on our rugs."

I think it sounds divine!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy