Hooked Flower Garden

 

Lately, it has been far too hot to be outside in my garden, so I'm inside, thinking about the flower beds I've created in my hooked rugs. There are many ways to use technique, color and texture to make your hooked garden bloom beautifully.

 

Nature's Dance (above photos) shows how outlining your motifs with similar value neutrals can help the flowers show up against a background, especially a medium value background. By outlining, it allows you to use lighters or darker values for the motifs and still have the motif show up against the background. I like the unity outlining gives to all the motifs, but be sure to change up textures and wools you use to outline so the rug stays interesting.

When I want a primitive flower to be viewed as if from the side, I move the center of the flower more toward one edge of the flower. This can give your rug design a different feel, rather than having all the flowers facing full on center. In Winter's Bouquet, here are examples of sideways and center facing flowers.

 

The above photo shows a complementary color plan. It is a sure way to make your hooked rug sing. In, Ode to Spring Center, I used the complementary colors of blue and orange. Notice that the orange leans to a peachy pink color, and the blue birds are a grayed, soft blue-green. It makes for a more lively rug if you also use colors that are on either side of the complementary colors you are using. So if looking at the color wheel, you would use in varying amounts, the Blue, and Blue/Violet and Blue/Green. For the Orange, you could also include Red/Orange or Yellow/Orange. The dark textured background is a great companion to the motifs, and doesn't compete for attention because it is a neutral.

When hooking a grouping of flowers, as in Autumn's Smile (below) I like to change the color slightly on some of the blossoms, again, as a way to spark interest. The rosehips are differing shades of yellow.

The spray of tiny blue buds are hooked with a few different shades of blue.

Textures are a good way to draw attention to a motif. Try using an interesting texture in your flowers, whether it's the center, petals, or all of the flower.

 

Here's to hooking a lovely array of flowers, and the best part is, you don't have to water them!

Please visit my ETSY shop to see more of my rug hooking patterns and designs.