A colourful, photo-filled history of Nova Scotia's iconic Bluenose
hooked-rug patterns, featuring step-by-step instructions for aspiring
rug-hookers.
In 1892, John E. Garrett (1865 -- 1937) and his father, Frank, began to
design and sell printed burlap patterns out of their home in New
Glasgow, Nova Scotia. John's three sons, Frank, Cecil, and Arthur, later
joined Garrett's, and by 1926, their patterns came to be known as
"Bluenose," for the famous Nova Scotia schooner. Over the next eighty
years, Garrett's would produce hundreds of designs. John and his son
Frank, who had studied commercial art in New York, produced bold,
artistic new designs -- florals and scrolls, geometrics, pictorials,
animals, and whimsical patterns -- that stood out from the rigid,
Victorian-style patterns of the past. Catalogue and mail-order sales
soared, and soon Garrett's became the world's largest producer of
rug-hooking patterns.
An absolute treasure trove of Nova Scotia's history, The Garrett
Bluenose Patterns is accented with hundreds of vibrant photographs,
including preserved stencils and burlap patterns as well as finished
rugs, celebrating the meticulous, beautiful Bluenose designs that have
been hooked into colourful finished rugs worldwide for over a century.
Also included are practical tips and how-tos for the budding rug hooker
on everything from creating thematic pictorial scenes to modern
geometrics, as well as a glossary of common rug-hooking terms.
