Sneak Peak

Just wanted to show you how it is looking...all the hooking is done and now we have the task of whipping it and then putting on our backing as suggested by Julie Hughes from the Museum of Civilization. Women of the Congo we are almost there!!! Thanks to Julius for the beautiful photos he has taken - it looks beautiful.

A great Idea

In one of our comments it has been suggested that we have our unveiling of our finished product at the Textile Museum in Toronto.........what do you think of that ladies. Are we on??? Let us know what everyone else thinks, good idea??

A Day of Enlightenment

Last week we had the distinct pleasure of meeting with Julie Hughes who is a conservator at the Museum of Civilization in Hull......we couldn't have met a more engaging, informed and interested person than Julie. She just took us under her wing and helped us find a way to finish off our rug in a professional and unique way especially for the purposes of it being a wall hanging. She embraced us literally and figuratively and we all came away from our little meeting absolutely full of ideas and information. We have promised her we would keep in touch and inform her of our progress. It was a "wow" day.

We also took the opportunity to attend the "Heart and Soul" Exhibit that is currently on display at the Museum. It is Quebec folk"art" and there were many hooked rugs on display so if you are in the Ottawa/Hull area you might want to drop in and see the exhibit.

Thank you to Pam Langdon for this extremely valuable connection. Pam is another wonderful rug hooker, teacher and woman. Pam will be teaching at the Trent School of Rug Hooking June 2009 and will be featuring``Mad About Maude`` Lewis that is. The paintings by Maude Lewis lends itself very well to rug hooking with her bright colours and themes of every day living.

Our First "Display" Day

A couple of weeks ago we were invited to take part in a Fibre Fest that was being held in Almonte, Ontario. A few of us made the little excursion along with our "precious" rug and we were able to display our project to the public for the first time while we sat and hooked on our own personal projects. It was wonderful to the see the reaction and hear the comments from people outside of our own rug hooking community. We felt like proud parents who had just given birth to a little bundle of joy. We made our grand entrance and announced our arrival by putting our big frame together (we are not carpenters) and retrieving all the tacks that had fallen to the floor but we regained our composure and the rest of the day was tremendous. It is just so inspiring when you see all the wonderful art, jewellery, dolls, quilting, rug hooking, etc. etc. displayed at these functions and it is an honour to be in such company...truly humbling!

The Team of Women Matters

Rhonda Kellett (teacher) Joan Boyle (teacher & mentor), Jean Smith (mentor), Sheila Brokloff (mentor), Jane Cuthbert (teacher), Pen Deering, Nancy Lane, Fran Ducross, Eleanor Buttrey, Kim Slade, Nancy McNamara, Irene Horbay, Nancy McFarland, Joan Hunter Marjorie Francis and Julie Ridler. We have had many who are interested in the project and there will be additions to the list as we approach our ``finishing`` stages of the rug. What a team!!! Many of these women have their Fibre Artist Certificate from St. Lawrence College as well as their Rug Hooking Teacher certification from the Ontario Hooking and Craft Guild while many are in the process of working on it. Their experience is invaluable.

The Dye Team

Rhonda Kellett opened her Kohldog Studio to her "dye" team as follows, Pen Deering, Eleanor Andress, Sheila Brokloff, Kim Slade and Julie Ridler

Rhonda Kellett

Rhonda Kellett is the brains and beauty behind this project. Her impeccable attention to detail, her vibrant use of colour and her unrelentless belief in this project, helps to motivate all of us to achieve our goal. Rhonda was one of two women who had seen the segment on 60 Minutes (War Against Women, January 13, 2008) and when we got together the following day and discussed the segment with others, Rhonda suggested that maybe we could hook a rug. We don't think she anticipated the scope of what came about, but this has become Rhonda's passion and she has pulled all of us in. She inspires all of us.

The Dynamic Duo

In earlier posts we have mentioned a few of the talented women who have blessed us with their expertise. We would be remiss if we didn't mention Sheila Brokloff - an artist, Rug Hooker and one of the most endearing woman you would have the pleasure of meeting. Sheila was instrumental in starting up various circles of women who meet on a specific day every week to rug hook and share their designs, ideas and instruction. Sheila's husband, Julius Brokloff, is an avid photographer; teaching and displaying his photos at many displays in and around the Thousand Islands as well as in Toronto. Julius has graciously agreed to be our official "photographer", he has made every effort to portray our rug at its best! Julius belongs to a group called F/8 Black & White Photography. We are most appreciative of his time and attention to our mission.

We have exceeded our expectations!!

As mentioned earlier in our blog, we had a deadline of the end of September to finish the hooking of our rug. You will see at the top of the picture that just a little line of blue has to be done but I have just heard that it is all done! We have done it!!!!!! Now we have to dye our whipping wool and whip the edge of the rug so that we can take it in for appraisal. A group of us are going up to Ottawa to the Museum of Civilization to find out what they look for when a piece of art of considerable value is done. This should be a very interesting experience for all of us. We are all so proud to be a part of this project.

