Last Sunday's Quabbin Rug Hooking meet was crammed with 14 busy rug artists.  Here are some views of what they are working on this week.  (And after I feature the Quabbies-work-in-progress here, I'll follow it up with some more amazing rugs from the Rug Social group in Vermont, so keep scrolling down to the end to see those.)

NOTE:  Click on any photo for more info and a larger view.

(There are members who float between both the Quabbie and the Vermont Group.   However the photos below are from members of the Vermont group only. 
​I have permission to post all these photos, so enjoy)

Click on any photo for more info and a larger view.

As you all know, we kinda took the summer off as a group.  Various illnesses (including Covid--everyone's ok though!), super-heat, vacations, hand issues, and Life got in the way.  But:

In June and July, in lieu of regular meetings, we managed to squeeze in a well-attended workshop on Pet Portraits led by Charlie Dalton, the Hooking Colonel, via Zoom.  In June's Part I, we watched as Charlie gave instructions for taking photos of our pets that would work to simplify the design process.  He then described how to accumulate the right values of wools, demonstrated his process for transferring a photo to backing, and began work on his project, a friend's dog named Cole, giving tips and instruction every step of the way.  There was a 3-week break for us each to gather wool, take clear photos, transfer the designs, and start hooking.  Part 2 in July began with a show-and-tell and was a mammoth question and answer session with everyone hooking.  Many specific questions were resolved along the way as participants hooked together (still via Zoom) and got questions in about hooking eyes, hair, tongues, ears, everything that makes our pets so cute.  
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And then summer took over...no one has finished yet (except Charlie) but as you can see below, everyone made a great beginning.  There were many more participants than I have photos for but I couldn't get permission to show any other photos than these.  Enjoy ogling, and I'll post again when/if I get completed projects and permission.  In no particular order, I present to you:

I think everyone is back working on their portraits now.  But where are the dogs??? 

Well, finally!  Here's Joanne's start on Maddie, to the right.  Altogether too cute if you ask me.

If any of you other class participants have a partially finished dog to show (this means YOU, Lynda, and anyone else), please send me a photo and permission to include it.   Thanks. 

And special thanks to Charlie for starting this portrait insanity.

Are you still working on your beloved parrot or turtle portrait?  Even a rubber chicken portrait will do.  C'mon people!  Send them to me with your permission to post!

November 2021 brought a truly fun and inspiring meeting at Greenleaves.  Ten people showed up; most of us didn't leave until after 2 pm.  Between the rugs, the food (Lynda's killer cookies and the killer brownies brought by Elizabeth V.), I think we all gained ten pounds even though we were madly exercising our hooking arms the entire time.  Why don't hooking and eating balance each other out?  Life is just not fair.

And now here is the rug parade.  Prepare to drool.

 New visitor--and perhaps upcoming member?--Deb T from Belchertown is hooking the above holiday-themed rug (she brought 2 Christmas rugs).  We hope she returns!  Here is her second one below, which she finished in the recent past.

I didn't catch who designed this pattern but it has been beautifully hooked by Deborah T.  You'll see it again later in this post.

We had two other new folks this time besides Deborah T--Marie S  from New Salem and Michelle L from Greenfield showed up and each brought wonderful things to show, as you'll see below.  Marie regularly exhibits her other work (painting) at the Shelburne Arts Cooperative, and Michelle is the owner of a day care business in Greenfield (and appears to be one of those folks who can pick up any craft and do it well immediately).

We really hope they  will keep coming back.

And now for a few more rugs.  We had quite a "throwdown" and discussion, hearing some history on all the rugs and ooh-ing and aahh-ing away.

Lynda's rug is coming along beautifully--you can see her initial design from when she was just starting this rug in the August post.

Referring back to the holiday theme, here's a Santa rug hooked by Deborah Palmer.

Deborah reports that she wouldn't normally have chosen this to hook, but a friend of hers who's very "into" Christmas bought it and planned to make it and then decided that hooking isn't for her.  So Deborah kindly offered to make it for her and is just completing it in time for the holiday.

