Utah Rug & Fiber Guild

Group Meetings

2012-02-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

Listed below are the different rug hooking groups who meet locally - along with contact information in case you're interested in joining with them! The more the merrier!

The Cache Valley Hookers meet on the 2nd Friday of each month from 12-3 at Sandy's home in Wellsville. Please contact her for the address at tdlewis63 (at) gmail (dot) com

This group meets in Davis County on Tuesday evening every single week at 7pm. Please contact Rebecca at rlemperle (at) comcast (dot) net

The Plum Alley Hookers meet on the 3rd Saturday in downtown SLC at the Rio Grande train depot. Please contact Londi at londirowley (at) comcast (dot) net ~or~ Lisa at lisawooly4ewe (at) aol (dot) com for information on how to gain access to the building.

Nancy hosts a rug hooking meeting each month on the 2nd Wednesday from 10-1. Email her at nancyraybould (at) gmail (dot) com to get her home address.

A daytime group meets in Clearfield on the 1st Tuesday of each month from 10-1. Please contact Marliss at motivated5 (at) yahoo (dot) com ~or~ Gayle at dyeing2hook (at) msn (dot) com for the location.

If there are any other groups we're not aware of, please leave a comment below with the information and will be happy to include it here!

January Meeting

2012-01-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Our Quarterly meeting was held on January 7th and we learned how to make rug hooking journals. The guild provided small photo albums and each member who attended then decorated the journals to reflect their own personality using scrapbook paper and rubber stamps. We were instructed on how this will be a great place to keep pictures of our rugs, along with pertinent information about them - such as their size - who they were made for - what kind of backing was used - and when they were hooked. It will be so nice to have this record at our fingertips for future reference! Pictures of the albums are shown below.

Two More Stools Finished

2011-11-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of two more stools that have been finished by Guild members - the first one was done by Nancy - the wools she used for the hooked rug are a perfect color match to authentic yellowware - it looks great!

And Gayle has also finished her project - she found baskets just the right size to be used as drawers on this piece.

Pics from November Meeting

2011-11-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we held our Guild meeting and had a turnout of about 15 people. Our project for the day was making wooly feather trees - every single person got theirs finished before they went home so it was a very successful get-together!

Pat & Londi worked like crazy to make it a really special gathering - they had darling centerpieces and special treats for each attendee - as well as delicious goodies to eat.

Please enjoy the photos below so you can get a sense of what the day was like for us.

November Meeting

2011-10-13T15:54:00.000-06:00

Our November guild meeting will be our first Christmas party and we are excited! Members please join us for a day of rug hooking, visiting, eating, and making wool feather trees. Kits are available, so please RSVP and let us know you are coming. Details are in the email you should have received today. See you there!

Published!

2011-10-08T21:32:00.000-06:00

Our Guild President, Lisa McComb, has a project published in the new Holiday 2011 issue of Create & Decorate Magazine. She designed this darling Santa hooked rug with a sheep side-kick. Isn't it great that our local talent is getting national attention? Congratulations Lisa!

Annual Utah Hook-in

2011-09-20T14:23:00.000-06:00

Our annual hook-in was a great success! We had a yummy lunch from the Red Onion, great demos from Nancy Raybould and Lisa McComb, and a successful silent auction. We were excited to have a visit from our Colorado friends, Cheryl and Judy. We hope more out of state people will join us in the future!

Nancy Raybould talked to us about designing your own rugs and how that relates to copyright. She referenced a great online article, How to Steal Like an Artist, read the full article here.

As always, we had a wonderful rug show,pictures coming soon...

In The News

2011-09-08T14:19:00.000-06:00

The Logan Herald Journal recently did a feature story about the Cache Valley rug hooking group. A reporter and photographer were sent to attend their monthly meeting and did a nice job of writing about rug hooking. You can read all about it here.

Penny Rug Workshop

2011-06-07T09:25:00.000-06:00

Our Guild held a workshop on Saturday and learned how to make penny rugs. We met in a wonderful art studio In SLC that belongs to a gal who teaches decorative painting - it was just beautiful! Kits were provided for those who wanted them, and some chose to use their own wool and color selection. Pictures of the day are below.

Towards the end of our meeting, Miriam gave us a demonstration of how she finishes the edges of her rugs when she makes them into pillows - or Christmas stockings -

All in all - it was a great day of learning and visiting with like-minded friends!

