This gallery page has slideshows with the hooked rugs and other fiber art displayed at the meetings.
September 16 ~ Welcome back
We had a great meeting catching up with old friends and seeing what everyone has been up to over the summer.
Tina Carrick shared the theme for this year’s challenge mats. It will be mats designed using templates. One of our speakers last year, Lisa Chaloner, showed us how to use templates to help in rug designing. With that in mind, Tina chose several templates for us to take advantage of and come up with our own designs. There are two different themes…farm life and sea life.
The images can be enlarged or reduced to fit whatever design you come up with. You can add any other elements you like. While we have no size restriction this year, we would suggest keeping it to approximately 9” square to keep it a manageable project, but if you wish to go big, there is nothing to stop you!
We will set our deadline date to be our March meeting since we always target to get them completed by the Region 1Hook-in in early April.
October 14, 2023 ~ Zentangle mini workshop
Michelle Broadbent, a certified Zentangle Teacher, introduced us to Zentangle and how it could be incorporated into rug design.
Here are the results from those that participated. It is hard to believe we were all given the same instructions, yet our results differ based on our own quirky artistic bents. One could easily take these ideas and use them in a rug design.
November 18 ~ Member journey with Ildi Tary
Those lucky enough to be in attendance at last month’s meeting were treated to a vast exhibit of Ildi Tary’s wonderful fiber arts journey. She shared work spanning several disciplines including embroidery, cross-stitch, knitting, quilting, and rug hooking, keeping us engaged throughout. Ildi enjoys a challenge and has routinely submitted her rugs and quilts at craft exhibits. Not surprisingly, she has come away with first prize on multiple occasions and we were entertained with amusing stories about her competitive determination. It was truly delightful to see all of her beautiful work and we are grateful for the effort she invested in sharing it with us!
December 9th ~ Holiday party
December’s meeting was one of the best times ever! We had food galore, a wonderful show and tell and a gift swap that was to die for!
The handmade gifts covered a very broad range of talents, including knitting, bobbin lace, wool felted soaps, homemade marmalade, needle felting, embroidery, stained glass and, of course, rug hooking. The creative talents of our members are really inspiring! These are just some of the pictures of the awesome gifts that were exchanged!
January 20th ~ Member to member demos
We enjoyed four different demonstrations by members of our own guild.
Finishing rugs: Donna Allen demonstrated finishing rugs with the whipping technique and provided small kits for each person to use to practice and reinforce her instructions
Needle felting: Tina Carrick demonstrated how a variety of little animals and Christmas tree ornaments can be made using simple felted shapes. Members had a chance to try felting to get a sense of how it works. She also showed examples of how felting can be used in hooked mats.
Special stitches: Ildi Tary shared different ways of manipulating standing wool, including how to make and shape quillies, how to gather wool to make flowers, how to prepare shirring and other specialty stitches. Some members left with their own little flower to attach to a lapel!
Punching with yarn: Marcy Young showed how do needle pushing with the Oxford hook. Students were able to punch a bit too.
February 17 ~ Flea market
We had our second annual Flea Market! This is a key fundraiser for our chapter, so the goal is to get a bargain (not a steal) and add to our treasury.
Donations to the sale will pay for more awesome Mayflower activities and speakers. Donations included anything related to rug hooking and other fiber arts, fabric, yarn, patterns, embellishments, and tools.
The Flea Market was a huge success, netting $1,101! We are considering a day-long workshop for next year and will be following up with members on their ideas and preferences.
March 16 ~ Kris McDermet, guest speaker
We were all treated to a great presentation last month by Kris McDermet. Kris and her husband Stuart (who ended up doing some improvisation while Kris was trying to work out some technical issues) presented a truly awesome show of her rugs, which combined hooking with braiding.
April 20 ~ Bev Mulcahey, guest speaker
We all enjoyed Bev Mulcahey’s preseentation as she shared some of her special techniques for finishing rugs.