My First Hook-in on Off the Wall Friday

 

The calm before the storm

After going through the Covid plague of 2020, I made myself one promise...I would make sure I wasn't blowing off chances to socialize just because it seemed like "too much bother".  What that awful time made me realize was not to take socializing with my community for granted.  To that end, I took a leap of faith and went to my first Hook-in.

It all started with me seeing a Facebook post on a rug hookers guild page for their Hooktoberfest 2025 Hook-in.  After a guild member said it was open to the public and encourage me to go, I sent in my registration.  Right about then I "liked" a post on another's guild page, and their social media chair, Debbie reached out with a friend request.  I accepted it once I saw she was a rug hooker, and a new friendship was made.  Apparently, Facebook is actually still good for something these days.

With an invite, Debbie decided to ride along to the Hook-in with me since she's only about 25 minutes from my house.  I'm so glad she did!  I'm not sure what I was thinking but that day it dawned on me that if I hadn't had Debbie with me, I wouldn't have known a soul there.  Everyone was sitting with their friend groups so Debbie generously had me sit with hers. The ladies were all nice and from my neck of the woods.  Here is my new friend Marsha and the lovely project she's working on! (I was watching her work and thought - wow she's so pretty  - so I bravely asked to take a picture for my blog)

Marsha and her lovely Cowboy

The Hook-in was held at the Strongsville , Ohio Senior/Rec Center which is a huge and amazing building. We filled the Event Hall with about 100 ladies (and a few men) all sitting at roomy round

This is another quilter turned hooker - Pretty right?

tables.  The edges of room were taken up with several vendors.  I finally found out how most ladies are buying their wool.  Apparently, there are several small business owners that sell wool off the bolt, over dyed wool, and hand dyed wool at these social events.  Plus there was all sorts of textile notions, wool yarn and Valdani pearl cotton.  Truly there was a LOT of wool there.  With Debbie at my side, I got a lesson in wool shopping.  Once I got my hands on it, I knew exactly what I wanted.  You could feel the different weights just by touch and seeing it in person.  I love how once you touched it you can tell what was tight weave, loose weave and just right!   I bought some hand dyeds for the background of my current project and a few plaids because they are getting harder and harder to find.  Still, I'm sticking to my promise of not letting my wool stash get out of hand. I really think project by project is a good idea.  

Forgive the darker picture - I took it at night! 

It really was a fun day.  We hook a little, shopped a little, had a nice lunch and did a LOT of talking. All for the reasonable price of $35.  Oh and I even won a handful of wool as a door prize!  It was such a nice time that I wish we would do that with quilters - bring your hand work and come socialize for 6 hrs,

Debbie's Door prize - Cigar boxes with pretty Motif's on them 

On this week's Rug Watch...finished up the red grapes and onto the grape leaves....

On buy of the week...also found in the Facebook's group "Selling my sewing supplies" ...a  bought these two books for $5.70 each (that includes the postage)....Millefiori Quilts I & II

I remember when these first came out and they were kinda pricey (about $55)  so I forego buying them even though doing a Millefiori English paper piece quilt is on my bucket list.  So I thought - oh good buy right?!  Well apparently, since then, the books have become more rare and English paper piecing more popular, so their prices have gone through the roof. Millefiori Quilts 2 is selling anywhere between $50-$160 right now.  (We'll see if that continues because whenever that has happen in the past, a publish on demand option becomes available and the prices drop - but so will the quality of the book itself).  These are gorgeous books, and I'm so blessed to have snagged them.  I'm taking it as a sign to not put off one of these quilts.  

That's me this week...

What Have YouBeen Up to Creatively?

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Another Journal on Off the Wall Friday

 

 Is anybody out there just a glutton for cool stationary supplies?  Maybe it's because it's back to school time and the shelves are full of the coolest ones.  Or maybe it's because Cindi Gay has a whole series of lessons about journaling, but it got me in the mood to give journaling another try. 

