In May 1997, Susan Sutherland a visiting Canadian, taught three rug hooking workshops in Berrima, in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, . Susan wrote an article in Rug Hooking Magazine about the experience and it can be found on page 48 in the March/April/May 2000 issue.
The owner, of a quilt shop in Berrima, Lynne Wilson, had met the owners of Kindred Spirits, a rughooking and fibre arts store in Dayton Ohio, USA, on one of her buying trips and had purchased some hooks for rug hooking. Visiting the shop in Berrima Susan was surprised to find the rug hooks.
When Lynne found out Susan had been hooking for several years she asked if she would give a workshop as part of a week-long event Lynne held for her quilters. She wanted to introduce an unusual craft to them. The first two-day workshop was so successful Lynne asked Susan to give two more.
Susan belongs to the Kitchener-Waterloo Rug Hooking Guild and is currently (2016) the program convener. Susan is a member and an accredited Rug Hooking Teacher of the Ontario Rug Hooking Guild and is also a member of The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers (TIGHR), ATHA, and the Nova Scotia Rug Hooking Guild as well as the Australian Rugmakers Guild.
