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Rug Hooking Retreat at the Heritage Inn

 When I was in college, I belonged to the Newman Center group on campus.  The priest who was the moderator would take us on a spiritual retreat to a monastery outside of Elmira, NY.  My time there made a big impression on me. I loved the fact that we were getting away from campus.  I would catch up on homework, get up early (5 am!) to hear morning vespers, take long walks on the farm and explore the monastery.  It would center me.

That's why when I heard that Sauder Village offered ...

 I've had a week.

I did finally carve out a little creative energy to ...

The calm before the storm

After going through the Covid plague of 2020, I made myself one promise...I would make sure I wasn't blowing off chances to socialize just because it seemed like "too much bother".  What that awful time made me realize was not to take socializing with my community for granted.  To that end, I took a leap of faith and went to my first Hook-in.

 Is anybody out there just a glutton for cool stationary supplies?  Maybe it's because it's back to school time and the shelves are full of the coolest ones.  Or maybe it's because Cindi Gay has a whole series of lessons about journaling, but it got me in the mood to give journaling another try. 

 I have had several failed attempts.  Once I set one up for quilting.  Barely used it. I mean really, blogging about my quilting journey was plenty,   I did have pretty good success with the The Happy Planner series, mostly because it was a ...

 Is anybody out there just a glutton for cool stationary supplies?  Maybe it's because it's back to school time and the shelves are full of the coolest ones.  Or maybe it's because Cindi Gay has a whole series of lessons about journaling, but it got me in the mood to give journaling another try. 

 I have had several failed attempts.  Once I set one up for quilting.  Barely used it. I mean really, blogging about my quilting journey was plenty,   I did have pretty good success with the The Happy Planner series, mostly because it was a ...

Ain't THAT the truth!

It's an odd place to be.. .a 35 year veteran of one craft .... quilting and a rank amateur of another... rug hooking.  After doing something for 30 years, you get to know most of the answers.  Diving in deep on rug hooking, the more I know, the more I realize I don't know.  Luckily, I've found a circle of ladies that are happy to share their opinions on things (and let me tell you, rug hookers are strong in their opinions).  One of my favorite 90 minutes of the week is the ...

Thank you all for so enthusiastically joining the We Do Not Care Club, Quilter's Edition.  I'm making a list for the next meeting.  Feel free to email me any additions you would like to make.  

It's been a busy few weeks with my deep dive into rug hooking continuing.  I managed to finish the little flower project:

Little Flower, Nina-Marie Sayre 8" by 8"  Hooked Wool

I'm all happy with this.  The wool was super suspect, but it taught me that really you can hook anything that will make loops.  Also, it solidifies in my mind ...

 As I hook my way through the grapes, I've been watching video lessons at Cindi Gray's "Rug Hooking Journey".  One of the chapters was this Little Flower pattern.  Cindi designed this little project for those who wanted to do more than just a square as their first project.  Originally, I skipped it - since I'm kinda of a "go big or go home" type of girl.  Now though, it looked like a nice palette cleanser to the grapes.  

The Little Flower, Cindi Gay

Oh this looked fun! First, I pulled out the sampler pack of backings I had ...

 I signed up for a subscription to The Thread House Academy this year.  It is a series of online classes, one per month, led by Lynne Goldsworthy, Karen Lewis and Jo Avery.  One of the projects is a modern sampler quilt with three types of blocks released every four months.  The first three blocks were released at the beginning of August so I have pulled my fabrics--navy, aqua, and magenta prints and a light gray on white print for the background.  Everything came from my stash.  Here are my first two "blocks"--this is not a traditional 12.5" block ...

Okay, I'm not one to complain, but who ever thought putting 4 values of wool strips in one little thumb print size circle sounded like a fun, needs to take a long look at their definition of fun!  I spent my rug hooking time this week doing gradated grapes.  In 4 different gradations.  In two different purples.  Not only is it a lot of work trying to get your loops somewhat smooth in little circles but also it's a lot of, "so where is the light source for this grape?  Is that dark enough?  Is this one of ...

 I have been in the mood to finish some quilts and so I have another finished quilt to show this week.  My yellow and green potato chip quilt is done. I'm calling it "Sunny Day". The striped binding was in my stash.  This quilt will be donated to my MIL's nursing home to be raffled off as a fundraiser. (Another quilt is quilted and will be bound shortly--it is a gift so no pictures yet)

I spent quite a bit of time rug hooking this week and made great progress on my project.  Lots of blue still  and ...

Shirley, hooked by Kyoko Okamura, 40" by 37"

 So, I'm onto my 2nd big project- Autumn Fruit designed by Pearl McGown & Jane McGown Flynn.  I'm still pretty shocked that I got this lovely pattern on linen with all the wool kitted out and class instructions all for $20 on eBay.  The more I looked at the project, the more I realized what an amazing deal it was.  Not to mention, it's a perfect 2nd project.  First it will teach me to follow a pattern and also shows me how to gradate the pattern to give it depth ...

 RUG DONE! And yes, my first real rug hook in the books.  Now when I say "done", I mean done hooking.  Hopefully, I'll get the edges finished up soon enough.  But to tell you the truth, there are so many ways to finish them, I haven't figured out which one I'm going to do yet.

That all said, I thought I would continue on with my habit of doing a self critique when I finish project.

Rug #1, Nina-Marie Sayre, July 2025 22" by 12", Hand dyed Wool on Linen, #6, #3 strips