 I have had several failed attempts.  Once I set one up for quilting.  Barely used it. I mean really, blogging about my quilting journey was plenty,   I did have pretty good success with the The Happy Planner series, mostly because it was a planner and not a journal.  Plus, they have a whole lot of stickers that you can buy with it.  (Does it say something about me that I still love stickers at 60?) But now with my phone on me all days, the calendar on it keeps me straight so that fell by the wayside.  

With this new venture into rug hooking though, I thought it was time to give it another go.  I really do wish I had a record of those early years of quilting. This way, I have another shot at getting all the ups and downs of a new art. So down the Bullet Journal (aka BuJo) rabbit hole, I fell...again.

This time though I knew what works for me and what doesn't.  I picked a quality journal with quality paper that didn't ghost or bleed through with whatever pen I used.  I also wanted all the materials of the journal to have a good texture.  (For me it's always about how does it feel in my hand).  With a little bit of investigation, I settled on the Scribbles That Matter Pro.  It has 160 gram paper weight and a nice soft vegan leather cover.  It's not too cutsy and had a lot of colors to choose from.  I settled on aubergine.  It has nice prenumbered pages, 4 big index pages, and little dot guides so you know where the center of the page is.   Oh and the pages are pure white - which apparently isn't the norm in journaling strangely enough.

Luckily, I had everything I needed...pens...stickers...rulers...templates.  But how to set it up?  I did some research, and shockingly, I couldn't find one for a "Maker" that used a journal just for their creative journey.  That seemed crazy to me.  I mean isn't there a video on anything you want to learn on YouTube?

I decided to just wing it.  I thought about how I wanted to use the journal and what purpose it would serve.  I wanted to keep it minimal, personal and low maintenance.  I don't want journalling to become a chore.  Things that I wanted to include in it where:

• An index
• To-Do List
• Blog Ideas List
• Books/Videos I like
• Names/Emails
• 2025-2026 hooking tracker
• A big section for Projects
• A big section for Class notes 
• A list of supplies I bought/where/how much

That didn't seem too difficult.  Also, I set up some rules for myself.  I wanted my journal to look well put together but not become a form of creative expression in itself.  I also wasn't going to worry about imperfections.  My handwriting wasn't good in school and it hasn't gotten any better after 30 years of keyboarding.  (But I can type about 90 wpm - just 'sayin').

I've sprinkled what the pages look like around the post.  Like I said nothing fancy, but still I like to have everything rug hooking in place.  I have a feeling that a big part of hooking is traveling to meet other hookers.  What better way to keep everything straight than a little journal?

I'll get to put that to the test because this weekend is my first Hook-In.  Don't worry, I'll take pictures and fill you next time!

Now for this week's . . .

Rug Watch

The pink grapes were hard again. I really think that part of the issue is that the pattern wasn't plainly drawn.   When I take pictures, I can see the lines well enough, but when you are hooking they all kinda jumble together.  Might be the age of the pattern.  I really am enjoying doing the grape leaves though! 

So, What Have You Been Up to Creatively? 

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Let's Talk Gatekeeping on Off the Wall Friday

Ain't THAT the truth!

It's an odd place to be.. .a 35 year veteran of one craft .... quilting and a rank amateur of another... rug hooking.  After doing something for 30 years, you get to know most of the answers.  Diving in deep on rug hooking, the more I know, the more I realize I don't know.  Luckily, I've found a circle of ladies that are happy to share their opinions on things (and let me tell you, rug hookers are strong in their opinions).  One of my favorite 90 minutes of the week is the Saturday rug hook-in sessions, Cindi Gay hosts.  There anybody can bring their project and just hook and listen and

Psalm 12, Nina-Marie Sayre, 2001

chat...and it's free.    It's amazing what you can learn when you listen in on one of these hook-in's.  They are so free with their knowledge.