I'm not much of a holiday fan either but I love the stocking and the upper and lower borders (someone commented that the borders were truly Deborah's personal touch on this pattern).  I also love the background and the way she hooked the robe and face.  All in all, a cutie-pie Santa!

So to complete the holiday theme, here are both "vertical rugs" together below, done by the two Deborahs who were at the meeting yesterday:

But wait, there's more!

Marie S is beginning this Sunflower Delight design from The Old Tattered Flag.  She plans to use a red background, which will be just gorgeous.  I didn't get to see this one up close but in addition to the wonderful finished flower I heard someone saying that the flower center is done beautifully in Waldeboro-style.  Marie plans to make this piece into a very large pillow once it's finished.

Michelle brought a rug repair she is working on, below.  This sunny-looking charmer is probably between 80-100 years old (I'm talking about THE RUG, not Michelle), and doesn't it make you want to smile?  It's hooked--or punched?--with yarn.  Unfortunately it was done on burlap and as you can imagine, the edges are frayed and in need of repair.  Michelle found the red yarn she's using to fill in (after mending the edges first of course) in Oregon.  She saw the yarn without the rug, but thought "this looks about right," and it's a perfect match.  Who does that?  She nailed it.  The owner of the rug says it was hooked by her mother and she wants it back asap, so Michelle was on a mission to get this done.

You may remember Phyllis's rug, which she was just beginning when I last posted (August).  You can scroll back to see her mostly-unhooked design there.  Phyllis has been busy and has created this masterpiece to go with her other masterpieces.  We were all in awe.  She is just beginning to bind this rug.  See below:

And to round us out, here's Kathleen H's current piece, the wonderful and wildly creative rabbit rug below.  You may remember that Kathleen adores rabbits but also adores her garden, so her usual affection for bunnies was sorely tested when they "dined in" on her garden last summer.  To take her revenge, she has decided to do a series of rabbit rugs.  This is the first.  This is another rug that cannot help but bring a smile to your face.  We can't wait to see what she does next with it.

We are taking December off and will start 2022 with a meeting the 2nd Saturday in January.

Due to the Covid Delta variant we had to return to Zoom for this Quabbie meeting.  We had a great time anyway!  Below is the show-and-tell (with permission from all) that we had at the meeting.

Here are finished works or works in progress.

Carole is a recent member (but not a new rug maker) who lives in Acton.  She started this ambitious rug project 4 years ago in a class with Janet Connor at Green Mountain Rug Hooking School.  At the time, Carole was new to the art of rug hooking and was really intimidated by this rug which she adapted from a photograph of one of Van Gogh's transitional paintings titled "Bulb Field."  Janet Connor drew the image on the linen for her and she got the rug started, but after the rug school ended she came home and put it away.  She'd take it out every once in a while and work on it, then put it away again.
Fortunately time and her experience creating other rugs since then has allowed her to overcome her intimidation and now she's working steadily on it.  She's using cuts from 3 to 9, with the larger cuts mostly in the foreground where the scene would be closest to the eye.  This rug is approximately 16x24" and will go on a wall when done.  A closeup of a small section is above.

Next up, we have a rug from Debbie Palmer of Olde Hadley Wool.  If you look back at our last meeting notes, you can see the start of this rug, self-designed by Debbie.  She made it for her Cape Cod cottage as a runner to hold everyone's sandy sandals when people come into the house from the beach, and completed it very quickly.  She used 6, 7, and 8 cuts.  Most of the rug is over-dyed textured wool in a variety of colors from her stash.  Approximately 12x28"

Here is Lynda Faye's rug design (is this fun or what?) based on a dream she had in which she was thrilled to be hanging around 2 hippos, one of whom was craving and eating peanut butter. 
In the dream Lynda was getting ready to feed even more peanut butter to her hippo friend.  Although the design is the product of Lynda's happy dream, she is also paying homage to the Rug Hooking Magazine challenge from last year asking people do design rugs with "thought bubbles" in them (a la cartoons).  She volunteers each week at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst (unbelievably charming) and found a book there with two hippos that also inspired her.  Her hippos will likely be bright pink, and she's left room for a wide border with lots of possibilities for colorful geometrics surrounding the center.  Approximately 17x28.  She'll use a 6-cut.

