Owned by Fourth Generation Rug Maker and Dyeing Specialist Stephanie Ashworth Krauss

The Story Behind Green Mountain Hooked Rugs

Owned and operated by a fourth-generation rug maker, Green Mountain Hooked Rugs in Montpelier, Vermont, has been offering supplies and classes for the beginning rug hooker to the experienced textile artist for more than twenty-five years.

A Family Tradition

Owner and custom-dyeing specialist Stephanie Ashworth-Krauss quips that she “was raised on dye spoons, wool dust, and fabric scraps,” having hooked her first rug at age five. This family tradition began with Stephanie’s great–grandmother, Philena Moxley, who created and stamped embroidery and rug patterns from 1865 to1882 at her shop, the PC Moxley Dry Goods Store, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Stephanie’s mother, Anne Ashworth, a nationally recognized rug hooker, worked as a freelance custom dyer, and in 1981 co-founded the acclaimed Green Mountain Rug School, which Stephanie and her family continue to operate today.

Rug Stories

Here, Steph shares some stories behind a few of her more memorable or challenging rug projects.

The "Florida" Fruit Rug: A Labor of Love...
or how two women almost bit off more than they could chew!
Click here for the full story.

The Story of a Rug: Bottom Star Big Dipper
(From Creative Rug Hooking by Anne D. Mather, Sterling Publishing Co. 2000)

Bottom Star Big Dipper by Stephanie Ashworth-Krauss, 1998

Editor’s note: About 6 months before I began writing this book, my teacher and good friend, Mary Williamson, handed me a photo of a rug that a student had given her. The photo haunted both of us. When I got the contract for this book, I started to search in earnest for the creator of this rug, my only clues, “SAK,” the initials in the corner. I called every rug hooker with those initials in the ATHA national directory to no avail. Then, while talking to designer Patsy Becker, I mentioned the rug. She was going to a national ATHA conference soon, and she said; why didn’t I fax her a copy of the rug? So I made up a flier and faxed it to her. The next day Patsy called. “You better sit down,” she said. And once I heard the rug’s story, I knew why it had haunted Mary and me, and why it needed to be in this book.

Click here for the full story.