Advice from a Failure at Documenting My Hooking

Hello Friends,

I taught a group of beginners last month, and in the last hour of our last session, I emphasized the importance of labeling our rugs and keeping a log, journal, notebook about our hooking. Even as I demonstrated sewing a label to the back of a rug, I confessed to my students that it was the first rug I had EVER labeled in my nearly 20 years of hooking.

Marsha, addressing a group of rug hookers on an antique rug in her collection.

Marsha even draws little illustrations on her rug label. For her, this is part of the joy of hooking! The rug appears below.

So yes, I'm a failure so far at this documentation thing. However, this post contains advice from the most successful person I know on the topic of documenting our rugs, namely 👏👏👏 Marsha Munter 👏👏👏 of Nebraska. With this post, I am coaching myself--and anyone else who needs it. How many times have I needed the year I hooked a rug or needed the name of the designer? Many times. And I can no longer depend on my memory for those details.

Marsha suggests TWO things:

1. Label every rug you make.

2. Create a written record of all the pieces you have hooked.

Her suggestions make sense for many reasons...

For PUBLICATION: Should someone ask to publish your rug, you will have all of the necessary information about it. Who designed it? What fibers and/or cuts were used? What year was it completed? You will flip to that page in your binder and have it!

Here's the rug that goes with the label. Click to make it larger and see this beauty more clearly. Masha hooked Old Blue Flowers, designed by Theresa Rapstine. This one is hooked with torn strips (not cut strips).

For PERSONAL SATISFACTION: We don't keep everything we hook. After we've been hooking for a few years, our rugs can be all over the house, rolled up in corners, or in the homes of our friends and family. I have hooked multiple rugs for charity--they're long gone, and I don't know who owns them. It would be satisfying to have a binder that contains a record of everything I've hooked (I'll show you that kind of binder below.). Imagine ten years from now, you pull a binder off your shelf and take look at what you accomplished!

For POSTERITY--in the future, perhaps far into the future, someone will be able to look at your label and know who hooked your rug and when. Family members, descendants, your great-great grandchildren will appreciate this level of detail, this glimpse into the history of a beautiful handmade rug. I have purchased my share of antique rugs, and none of them had a label or any hint of info about provenance. I would venture to say that their value would be greater if the history were recorded on a label.

Iron-on labels, designed by Laurie Thies of Midwest Rug Hookers

LABELS: You can make your own labels or buy them. More and more rug hooking vendors are making and selling these, and they might be stiffer and easier to write on than the pieces of muslin that we cut for our homemade labels. Another good source for labels is quilting suppliers--because quilters have been labeling quilts for centuries! You'll notice that books full of collected antique rugs don't often include the artists' names, because many rugs didn't get labeled. They were perceived as less valuable than quilts. Let's change that.

The label created by Laurie Thies at right is a great example of simplicity, showing who hooked it, when, and who designed it. Other info that can be recorded on a label... the title, a teacher who helped with the process, and even a bit of story! More of Marsha's suggestions about labeling below.

I asked Marsha for this photo, just to give us a visual on how much hooking she has documented. It's impressive.

BINDERS: Marsha has three binders full of her creations since the very beginning. In each binder, she puts the table of contents up front, and in sheet protectors, she includes a page and artifacts for every rug she has hooked.

BINDER PAGES: Here's the most important piece: Marsha designed her own form, which she completes for every rug she hooks. This way, she collects the information that is important to her, including a place for "Comments," which I interpret as the story of how she completed each project, her happiness with it, and salient memories.

Marsha places these items into the sheet protector:

• her written form on each rug

• a photo of the pattern before she begins hooking--voila! the designer and the rug dimensions are saved!

• the tag from the seller/designer

• a photo that came with the pattern

• photos of her completed rugs and their labels

• tags and ribbons from rug shows

Marsha records every important thing about her hooked rugs, and she designed this form for that purpose. A photo of the rug is included in the page protector (plastic sleeve), next to the rug show tag for an MRH event.

A table of contents for one of Marsha's binders

Denise Peacock's booklet, ready for you to record each of your creations!

I have JUST bought more than one of these spiral-bound books, for $15 each. Denise is helping me on my documentation path! I"m grateful!

I have an amazing shortcut for you: Denise Peacock's booklet for the very purpose of recording the rugs you hook. Denise travels widely to teach, but if you're patient, you can reach her at SimplyRusticGifts@gmail.com.

Wish me luck, reconstructing my hooking history all the way back to 2008. (Heavy SIGH.). I'm going to do my best to remember my rugs. Or at least the important ones.

A FEW MORE TIPS ON LABELS:

Bea's Pups, designed by Heavens to Betsy and hooked by Marsha Munter. Marsha loved using up noodles in this background! See the label below.

A simple label for Bea's Pups

Marsha pre-cuts muslin fabric in the label sizes that are most common for her. She makes it easy to grab one and continue her good habit of labeling every finished rug.

Another practical suggestion from Marsha is to write on paper exactly what you want your label to say. You'll figure out spacing and wording, and maybe spelling, before you begin to write on the muslin fabric with your fine-point or ultra-fine-point marker.

It's fine to write the label in your own handwriting. The object is to make a handmade label for a handmade rug!

In Marsha's words,

"It’s all about creating the history

of each and every rug you have created. 

You are the artist and these are your masterpieces."

I'll include a few more photos below. Marsha has hooked such beautiful rugs, and in some cases, she has gotten very creative with labeling. Keep scrolling...

Let's all take ONE STEP toward better documentation of our rugs. It's an important habit to establish, no matter how late we start!

Thank you, friends, for reading my Noodlings today. Happy Hooking!

This was a Janice Johnson design, Ladies Garden Club. Janice added three additional ladies for Marsha's Sisters Rug, hooked in 2013. See the labeling on our next photo!

On the back of her Sisters Rug, Marsha made a label for each of her sisters, including their birth dates. Sadly, the rug is hooked to honor one of her sisters who passed away.

Here's a larger photo of Christmas Is A Comin', designed by Jane McGown Flynn and hooked by Marsha Munter. Lovely! This rug became the art for Marsha's Christmas card one year.

The second-ever rug I have labeled!

Recently, I've written a couple of articles about the history of certain rug designs, and this led me to want to preserve that history in my own New England Twist, which goes back to the 1860s! So, I cut a piece of muslin with my pinking shears and wrote out a label as Marsha suggested. I have to tell you, it's a satisfying thing to do. In case you can't read it...

"New England Twist

hooked by Tammy Pavich, Council Bluffs, Iowa, about 2017, with teacher and friend Anita White. This design originated in the 1860s, artist unknown, pattern from W. Cushing & Co/Pearl McGown. Featured in Peladeau's book, Art Underfoot, pg 32, and McGown's book, The Dream Beneath the Design, pg 22-27. These books document the originals--possibly inspired by the TransAtlantic Cable or a simple skein of yarn."