Great Books for Rug Hooking Pattern Designers

What do you do when you are hungry and don’t know what to eat? If you do what I do, you open the fridge and look around. When you are stuck for inspiration on what to rug hook, try some of these inspirational design books. I think the designs are fresher and cleaner than those found in the Dover clip art books, although the newer ones look really interesting.

I found these books Saturday at the Quilt Shop where I teach once a month (2019 update: no longer teaching there). When I decided to tell you all about them, I found even more! This link will display more books by this author, so if more become available, you will see them here.

Check your local book or quilt store if you want one of the titles that are out of print. They may still have one at the original price.

The author gives you permission to use the designs as is for your own work. I will use them to trigger some variations in my own work. I can look at a border design and get an idea on how to improve a flower design I’ve been working on or look at a flower and change something in a border. You need a constant supply of new ideas to keep your original ideas flowing and fresh.

This is an example of some of the Dover style clip art books. They have been around for a long time and are another great source of inspiration. The illustrations may not be clean line drawings as they are in the books above, but if you like fussier, more detailed illustrations, this is one place to look. To turn these designs into rug hooking patterns, you will have to simplify them. The illustrations in the books above are clean line drawings and are begging to become rug hooking patterns.