Rug Hooking Exhibit at the Airport

For the past month, I've been working with regional rug hookers and the Quad City Arts to put together an exhibit of rug hooking and wood turning.  We're fortunate in the Quad Cities to have a public space, at the Quad City Airport, that is managed by an art organization, Quad City Arts. A few months ago, I started collaborating with Dawn from QC Arts to discuss having a fiber arts show in the airport space. Dawn had also been in contact with the local organization of wood turners, and a partnership was born.

I was able to get some amazing rugs from regional rug hookers, including Sharon Townsend, Nola Heidbreder, Jan Pierce, Annette Boland, Lori Rokusek, Julia Bohl, Beth Anne Smiley, Ella Davison, and the lovely Katie Lane. 

Wool Kaleidoscope from Nola Heidbreder, hooked by Nola and designed by Cactus Needle.

Angel, hooked by Lori Rokusek, designed by DiFranza. Note the halo on the angel is repeated in the wood vessels.

Side view inside the glass enclosure, includes Beth Anne Smiley's "1885 Horses" at the top left, Julia Bohl's "Woodland Deer" in the middle, and Julia's "Ligonier Duo" on the floor.  All three of these rugs were designed by Barbara Carroll of the Woolley Fox.

Here is Jan Pierce's "Frog" pillow, designed by Cathy Morton Mulvaine - this photo doesn't do it any justice at all. The frog is bumpy, and multi-colored and multi-dimensional.  The wool in the dragonfly wings is metallic and gives the impression of iridescence. 

Sharon Townsend's "Joy: A Puzzle in 15 Pieces" - too much window glare from the glass again, but this is truly a rug hooked in 15 pieces, and jigsawed together.  The colors are fantastic.

Ella Davison's "Birds and Berries", designed by Bea Brock, along with a piece I received as a gift from a customer in Canada.

"Santa Fe Crossing", hooked by Beth Anne Smiley of Wheaten Woolens, designed by Barb Carroll of the Woolley Fox.  This rug is HUGE, and is serving as a focal point of sorts for the show.

Here is a table by the wood turners, with a Bee Line cutter on it.  There is a tiny sheep by Lori Rokusek, designed by Diane Kelly, on the table, and my Iowa rug is on the wall (designed by Cactus Needle), and then Lori Rokusek has another piece, "Down on the Farm", designed by Sue Hamer of House of Price, on the floor. Jan Pierce kindly let us use her work-in-progess, which is a gorgeous fox, designed by Jon Ciemiewicz.  It's nice for people who are unfamiliar with hooking to see the pattern drawn on the linen, and then the actual fox popping off of the piece.  The eyes are fantastic.

Another piece by Jan Pierce, called "Starry Harvest", hooked and designed by Jan.  This piece is full of stories - my favorite is about a third of the way up on the left side, only half of Little Miss Muffet shows, with her tuffet and her curds and whey spilled and a big spider hanging out of the tree.  Such a fun rug, and this one is big too.

Katie Lane's "Trout", designed by Keith Kemmer. He looks like he's fresh from the stream!  I was at a couple of shows with Katie while she was hooking this guy, and am so thrilled her husband Ralph gave it up for a couple of months for the show.


On Wednesday, I'll post more photos from the show, including more wood turned pieces.  They dovetailed with the rugs beautifully.

Enjoy!

Exciting week!

I've had such an exciting week here at Bee Line Townsend!

I finally met the amazing Katie Lane, who shared some of her homemade granola with me.  Let me tell you, that stuff is Ah-Maze-Ing.  Yum.  Anyone who shares their granola is okay by me.  Katie and Shari and I had a terrific two days, contacting storefronts who sell the Townsend Cutter and getting them the info about the new Bee Line Townsend Cutter.  It was great getting to "meet" some of you!

Here is a picture of the new Bee Line Townsend Cutter, or as I like to call it "The BLT":

Wool, meet the BLT.  BLT, cut the wool.

As you can see, the new cutter is black instead of chrome, but otherwise it is just the same.  Katie brought her cutter and a #8, and she used a new #8 in her cutter and an old #8 in the new cutter, and it was all cutting like butter.  We were really pleased.

Here is some increadibly gorgeous dyed wool Katie brought that we ran through the new cutter.  The picture does it no justice at all, that wool was beautiful.

I joked with Katie that I am the Luke Skywalker to her Yoda. 

If Yoda was really pretty and made great granola.

My time with Katie was too short - she is such a wealth of information!  She returned home yesterday after two days together, but I'm looking forward to her return, as she is going to show me some rug hooking tips to get me started on my Rookie Hooker journey!  She had a lovely rabbit design started by Sharon Townsend with her, only the head was done and I think she said the wool was cut with a #4.  Just lovely.  I can't wait to get started, but I have no illusions that my projects are going to look ANYTHING like that rabbit head for a long time.