The Peconic Ruggers Rug Show and Sale

Peconic Ruggers

2010 Hooked Rug Show & Sale

meet the ladies from

The Wool Street Journal 
and GWoolikers

Saturday, October 30 and

Sunday, October 31

10a-3p

Hallockville Museum Farm

in the Naugles Barn

6038 Sound Avenue, Riverhead

Rug exhibit, International & local vendors, raffles & light refreshments

Admission: $6

For information:

Peconicruggers.blogspot.com

peconicruggers@yahoo.com

JEN 631-793-3511

Rhinebeck Aftermath

I spent the week unpacking the car, processing checks and credit card orders, filling pattern orders from Rhinebeck (if I don't have a pattern in stock at a show, I will ship it postage free), getting ready for the Peconic Ruggers show next weekend and BAM!  I got miserably sick with a stomach flu Thursday afternoon.  I caught it at Rhinebeck -- how can you not catch something at fair with 50,000 attendees?  I was pretty worn out all weekend from not sleeping well, so I guess it was inevitable.

I slept all day yesterday, surfacing periodically to sip cups of ginger ale delivered to my bedside by Pete and Clara.  (That was my Mom's thing -- the ginger soothes your stomach and the sugar gives you a little energy and you stay hydrated -- if you can keep it down.)  I finally got out of bed at 5 PM.  By then the chills had stopped, but my stomach was still tender.  I felt really weak, so I made myself a poached egg and dry toast -- another of my mother's remedies -- and I felt better.  I also had to deal with a headache all day yesterday, because I could not bear to drink my beloved morning cup of coffee and was going through caffeine withdrawal.

I am better this morning -- still feeling a little under the weather -- but I had a bracing walk on the beach with Cairo earlier and I am going to get back to work today.  I'm hoping no one catches the bug from me  -- sorry if I spread it around -- but it does pass in 24 hours and the ginger ale helps.

Today is my sister Barb's birthday.  Stop by her blog and wish her a happy day.  Click here: thimblefolk

Another Wild Wooly Weekend at Rhinebeck

What a weekend!  This was the warmest Sheep and Wool Festival we've ever attended.  We overdressed on Saturday, remembering last year's snow flurries . . .  We didn't sleep well Friday night after set up, so we were a little bleary-eyed on Saturday.  My exhaustion kept me from my usual tours of the grounds, so I have very few pictures to share today.  Despite our sluggishness, we had our best weekend of sales ever.  Barb and I want to thank our customers -- both the loyal friends who stop by to see us every year as well as the fresh new faces who appeared for the first time this weekend.  You all make the show a delight for us, no matter how little sleep we get!

Autumn Oxford Sheep

Each year I try to do a new sheep-y (sheepish?) rug for Rhinebeck, aka the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.  The featured breed this year is the American Oxford, and here is my rendition of one.

Barb and I hope to see you this weekend at the Duchess County Fairgrounds!

10-10-10

Another lovely October day here on the East End.  I am diligently working on finishing stuff for the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival next weekend.  Let's hope the weather stays like this.

Enjoy your day!

The Next Big Thing:

The New York State Sheep and Wool Festival!  

In less than two weeks, my sister Barb and I will head up to beautiful Rhinebeck, New York (yes-- the town in which Chelsea Clinton held her wedding this summer), enjoying the changing leaves along the Hudson River and visiting with our favorite customers.  I've been working hard to get lots of supplies in stock and new rugs and patterns finished in time for the show.  Here's a teaser photo to get you interested in what I'm working on.

A couple of finished things, a couple of unfinished things . . . notice the reverse hooking on the sheep rug?  Ugh.  I am dyeing some new sky this morning.  So much to do, so little time . . .   I hope you'll mark your calender, get your woolies out and your walking shoes on and join us upstate on October 16 and 17, 2010. 

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!