Susie Stephenson has been hooking rugs for eleven years. She started when her mother put her hook in her hand and said, "Try this." In a week Stephenson finished her first rug and started another. She was hooked on hooking! Recently she retired from teaching to hook and write full time.

Today Stephenson mainly hooks with the result she is not influenced by other designs and rules. She designs and hooks her own rugs and is not afraid to take chances on nontraditional fabrics or pulling the loops higher or lower to suit her image of the rug. She believes that, although rug hooking has been around for hundreds of years, it recently has become a very collectible collectors will seek out unusual and artistic examples regardless of age.

Each of Stephenson's designs tells a story. One of her favorites is a picture of a large smiling fox in the middle of the rug. In three corners are three chickens. In the fourth corner is just a feather! They have chickens at their farm and a neighborhood fox who occasionally stops by for a snack. Many of her rugs tell stories of beloved animals and pets or of the many houses she has lived in or dreams about. Recently she started hooking boats, water scenes, and mermaids. She especially loves experimenting with colors and textures in the sky and getting the water to look like it's moving.

All wool that Stephenson uses is recycled from garments collected at second hand shops or clothing discards given to her.

Stephenson recently started teaching classes on primitive rug hooking. She also has been involved in Hook Ins around the state and has spoken at the Maine State Museum during a Hook In May. She lives in Edgecomb with her husband, four children and a variety of pets and animals.