Archive -- November 2006

Ornament Class with Barbara McNamara
November 29th, 2006 / News, Road Trips, Suppliers and Teachers / No comments
My sister Barbara, owner of Thimblefolk, will be teaching a class on making one of her signature snowmen ornaments this Sunday, December 3, 2006, at Now and Zen Fiber Arts, 15 Front Street, Greenport, NY 11944. (631) 477-2585, info@nowandzenyarns.com.


Country Parlor Christmas Sale 2006
November 22nd, 2006 / News, Road Trips / No comments
This is the best handcraft sale on the east end of Long Island. You’ll find everything from hooked rugs to honey, pottery to Christmas ornaments, live amaryllis to antiqued artwork, crosstich to hand woven silk scarves to the most exquisite lavendar sachets made by Susan Borger. Barbara Blossey-Chuvalas not only makes all the baskets you’ll see for sale, she plans, organizes, and orchestrates the whole thing. People line up for an hour waiting for the doors to open of Friday morning. So, you should go. Here are the particulars.
Friday, November 24 9 am to 3 pm
Saturday, November 25 9 am to 3 pm
Sunday, November 26 10 am to 1 pm
The Grange
Sound Avenue at Church Lane (right across the street from First Parish Church)
Riverhead, New York


Contemporary Hooked Rugs: Themes and Memories
November 8th, 2006 / News, Book Reviews / No comments
Here’s another great Christmas gift idea for your favorite hooker: Linda Rae Coughlin’s new book entitled Contemporary Hooked Rugs, Themes and Memories and published by Schiffer books is due out momentarily. I saw Linda at the Newtown, CT rug show. She had expected to have the books available to sell, but they were not yet in — which happens when books are printed overseas. She expects to have them soon, and if you order one from her, you can get it autographed by the author herself. It is a handsome book, an oversized paperback, 16o pages with over 475 rugs created by 270 rug hookers.
You can order it from Linda by writing, calling, or emailing.
Linda Rae Coughlin/Art Rugs
PO Box 4616
Warren, NJ 07059
(908)647-8100 FAX (908)647-1372
playingcardrugs@CS.com
www.theartrugs.com


Mary Sheppard Burton 2007 Wall Calendar
November 7th, 2006 / News / No comments
This calendar, featuring Mary Sheppard Burton’s Tell Me About series of hooked rugs, is currently on sale from Sign of the Hook Books, PO Box 27, Dickerson, MD 20842, or merctoo@aol.com. The cost is $14.95, plus $4.95 shipping & handling. These 12 rugs have recently been acquired by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. This is currently the only 2007 calendar featuring hooked rugs that I know of. Might be a good gift for your favorite rug hooker …
New York Sheep and Wool Festival
November 2nd, 2006 / News, Road Trips, Suppliers and Teachers / 1 comment
Fiber heaven — that’s what this Festival is. I could not believe the number of wooly people at this place. Every building was filled to the roof with fleece and roving and alpaca and yarn and thread and rugs and scarves and baskets and looms and spindles and felting tools and more! We worked hard all weekend, my sister Barby and I, as did our friend Susan Borger, lavender sachet maker extraordinaire, with whom we shared our booth. We didn’t think we’d make a penny when we saw how many vendors were listed on the program, but the attendance numbers were astronomical, and we were proven wrong.
I met some other rug hookers — Lucille Festa of American Country Rugs (turns out my sister knows her cousin Wally) and a really nice woman whose name I don’t know, who was hooking the most wonderful runner: a panoramic view of a Maine harbor on commission. Heavens to Betsy was there, though I didn’t get to talk to her, as was Hooked on Ewe. I’d never heard of this company before, and her booth was filled with people when I stopped to look so I couldn’t talk to her, but her primitive, country style rugs were really cool. They were mostly farm landscapes with huge swathes of painted skies. I loved those skies. Wish I’d taken a pcture to post. Next time I’ll remember . . . .
I didn’t buy much — just some roving for needle felting and some felting supplies for my sister (whose birthday was the next day) — it was way too busy. I actually sold a small mat twice — a woman from Ohio who sells a specific kind of yarn for knitting socks gave me a commission to duplicate it for her. She and her partner worked hard — apparently the sock yarn is not available anywhere else on the east coast and it is currently the hot topic on knitting bulletain boards, so they had a line that stretched the length of the building all day — until they sold out!
We’ve already signed a contract to do the festival next year, that’s how good it was.


Can it Really Be November?
November 1st, 2006 / News / No comments
I am just back from my daily walk along the beach. Peconic Bay is as still and as clear as a sheet of glass. Every stone and snapper and bit of seaweed is magnified through the lens of the crystalline water. The sun is strong and the blue sky brilliant, as are the leaves on the trees. Fall comes late here on the temperate shores of Long Island. This is a great thing, since we have sweet corn by the first of July, vine-ripened tomatoes through October, and can still pick a rose or two on Thanksgiving. I am on my back porch, flanked by Cairo, my Jack Russell Terrier, and Simon Two-toes, my tuxedo cat, and I swear I am getting a sunburn! It must be 70 degress out! If my hammock was still up I’d get a book and plunk myself down in it without compunction. I deserve a rest — my sister Barbara and I spent the last two weekends shlepping our stuff to shows in New York and Connecticut. It was exhilirating and exhausting at the same time, and I am glad to be at home. Need to rest up — scallop season starts at daybreak on Monday morning. I love living here!