About us

Here at Searsport Rug Hooking, whether you come to the studio or shop online, we hope we make your experience the best we possibly can. We have been in retail gift business for over 45 years, with 27 of those years as a rug hooking fiber business.

We offer help from the best! – Chris is the mother of the duo and she is the head designer and color planner. She has a sharp eye and is happy to help with a custom design or with some color planning tips. Julie, the daughter is the main fabric dyer and loves stirring a pot! You can enjoy the results whether it’s the dye pots or the stove pots, at one of our events or luncheons! Sometimes it’s “just because” and the bounty is set up by the coffee station in the classroom. Neil came into the business full time in 2019 when he retired from his work at Island Pool and Spa in Maine. His boss there is the friend Julie started Hooking with years ago ;) He now handles the shipping department and any handyman jobs around the studio, drives the truck and trailers to any shows and still does all our woodworking! Our store is staffed with avid hookers, punchers and stitchers to help you and we all welcome you to our creative space, to share our expertise, answer questions, and help you find just the right stuff!

We offer our Rug Hooking designs and our own line of appliqué kits – not to mention we are one of a small handful of backing importers with our own line of linen, both natural, super wide, white and our wonderful monks cloth for Oxford punching, hooking and tufting guns!

We offer Classes, consultation, and creativity – whether you are a rug hooker, a wool crafter, puncher with mini or Oxford punchers or just love fiber projects, we can help you to meet your project goals.

A fun shopping experience – We ended up with three shops side by side, opened up and connected to fit all our passions. We have a dye kitchen, wood shop, a design section and a huge classroom that we use for traveling teachers, classes, workshops, events and it even hosts, a no charge to attend our Thursday fiber group! We welcome you to come check us out! Daisy and Tippy, the shop dogs will welcome you and show you that our store is a great place to have a cup of coffee, relax and spend an hour or two!
About us...
We started crafting and doing little craft shows in PA when Julie was newly married in 1981! We did dried flowers and slowly added gifts and grew and grew. In 1984 Chris and Wayne moved to Maine and started with a small vegetable stand with baskets and flowers. Julie, Neil and their family followed in 1987 and once again slowly started a new business. It grew into the huge store that was Silkweeds in Searsport Maine, sadly they closed and sold the business in 2024. Back in 1997 Julie tried rug hooking with a close friend and so it began..... We sold Silkweeds in 2004, to pursue Rug Hooking full time. We bought a beautiful sea captains home in Searsport and filled every room with rug hooking, rug punch, books, felting, penny rugs, all kinds of fiber related supplies. That was home to Searsport Rug hooking for 6 years. Then one day Julie came to work and could not see out the back windows due to snow, she called Chris who was wintering in Florida, and said enough! That is when we downsized, moved the business  to Verona Island, Me, so she could enjoy winters in Florida. Then in April of 2017 we signed a lease on a new Studio in Port Charlotte, FL that opened May 16, 2018! At that time we closed the Maine location and in June, 2018 we signed the lease to encompass three stores at the new location so we could break threw the wall and expand to a full classroom and meeting room! 

Did you know that most of what we sell, we make! Other than things like books, scissors and those kinds of things, its done by us four!

We import the linen and monks cloth we use in our patterns, so with receiving a shipment about every 4 weeks we are able to keep a nice stock and ship even large orders the same or the next day! Chris designs all our patterns and draws them all by hand on the linen. Since we purchased the Rugs By Carol line she is very busy! Julie dyes the fabrics and keeps up our website and social media pages. Our Husbands, Wayne and Neil, are very involved with the business too. Neil does all the shipping, makes all our frames, hooks, cutter stands and any wooden products we sell. Neil also works full time in the store doing anything but color planning or running the register! LOL Wayne has helped for years, while more in the background with support and business advise. He was also our landscaper/gardener/maintenance man for when Neil was working to many hours to do it all. We are very proud of the hours, days and years it has taken us to build our business. And we take very seriously every one of our customers. We have not lasted this long or grown to this size, by not doing so. We try to answer emails within hours, ship orders as fast as possible, if not the same day and handle any problems fairly for everyone. So you can see we are not just selling "stuff" and it's not just a "hobby", It is our family business and we hope you are satisfied and choose us again when you need rug hooking or stitching items.

We also have a wonderful small crew of helpers who help make things happen here at Searsport. Our 2 head ones are Linda in the wool room and Denise is all over the studio helping to make sure we are the best we can be for your wool and thread passion! 

Chris & Wayne, Julie & Neil and the Gang From Searsport Rug Hooking