5 Pumpkins for Pat by Karen Lubahn
Dee-Dee Patrick
5 Pumpkins for Pat, designed by Darlene Nelson, is the name of the rug featured. This was painstakingly worked by Karen Lubahn, our club president, over a course of several months. Not that the work was that difficult or Karen was not interested in this motif, but she is a perfectionist and ripped out almost every color she initially chose for the stack of gourds. She described the work as trial and error. In her own words, “colors may fight with each other or not show well against the background.”
Karen has a fondness for pumpkins. This rug is the third piece featuring pumpkins that she has completed. Her plan is to display the rug in her home as a seasonal decoration this autumn, but it will remain on the floor until her husband Norm creates the hanger for it. Hurry up, Norm!
The non-traditional pumpkin colors were chosen with assistance from Monika Jones who helped Karen select hues that would pop out against the dark background and not blend in with it. Karen described making many attempts at color combinations for the five gourds in order to arrive at the most appealing sequencing of shades. She describes her style as “moving out of the box with color” as evidenced by one of her favorite rugs in which she hooked a deep purple cat against a reddish rose pumpkin. Only in Arizona would you see something like that!
You, too, can learn how to rug hook with strips of wool! There will be an introductory class held on November 3, 10 and 17 with one-on-one instruction. No prior experience is necessary and all supplies needed to work on a project will be available in the class. Information and registration sheet are available in the Art Gallery of the Creative Arts Center.
The Rug Hookers meet every Monday afternoon from noon to 4:00 p.m. rain or shine in the Fiber Arts Room of the Creative Arts Center. For further information contact our current club President Karen Lubahn at [email protected] or phone her at 623-935-9045.