Recently, I heard the story about how when a new hooker asked another hooker if she could try her hook to see if she liked that kind....the lady promptly said no.  As you can imagine, the asker was taken aback and embarrassed.  The story brought back memories of older more experienced quilters being "mean girl" cruel to me.  It also brought memories of the class 25 years ago where fellow classmates Phillipa Naylor and Christine Fries generously filled in the gaps of my limited knowledge, so I was able to make my first art quilt.  Not for the first time, do I wonder, where would I be if they hadn't helped me that year.  That quilt gave me hope that I too, could maybe become an artist.  

That's why gatekeeping really boils my blood.  For those of you not up on the latest slag:

I don't think we find it so much in quilting, but I have heard of it more in rug hooking.  There are teachers who are afraid to teach too much worrying that a student won't return if they've learned too much.  There are people who will call copyright on the simplest designs.  For that matter, in the world of rug hooking, if you buy a pattern, you are only allowed to make one rug from that pattern.  I could go on, but I don't want to malign all rug hookers under this rant because there many, many generous ladies...  But still, I've seen it enough where it makes me do a double take...like What did they just say?

I find the whole idea of gatekeeping foolish and counterproductive.  In the words of Mother Teresa, "As we serve others we are working on ourselves; every act, every word, every gesture of genuine compassion naturally nourishes our own hearts".  You never know what you'll learn by helping someone else, but you do know you will learn.  Gatekeeping your knowledge will just end up with you creating in a little box of your own making.  

Not to mention, why do Gatekeepers think they know so much and only they are entitled to that knowledge.  Like everyone knows there is nothing truly original in this world.  I mean how did they learn it?  Someone - somewhere had to open a gate to teach them right?

From How to Steal like an Artist, by  Austin Kleon

Like I said, annoying!  I could rant some more, but I'm choosing to be the kind of rug hooker that lays it all out there for the world and to that end....

On this week's

Rug Watch....I finished the Melon and now it's on to more grapes.  This time I got smart and am doing all the same value grapes at once which makes gradating them easier.  Looking at my progress, I'm noticing that I should start designing my next.  I have a good idea what it's going to be but I'll save that for another post.

So, What Have You've Been Up to Creatively?

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A Little Yellow Goes a Long Way on Off the Wall Friday

Thank you all for so enthusiastically joining the We Do Not Care Club, Quilter's Edition.  I'm making a list for the next meeting.  Feel free to email me any additions you would like to make.  

It's been a busy few weeks with my deep dive into rug hooking continuing.  I managed to finish the little flower project:

Little Flower, Nina-Marie Sayre 8" by 8" 
Hooked Wool

I'm all happy with this.  The wool was super suspect, but it taught me that really you can hook anything that will make loops.  Also, it solidifies in my mind what kind of hooking I will eventually do. 

Also, drum roll please...I finished the grapes on my current project.  Looking at them now, I might go back and pull some out to do them again.  They are the kind of thing that you really need to see them in mass to see which ones aren't working quite right.  The whole thing with rug hooking is that YOU decide where the gradations go.  Like I said, some might need to be redone.  But before I do that, I decided to go on to the watermelon.  

The yellow is so much fun.  It's gradates from light to dark.  Watching the yellows blend so seamlessly together is very cool.  

Speaking of Yellow, 

Two weeks ago, our local historical society unveiled a sunflower field for its first season.  Unbeknownst to the general public, they made a deal with a local whiskey distillery that if the distillery would provide the seeds, the historical would plant the sunflowers at a historical farm they acquired.  The next thing you know, come August, we have 1.2 million sunflowers growing as far as the eye can see.  It certainly made a grand statement as the historical society intended.  Blessed as we are, its the next town over.  The nice thing is that the public was invited to visit and enjoy all the yellow. Thousands came to walk among the sunflowers.   Seeing it really took your breath away.  

The seeds will be harvested in September and given back to the distillery to make sunflower whiskey.  