From Phyllis Lawrence we have a wonderful self-designed rug of her four grandchildren.  She developed this from a photo of them running out of the ocean waves at a stony beach in Maine three years ago.  It's her first try hooking people.  She's using a 4  cut on monks cloth and the piece is about 17x28.   Because her grandkids live on two different coasts in the US, she's very fond of this rare image of them all in one place.

Last but not least is Tricia Miller's Wood Duck, measuring approximately 10x16 and developed from an open-source photograph.  Done in a 3-cut.  She had quite a challenge here, creating the amazing background by hooking dip-dyed wool horizontally, exactly in the order it was cut.  And since the strips were not quite long enough to make it all the way across the width of the piece, she had the added challenge of somehow kluging left-over pieces of the dip-dye together where the strips didn't meet, without making it obvious.  It's so seamless, you'd never guess! 

​Her comment on this was that it's not the kind of hooking one can do while talking or while watching tv, as it requires total attention.  And she remarked that hooking this way with a dip-dye results in a lot of leftover pieces, so it's not cost effective either.  However, the effect is worth it.
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 Getting Unstuck, Pictures, and Upcoming September Hook-in
FIRST, THE BIG NEWS:
Here's another reminder:  The 2021 Quabbin ATHA Hook-In is scheduled for
​ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 18TH
at the Shelburne-Buckland Community Center
​53 Main St.
Shelburne Falls, MA
from 10-4
pre-registration required (BEFORE Sept 1 please)
​(limited to 40 participants)
click on the Upcoming Events tab to download the form to register


Evolving details are under the "Upcoming Events" tab (keep checking) ​.

 During the constructive critique part of the meeting we all showed our rugs and took plenty of advice from each other.  At least four of us were hopelessly stuck on our rugs, each for different reasons.    We got excellent suggestions from everyone.  Here are the pix--enjoy.  (Click on each photo to enlarge, plus read the caption and story by clicking on each)

Yes, we did it again!  Met in person, that is.  What a relief to be vaccinated and able to meet like this, something we all took for granted in the Before Times.  About a dozen of us met on Diana's humongous deck, in the shade, in lovely cool Shelburne.  The air was clear and cool enough to hook comfortably.  We had members from MA, VT, and NH, and conversation never lagged.  For samples of what people were working on, see below.  Those of you who couldn't make it were much missed.  Oh, and the sparkly sneakers above, which I badly coveted, were on Lynda's feet.

What I noticed was that most people were starting new pieces.  See below.

NOTE:  TO ENLARGE THE PHOTOS AND/OR READ THEIR CAPTIONS, CLICK ON EACH PHOTO.
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In July we'll meet at our usual venue, Greenleaves, in the air conditioned comfort of the very large Community Room.  Look under the "Regular Meetings" tab of this website for details on date, time, and directions.  Hope to see you there.

FINALLY, finally finally.  We are meeting in-person again.  Several of us, all vaccinated, gathered on Lynda's very large deck behind her condo building.  It was a very hot sunny Sunday and fortunately there were umbrellas and comfy chairs in the shade.  But best of all, it was just wonderful to be hooking together again.  There was a lot of business covered (see below), and a lot of rug ogling and rug hooking.  Here are the photos to prove it:

There were some other rugs as well (including two finished Duncans) but yours truly was somewhat overheated and inept and didn't get pictures.  You'll just have to come to a meeting and see for yourself!  I went home with three pounds of wool yardage, gorgeous wools originally from Dorr.  Lynda is looking to sell wool that's taking up space in her condo.  There will be future wool sales at ridiculously low prices.  This time it was only $6/lb.

Lynda wrote up some of the things we discussed at the meeting.  Here are her comments:
Highlights (not minutes) of the meeting, by Lynda:
 
1.  Wool sale was held and some wool was bought by attendees but not enough!

We agreed to sell wool at the Hook-In in September instead of having vendors.***
                a. members can bring wool to the Hook-In to sell.
                b. at the next meeting we will decide who and where people will get together                       and bag (and price?) wool to sell at the Hook In.

                ***NOTE:  YES, THERE WILL BE A HOOK-IN IN SEPTEMBER!  9/18/21 in fact.                                Make a note of the date and stay tuned for further details.  

2.   Attendees were asked if people would like to work on a group rug.
         -No-
         Attendees were asked if people would be interested in working on an
        agreed-upon idea:
         ******there was some interest in an open ended, widely interpreted idea like
“atmosphere” or “community” etc. based on book Twelve of Twelve.

To be discussed further
3       There was interest in taking a class as a group.

To be discussed further
4.      There was general interest in having a day of dyeing wool at Liziana. Diana will give us some dates to consider using her facility. Dyers will coordinate and bring supplies!!

5.      Magazine subscriptions:  maintain current subscriptions, no increase

6.      Treasurers report was given:  We have $3,676.58 in our Treasury as of December 31st 2020.  As of May 16th, 2021 we have $3891.58.  Last year while we were all hibernating, the biggest expense was $107 to establish this website.

7.      Discussion of Rug Registry history.
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8.   Next meeting on June 20th at Liziana in Shelburne.  Click HERE for directions.
 

Oh my goodness.  The Quabbies (and a few friends from the Vermont Rug Social group) met yesterday in Shelburne/Colrain at Diana O'Brien's home--on her deck out back.  And what a time we had.  It was so chilly and windy at first we thought we might have to meet inside, but as the sun moved westward we were all able to sit to the deck, with masks and layers of clothing, and hooked out there.  The deck is a dream.  The view!  Well, you'll see below.

At one point everyone went down to Diana's studio/store, in a building just a few feet down the mountain, and I saw quite a few loaded bags coming back up onto the deck shortly thereafter.  Most of us followed the sun as it moved around.  Some of us played dodge-ball to avoid black walnuts falling with loud cracks onto a small portion of the deck from a tree to one side.  They sounded like miniature explosives going off whenever one landed on the wood.  Luckily, no one got beaned and everyone went home in good health.

Rugs are shown below.  An absolutely gorgeous day, and all of us agreed it was wonderful to meet in person and not on Zoom.

Wow, how the world has changed since I last posted.  But we all know all about that.  So I have no more to say about it, other than...

FINALLY we had a meeting of the Quabbies at Greenleaves in Amherst last Sunday.  Six of us came and we masked up and sat on the condo association's huge deck out back.  Here are some photos from the meeting.  Joann G took home the prize for Most Rugs Completed--you can see hers first.  She was binding all of them (well actually, still working on one of them).

Kathleen brought a piece she had only drawn onto linen the night before, a banner stating "No Justice, No Peace," but since he was only starting the hooking as we began the meeting, I did not get a photo.  She has also finished (almost) quite an amazing rug but it was too large to bring to the meeting; hopefully we'll see it soon.

Our NEXT MEETING IS SEPTEMBER 20TH from 11-2 at Diana's Liziana Creations Studio in Shelburne.  For details, please go HERE. 

Oh boy oh boy.  Our group was recently able to purchase a substantial amount of wool suitable for rug hooking from the estate of Sherry Jones. Once the wool has been inventoried, weighed, and priced, we’ll choose an upcoming meeting and announce the sale well in advance. Plan to come and increase your stash. More details will follow. Really, who doesn’t need more wool???

By my count there are at least 18 tubs of wool in the photo below, and I think another 3 or 4 tubs are in the middle but hidden behind what's visible.  That's a LOT of wool to choose from.    The other two photos below are pictures of what we saw as we took the top off two of the tubs.  It's looking good!