Another Finished Stool

2011-06-05T09:28:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of another finished stool that was started at the recent Retreat. Nan used a family heirloom for her project - the stool is one that was used in her mother's home for years and years. Now it has been given a fresh new look and will be used and appreciated by future generations.

Such a cute dragonfly motif - after hooking the rug, Nan pulled a few strands of metallic thread through the wings to give it a bit of shimmer and sparkle.

Great paint treatment on the legs draws attention to the details.

Nancy's Project

2011-05-24T13:21:00.001-06:00

At our recent rug hooking retreat, people were working on a fun project - they were supposed to bring a small footstool and learn different painting techniques for the wood. Then they were supposed to hook a little mat for the surface.

Nancy recently finished her project and the pictures are below. If you attended and have finished your project too, please email pictures of it to either Angela at angelach@burgoyne.com or Gayle at dyeing2hook@msn.com - we'd love to post them here on the blog for everyone to enjoy seeing!

Grand Prize Winner

2011-04-21T12:38:00.001-06:00

Jennifer was our grand prize people's choice winner at our rug show at the retreat--she entered her cat rug at the 11th hour, just when she finished binding it! It's a good thing, since everyone loved it. :) She made it at the request of her mother in law, who has Alzheimer's, and since time was an issue, she completed it in less than 2 months--from design to whipping! Congratulations!

URFG Spring Retreat

2011-04-19T13:48:00.001-06:00

Our first official guild retreat was held this past weekend at Daniel's Summit Lodge. Everyone had a wonderful time, and even the Easter Bunny came! The stools looked beautiful when they were finished being painted, so beautiful in fact, some opted not to cover the tops with a hooked mat as planned. (And I agreed!)

When all was said and done, we had 18 attendees (including 4 mother/daughter pairs!), with 3 vendors of wonderful wool: Pioneer Primitives, Wooly 4 Ewe, and Nancy's wool. I hope we can double our attendance for next year--everyone is welcome--the cost was only $30 for guild members, plus room and food. Quite a deal, if you ask me!

Gearing Up for Our First URFG Retreat

2011-03-25T10:07:00.001-06:00

We had our Prep Day last Saturday, where everyone primed their stools for the retreat. It was fun to see the choices; everyone had a different type of stool, all the way from a bench to a high chair. Londi is leading us step by step through the painting process, then we will all hook a top for our stools at the retreat. The goal is for everyone to go home with a finished product by retreat's end, no UFOs here!

We have 21 people registered for the retreat at Daniel's Summit. The board is planning so many fun things, we can't wait!

Karen Kahle

2011-01-19T08:50:00.000-07:00

At our meeting on Saturday, Londi mentioned Karen Kahle several times in her class on color theory. She shared a couple photos that she had taken of Karen's rugs when she attended a class she took from her a few years ago. Here is a link to an online photo album showing close-ups of her work so you can see details and study her techniques for using color in her rugs. And you can see more pictures of Karen & what she makes here. Karen is one of the national teachers that we'd like to bring to Utah for a workshop!

Our Meeting

2011-01-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

Our Guild had a meeting on Saturday and we had a really good turnout of 20 people, and that included two brand new members who joined while they were there - Yay! By all accounts the meeting was a rousing success.

We are so lucky to have Londi in our group - she continued teaching her color theory class that was started at our last meeting - and educated us more concerning color distribution, color ratio, color saturation, and color weaving. Hopefully we can make our rugs more pleasing to the eye by using the techniques she taught us. Londi has taught this class all over the world to people who paid a lot of money to take it, and now we get to learn for free just by being members of the Guild.

After that class, Londi explained a project that we will be working on at our Retreat in April. It was suggested that everyone purchase a stool of some sort - then we can hook a cover for it. Londi will help us paint the wood part of the footstool so that the two parts will coordinate beautifully. Since painting is her specialty she will be able to show us different techniques such as dry brushing & crackling. Shown below are some examples she brought with her so we could get ideas for what we want to do.

Then the meeting moved on to the part where we were able to learn different rug hooking techniques. These included how to hide ends, how to do random hooking, how to hook a sharp crisp point, hot to hook hit & miss, how to decide which technique to use, how to make a plaid sampler, how to do beading and coiling. Here are a couple pictures of the work some of the attendees did.

As a supplement to that, you should check out these photos. Cathy is a rug hooker and writes the blog Orange Sink. She has posted several great pictures of a rugs she made using the coiled wool techniques in a Flikr album. Looking at these will give you more ideas on how to use this technique in your own projects.

