Artigianati.com

Reba C. Miller doesn't throw away old wool coats or skirts. Instead, she turns them into beautifully designed hooked rugs.

 "When I was a teenager, my grandmother (Amanda Witmer) did it, so I did, too," the 87-year-old Landis Homes resident said.

"I thought I wouldn't do it after I retired," Miller said. However, she said she was asked to make some of the rugs to show during Landis Homes' Farm Days.

"Then it got in my blood again," she said.

Hooking rugs involves drawing strips of yarn or cloth through a canvas or burlap backing using a hook.

Miller said she doesn't know how long it takes to hook a rug.

"It's like a jigsaw puzzle. I do it whenever I feel like it," she said. "I never stick at it that hard."

Miller said she begins the process by taking a burlap feed bag, washing it and then drawing a design on it.

"I use some old bags my son got at auction," Miller said. "The store-bought (burlap) doesn't seem to hold up as well."

She said she puts the burlap on an old quilting frame with a short rod and begins taking small strips of wool-blend material and pulling them through the holes using a handmade hook that belonged to her grandmother.......

Read more at - http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/237090