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From Western Australia –

Kira Mead’s post on the Guild’s Facebook page has gone viral.

In just a few days there have been over 3,000 views and 30 shares –

but it’s the number of comments that have really been interesting.

 Usually a Facebook post goes up on the Guild page after a Blog has been published  on the Guild website; but this time, it’s the other way around.

The image shown above was posted on Facebook because it was interesting, creative and different.  There’s been such a fantastic response and so many comments, it warrants further explanation and more images of quillies (standing wool rugs) by Kira.

Kira was unaware she was using an ancient technique to create her rugs.  She didn’t know about “standing wool rugs” or the term “quillie” which comes from Quilling (or paper filigree) an art form involving the use of strips of paper, rolled, shaped and glued together to create decorative designs.  Quilling was also combined or married with other techniques such as embroidery and painting……and rug hooking.

I checked out the term on Wikipedia after remembering having read about quillie rugs in American rug hooking newsletters and also the quillie brooches I’d been given, made by Canadian friends, with strips of wool fabric left over from their rug hooking projects,

 Kira explained that she was researching up-cycling wool blankets online and found “Accidental Carpet” and just had to give it a go.

Quillies can be created by stitching or gluing (there were many comments on Facebook about the different methods)

The technique Kira discovered made use of a hot glue gun and strips of blankets.

Kira said :

” I absolutely fell in love with them, but wanted to put my own spin on it, which is what you can see in this rug. (above)

It was made from a couple of very old off-white, stained blankets.   The owner couldn’t bear to donate them to the op shop because she knew they’d be used as dog blankets.  They were sentimental to her because they were her late mothers.  When I told her what I had planned, she happily let me have them and is delighted with how they have been used.   They have been dyed with food dye and have a tie-dye look to them.”

Here are more of Kira’s rugs :-

Rose Gelato

In Western Australia ……..

Robin Inkpen demonstrated rug hooking last weekend at a “Pop Up Market” at the annual Gourmet Food & Wine Fest in Donnybrook, a town of orchards in Western Australia.  All who took part in this venture were artisans of the first order.   Many came from far and wide to this gala event.  Robin was not selling handmade rugs from recycled fabric and yarn, instead was promoting her workshops in rug hooking and locker hooking.

Robin said they had a great supporter in their local book shop, “Donnybooks”.  The owner welcomed them with open arms and let them have the Pop Up Market in the undercover area outside her shop, which is in an old fruit packing barn and nearby to the Food and Wine Fest.

There was a constant queue of interested and curious people who were interested in both the technique of rug hooking which Robin was doing at the time and also keen to know that she was using recycled fabric and yarn.

Robin lasted about 5 hours before her voice gave out!  She said it was a great day and she collected a long list of email addresses of those wishing to come to a workshop and gave out masses of business cards to others who were interested and said they would email her.

It is just 3 weeks before Christmas and we are about to be plunged into the heat of summer, so her workshops won’t happen until March or April.

Anyone interested can contact Robin at robin.inkpen22@gmail.com or view her work on her website

 November/December –  a busy time of the year !

 In Western Australia – the Wanneroo Rugmakers Group have been involved with 5000 Poppies  – a nationwide project which aims to display handmade fabric poppies in Federation Square in Melbourne for the centenary of ANZAC Day 2015.

Communities across Australia were asked to donate their creations in commemoration of those who served in World War One.  The Wanneroo Museum has supported those in the community who wished to be involved, by gathering together locally made poppies.

In recognition of the Wanneroo community’s contribution,  a selection of the poppies (knitted, crocheted & prodded, attached to a section of WWII camouflage netting)  is currently on display in the atrium in front of the Museum at the Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre.

Appropriate timing since the display will be up for  Remberance Day (11th Nov).

Another Melbourne Connection: –   The Melbourne Cup

At their meeting on Saturday 1st November – the members of the Wanneroo Rugmakers were busy creating proddy flowers which were turned into stunning “fascinators” to be worn to Cup Lunches  the following Tuesday.

While in the South West – at Donnybrook

Robin Inkpen is getting ready for Christmas and has created yet another colourful hooked bag.

Robin has patterns for these bags available for sale in a kit which  includes the paper pattern, instructions on how to put it together and a coloured picture.  You can contact Robin at robin.inkpen22@gmail.com  and read more on her website.

 South Australia; 

While our rug hooking friends in the northern hemisphere are rugging up for winter – it looks like South Australia is in for an extremely hot summer!

