At the end of May, many of us ventured to Kitchener to participate in the Ontario Hooking and Craft Guild (OHCG) Annual. This is a time for many to connect with friends from various parts of the province, to see the absolutely incredible rugs that people do and also to do a little "retail therapy". Ontario is a big province and not all of us are close to rug hooking distributors. I have still not figured out if I am inspired or intimated by what I see people do. I do have to mention that one of our members, Christine Gibson, won first prize for Fine Cut of her Monkey, her teacher being Jon Ciemiewicz. Congratulations to Chrisine. I will post a photo as soon as I can get one.
Needless to say, we took our beautiful Congo Rug with us and for those of you who are faithful readers of this blog, you will note that I said in a previous post that we were up to number 5 and as a result of our going to the annual we would be looking at sponsoring number 6, 7 & 8. Well we did but........also number 9, 10 & 11! We were over the moon as a result of the generosity of spirit that the women of the OHCG displayed and the support that we received for the Women of the Congo. The OHCG has been so supportive and have always given us some time to talk about the project and also to give us space so that we can display the rug and sell our flowers. Rhonda did a fine job again this year along with Vanna #1, Nancy and Vanna # 2, Pen. Rhonda took the time to explain how the rug was finished according to our visit with Julie Hughes who is a conservist with the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. Marjorie Francis, who does absolutely beautiful quilting, oversaw the backing along with Sheila, Kim, and others in record time and did a superb job. I think Julie Huges would be proud. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her and let her see that we listened and listened well and her time was not in vain.
In her outgoing speech, the President of the Guild for the past two years, Jay Allison, pointed out that as a group it is not only the rug hooking that inspires us but it is the women that we meet along the way, the friendships formed, the generosity of time and spirit that so many of the women display and we can't forget to mention that many have struggles of their own that they have to manage on a daily basis but somehow they always seem to come through in a time of need. I think that it was definitely a result of how well we did for the Women of the Congo. A special thank you to someone, and I won't mention the name, who opened her heart and sponsored one woman with her generosity....!!
I will post the Monkey and also a piece that Marjorie quilted as soon as I can get a photo.
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