I call that a win-win.  

Hooking the yellow this weekend, brought back to mind enjoying the field on a hot Sunday afternoon with my family.  It was the highlight of the summer for sure.

As always, it's the simple things.  

So, What Have You've Been Up to Creatively?

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We Do Not Care Club - Off the Wall Friday Edition

We interrupt your regular scheduled programming to bring you the Off the Wall Friday's 

We Do Not Care Club

Quilter's Edition 

Founded by Melani Sanders for perimenopausal, menopausal and post-menopausal women 

Our Founder, Melani Sanders 

Today's Announcements:

As quilters, we do not care if you feel we already have enough fabric; we will buy as much as we like, with no particular purpose in mind. It's our money.  We will spend it anyway we want.  (That goes for thread and notions as well.)

We do not care if you don't want the quilt we made for you.  We spent hundreds of hours and dollars on it.  Take the damn quilt.

We do not care if a quilt at Walmart is a lot cheaper.  We don't sleep well under things made by cheap Pan-Asian labor. For that matter, we don't sleep well period.

We do not care if our scissors are the only ones you can find in the house.  Make your will before touching our fabric scissors.  No really we're serious...make...your...will.

We do not care if we haven't finished our last quilt before we started a new one.  We like starting new projects and this isn't a sprint... it's a marathon.

We do not care if quilting is considered an old lady's hobby.  Age is state of mind, not a number and we are Creatives, not geriatrics. Show some respect.

We do not care if we bought our fabric at a quilt shop, a box store, thrift store or yard sale.  It's pretty.  We like it.  It sews.

We do not care if you think our quilt is not art. Art is not always framed and you are not as smart as you look. 

We do not care if you want us to hem your pants.  We do quilting, not alterations.

We do not care how traditionally we are supposed to be creating our quilts.  It's our quilt; we will make it any damn way we want. 

We do not care if you think our new sewing room made a better guest bedroom.  We do not want guests.  We want a nice quiet place to sew.  

We do not care if you walk in while we are sewing in our bras.  We are hot whether you think so or not. 

We do not care if you don't like the colors in our latest quilt.  If we wanted your opinion, we would have asked for it.  We are no longer taking comments from the peanut gallery.   If you don't know what a peanut gallery is - google it.

And finally, for my bloggers who have stuck with me through thick and thin over the last 16 years...

We do not care if nobody is blogging anymore.  We like blogging since it creates a sense of community and connection.  We will keep blogging until it doesn't give us joy.  Then we'll stop. 

That concludes this session of the We Do Not Care Club, Quilter's Edition.  Since, I have many, many more rants in me, I am sure it won't be the last.  

So, What Do You Not Care About?

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A Little Flower on Off the Wall Friday

 As I hook my way through the grapes, I've been watching video lessons at Cindi Gray's "Rug Hooking Journey".  One of the chapters was this Little Flower pattern.  Cindi designed this little project for those who wanted to do more than just a square as their first project.  Originally, I skipped it - since I'm kinda of a "go big or go home" type of girl.  Now though, it looked like a nice palette cleanser to the grapes.  

The Little Flower, Cindi Gay

Oh this looked fun! First, I pulled out the sampler pack of backings I had bought.  It contained fat quarters (which in the hooking world is 18" by 30") of the four main backings rug hookers are using right now - burlap, monk's cloth, rug warp and linen.  It seems that people have a variety of strong opinions of what backing they like.  So far, I tried the monk's cloth and found it too loosey goosey for me.  The linen I like because of the texture, slight smell and tons of little spots to put your hook.   Next up....Rug Warp ... which is Cindi's preferred backing.