According to Jenny Anderson of the Strath Matters group, weather conditions at their meeting on Friday 7th November were extremely uncomfortable.  However the very hot temperatures didn’t deter their group from enjoying a show and tell of recent projects –

Jenny’s tea cosy, a commercial pattern, (Willow) hooked in 12ply wool from Bendigo Woolen Mills, was purchased at the Strath Rugmaking Expo from Faye, a South Australian rug hooker who learned to hook  from Pam Whitehead in 1972. Pam was from England and had lived in Canada before migrating to the town of Elizabeth in SA in the late 1950’s.  Faye also knew Joyce Emery, a member of this Guild until recently, who was one of Pam’s first students, Pam and Joyce taught rughooking at a local girls high-school. Joyce went on to teach rug hooking in country areas around SA when Pam no longer could. Joyce was also a member of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers; she was the first of the featured Australian Rugmakers during Australia’s term as Host Country 2009-2012.

Faye, Joyce and members of the Elizabeth Rug Group who were all Pam’s students, gathered at Pam’s home one Sunday each month for show & tell, afternoon tea and encouragement on projects. Faye said a lot of information and fabric was shared and Pam held a stock of rug patterns and fabric dyes (imported). Pam also imported cutting machines, hooks and other tools to sell to the Rug Group.  It was some of Faye’s 40 year collection of rug hooking supplies that was being sold at the Expo.

Many of the Expo participants purchased patterns and went home eager to start hooking. The one I purchased had an original tag on it from Rittermere in Canada. The company is now Rittermere, Hurst, Field (RHF – http://letshookrugs.com/).

Having met Jeanne Field at TIGHR Conferences and heard how she came to be connected with Rittermere, this was a special purchase for me.  Jeanne is now retired from the business and RHF is being run by her daughter Andrea Sheppard.  It is truly amazing how rughooking spans the globe and links us to friends and other times.

It will be interesting to see images of the old patterns appear on this blog as they are finished – it will be a trip down memory lane for some of our rug hooking friends overseas.

Trish Carter drew up her own pattern on Hessian for the Koala – hooked with Judith Stephens’  hand-dyed carpet wool – it’s destined to become a cushion cover.

Trish’s dragon rug was also hooked using Judith’s hand-dyed wool yarn.

Expertise Events Quilt & Craft Fair 

http://www.craftfair.com.au/wp/Adelaide/ 

13th – 16th November in Adelaide.

As Christmas is not far away, the Strath Matters will feature Christmas Trees on the Guild Stand

Pictured right is a prodded Christmas Tree by Judith Stephens

VICTORIA:

Below; Chris Noorbergen, a member of the Yarra Valley Rugmakers, with Marion Nefiodovas of the Strath Matters, at the Strathalbyn Rugmaking Expo. Chris is explaining her colour plan for the Canadian rug pattern she purchased from Faye. After the event Faye was able to provide Chris with a photo of this rug completed by one of the members of the Elizabeth rugmakers group.  You can see the photo and read more about Chris’s experiences at the Strathalbyn Expo on the Yarra Valley Rugmakers blog

 NEW SOUTH WALES:

Members there are also thinking Christmas –

in March this year Annette White’s  “Three Wise Men” rug was featured as a work in progress in a news report of the Narrawilly Ruggers weekend rug retreat at  Milton – here it is again.

 …..and now,  here is the finished wall hanging.  It is 57cm x 57cm and Annette hooked with all recycled silky materials; velvet, wool and ribbon with pieces of broken jewelry added to give the crowns some sparkle.

INTERNATIONAL:

International Rughooking Day – Thursday 4th December 2014.

The TIGHR web manager would like to hear of any specific events  Australian Groups have planned for this Celebration which is to be featured in Rug Hooking Magazine.

Please send “who, what, where” to Susan Feller  (email: rugs2wv@yahoo.com)  so she can post on the TIGHR website.   If you’ve got something happening ahead of time, please send her images and a description of the event.

OR….. members can send an image/s of any events happening on the 4th December to Susan on the day – there is a 12 hour difference between Perth and where Susan is,        (so 15 hours from Sydney)  she will post your Aussie 4th Dec images on the Rug Hooking Magazine page in the wee hours of the morning on the 4th December in the USA thus Aussie events would be the first to show up.

