This gallery page has slideshows with the hooked rugs and other fiber art displayed at the meetings.
Sept 25, 2021
Our members finally enjoyed getting back together in person.
At the meeting we had a discussion of the Task Force that was created last April. It was made up of four volunteers, Donna Allen, Jeanie Crockett, Andrea Gendron, and Ann Duggan. After meeting several times over the summer, these four volunteers put together a survey which was distributed just before the September meeting. People who submitted their survey were entered into a raffle for three gift bags. The three lucky winners were Alicia Mills, Diana DeRoche, and Susan Russo, who each received a gift bag containing a pattern, wool, a hook, socks, and more.
Oct 16, 2021
Gail Dufresne of Goat Hill Designs gave a virtual presentation on geometrics. Gail Dufresne is well known in the industry and has been hooking for 24 years. She is a McGown certified teacher who has been teaching for 20 years. She is the author of two books, Rug Hooking with Fancy Fibers, and Geometric Hooked Rugs: Color and Design. She is a past president of many years at ATHA and is currently the Education chair for ATHA.
We enjoyed a virtual tour of Gail’s studio in New Jersey, where she teaches classes. She likes 3-cut up to hand torn, and often mixes sizes in her rugs. Many of her rugs began as inch mats, or little squares. She noted that inch rugs started out in Canada. She showed us how she has superimposed creatures, such as lizards onto her inch mats. She incorporates dyed and textured wools, proddy, mohair, glitzy wool, quillies and silk sari. She will use the same motifs over and over, such as lizards and sunflowers, as well as the colors black and white.
What a wonderful guest speaker – thank you Gail!
November 20, 2021
This month we were fortunate to have Faith Webster from Maine as a guest speaker.
Faith has been hooking for 36 years, beginning in 1985. She has had many teachers, including Polly Gordon, Lois Dugle, Ethel Brice, Annie Spring, Sarah Guilliani and Angela Foote.
Faith first showed us a beautiful “scrap rug”, done so well you would never know it is a scrap rug. She stitched around the pattern and pre- washed the linen. If you do this, be sure to wash the rug on gentle cycle with a little soap and hang dry. Her rug is now washable!
Over time, Faith moved from traditional rug shading techniques to more creative methods. Faith suggested if you have leftover pieces of a rug that you like, you can always attach it to another piece or dress up a bag, etc. She uses Fray Check around the edges before cutting the piece out and then using glue to attach it to a bag or whatever.
Faith has often found a picture that she liked and has contacted the artist who usually is more than happy to allow her to create a hooked version of the piece. More than once she got the question, “What is rug hooking?”.
December 11, 2021
Our host church had a last-minute need to use our space, so we had to cancel our party.
January 15, 2022
Cancelled due to the surge in Covid cases.
February 19, 2022
Ania Knap held her Tiffany Stained Glass Workshop to introduce members to a different style of rug hooking and discussed many interesting aspects about Tiffany stained glass. She noted that most Tiffany Stained Glass was designed by women in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Ania discussed drapery glass which has three dimensional folds (like drapes); confetti glass, and favrile glass, which is iridescent.
Hooking to get a “stained glass look” is about both the material and the method. For wool, Ania prefers to spot dye her wool to include white areas. When the wool is hooked, these white areas come across as highlights would in stained glass.
Ania’s method of hooking includes directional (up and down for sky; horizontal back and forth for water), as well as cutting the wool pieces in order to achieve a “rippling” effect in the piece. Since each piece of glass would have leading around it, she uses a spot dyed dark wool to mimic her leading. In her demonstration piece, Ania used rug warp and hooked loops size #4.
We also enjoyed a handmade gift exchange, originally planned for December:
March 19, 2022 — Speaker: Diana DeRoche
Diana DeRoche was our guest speaker for March. She spoke about what she has learned about rug hooking from her teachers, especially in Nova Scotia.
Here is a slideshow from Diana’s presentation:
Members also participated in our fun wool game with Donna Allen as the “Sheep” story teller.
Many members brought their polar bear challenge pieces. The Polar Bear Challenge has been extended to May. Everyone who has made the piece should bring it in for the May meeting. Do not change the mat size or finish the piece, and don’t forget the blue dot that represents the Earth! Let’s add to the people who completed the challenge already:
April 16, 2022 — Speaker and Auction
We enjoyed a talk by Kathy Spellacy who is a well known rug hooking teacher. She owns Wool n’ Goods at her home in New Hampshire. Kathy loves antiques and antique rugs, especially Primitives. She discussed rug hooking history. Prior to the 1800’s, people had sand in their rooms, which they moved around with brooms to create designs! 1820 brought heavy coarse bedcovers and furniture covers, which often provided for expensive dowries. The first braided rug was in 1830 and homespun hemp was used in 1840. In the 1860’s, rug hooking was popular up and down the east coast. Patterns were used in 1850 and Sears and Robuck sold printed patterns in 1890.
Kathy told us she likes teaching free form rug hooking (no pattern). She loves primitives, orientals and geometrics. She brought many antique rugs to show us, each one unique:
We also held a live auction run by Ildi Tary and supported by Donna Allen. Lots of interesting items, including frames, cutters, books, and wool! Thank you Ildi and Donna!
Tina Carrick graciously donated felted sheep pins she made for member purchase. She also sold felted sunflower pins for the Ukraine effort. Thank you Tina!
May 21, 2022 — General Hook-in
Polar Bear challenges were presented:
June 18, 2022 — Strawberry Festival
Our annual strawberry festival took place at Ildi Tary’s lovely home in Topsfield. The weather was gorgeous and a wonderful time was had by all.