Whale Wrap

Whale of a Tale ©2011 Tina Ackerman & Bonnie Smith, hooked by Tina Ackerman

I have taken many rug hooking classes since I started hooking 20 years ago -- McGown and ATHA classes; some local, some far way, but I have never taken a class as fun and as full of camaraderie as The Whale of a Tale class the Peconic Ruggers sponsored this past weekend.

Tina Teaching

We were 16 altogether -- 12 students, a teacher and her assistant, and a father and daughter support team.  Many of us have hooked together for years, but two were new acquaintances, and one was a complete stranger to all of us, yet we melded together like old friends.

 Betty Ann

It was beastly hot outside, and very humid, and the church basement was not air conditioned.  I thought that combination spelled disaster, but everyone was enthusiastic and intent on making the most of our time together.  We set up four fans around the room and provided plenty of cool drinks to keep everyone hydrated while they worked.  Everyone received a name tag hand-made by Tina's mom, Bonnie Smith of the Wool Street Journal, and a great goody bag, put together by our president Jen's daughter, 12-year-old Lizzie, who also unloaded cars, unpacked bags and boxes, and helped set up and break down lunch.

 

Louise at work

Tina Ackerman of g.woolikers is a great teacher.  She is funny and smart and kept things moving with the help of her sweet assistant, Betty Ann Horn.  Tina had everyone set up with a color plan before lunch on Friday.  I was lucky enough to have Tina and Betty Ann stay with me from Thursday to Sunday, and they were a delight -- even helping me shop for a new dehumidifier on the way home from the airport!  And they brought homemade pecan pralines and coconut cookies all the way from Georgia for an afternoon treat!

Rhona with a red-coated Jonah

We continued the fun into Friday evening, at the home of our treasurer, Sue, and her sister Sally.  They coordinated a potluck smorgasbord I wouldn't have thought possible: caprese & green salads, bread with olive oil for dipping, sausage and peppers, roast chicken, tuna casserole, potato salad, cole slaw, peach cobbler, chocolate cream pie, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry shortcake.  We ate what we could and then packed up the leftovers to add to lunch on Saturday.

Jennifer, our fearless leader

Saturday was hotter than Friday, but everyone buckled down to work on their waves.  Ken, our president's husband, made a Starbucks run with a list a mile long and kept us energized with cold, caffeinated drinks.  My daughter Clara, in town for the weekend, took lots of photographs for us.  Although the class was scheduled to end at 3:30, we started cleaning up at 3 , well, because we were hot and sweaty and many of us had tickets for the Southold/Greenport Rotary Lobsterfest on the beach at Founder's Landing later in the evening!  Because we finished early and didn't plan on getting to the beach until 6, I brought a couple of carloads of people home with me to relax in the air conditioning.  Clara and I whipped up a batch of mojitos and set out some snacks.  By 6:30 or so we were all dining on lobsters and mussels, sweet corn and watermelon, watching the sunset on Peconic Bay.  What a weekend!

 

Phyllis, who always wears a smile

Betty Ann and Tina left on Sunday to watch whales off of Montauk.  I have to admit that I took a rather long nap on the couch Sunday afternoon, and just finished unpacking everything this morning.  It was an exhausting but exhilarating weekend and I would change only one thing -- I would find a room with air conditioning.

 Name tags

 Goody bag

 

Founders Landing, Southold, New York

 Tina & Betty Ann in seafood heaven

The fabulous Lizzie on the beach

Join Us!

My guild, the Peconic Ruggers, is sponsoring its first-ever two-day rug hooking class at the end of this month!  The class, taught by Tina Ackerman of g. woolikers, will feature an exclusive pattern drawn by Bonnie Smith of The Wool Street Journal available nowhere else.  The pattern is called A Whale of a Tale and Tina will emphasize color planning and hooking sky and water.  Here's a drawing of the pattern, which measures 28 x 36 inches:

A Whale of a Tale ©2011 Bonnie Smith/The Wool Street Journal

please respect the artist and do not copy her work!

Here are the particulars:

A Whale of Tale

Friday, July 29, 2011 and Saturday, July 30, 2011

9:30 am to 3:30 pm both days

Cutchogue Presbyterian Church

Main Road, Cutchogue, New York

Class fee (paid to guild): $80

~includes snacks, beverages, lunch and a great goody bag~

Pattern fee (paid to teacher): $46

Potluck for class members Friday evening

wool for sale, too!

