Here we are the balanced couple.  It has taken us 45 years, but I think we’ve finally mastered the art of balancing and complimenting each other.  It is a safe and wonderful place to be.  The two of us are so very different in most aspects of our lives, yet we respect and admire each other’s place in this world.

The same principles seem to apply to hooking rugs.  I am passionate about hooking.  I love the feel of it, the excitement of watching a vision emerge, the joy of passing the finished rug on to it’s new owner.  I get lost in it and sometimes hook for 6 hours in a day.  When this happens life gets out of balance.  Something or someone suffers. My hands hurt. The house is a mess, with dust bunnies everywhere.  The cats are climbing the screens for food. So I take a kitchen timer along and set it for an hour and then get up and do something else. Give someone a hug,  talk to someone, connect.  Three days a week I break to teach music to 9 year old school kids and of course doing the children’s sermons at church is another delightful diversion.

And isn’t Balance incorporated into every aspect of rug hooking? As we  plan and modify our rugs, we are constantly balancing colors, objects, sizes.  Our rugs need to flow in the eye & mind of the beholder. I find one of the quickest ways to find out what does & doesn’t work in my rug is to take a picture of it. Poof, there it is!  I will see with new eyes where the colors lead me around the rug and where they stop me.  This has become my main concern with the 23rd Psalm rug.

  What you see here is half of a 7′ x 4′ rug, with the meadow, sheep, still water, & islands. The placement of the sheep had to be worked out, as did the movement of  color in the sheep and angels around the mat. I have used the natural sheep fleece for the bodies, but each face has a different color and look. It has been great fun to create.

The tediousness of so much background was balanced off by taking on a few smaller projects, such as this unusually shaped bag.  Each side is different and I get raves on it everywhere I go.  The pattern will be available at the 2009 Hawaiian Hook-In.

Have fun and keep your hooking & your  life in balance!   Sharon Faith