Hookin' at the Fair

The  Deerfield Fair is billed as "New England's Oldest Family Fair".  Held each fall for the past 135 years, it's a great place for rug hookers to display their work, and even win ribbons and prizes. We had a great group of rugs, and daily hooking demonstrations. This year's Fair honored Bob Burbank, a very talented rug hooker from Manchester, NH.

 

Enjoy the photos, and please consider submitting a project for next year.

Hook a fall leaf with Cyndy Duade

Our October meeting was a hit!
We learned to hook a fall leaf with a dipped dyed piece of wool.

Cyndy explains hooking direction

Our leaves looked the same, but different!

We chose our colors from all this hand dyed wool

Cyndy also had background wool available for purchase. She was very helpful in helping us choose the best background to make our leaves pop.

 We learned tips and tricks, one of which is to cut in sequence and use masking tape to hold the strips in hooking order.Hopefully our members will be bringing our completed pieces back for a show and tell.

There is a rumor that we will be entering our mats as a group project in the 2011 Deerfield Fair!! I must finish...but updating our blog comes first.

Our next meeting on November 6, will feature Jon Ciemowicz teaching us how to dye in a crock pot. Hope you all will join us. Check back soon for photos of our rugs at the Deerfield Fair.
Happy Hooking,
Lynda

Summertime blues.....

Well, it's been a great summer. Hot and dry weather makes me want to sit in the shade with a glass of cold lemonade enjoying the gardens...OK, so I probably have a glass of wine...

This weather has also not been very good for hooking-for me at least. I have also not wanted to sit here at the computer to update our blog.
So much has happened this summer. This June the  guild had a great Strawberry Festival at Mill Brook Gallery and Sculpture Gardens in Concord. We had a beautiful day of hooking on the deck, overlooking  sculpture gardens and had a treat of seeing their horses run and play in the back pasture. We hooked, laughed, hooked some more, then feasted on fresh strawberry shortcake and whipped cream. We decided to book the deck for next year's celebration.

Victor studies a sculpture

you can't hook with the fiber from this  

The deck was a fabulous place to hook. We were surrounded by beautiful gardens and wonderful art work in the gallery. Hopefully we will have a beautiful day in 2011, and more of our members will be able to join us.

Happy Hooking,
Lynda

Learn to be a hooker

Our guild decided that we would host a "learn to hook" day at our March meeting. Our "first annual" teaching day was a hit. We had more than 30 attendees and added 6 members to the guild. Pam and I considered this a learning experience-now we know where and how to advertise, and how to structure the meeting. All in all, the day proved successful. Most of the new hookers picked up the skills easily, and had a desire to continue the craft. Well known teachers,including Pam Bartlett, Jon Ciemiewicz, Ann Winterling, and Lisa Chaloner were available for guidance and suggestions. Members paired up with novices, and shared their hooking passion.  The room was buzzing with creativity, coffee, snacks and wool dust!

CC

September Meeting Minutes

NH ATHA Guild Meeting


White Mountain Woolen Magic

September 12, 2009

Officers:

Pam Bartlett, President

Lynda Hadlock, Treasurer and Membership Chairman

Grace Collette, Secretary

Chapter members (12)

The meeting was called to order by President Pam Bartlett at 10:00AM.

General Business Discussed:

President Pam Bartlett announced that the next meeting will be at 10:00 AM October 17th at the Maxfield Library in Loudon, NH.

Also, a Raffle Rug is done by members every other year to be donated towards the support of a farm environment for students with disabilities. The rug is passed around the chapter volunteers, each doing a section. This has been done by our chapter 3 times. President Pam will donate the linen, and Ann will do the design.

Lynda Hadlock announced that she has started a chapter blog, and hopes we all enjoy participation. She has sent a link to all members.

Grace Collette discussed submission of items for the Deerfield Fair, and prizes given. Members will deliver hooked items to Pam Bartlett’s house by September 14th, be picked up by Lynda Hadlock, and delivered to the fair by Grace Collette. Grace will arrange a schedule for demonstrators at the fair, and return of items. Each member mails in their own application to the fair, which was emailed to all by Grace.

Lynda Hadlock brought magazines to be enjoyed by all.

GUEST SPEAKER – Peggy Anderson

Peggy has great education and experience as an art teacher in a private school. She shared with us some inspiring design tips and techniques, with pictures of hooked rugs as examples, with handouts and displays.

Principles of Design

Rules of composition – The design should lead the eye into or around the design, not across and out of the work. Movement is created by line, color and shape.

Peggy distributed examples of good and bad designs, and explained what would improve each, such as:

The art of Balance – is achieved through the use of:

Contrast in line, color, or shape– creates weight, draws attention

Dominance in color, texture, or shape

Echoed Elements

Flow - created through repetition

Color – warm colors are heavier (draw attention) more than cool colors

Bright is heavier than dull

Value – darker is heavier than lighter

Stronger contrast is heavier

Texture – Rough is heavier than smooth

Shape – large is heavier than small

Geometric is heavier than organic

Line – a complicated line is heavier than a smooth, simple line

Space – a large patterned (positive) space and small background (negative) space is equal to another small patterned and large background space, in the same design for balance

Form – the position of items in a design should be balanced throughout the piece. Interesting shapes need 3 items to differ. They are length, height and width.

It was agreed that we all enjoyed Peggy enormously, and would love to have her speak again.

12:00 Lunch break with thanks to Pam for coffee and desert.

The afternoon was filled with enjoyment and discussion of each other’s rugs, and greatly appreciated tips for each of us by Peggy.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 PM by President Pam Bartlett.

Respectfully submitted,

Grace E. Collette

Secretary, NH ATHA

Home, Sweet, Home

Pam and I have returned from our loooong trip to the AHTH Biennial. We had fun, met some great people and found some great wool. Photos and updates posted soon.Must get to packing  for the Deerfield Fair. Our guild is demonstrating in the crafts barn.
Happy Hooking,

Lynda