For more information: peconicruggers@yahoo.com

The North Fork of Long Island is a fabulous place to visit, especially in the summer.  We have vineyards and farms galore, beautiful beaches, great shopping and restaurants, and lots of rug hookers!  You can get here by train from Manhattan or by ferry from Connecticut.  There are inns, bed and breakfasts, and hotels tucked in lots of out of the way places here, too.  There are a few spots left, and you won't find a class at this cost anywhere else, so sign up now!

Wow! What a Weekend!

 

My guild, The Peconic Ruggers, hosted their biennial rug show this weekend, in the beautiful Naugles barn at Hallockville Museum Farm.  I have been a member of the Ruggers since its inception almost a decade and a half ago, and I believe this was our most successful show ever.  Guild members, led by the young and innovative Jennifer Faulkner, worked magic Thursday and Friday to turn the barn into a hooker's dream.  The weather was wonderful, the guests were great, and the rugs were spectacular!

 

We had lots of vendors, including the delightful and very funny ladies of The Wool Street Journal and G. Woolikers -- all the way from Colorado and Georgia!  Our potluck on Friday night helped us get to know each other, and what a lot of laughs we had, as well as good food.   Saturday morning brought a full house, drawing people from as far away as Queens.  My daughter, Clara Jauquet, kindly brought her fancy camera along and photographed the barn from top to bottom before we opened.  (All the photographs seen here were taken by Clara.)

Jennifer issued a challenge to the guild a few months ago to hook a gravestone for our cemetery, an appropriate addition to any Halloween weekend. 

On a sad note, I send my condolences to our co-president Judy, whose husband passed away unexpectedly last Wednesday.  It was good to see so many Peconic Ruggers at his wake on Monday night.  We were all there, as we will always be,  to support Judy and her children, who face many difficult days ahead. 

Heading toward Halloween

Fall appeared sometime between Saturday's 80 degree, intensely sunny afternoon and this morning, gray with a cold misty wind.  I love autumn weather and color, but miss the long hours of sunshine the summer provides.  I'm always a little wistful when I wake up to find summer gone . . . 

I have lots to look forward to this fall, though.  My rug hooking guild, the Peconic Ruggers, met on Tuesday evening.  We are going over last minute plans for our biennial rug show which will take place on Halloween weekend this year.  What fun!  Our co-president, Jennifer, who is full of energy and ideas, issued a challenge to us -- a graveyard challenge!  We are to hook tombstone rugs which will then be presented as a graveyard.  How clever is that?  I have been working on a design for a larger rug that is tombstone shaped, which will not be ready for the rug show given the number of shows Barb and I are vending at this fall, but I did make a small mat that I started last Saturday at Hallockville.  I discovered that it is a challenge to make an interesting tombstone, both because of the lack of color and the difficulty of getting great detail with strips of wool.  But here's my first try: 

I used a grayed and heathered lavender wool for the background, but it reads as a flat light gray.  It's not too interesting, so I am trying to think of a way to make a hooked gravestone sing.  Any ideas?  I designed a small stone to be needle punched, which is going to feature orange wool thread.  We'll see how that works.

The other great news about our rug show:  The Wool Street Journal is coming to visit!  Even though we are a tiny guild, Bonnie and her daughter, who runs Gwoolikers, are going to join us for the weekend -- all the way from Colorado!  They will have two tables to sell their wares and I am sure they will bring along their cameras to take pictures for the magazine.  So if you are in the tri-state area, you should join us for Halloween weekend here on the North Fork.  We have lots of great stuff to do -- wineries everywhere you look, art galleries and museums, great restaurants, beaches and walking trails, pumpkin picking and corn mazes, shopping -- all in addition to the rug show. 

There's more!!!!  We will also be hosting a Searsport Rug Hooking Trunk Show that weekend.  So there will be wool and patterns and supplies galore!  Here are the other vendors: 

Barbara Blossey-Chuvalas:  Baskets

Bumble Bee Primitives: Hooking and Needle Punch Supplies & Finished Goods

3 Bags Full: Reclaimed Wool

The Paisley Studio: Rug Hooking Patterns and Antique Hooks

thimblefolk: Hand-dyed Wool and Folk Art

Hope to see you in October!