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Welcome to Red Cape Rugs Gallery
 copyright 2003 Edyth O'Neill
Here is # 72, "Schooner" 35 x 45. The white is tan and
cream, red is rust to faded rust to almost wine, and blues include light blue green to
indigo.
The brave and fast little schooner operated in 1775 capturing a number of British
prizes even though the "SPY" carried only 6 guns. When the "SPY" was
first fighting, neither the nation nor the flag had been born, but the spirit of both
swirled around her. Later the fast "SPY" was chosen by the congress to
carry a copy of the treaty with France, which helped us prevail in the war, although the
schooner herself did not make it home safely ever again. If any Stonington historian or
perhaps some descendant of Robert Niles the captain, can add anything to our history of
the little Schooner, please do! Thomas Rice, the first owner of our CT cape house was one
of the crew.
#1 Old Chalk
Deer 29 x 36  On a shelf of my corner cupboard an old chalk deer sits contentedly and gazes
out from among old pewter plates and redware jugs. This inexpensive chalkware, called poor
man's Staffordshire, was made to imitate England's charming ceramic figures of 1750 to
1850: wonderful horses, dogs, birds, sheep and deer, to name just a few.
I have hooked this chalk deer in a rug, with lots of rusty reds. The
curved lines of the plinth stretch around the rug to make a rope-like border. The dark
scrolls beside the deer are almost leaf shapes. There are dull, dark purples in the
scrolls and in the deepest values of the border, along with dark rust and brown strands.
The background is a mix of gray and tan, with the lightest gray of the background used
next to the darkest shade of the deer, scrolls and border.
Figural
designs with animals make very pleasing rugs to use with Early American antiques. I use
this one near a collection of redware in our dining room, the room with the great cooking
fireplace, once the old kitchen of our red cape.
I draw a lot of small
patterns for people who are learning to hook. Little hooked pieces are a good way for a
new rug maker to begin, but after years and years of hooking, I still work a great many of
them. Small pieces are fun to use here and there for color, and they are nice to work on
between larger efforts. They are also a good way to experiment with new color ideas.
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#3 Roosters 26 x 39
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#4 Rooster Mat 13rnd
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#7 Pumpkin House 13 x 14
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#38 Ohio Coverlet 28 x 42
 Early
American woven coverlets from the first half of the 19th century are found in a
great many patterns. An appealing group of coverlets woven in Ohio, has birds and flowers
for a border, and is the basis of this hooked rug design. I have hooked it once in only
two colors, indigo blue and ecru, as the original was, and again with bittersweet berries
and outlining. The main background is a mix of dark heather brown, varied with deep green,
blue, and eggplant. The outer frame is a mix of blending blues. Here we see the
complements of blue and orange.
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#8 Leaping Deer
19 x 27 |
#16 Red Horse Antique Sml 14 x 18
#47 Red Horse Antique Lrg 22 x 28 |
#42 Kent Primitive
12 x 12 |
#27 Quilter's Cabin 12 x 12 |
#19 Noel Sml 20 x 32
#20 Noel Lrg 29 x 42 |
#25 Trotter on the Barn
31 x 43 |
#40 Oliver Cromwell 37 x 49
A few years ago, my husband and I purchased a dismantled Connecticut farmhouse. While
restoring the house, we have also tried to reconstruct the story of the people who first
lived in it. In 1768, Thomas Rice moved his young wife, Thankful, into a sturdy little
post and beam house in Willington, Connecticut. Thomas carved his initials behind a board
above the large cooking fireplace. During the American Revolution, Thomas served aboard
the ship “Oliver Cromwell,” built in Essex, Connecticut. The rug, picturing his
ship, now hangs on a wall of the old kitchen, near the spot Thomas proudly carved his
initials. The sea wave border is drawn as paisley shapes, and the whale is just paisley
with a tail.
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#39 Old Friends 9 x 14
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#54 New Bedford Hearth Rug 22 x 43
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#36 Vermont Hearts 13 round
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#61Tulip Wheel large 28 x 28
One of the Hadley group of designs.#62 Tulip Wheel small 21X21 |
#6 Primitive Star 13 round |
#29 Three Bags Full24 x 30 |
#2 Blue Basket Antique 36
x 54 
This rug is my adaptation of a beautiful old one, which has
inspired a good many rug hookers before me. This basket of flowers is typical of many
similar naïve designs of the mid to late nineteenth century, appearing on hooked rugs,
samplers, theorems, and even etched on glass. When drawing my rug on linen, I chose to
substitute other flowers for the pink roses of the original.
The symmetry of the rug is pleasing, though all the white lilies are on one side,
and all the red and pink flowers are on the other. The placement of the grapes in the
border is interesting also. Holding the different parts of the design together, are the
same colors repeating over and over in throughout the rug. These pale colors stand out
strongly against a deep brown background. Light against dark, the contrast of values was
as well understood by gifted rug artists a century ago as it is today. I wonder if the
blue and white basket represented a blue and white openwork ceramic container, old Canton
perhaps? |
#13 Deer Runner 19 x 52 $
 Hundreds of charming little
deer leap through old English and Early American crewel embroidery. This early needlework
is a rich design source for hooked rugs. Made for an eight foot table, this fifty two inch
runner would still be appropriate for a somewhat shorter table, or on a wall, over a sofa
or a long mantle. Though long, it is only
nineteen inches wide. Hooked with strips cut in widths six and seven, the runner is a
fairly quickly finished project.
I have chosen to hook the two little deer in butterscotch, cream and pumpkin,
against a blue gray background. These are really muted shades of orange and blue, pleasing
compliments. Where the two families of color touch, as pumpkin star against gray
background, I have used the darkest value of the star against the lightest value of the
background, for sharp definition. Using a rich mixture of both color families keeps the
rug interesting. The deer can be hooked solid or spotted, and many other color choices
could be used for this happy little rug. The texture of the hooked work is pleasing
against the worn old wood of the table
top. |
#9 1790 Eagle 26 x 38 
In the early days of our Republic, its symbol of a fierce eagle was proudly
displayed in American homes and places of business. He was stitched into quilts,
painstakingly inlaid in fine furniture, painted on clock faces and on inn signs. I have
hooked an eagle rug for our cape from my adaptation of one of these old inn signs.
Throughout the rug I have worked for variation of color. A narrow palette of pale
and muted red, white, blue, and gold on a dark brown-black background make the eagle and
the border stand out boldly. Each lamb's tongue of the border is a bit different from its
neighbor, with ever varying strands of color. The dark brown background has strips from
more than half a dozen different fabrics, including dark green and indigo. The pale blue
outlining is worked from gray blue plaid, to solid light blue, to gray blue heather, to
medium blue plaids. Avoiding areas of monotonous solids, helps to achieve the look of an
antique rug. |
#46 Woolley Fox 30 x 42
Hooked by Barb Carroll |
#35 House Blessing
14 x 28 |
#56 Peace On Earth
19 x
37 |
#15 Yellow Basket 14 x 18 |
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#50 Adam and Eve Sampler 33 x
52 |
#30 Welcome Friends Antique 24 x 38
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 #59
Cricket Stool Cover 7x12 |
 #55
Fruit Theorem
30x51 |
 Hadley
Welcome
36 inch half round |
 Ipswich
28x35 |
 York
13x15 |
 Greenfield
13x15 |
 Coventry
13x15 |
 Windsor
13x15 |
All
of the contents of this web page and all of the rug patterns are under copyright by Edyth
O’Neill, 1978 –2005. Please respect Copyright. |
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