The March/April/May Rug Hooking Magazine issue
Friday, March 12, 2010 at 05:04PM 
I just received my issue of Rug Hooking Magazine and I was delighted to see two fellow bloggers featured! Deanne Fitzpatrick has a wonderful article "Twenty Years at the Mat" and Laurie Lausen has a delightful pattern for a bunny chair pad. Congratulations!
But there was a letter that I read that caused me distress - not the letter, but the content of it. What moved me to write this post is that the author is Tish Murphy herself who faces an uncomfortable situation, and I cannot imagine how bad the situation has become for her to feel so compelled to write to the editor about it.
It appears that the spectacular "St. Nicholas with Chickadee" which was designed by Tish Murphy has been repeatedly copied by readers of the magazine without purchasing Tish's pattern or kit. Tish was extremely generous with her instructions and shared a beautiful work with our community. This design is the creative work of Tish and is readily available to anyone who would like to create their own version, for $25 at Tiskkits@yahoo.com. Tish is asking everyone who copied her pattern without her permission to reimburse her for the cost of the pattern.
What Tish has learned from this experience is that it is not worth it for her to write informative articles for Rug Hooking Magazine like she has been doing. So because of this situation all of us have lost out. We will no longer benefit from Tish's generosity and instruction, and we will no longer be inspired by her featured art, at least not anytime soon.
Rug patterns are the intellectual and artistic property of the person who designed them. They are usually offered for sale at a minimal charge. Please respect the artists who work so hard to create their patterns and offer them to us for sale so that we can hook rugs we love and continue to have a thriving growing craft.