it never gets tired....

I realized today, as I sat down to start typing this post, that my trip to Vermont on the weekend marked my 10th visit to see the "Hooked in the Mountains Show" mounted by the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild, at the Shelburne Museum. Beginning with my very first trip, with AJ, my mum, and my cousin's wife Shellie to see Patty Yoder's Alphabet of Sheep in 2001, I haven't missed a single annual show. I also haven't regretted a single minute of the 9+ hour drive each way -- it's totally worth it, to me. Whether I have taken a class, or two, taught, or simply taken in the show itself, it's always time well spent, and I consider it to be an 'annual pilgrimage' of sorts.

For me, it's a rare opportunity to see so many wonderful rugs up close and personal, that are mounted in a professional, attractive and thoughtful way. And, it's a time when I can chat with acquaintances and my fellow rug hooking peeps, most of whom I really only get to see during the show each year. I realized this weekend that I also appear to track and follow individuals' progress over the years -- and am amazed that I can recall so many past rugs and works that the same people have hooked. I really like it when I can identify the artist without looking at the description on the card.....and it makes me want to have a recognizable style, too.

One of the highlights of this year's trip to see the Show was the new program of Guest Speakers. On Sunday, we were able to take in a presentation by Ann Winterling and Peg Irish -- two rug hookers I've only known about for many years. It was wonderful to hear more about their supportive, collaborative relationship, and its influence on each other's rug hooking. Later in the day, Kris McDermet was on hand to share what she knows about hooking and braiding with silk, along with demonstrations of rug braiding in general. It was very informative -- and a lot of information was shared in a very short amount of time. Kris coauthored a recent book on combining rug hooking and braiding....and I'm looking forward to pouring over it come Christmas (thanks Mum! :-) )

It's not too late to plan a little trip to see the show -- it's still on through Sunday November 20th, and you can find out more about the planned speakers and scheduled events here.

Upon seeing the show each year, I always feel so energized and excited to start hooking when I get home. And, this year is no exception -- I will start working on Jumbo again tonight.....and get back to serious hooking for the first time in months.

This year, my mum and I took along two 'virgins': Wendie and Elaine, and it was fun to see it all again for the first time, through their eyes. Along with many of our old haunts, we also squeezed in some new places, too. It was a great girls' getaway weekend, for sure.

Trish Johnson's Rugs - part three

Here are 4 more bigger rugs - each one very different from the next. Again, the range is incredible - if I didn't know better, I might think they were hooked by different people.....





I have one more post to come with Trish's work - little art quilts....hopefully tomorrow.

Trish Johnson's Rugs - part two

There are still lots more lovelies to come....

Most of these rugs are smaller mats....and they show a very eclectic variety of styles and colours -- and a number of different edge treatments.

During her talk, Trish said, "If you can't get what you want, sometimes it's good to like what you get...." Wise words. I can't remember which rug in particular she was referring to -- frankly I would be very happy to have ended up with any of her results.

Love the song (by Leonard Cohen)....and love the mat....





I want to dive deep into this water.....



The detail in this house mat is incredible -- and it's only about 10" by 15". I think it would take me a whole lifetime of constant fiddling to try to capture this much resolution! And the red tree with the red brick house.....wow!



Sweet little mat of Trish and her sister as children....featured in A Needle Pulling Thread a couple of years ago....I think it was the smallest one (about 10" by 10" or smaller?)

Trish Johnson's Rugs - part one

After 3 full days of travelling last week, that finished with me arriving home late Thursday night, the last thing I wanted to do was get back in the car on Friday and drive to Toronto. Except for the planned PJ party at Elaine's with Wendie....and the rare opportunity to hear Trish Johnson talk about her rugs and see almost all of them together in one place. Needless to say, it was totally worth the drive.

Wendie already blogged about some of the wonderful stories behind Trish's rugs....and really nothing bring a rug to life quite like the story behind the rug - especially when you are a good storyteller. Unfortunately you will have to be content with some pictures of the rugs themselves.....and a few fuzzy ones at that. Sorry. No photograph (at least none of mine, and none that I can recall seeing) can do justice to a rug.....but they are better than nothing :-)

I took a whack of pictures, so I will break them up into a few more manageable posts. This first part contains Trish's first few rugs and a number of larger, pictorial/landscapy rugs.

I'm pretty sure the rug in this first photo was also Trish's first hooked rug.....
All of the wool was used 'as-is', except for the sky, which was a white skirt she dyed with RIT.


Most of these next few scenes recall childhood memories and family homes....







One of very few 'patterns' that Trish has hooked - Culley's cottage with lots of additions and customizations. I love the snow on the trees and the bright yellow on the scarf with the turquoisey water.....



I 'met' this rug on the pages of Celebrations years before I had the opportunity - or the nerve - to meet it's maker.....incorporating her grandmother's actual handwriting to help illustrate the store is such a terrific idea...


I don't think I will ever tire of seeing this next one - another Celebrations winner. You can see some close-ups on a previous post here.


Pretty amazing, eh. And there are still more to come.....