Our Neighbours to the South

We have been very fortunate to come in contact with some very friendly and creative women who, like many others, come to summer in the Thousand Islands. There are a few who, like us, make this area our home, but others come from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc. etc. We have been attempting to have a connection with each other so we invite them over for a day of rug hooking and they do the same. We had the opportunity in July to visit with them in Stone Mills, NY (this is always a bit entertaining when you tell customs your reason for visiting). We took our project rug to show them and their response was so encouraging and inspiring. Many offered us suggestions as to how we could market our rug on completion, in fact, many felt that they could pass the project information on and hopefully we just might connect with a proud recipient of our treasured rug. Who knows!!

Operations Control Director

Our group has been blessed to have a number of rug hooking teachers. Again, everyone who hooks knows, or should know, Joan Boyle....another wonderful rug hooker, teacher, designer and now she can add to her many hats, our "Operations Control" director. Joan has been instrumental in getting all of us coordinated and on track. Along with Rhonda Kellett, who has really been the mastermind behind this project and also a teacher, Joan oversees our dying of the wool and all the different elements that come in to play when one is hooking a rug. A tough job for sure when you are handling 20 plus strong minded women. Joan has done a lot of the hooking and is helping many of us novices who also take our turn hooking on the rug. We were over to the Clayton, NY area recently to visit with some "seasonal" rug hookers and they were sure that only one person had been hooking on the rug. A real compliment to our Operations Control Director.

Jeanne Field and Rittermere Hurst Field

Rittermere Hurst Field has been our saviour!! Jeanne Field is a very well known and dedicated Rug Hooker and designer who, along with her daughter, Andrea, have a business in Aurora, Ontario where many of us venture to or order our rug hooking materials. Jeanne has been teaching for years and everyone, and I mean everyone, knows or should know Jeanne Field. A woman from our group went up to Rittermere one weekend to purchase some supplies and told Jeanne about our project. Kim asked if there was anyway that Rittermere could help us out. Well, help us out they did. They provided us with 10 yards of 100% wool, our linen backing, our whipping wool, you name it. Needless to say we were all over the moon about this. What a way to start "women helping women". We are just so thankful for their contribution to our project.

Logo Design by Karen Kaiser

Just wanted to say a few words about our logo at the start of this blog. This was designed and hooked for us by Karen Kaiser. Karen is a graphic artist by definition but an absolutely wonderful rug hooker who has won an award just about every year at our Ontario Rug Hooking Guild Annual held in May. Her designs are exquisite and she is now selling her designs through Rittermere Hurst Field. Karen just happened to be with us one Monday hooking when we were starting our process for the rug and offered to design our logo. She came back to us two weeks later with the design and it all hooked. Needless to say we were all delighted with what she had done. You can visit Karen's website or blog. Karen is in the process of setting up weekends just for hooking with instruction which is a new endeavour for her so we encourage people to try them out. Her email is woody.kaiser@gmail.com or go to her blog at Artworks by Karen Kaiser.com

This is how far we have come.

We are all very excited about our progress. We were anticipating a completion date of January 13, 2009 which is the first anniversary of when the program first aired but I think we are going to outdo ourselves. We have been asked to do an article for Rug Hooking Magazine and they have requested that it all be hooked by the end of September so we are women on a mission. Please let us know what you think!!

A Segment entitled “The War Against Women”, which aired on 60 Minutes, January 13, 2008, has inspired our group of traditional rug hookers to fund raise for the women of the Congo.

*“Women Matters” is a group of more than twenty rug hookers from Eastern Ontario, Canada, who meet every Monday to pursue our artistic passion and socialize. The day after the segment aired, members of our group were discussing the plight of the Congolese women as highlighted in the disturbing and thought-provoking piece. As a group, we decided then and are now determined, to do something to help.*

*
Tilly Willis , an internationally known artist from the United Kingdom, has graciously given us permission to recreate one of her colourful African images in the form of a 5’ x 5’ hand-hooked wall hanging. We chose a piece entitled “Waiting” which for us represents Lucienne and Luck standing on a shore and looking towards the horizon, their future. Their poignant story, as featured in the piece, was the principle inspiration for us to react.*

*With a core of women directing, our group members share in the execution of the project, beginning with the daunting task of hand-dyeing wool to the colour specifications of the original artwork through to the countless hours of rug-hooking to arrive at a final product by our self-imposed deadline of January 13, 2009, to coincide with the anniversary date of the airing of the initial “60 Minutes” segment. We are planning to sell the rug and use the proceeds to sponsor Congolese women thereby enabling them to move from victim to survivor.

Our Logo

The font is in italics to look like the shadows in the rug. Also, it is an indication of moving forward toward a better future.The 'S' is subtle, the two 'T's look like two woman symbols holding hands. They look like rug hooks too.

Th colours were chosen to reflect the colours in the rug. Yellow is warmth and love

the dark green represents life (foliage, plants),the gold--hope, and the blue--faith (sky,unknown, future) The circle is the symbol of strength....the sun...the future.