Looking Skyward

When I hooked Bucky Bee last year, I did a blue background because it is one of the colors of our company, and it is the color of the sky, where Bucky would technically be flying.  Back then, I was just happy to be hooking at all, and to have a rug completed.  Looking back, there are of course a few things I would change about the rug.  One of them is the direction in which I hooked the sky.

I hooked Bucky in a #7 cut, so the loops are fairly big and can be seen well.  You can see that I did overlapping outlines of Bucky - his shape, repeated in about seven rows.  You can definitely see that effect in the finished rug:

The rest of the sky has a nice, swirling marbled effect, but Bucky's outline definitely eminates outward from him.  If I could hook Bucky again, I would make the area behind him go out straighter behind him, like wake.  If he's flying through the air, he won't have his "echo" coming off of him, he will be moving through air like a duck dives through water.  Again, I have Susan Feller to thank for making me think about these things.

On my Iowa Postcard rug, I'm trying to think about that as I hook.  I had already hooked a border line on the sky area, but I didn't want to hook my sky vertically, I want my sky to have a more horizontal appearance, as I think it does in nature.  Here is what I've done (and yes, it's the same wool from my Bucky rug!):

My question to you, Gentle Hookers, is would you have left the vertical border line, or would you have pulled it out and made it all horizontal?

Speaking of Susan Feller, I've found a new way to keep tabs on her - through her blog!  You can find her at http://www.artwools.com/ , where she has photos of her works in progress, including this amazing treeline, called....wait for it...."Mountain Treeline":



Isn't it beautiful!?

I can't completely tell, but it almost looks like the edge of Susan's piece has a vertical line of loops going up the sides for the border, and then different patterns and directions on the actual mountain.  It's harder to tell because the wool is darker than mine and has that terrific pattern in it.

This brings me to a question I've had about hooking borders - some people say you do your border/outline first, and then hook the pattern.  Some people say hook from the center out.  Some people say Do Whatever You Want.  What do you do?  Do you have a tried-and-true method you use when starting a rug?  What is your reasoning for doing it that way?