P.S. You can click on any of the photos (as with all photos on the blog) to see a larger, more detailed image.

wonky trees

These photos have been sitting on my desktop for the last month, patiently waiting to be posted. I saw this rug at R.U.G. at the beginning of October and was immediately in love with all of the texture found within it. As its creator, Gail Mueller said, "it's hooked with everything". T-shirts, sweaters, ribbons, many different yarns, you name it - it's in there! Despite all of the texture, it still has a fairly clean look to the surface -- not super shaggy (as sometimes happens...)

Hopefully some of these close-ups show off some of theses different materials....and encourage some experimenting! ;-)

flashback Friday - Grandma's Orientals

Let's hope the second time's the charm -- I was up early this morning, plucking away cropping and resizing pictures...when the power went out. Needless to say, I was wishing that I had finished getting ready for work first, instead of starting to work on my post....but c'est la vie.

Both AJ and my Grandma hooked many Oriental pieces. Family legend has it that my Grandma would take on an large rug project each year and spend the winter month hooking away on it. I will try to arrange the photos in order, from largest to smallest, but since it's been years since I've seen a couple of the rugs, I have to resort to guessing a little.

This first rug is my cousin's....and I just love the colours that Grandma used -- especially the rusty red, with the turquoise and the browns....mmmmm. I've only seen this once before, but thought it was beautiful. Hooking all of those repeating motifs must have resulted in some serious trance time...


This rug belongs to my Aunt. I was surprised to realize that AJ had hooked the same pattern, but with different colours and different finishing....so it wasn't immediately obvious to me.


You may recognize this next one.....since it's been featured in the background of many of my photos. It's my mum's rug, but it's been living with me for over 10 years. It's about 4.5' by 6.5' and the background in the border and corners has faded quite a bit, it used to be much bluer.....


This is another of my -- oops, I mean my Mum's -- rugs......more faded blues, but still very lovely. It's about 4' by 6'.....


This is the only piece of my Grandma's hooking that is truly mine. It's about 2' by 3'....and although the colours are not really my favourites, I treasure it all the same.


This is my sister Sandra's mat....it's about the same size as mine, but hooked in more traditional colours.


P.S. If you click on any of the photos, they will open in a new window and you can see a larger image, with more detail.

Faces by Diane Phillips

I've long been a fan of Diane's work....and I was curious to see what would be on display at the show, since Diane was one of the featured artists. Amongst the work in the show were several of her marvelous hooked faces. Here is a sampling....













....and I saved the best for last -- this beauty currently resides with me! (Diane and I made a trade, and I couldn't be happier.)


Seeing all of these faces has ignited a bit of a spark in me to get back to work on my grandparents project (hooked portraits which incorporate pieces of each of their clothing). I took Diane's class a few years ago and started by hooking my Nana....but I really struggled with the eyes (and my family all agreed that it did not look at all like her. I think it was due to the pop-eyes, as the hair and the face were pretty good). Maybe it would make a great project for the new year....and I can put to use some of the things I learned while hooking Dapple Aimee?

N.S. Day Three: first day of class

Today was a wonderful day. The class was amazing....and many other great things happened, too. One of the most interesting things for me (and I think I've mentioned it before) is seeing where a person's ideas for their art originate. Doris Eaton has one of the best scrapbooks for this -- including pictures of the finished piece alongside her original sketches and any inspirational images or photos.

In today's class, she shared with the class her streamlined approach to sketching the design for a recent rug....and we were also able to see the finished piece: Tall Trees and Hollyhocks.




Doris also shared a wonderful work that was designed and created by her daughter, Mary Vaughan. This picture gives some idea of the size - it is massive! Originally designed to be a stair runner, she later opted to hang it on the wall so that the design wasn't broken up. It is stunning.



We also had a special visitor in class: Mama Mansour! Are you familiar with Mama's video? Deanne and Donny will be offering a class together next year during the Fibre Arts Festival.


One of the things we did in class today was a little challenge piece. Everyone was provided with a little bag of wool - including small amounts of cut and uncut fabric, yarns, ribbons, fleece, etc. - and we were challenged to hook a little landscape using only the contents of our bag -- in just an hour! What amazed me the most about the exercise is that by limiting my choices, I hooked much faster than usual. I didn't have a lot to choose from, so I didn't spend (waste?) a lot of time selecting each strip or color.

The following picture shows what I hooked, as well as the remaining contents of my scrap bag. I will admit that I had a particularly good bag....


At lunchtime, we went for a quick walk over to Bella's Cafe, where there is little show of Doris' work on display. Since people were eating their lunch at the time, we didn't feel comfortable taking pictures.....but we will have that luxury tomorrow night, when there is a special dinner at Bella's as part of the Fibre Arts Festival.



I love these hockey rugs - even though I'm not really a hockey fan...unless it's the Olympics!



It is so interesting to see all of the different colours, values, textures and fibres that were used in this piece (this is a close-up of the above mat)....


We had a quick trip to Heidi's after class - where decision making is always difficult, because there are so many lovely things. Then it was off to Duncan's (again!) for supper. So far I've been able to keep to my "eat seafood every day" diet... ;-)

In the evening, we had the fortunate opportunity to be introduced to Newfoundland author, Donna Morrissey, at her book reading. There is nothing quite like hearing an author read sections of her book aloud -- it makes me wish that all books could talk. I picked up an autographed copy of Kit's Law....and can't wait to read it (as soon as I finish An Echo in the Bone, of course!)

I cannot wait to see what we do in our second day of class....