…. 4th December 2014 ….
This inaugural event was organized by TIGHR
(The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers)
Events around Australia – starting on the East Coast …….. and finishing in the West
Queensland:
Here are some happy snaps of Judi Tompkins group (Sunshine Coast RugCrafters) who met at her Studio on Dec 4. The group celebrated International Rughooking Day and worked on setting up some new projects so they can stay busy over the holidays.
More about the Sunshine Coast Rug Crafters on Judi’s website Rug Crafting Australia.
Still in Queensland …… Project “11 and Beyond”
Bec Andersen (Artist in Residency Jan-May 2015) held her Project Launch
Dec 4th at 10am at the Tamborine Mountain Library
to celebrate International Rughooking Day
Bec is collaborating with Tamborine Mountain State School to work with Year 6 children to develop a fibre project from digital design to production.
This project is inspired by the cultural shift that occurs in Queensland in 2015 where Year 7 children will become the first year of high school and Year 6 children will be the leaders of the primary school.
Read more about this project ….
and in Kingaroy, QLD …………..
Judith Brook, long time member of TIGHR, is originally from New Zealand, and is a founding member of the Australian Guild. Judith is part of a local arts group in Kingaroy with access to exhibition space where she promotes rug hooking. She also has pieces in the local craft gallery and says the rugs always make a hit. There are a number of people in the area eager to learn this craft so she will be organizing a rug making workshop in the New Year. For information email judylbrook@gmail.com
Earlier this year Judith exhibited this wall hanging to commemorate
“100 Years of ANZACS”
names from the Roll of Honour at the local war memorial of all the men from the area who died in the 1st World War are hand-written on the flag which is the backdrop for this piece. Your can read more about how this piece was created in an earlier post.
New South Wales:
The Narrawilly Proggers celebrated International Rughooking Day at their Christmas Lunch on Dec 5th at Miriam Miller’s Rug Room in Milton.
Bev Latta, Sheila Lucas, and Christine Alexander catch up on the verandah outside Miriam’s Rug room. Sheila came up from Bermagui (south of Milton) with Dawn Hollins and Kathy Cannirs members of the Bermagui & Dist. U3A Rug Hookers.
The Narrawill Proggy Rugmakers also held their annual Fashion Parade – where members of the group model a selection of garments from those given to them by a local Op Shop to cut up and use in their rugs. After a rather hilarious fashion parade compered by Jacqui Thomson, the guests then bid on the garments. According to Jacqui “it was load of fun, as always, with temperamental models, at great expense”
Bidding is spirited as they all know the money raised goes to support Heather Ritchie’s Rug Hooking School for the Blind in The Gambia.
This year Jacqui’s actions were somewhat curtailed, as a few weeks ago she slipped, fell and broke her ankle. However being the trooper that she is, she filled her usual role decked out in her “moon boot” complete with Christmas bow.
Jacqui talking here with Maizie Bennett, said “Carol Treloar did the great boot decorations. Nothing escapes her”
ACT :
Maggie Whyte from Canberra and friends from Braidwood & Milton, New South 
Wales, celebrated International Rughooking Day on the 22nd & 23rd November while exhibiting rugs and demonstrating rug hooking at the Airing of the Quilts in Braidwood, NSW (approxiately an hours drive from both Canberra and Milton). (Pictured here are Maggie’s proggy Christmas trees.)
Read more about this annual event on June Weatherstone’s website – June, the founder of this event in Braidwood, is a member of the Narrawilly Proggy Rugmakes and the Australian Rugmakers Guild.
The “Coffee Shop” rug below was hooked by Maggie Hickey, who is shown here demonstrating rughooking
Despite sweltering heat over the weekend, the event was a great success with members of the public showing much interest in the rugmaking techniques and having a try at both hooky and proggy.
This colourful “Beach Huts” rug was hooked by Janet Walker.