Starting the Flower 

I traced out the pattern which is about 8" by 8" and grabbed a hand full of reds, greens and browns strips.  One thing I'm going to have to get used to is not having a full stash of wool at my disposal.  I honestly don't want a full stash (since a ridiculously huge stash of cotton is enough for one woman), but I will need a "working" stash.  Right now, I was blessed with a gifting of a small stash from a friend from John C. Campbell ... plus a hand full of scraps I bought at a local thrift store.  (These I froze/sun baked several cycles to kill off any potential moth larva).  In the thrifted wool I found my choices.  

Putting in the Border Line 
Note to self: Next time just draw it instead of trace 
So it will be straight

What's great about the exercise is that I'm finding out what wool felts up and is thick enough to hook nicely.  Some of the scraps I used for the flower are so thin that they nearly wouldn't hook.  Not to mention rug warp isn't as forgiving as linen having more of a set even weave to it.  But little by little I got the rhythm, and the flower got hooked.  One thing I liked was the messy texture of the looser thinner wool - it gave the flower this really pretty style. It's like you can't really tell where the loops are. I used bits and pieces of  greens of conventional hooking wool so they have more rigid loops.  Andddddd now, I'm working my way through the background.  

What I got so far!

One thing I'm learning is that all those years of piecing hand dyeds together for an overall effect wasn't wasted.  I easily am reaching for strips to hook without much thought knowing instinctually they will in the end melt into one. 

Another WIP exercise with little pieces all working together as one 
(I really need to finish this - it's got potential!)

All of this - by the way - was one morning of hooking.  It sure turned into a more fun exercise than anticipated.  Apparently, I am all in on this rug hooking journey.  

I wanted to thank everyone for the encouraging comments.  It's so nice to have my own cheering squad.

So, while I've been playing with wool...

(Linking with Kathy's Slow Stitch Sunday )

What Have You Been up to Creatively?

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Grapes on Off the Wall Friday

Okay, I'm not one to complain, but who ever thought putting 4 values of wool strips in one little thumb print size circle sounded like a fun, needs to take a long look at their definition of fun!  I spent my rug hooking time this week doing gradated grapes.  In 4 different gradations.  In two different purples.  Not only is it a lot of work trying to get your loops somewhat smooth in little circles but also it's a lot of, "so where is the light source for this grape?  Is that dark enough?  Is this one of the 1,  2, 3, 4 light to dark grapes?  

Okay, I am one to complain.  But I'm the one that chose a project that was specifically meant for a teacher's workshop when I've only been doing this for less than a year.  This is as far as I've gotten:

And really, when one isn't working out, you unhook it in a second and put it back it beacause - ya know - it's the size of your thumb.  To remind you all - this is what this is supposed to look like...

I do have detailed instructions so there is that....

No worries, I'll get through!

This week I continued on with my "The Rug Hooker's Journey" course with Cindi Gay.  It's taken me a while to get into the rhythm of this course, but I think I finally found it.  Cindi Gay is an experience rug hooking teacher who has taken her mission to the internet. Her site has so much information, it's hard to decide where to start. I started with the free videos on youtube  (which are many), then moved on to the free content on her website (which is a ton), to finally joining the paid of membership of the official Rug Hooker's Journey (which is well worth it).  There you can just take your time working your way through courses that start at the very beginning and move into more involved weekly live lessons. Something that Cindi does which is what truly sold it, is that she has a weekly free Hook-In where you can just show up

and hook - chat and ask questions.  It's so fun!   You get to know her and her style.  The lessons on Tuesdays are live so you can ask questions in live time, or they are recorded if you can't make it.  After watching a few lessons, I'm officially asking my boss if I can work an earlier shift so I can get home to rug hook (can't wait to see the look on his face!  But 15 months in, he knows how I am).  I really like Cindi's style - down to earth, just enough content to be interesting but not to be overwhelming  - confident but not obnoxious.  

The lesson that I tackled this week was on composition, and it was so good...I put it on my "ideas for a blog post" list once I play with some exercises.  

That's what's up on my new rug hooking journey....

What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

(Linking with Kathy's Slow Stitch Sunday)

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