Author Archives: tinpedlar

About tinpedlar

The Tin Pedlar of Maine Chapter of ATHA (Association of Traditional Hooking Artists) shares a common purpose of promoting the art of rug hooking through education, sharing of ideas and group activities.

Finding My Creative Voice Through Rug Hooking with Peg Irish

Those in attendance at the May meeting enjoyed a presentation from Peg Irish after thanking Cheri for all her work as past President, the work of the other officers whose terms were up, and excepting the new slate of officers presented. A big welcome to our new President Lauri Troutman.

Lots of creative work progressing within the group ~

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Peg Irish has been hooking since 1980, when she began taking classes with teacher and Maine Tin Pedlar member Lois Dugal. She was immediately captivated by the textures and colors possible in rug hooking, and quickly knew that she needed to create her own designs and dye her own fabrics. She relies heavily on her own photography and basic geometric designs when creating new projects. Peg’s work has been featured in numerous publications and she is a juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. Her work has been exhibited in numerous juried and invitational shows. She has curated several fiber arts and hooked rug exhibits on Cape Cod. Peg admits to being an “idea person”, always stimulated by anew creative challenge.

Gripper Grabbing?

There are so many good rug hooking groups across social media today. Rug Hookers on Facebook had an interesting post that I was given permission to pass along.

A member of the group – Starr Burgess had what seems like a clever idea to handle the issue of gripper frames grabbing you as you hook. She suggested to purchase low cost plumber foam sections that can be cut to length for covering your gripper strips. It comes slit, is easy to cut to length with regular scissors and covers really nicely with duct tape. With all the colorful tape available you can personalize the plain foam. Starr connected her sections at 3 corners, so it is easy to take on or off.

Cumberland Fair 2012 ~ Sept. 23rd – 29th

The Tin Pedlars decided to maintain our connection with the Cumberland Fair and to that end we are working hard to provide a strong showing of our art form, as well as demonstrating our craft to others. People are needed to demonstrate every day of the fair from 9am to 9pm. We have broken up the time into multiple hour blocks with a minimum of 2 people for each block. You are paid to demonstrate and you will have a ticket to get in. A hooking frame, wool and hook will be at the demo site. If you can demonstrate and did not sign up at the May meeting, please contact —.

Part of this effort is the Cumberland Fair Challenge mats. These 10″ x 18″ (minimum) mats will need to be completed by our September ’12 meeting. See previous posting on the Challenge guidelines.

To inspire you ~ one of the pieces members have begun:

If you want to do the challenge, but are feeling unsure about designing your own piece, different members have offered to help with the designing of your idea(s). Leave a comment here before the June meeting and connections will be made.

Our double booth has room to exhibit rugs of any size. We are looking forward to seeing many pieces of work from rugs to ornaments. To exhibit the piece it needs to be clean and never shown before at the Cumberland Fair.

Forms for fair submission will also need to be completed. The link here will allow you to submit online or print off and send in. (Only one form is used to list all items being exhibited per individual). Be sure to include MAINE TIN PEDLARS with your Name, so the rugs will get to our exhibition area.

Look for additional information as it becomes available.

Auction Fun!

This scrapbook design created with Smilebox

Some of the rugs members are working on or just finishing…….

doll house rugs

no fear of using a poison color or two

won’t need any of that red wool for this piece

just binding left to do

Cumberland Fair Challenge rug underway

Some Waldoboro

making progress

Maine Sunday Telegram Piece

Here is the link to the Maine Sunday Telegram article about the Saco Museum show:
http://www.pressherald.com/life/audience/hooked-by-fascinating-rug-exhibition-at-saco-museum_2012-02-05.html

Opening of the Saco Museum Exhibit

These photos are by Lauri Troutman.

Cumberland Fair 2012 Rug Challenge

At the November’s meeting there was a good amount of discussion around the value of continuing our group’s participation in the Cumberland Fair. It was suggested that it might be appropriate to designing a rug hooking challenge to be the display for our area. As follow up to that and a suggestion coming forward from the membership it was decided to offer the following challenge.

Hoping to encourage participation in this challenge, looking at the time of year for the fair and appreciating each member’s creative point of view there will be 3 parts to the challenge:

1) Using the foundation of your choice, the finished dimensions have to be a minimum of 10″ x 18″. If you go larger please be sure you can complete it in the allotted time frame.

2) It has to have a Fall/autumn theme.

3) It has to include the three circle shapes linked below. These 3 circles are to be used as sized and shaped in the linked patterns following. Click on each circle to access a printable form. Once you have accessed the form in Google Documents, up go to File, then Print to get the accurate size. If you need the templates copied for you just let an officer know.

Circle 1 – roughly 4 x 4-1/2
Circle 2 – roughly 4-1/2 x 5-1/2
Circle 3 – roughly 5-1/2 x 6-1/4

More information about when the finished rug/mat will need to be done for the Sept. 2012 fair will be coming. Feel free to let those creative juices start flowing and have fun designing your challenge piece. If you want to participate in this challenge, but are not comfortable with your abilities to make a pattern, other members have offered to help get your idea down as a pattern for your use.

Wool Challenge 2010-2011

Participants will:

Sign up with the chapter and receive a strip of wool 3″ x 18″ provided by the chapter
Use the majority of the wool – AS IS – no over dyeing
Use cut of your choice
May use embellishments of your choice
Use a pattern of your choice – original, adaptation or commercial design
Bring finished mat to upcoming meetings for a chance at a special door prize
Bring finished mat for display at the April 2011 meeting and be entered into the contest for the completed mats

This challenge is not a swap. Your mats may be of any size and theme. You just need to include the provided wool within your hooking.

Update*

It was fun to see how everyone used the wool. Completed challenge mats were displayed at the Cumberland Fair.

Faith Websters’ – the cat that is on the photo album won in 3 categories: