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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.
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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).  This wonderful rug is someone else's design but Joann heavily altered the border. I remember her saying that the color planning resulted from when she picked up a skein of wonderfully dyed Violet Jane yarn, brown, which she is now using to whip the edge of the rug (you can see the binding attached and waiting for whipping on the left of this photo). We all went crazy over the design and colors.  Another rug from Joann! I'm not quite remembering if this is her own design--I think it is--but I do remember that the rabbit is hooked entirely from hand spun rabbit hair yarn, which she picked up at the Cummington Fair. It's so soft, and the raised areas are great fun!  Joann's third rug. I believe she was still tweaking this one a bit and is soon to be working on the binding for it. I do not remember whose design this is.  I just loved this piece Penny is working on with its cheerful, colorful trees and the variety of yarns and wool that she is using. It's turning out great. I think that's a sari strip on the left. A little gem!  Chris S is beginning to work on this wonderfully silly hen piece. It's a great pattern! I'm liking the colors a lot also. Another gem.  This truly amazing piece is really coming along, designed and color planned (and of course, hooked) by Lynda F. You can see her sketches on the left. She was inspired by the artist Kehinde Wiley but the design is all her own. This is already a stunner and I cannot wait to see it done! 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! 
We'll all begin with the same pattern, but we can choose to hook it any way/style/method/color we wish.  These are samples, but you can go wild with your version. They are only 8x8 inches or 18x12 inches (about the size of a license plate). Do them in your own style!
The recent Quabbin Rughooking Annual Hook-in, held in Shelburne Falls (Massachusetts) was a totally enjoyable day. The weather was great; the venue was excellent, there was plenty of parking and not too far to go to get all the hooking goodies into the hall. There was good food and great companionship. Oh, and lots of rug hooking too. A total of 25 rug makers came, ranging in age from 10 year old Iris to 99 year old Betty. Iris was there for the second year in a row! See a few of the rugs-in-progress below. There were two vendors (Liziana and The Dappled Ewe), door prizes galore (some people won several, and took home fabulous hand-dyed wools), and at lunch there was a throw-down of rugs in progress, a few of which are in the photos you'll see below. And was a rug show in the front hall. Very educational and inspirational. GROUP PROJECT IS GETTING STARTED We announced a group project for 2020--you do not have to be a member of this group to participate, however. That will be the subject of the next blog post. ATHA RUG REGISTRY--A SMART IDEA Diana O'Brien of Liziana Creations (one of the vendors and also one of our members) was handling the ATHA Rug Registry, a wonderful service which gathers all the practical details about a rug, takes a digital photo, and maintains that information in a permanent online register (hard copy as well). If a registered rug were ever to be damaged, stolen (oh no!) or sold and lost, a photo with a full history of its designer and creator would be forever available. Diana was able to register 19 rugs during the course of our hook-in. (NOTE: Quilters have been doing this for decades and there's a quilt registry with thousands of entries; it's been instrumental in both identifying old quilts and their history, and also in resolving cases where quilts have been stolen.) DATE FOR NEXT YEAR Mark your calendars for next year's Quabbin Hook-in Event: It will be held on September 19th, 2020 in Shelburne Falls, at the Shelburne-Buckland Community Center. Registration details and more information will follow next summer. |
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