1846 Bishop Hill Hooked Rug

I just pulled the last loop on the 1846 Bishop Hill Rug that I worked on during my Jan Goos class in Nebraska City.  This is a pattern I drew after our summer vacation stop at Bishop Hill, Illinois.  Bishop Hill is a village that settled in 1846 by a group of Swedish immigrants seeking religious freedom.  Bishop Hill is a quiet, country village www.bishophill.com that has many historic buildings, bakery, shopping and live demonstrations.  We had lunch in this cute old filling station you could even see where the oil pit from the garage was.  My favorite store was a place called Sweet Annies......great, great primitives.  This rug depicts Sweet Annies on the left.  Originally these two buildings were governmental buildings.  The flower in the middle of my rug represents the road that divides the two buildings but led to some wonderful flower beds in the backyards.  If you are ever on 1-80 heading across Illinois you must detour and stop at this lovely village.