Tag Archives: hooked rugs

Laurel Mountains 2011

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Becky Headley’s Family Tree

 Family trees, Floral Bouquets and Spring Rabbits were popular subjects for the Fraktur patterns created by students in the Laurel Mountains workshop.

 
This was the first time I had come to Ligonier, and truly enjoyed the town and Ramada Inn where Shirley Engel and her crew coordinated another successful workshop.
 
The other instructors were Jayne Hester and Barb Carroll working with wide cuts and wonderful textured wools.  And Nancy Blood instructing fine cuts using values and detailed drawings.

Australians Spreading Rug Hooking down under

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Jo Franco and Judy Stephens are literally worldwide travelers in search of rug hooking tools, contacts and inspiration.  We met in Wales four years ago during the Tri-Ennial of TIGHR (the International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers).  I went home to the States as President for the next three years and they headed home to Australia having asked: ” What can we do to spread rughooking?”

Fast track to 2009 and these two, along with Miriam Miller and Jacqui Thomson became the next Board for TIGHR at the Louisville, KY Tri-Ennial.  While on the road members of this group visited suppliers, artists and friends in the States, Canadian rugmakers, attended a retreat in the UK, and worked at a project involving sight impaired rug hookers in Gambia.

Jo and Judy teach both Australian techniques in rugmaking incorporating aboriginal basketmaking and proddy popularized by the English immigrants along with, in Jo’s case, being McGown Certified in traditional styles.

Let the River Run, by Judith Stephens 2010

Visit their website ausrugcrafters.com to see more work, and supplies available in Australia for rug hookers.

Fellow blogger posts hooking rug

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Sharon Bennet has been posting her progress working up this design on her blog moosecraftusa.blogspot.com for months.  It’s finished and she sent off the completed image to me.  I posted it also under More New designs (see Ruckman Mill Farm).  The palette she chose is comfortable, and has an aged feeling with the subtle background hooked in large sections with dark wools as if she had run out of a skirt and chose another one.  Note, Sharon says the blue background areas are a bit more grayed (duller) than in this photo.

Hooked rug 28 x 54 by Sharon Bennett, design (c) Susan Feller Designs

Studio Tour in Hampshire County WV

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The third Hampshire Highlands Studio Tour is over and was another fun way to meet neighbors, travelers and fellow artisans.  Although it was cold and very windy the snow we had last year held off allowing travellers to get to all 15 studios. 

From the reports by the artists we are going to put together a fourth tour.  Put the first weekend in December on your calendar and visit www.HampshireHighlandsStudioTour.com throughout the year to see who is added.  We plan to work with the lodging in our county to come up with great packages including tour a day, dinner in Romney, an art event (theatre or concert) at the Bottling Works and lodging in town.  This will allow out-of-towners who enjoy meeting artists to visit all of the studios and enjoy our other cultural benefits.

MountainMade new work

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Columbia County Carnation and Hand Carved Frame

A trip to Beckley means making a circle and coming back through Thomas, WV, visiting the MountainMade Gallery.  Our work has been juried here since 2004 and we dropped off two of the “perfect” pieces which had been reviewed at Tamarack the day before. (See Fine Craft at Tamarack post)

A visit to the great Mountains of West Virginia this winter should take you to the Canaan Valley wonderland.  While there a shopping trip to Thomas, and on the outskirts, the MountainMade Gallery to fill your home with West Virginia art is a must.  The presentation of our work is spectacular, floating on clear glass shelves suspended from the previous factory high ceilings is shiny glassware.  The pottery sits on hand carved wooden tables and our textiles warm the walls and furniture.  Music plays and you can select food products too.

Designing Challenges in Indiana

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Bev and Susan

The  last week of October took me out to Indiana, and Bev Stewart’s Whispering Pines Designs in Clayton.  Bev coordinated two wonderful classes filled with talent and eager people. In three day sessions they worked through the Basic Elements and Principles of Design.  The classes included three generations of fiber artists, and another mother, daughter pair along with people who were pulling their first 1000 loops to those who had spent thousands of hours enjoying wool.    

Bev and the locals coordinate a very successful hook-in the second Saturday of September, bringing in a wide variety of vendors and over 300 eager rugmakers.  The efforts of this organizing group validates the passions thousands have for pulling loops through backing whether the fabric is wool strips, yarns or plastic bags.

The wonderful Arts and Crafts home of Jim and Bev Stewart welcomed me along with its inhabitants.  Jim was “treated” each morning to a bowl of oatmeal I had prepared and the animals seemed to enjoy another person around. 

Kit Cat in Studio at Bev Stewart's

I will be back in May of 2012 to teach two more workshops. Interested students should contact Bev ..at Whispering Pines Designs 6583 S CR 400 E, Clayton, IN 46118 or see Calendar under About Susan Feller