There was truly an international connection at this event with a visit by Ruth Hassall who has been living in Switzerland. Ruth helped to hang the rugs – below is an unfinished cow rug designed and hooked by Ruth.
Victoria :
Living in country Victoria, at least an hour apart, the Yarra Valley Rugmakers travel a long way to get together. Some of their faithful members were missing at their Nov meeting and with Christmas fast approaching they decided to make their 13th Dec meeting a special Christmas celebration day and to also celebrate International Rug Hooking Day.
They’ll share with each other their personal and internet experiences with rugging friends around the world. As well, they’ll talk about how they can spread the word about rug hooking to other Victorians.
Click here to read more about this very enthusiastic and hospitable rug hooking group.
(Left) Katherine, a Canadian rug hooker, was headed for Australia – she searched the net for rughookers and found Miriam Miller in New South Wales and with husband Alan, visited Miriam at her Rug Room. Their travels were taking them on to Victoria so Miriam gave them Chris’s address –
and Chris invited Katherine & Alan to spend time with her family.
In 2012 at the TIGHR Conference in South Australia, Chris took a class from Heather Ritchie, learning how to adapt a hooking design from a photo. Chris has since created some wonderful wall hangings of hooked faces inspired by photos of her grandchildren.
Last October Chris returned to Strathalbyn to the 2014 Rumaking Expo as a teacher of this technique.
Below are images of the latest “Grandson” rug in the planning and hooking stages:-
Tasmania:
The Happy Hookers will be celebrating International Rug Making Day at their Christmas luncheon on Thursday 11th December at the British Hotel in Deloraine.
They have been hooking together for a decade in the Deloraine community and welcome new members and visitors to meet them over a cuppa at the British Hotel in Deloraine on Thursdays (10am – midday). Find them on Facebook.
South Australia :
On Dec 4th, after arriving home from an overseas trip on Dec 3, Judith Stephens gave a presentation on the craft of rag rug making to a huge (300+) craft group . She had to do the talk twice because the group was too big for one venue. Next year Judith will be giving rug making classes to people from this group.
While their leader was away, the Strath Matters had a change of venue and view – they held their meeting and celebrated International Rughooking Day in advance at Jenny A’s house
Marion is hooking a Stuart Pea (State Flower of South Australia);
below – Irene’s proggy rug, Jenny A’s crocheted rope bowl and Maggie’s cushion with the hooked frogs leaping around the proggy waterlilies.
At the October 2014 Rugmaking Expo in Strathalbyn, Trish Carter of the Strath Matters, purchased an old SEMCO pattern from Faye, who was selling off her stash of rug patterns on Scottish Hessian. Faye must have stored her rug hooking supplies well, because the Hessian patterns were in excellent condition even though some were at least 30 years old. Jo Franco purchased one with a “Rittemere” only on the label – that is going back a ways.
You can tell Trish is a “horse person” – although there was no accompanying photo with this pattern Trish has done an excellent job depicting movement and the anatomy of the horse.
Western Australia: 
Jo Franco also returned from overseas on the 3rd Dec and on the 4th, joined members of the Wanneroo Rugmakers at the Burns Beach Cafe for their Christmas Lunch and to celebrate International Rughooking Day, at a rug hooking session in the sunshine on the beach.
Members of this group recently entered their rugs and wall hangings in competition at the Wanneroo Show (County Fair for our US readers). The organizers of the Show have now created a separate category for Rug Making – and pieces are judged depending on the rugmaking technique used.
INTERNATIONAL :
Susan Feller, TIGHR Webmaster,
was instrumental in setting up this global event
seen here Skyping with Jo Franco (Western Australia) & Judi Tompkins (Queensland) on the evening of 4th Dec (USA time).
Events around the Globe were captured on TIGHR’s Facebook.
A big “Thank You” to Deb Smith, Editor, Rug Hooking Magazine, and her crew for promoting this event and setting up a Facebook page where events could be posted by rughookers themselves.