Ali Strebel authors a blog also, and calls these coils 'standing wool circles'. You can see what she does with them on this post.

Here is a YouTube video that will give you more instruction on random hooking - or pixelating as this teacher calls it.

We're excited about our upcoming retreat and hope the members of the Guild will support our efforts to organize event this by planning to attend. More information will be posted about this at a later date.

Magazines

2010-12-30T14:27:00.001-07:00

Magazines can be a great source of information for us in our rug hooking endeavors. They can provide patterns, dye recipes, techniques and and other important and helpful bits. Some can be found on the magazine racks at your local store. Some are available only by subscription. Here are three that are recommended:

Rug Hooking Magazine has been around the longest and is probably the most well known of them all. They have articles about traditional and primitive hooking, and lots of nationally known rug hookers have written for them.

The Wool Street Journal is a relative newcomer to the arena and they cater exclusively to the primitive hooker. They do stories about rug hooking groups around the country, and inclulde lists of vendors where rug hooking supplies are available for purchase.

Create & Decorate almost always has a free rug hooking pattern in each issue, as well as punch needle designs that can be enlarged for hooking. They have patterns for other primitive crafts that are fun to make as well.

If you've never tried these magazines before, pick up a copy (or send away for one) and give it a try - it might just contain the inspiration you need for your next project! You might even drop hints to your family about receiving a subscription for a birthday gift or some other occasion - wouldn't that be great?

Free Patterns

2010-11-19T18:56:00.000-07:00

It might be fun to hook up one of these free snowman patterns now that the weather has gotten colder and winter is on the way!

Here is one available from Blue Ribbon Rugs.

And another one from Badbirds.

Guild Meeting

2010-11-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

We had our Guild Meeting on Saturday at the Pioneer Craft House in Salt Lake City. Londi gave us all a lot of food for thought with her hands-on color theory class - I think we all learned a lot about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors and how the color wheel works. Of course, this information is helpful for us when it comes to dyeing the wool we want for our hooked rugs, and how to choose colors that will be harmonious together. Here are some pictures of the process:

After the color class, we pulled out the supplies needed for making covered button bracelets using wool fabrics. The gals had a lot of fun with this project and the variety of colors and fabrics used made each person's version completely original. Very fun! It will be fun to see these being worn by their makers at future meetings.

Jan's buttons:

Miriam's buttons:

Pat's buttons:

Londi's Musings

2010-11-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

(1) Here's a link to Karen Kahle's Flickr account - it's fun to look at her many fiber art skills -- eye candy for any fiber artist! Check out her crochet edge tutorial on this site!  The crochet edge is my favorite because it is so homey, vintage and soooo unusual - makes a rug stand out from the crowd!   She is one of the teachers the Guild is looking at possibly having for a seminar in 2012:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/primitivespirit/

(2)  Some of my favorite Hook-In memories:
       - Angela Anderson did a great demonstration of her dying techniques (KISS is her mantra!). She has 5 small children and keeps 4 dye kettles going at the same time on her dye days...not a wasted minute!  Angela has a new dye book (and matching swatches), plus she also dyes the swatches for Nancy Raybould's wonderful dye book. I'm a slow learner......so a light bulb finally went on when I saw how Angela has glued her dye swatches in the books, next to the recipe (I had 400 swatches in  big ziplock bags). I was so inspired, I spent 3 days gluing all my swatches into their respective dye books!  Never want to see another glue stick - but hey, it's so much easier to see what I have now!
     -  Martha Stewart move over!  You've got serious competition! Marianne Michaels has hooked the most incredible ROOM SIZE rug! It is not only the biggest hooked rug anyone had ever seen, it is also beautiful. What's even more incredible is she made this rug in only about 4 month!!  I know Martha only sleeps 4-5 hour a night...Marianne, you make Martha look like a slacker!  The rug took top honors at the hook-in. I hope we'll have a picture of it on the blog in the near future, but you really had to be there to take in the magnitude of this rug. Congratualtions Marianne!

     - I loved chatting with kindred spirit - Tonia McKibben. She and I share a love of antiques - especially antique childrens toys and furniture and New England antique furniture.  She is extemely knowledgeable about these subjects, and ran an antiques business prior to moving to Utah.  She brought the most wonderful antique childs bench (it has a matching chair at her home). She restored this little bench and hooked a darling sailboat bench seat for it.  Everyone loved it. I hope we'll have pictures of this on the blog in the future too.