Two events are already scheduled in WA  –

The Wanneroo Rugmakers will meet at an ocean-side restaurant on the 4th of December for their Christmas Lunch and then adjourn to the beach for an afternoon of rughooking show and tell.  The location is a popular  one, so they will probably draw a crowd.

South of Perth in Donnybrook – apple country – rughooking will be celebrated ahead of the December 4th.   On November 29th there will be a Gourmet Food and Wine Fest in Donnybrook, a town not far from the the vineyards and wineries of Margaret River.

A small group is having a POP UP MARKET during the Festival where Robin Inkpen will be promoting rug hooking and her workshops.  As well as demonstrations, she  will also display a few rugs, but is not expecting to sell them. Robins says people always love the rugs but are much keener to know “How did you make them?”   Robin says people love watching you ‘do something’ so she’ll sit hooking a rug and is expecting to be a draw-card for the event.

,   –

A U3A rugmaking group, 20 active women in Bermagui, NSW, has taken on a very ambitious project:-

they are planning to create a 7metre wall hanging to help absorb sound in the local Surf Life Saving Club.

Here are just a few of the group of novice rugmakers with their first practice pieces.

Anja, Dawn, Sheila, Hazel, Lyn and Elizabeth (kneeling)

This community arts project has begun with a local artist (86 year old Rona) painting her 7metre drawing of a Bermagui scene.  When completed the group will transfer the design to 1 metre panels of backing so that they can work on it in small groups.

They think the completed panels will have to be hung individually, with a small space between, as joined together the wall hanging would be enormously heavy and unwieldy.   The leader of the group is a self taught rug hooker, the rest have no experience with rug hooking, but between them they are coming up with some sensible solutions.

They’d welcome  any advice on their proposed project

(Besides……………… not  to attempt such a hug project in the first place!)

You can post a comment below, or email rugcraftersaustralia@yahoo.com.au and your message will be forwarded.

What do you get when you marry a lost traditional craft with one-off design?

Three pieces of unique and valuable fibre art!

In January, it was decided that it was time for the members of the Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters to “fly solo” on a collaborative community project that would challenge them to design and handcraft a series of fibre art pieces that would ultimately be donated for a community fund raising project.

Judi Tompkins (group coordinator) recognised that some members were not convinced they “really” had the skills to produce fibre art of a quality that it could be offered for public display – in spite of the fact that nearly every member had been besieged to “make me something” by a friend or family member.

Behind the scenes, Judi thought this community project would be an ideal way to let the group prove to themselves that they had the skills to carry off such a major project and planning sessions were held regularly at Judi’s studio. (Judi did not work on any of the pieces but was available to discuss traditional techniques and design.)

The group decided to design and hook three wall hangings using the theme “Under the Sea” and guidelines were developed to insure that the three pieces could “stand alone” or be displayed as a triptych of the chosen theme:  “Under the Sea”.

Each piece incorporated some of the same fabric so the theme was carried through with the materials as well as the topic.  The members sorted themselves loosely into three teams and over the next nine months gave birth to three healthy, unique pieces of fibre art.

A spectrum of positive outcomes resulted from this group collaboration:

• The project confirmed members knew more about this craft than they realised.
• Through collaboration they developed skills to give and receive praise / criticism.
• Recognition they possessed good problem-solving skills – they didn’t need “the teacher” to fix things.
• Members’ knowledge / skills of other crafts led to innovative solutions.
• All learned to project plan every finished project – not just those for public display.
• They can each confidently offer advice and help to others.
• Collaboration is a great way to work – at least once in a while!

In appreciation for their support of the Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters, the triptych of wall hangings were delivered to staff of the Beerwah Library and the “Friends of the Beerwah Library” for their fund raising activities.

This project was well documented to see more images click Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters at work.

The previous post showed images from the Canberra Quilt & Craft Fair.

Displayed at the Australian Rugmakers Guild stand was a brilliantly coloured rug featuring Canadian Maple leaves.

This rug was hooked by Karen Kaiser from Canada who recently visited Milton, NSW and gave two workshops at Miriam Miller’s Rug Room at Narrawilly.  As she was leaving, in appreciation for their wonderful hospitality, Karen gave Miriam and Jacqui two of her rugs.

Miriam and Jacqui travelled to Canberra to help Maggie Whyte on the first day of the Fair and they took the Maple Leaf rug to display.  Maggie was thrilled as she is also a member of the Narrawilly Proggers and had attended Karen’s workshops.

So even though Karen didn’t make it to Canberra on her Australian visit  – her rug did.