Great Storage Idea

After a person has been hooking for awhile, they accumulate quite a collection of leftover wool strips from all of their projects. It can become overwhelming to deal with these and figure out a good way to keep them organized in such a way that they're easily accessible for future rugs. A fellow rug hooker from Arizona recently shared a great solution on her blog. She gave permission to share it here with our Utah Guild members.

This is a shoe organizer that can be found for $9.97 in the laundry aisle at Walmart. I has twelve different compartments so the wool strips can be sorted by color or size - you could even store small pieces of wool yardage in them. The sides of this container are made of fabric so the wool can breath while it's being stored away and it fits easily under a bed.

Great solution! You can see see more about this on the original blog post at Ticklepie.

3D Hooking

Our Guild held a meeting at the beautiful new Library/Community Center in Millcreek and we learned all about hooking and finishing 3D items. Angela did a great job of teaching and demonstrating for us. She lugged two sewing machines so we could use them for stay stitching around the edges of each piece - Myra is taking advantage of one of them to prepare her monks cloth for making a birdhouse.

Angela is making a bee skep and it's going to be so cute! Look how perfectly the lines match up on her two pieces - she will add a third and maybe a fourth by the time it's completely finished and it will be able to stand freely.

Jennifer & her daughter Emma sat side by side and designed their projects on paper first - - -

- - - they got a lot done by the end of the meeting.

Nancy is making a little case to hold her eyeglasses and keep them from getting scratched.

Londi & Pat cut all these beautifully colored wool strips to hook their strawberry pillows.

This is the first siting we've ever had of Londi actually holding a hook in her hand! WooHoo!

Pat pulls her first few loops.

We had a 'good wishes' tree there for writing messages & giving advice to Leah who is getting married soon. Congrats Leah!

We learned a few more details about the upcoming workshop with Sharon Smith - it's going to be fabulous!

At our next meeting in Riverdale we will learn all about dyeing with natural materials. See ya then.

Guild Meeting

On Saturday, March 22nd our Guild held a BLOCKBUSTER of a meeting at the Pleasant Valley Library. We had a movie theme for the day - complete with popcorn and boxed candy for refreshments.

The main thrust of the information shared was all about finishing our rugs - we watched videos from several well know rug hookers - including Gene Shepherd, Karen Kahle, Joan Moshimer and Prudence Matthews.

Arline shared her expertise of adding braided borders to her hooked rugs by demonstrating the technique - below are several of her rugs where she has done this.

We watched while Angela showed how to use wool strips to crochet around the edge of a rug which is what Karen Kahle likes to do. You can see her slide show HERE with photos illustrating the individual steps for accomplishing this.

We also learned how Karen adds proddy fringe to her rugs and pillows.

PBS did a story on Prudence Matthews several years ago and we got to watch the video on the big screen in our meeting room. You can watch it again HERE - - Another story about her and her rugs can be found HERE

Jennifer showed us how she made a fringed edge on some of her rugs by tying knots - a very effective and unusual way of finishing them and it can be done with linen OR monks cloth.

Pictures shown below are projects that were being worked on by various attendees during the day.

.

Rug Show

There were SO many beautiful rugs to be seen at our recent hook-in.  People's Choice awards were given to the rugs receiving the most votes - here are the winners with their work.

Such a huge variety in subject matter and hooking styles - each one was a visual treat to see.

Tonia had a one-woman show with so many of her original designs - all of these shown below are hers.