(3) Color lesson - November Guild Meeting:
      We will take the mystery out of the color wheel by painting one. Everyone will mix paint colors and make a personal color wheel.
      We will mix all 12 colors of the color wheel and learn a VERY simple language of only SIX WORDS which will describe any color in the world.
      We will also mix all the earth colors (aka tertiary colors) used for toners - (sometimes called Mother colors).
       And finally, we'll take this "paint" knowledge and covert it to dye knowledge /Cushings dyes and where they fall on the color wheel.

Our first meeting

2010-10-27T22:52:00.003-06:00

We are excited to announce our first meeting of the Utah Rug and Fiber Guild and everyone is invited! We have a fun day planned--it will be Saturday, November 6, from 9 am until 1 pm. Activities will be:

Presentation of the free exclusive rug pattern for charter members of the Guild
We will be making the adorable wool button bracelets from the Hook-In trunk show (materials are free to members!!)
Color Class: Basic Understanding of Color - How To Identify Colors, Mix Colors, and Use Color Wheel. We will learn 6 words to describe any color in the world; learn how to mix any color (by actually mixing colors); and we'll paint our very own color wheel. In addition, we'll learn how to place all Cushing colors onto the color wheel, and learn how to choose mother/toner colors.
We will also give a sneak peek of the great things we have planned for our early spring retreat in 2011!

Cost for this meeting is FREE for guild members, and $10 if you just want to come and play. There is still time to join as a charter member, you can join that day or subscribe here!

Important! Please RSVP so we can be sure to have enough supplies (no need to reply if you can't make it, we'll miss you though!). We will be keeping you busy this time, so you won't need your hooking stuff.

Our Latest Hook-in!

2010-10-11T22:57:00.000-06:00

The Fifth Utah Hook-in was a great success! We very much enjoyed the company, the vendors, the goodie bags, and the demos! And thank you so much to everyone who joined as charter members of the Utah Rug and Fiber Guild. If you still need to join, please click on the tab above.

One of our demos was by Janet, who showed us her fabulous handmade purses made from felted sweaters, and also examples of needle felting and wet felting. We learned so much--thank you, Janet!

Here are the links to the resources she mentioned:
http://resweater.blogspot.com/
http://ragingwool.blogspot.com/
http://blog.betzwhite.com/
http://shop.ebay.com/wind4934/m.html

Become a member of the Utah Rug & Fiber Guild

2010-10-10T18:04:00.001-06:00

We are so excited to announce that our guild is open for memberships! We have so many fun activities planned for our local Utah rug hookers, you really won't want to miss out. We promise you will get your money's worth and much more.

As a Guild member, you will receive:

Quarterly newsletter with articles, dye recipes, classifieds, free patterns and more. Also included will be the financial reports so you will know exactly what is being spent and for what.
A free, exclusive pattern designed by Londi Rowley
Access to all guild meetings and events. We are planning 2 events (the annual hook-in and spring retreat) and 4 meetings per year. Events will be discounted for guild members and meetings will be free, although occasionally there may be a small materials fee.
Discounted guild rate and advance, priority registration for conferences featuring national teachers such as Karen Kahle and Anita White.
Many opportunities to grow your rug hooking and fiber art education and skills!

To subscribe, click below. The price is $25 per year (September through August) and will automatically renew annually. You may cancel at any time.

Utah Hook-in

2010-08-09T22:41:00.002-06:00

It is time to register for our 5th Utah Rug Hookers Hook-in! We are so excited to hold our fifth hook-in, and you will especially not want to miss it this year. We have some very special surprises planned!

The Hook-in will be held at the Rio Grande building in Salt Lake again this year, on Saturday, September 25. Something a little different this year, we thought we would keep costs down for you so we are lowering the cost to $12. With this decrease in the fee, we will not be hosting a lunch, so please plan to bring your own sack lunch. Pot luck snacks are also welcome, but not required! We will still have all the usual fun activities, giveaways, workshops, and rugs to see.

Please do not think you have to be an expert to come to our hook-in! We welcome everyone no matter your level. In fact, our first year, we had one or two ladies attend who had never hooked before the hook-in and we helped them get started.

You may register online by clicking the link below, please register by September 10th. You may pay via credit card or mail a check.

http://www.tfaforms.com/172221

We hope to see the most participants attend than ever before! See you there!

Angela, Londi, Lisa, Tonia and Gayle