Noodlings, my new blog, is as much for me as it is for you. I’m the kind of person who learns by scribbling, who sometimes doesn’t even understand what’s in front of her unless she has pencil in hand and can try to work it out on a page. I hope that each post finds a different way to intrigue and shake up our imaginations, yours and mine. I have all kinds of posts in mind. With Noodlings, I hope to share those things that I’m pondering, learning, and experiencing with my own

coming soon

This is my finished rug, Waders. But I finished it more than once! Dear Friends, I imagine we all have favorite hooking subjects. One of my themes is my parents. Dad died in 2022. My mom is 89 now. Late last year, I went through my photos of them at the cabin, finding this one of their waders--Mom in bibs, Dad in hip waders. I like it because they're having fun, but also they did certain chores in their waders: working on the rip-rap, pulling the dock out of the water,

A small sampling of Anita White's Long Lovelies. Back in March of 2026, I learned of an opportunity to teach a mini-class. At that moment, I happened to be admiring Anita White's "Long Lovelies," those beautiful strips of wandering color. I thought that maybe a rug hooker could use those brilliantly dyed pieces to mimic dazzling butterfly wings. Hence, the "Dream Butterfly" mini-class, where we would discuss why we find REAL butterflies so beautiful (their symmetry and dazz

Hey Fellow Wool Lovers, this edition of Noodlings is about my friend and mentor, Anita White, and how fun it is to be with her on those days when she's "in the dye pots!" I needed wool. And I needed it dyed a particular way, with several values of a color, and I needed quite a few colors. I was planning to teach a new group of portrait hookers in May, and so Anita--despite having just had surgery on her neck--agreed to dye it for me. But this time, she said, I would have

Dear Friends, This edition of Noodlings concerns “Bear in the Woods” and the dilemmas involved in hooking it. Dilemmas, it turns out, are little gifts that help us grow in our art. Here's the story... Along with the friendly hookers at Central Iowa Rug Artists (CIRA), I had a once-in-a-long-time opportunity to take a workshop with… drum roll, please… Gail DuFresne! Gail wrote a book on Geometric Rugs, and I have always loved her realistic creatures on a geometric background