Brand New Rug Hookers

 Happy New Year!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays.  We had a terrific time this Christmas.  Carl hates the holidays, but my daughter Leah and I make up for it because WE LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Leah borrows some costumes from me, or actually, The Elkhorn Valley Community Theatre, here in Valley.  She often brings her students along to help load or unload or just to have company on the drive.  They stop at the store to get the key to the theatre, so I know many of her students from their performances at Leah's theatre in Lincoln, Theatre Arts for Kids, as well as their visits to our theatre and the store.

Several of her students expressed interest in rug hooking, so Leah asked if I would teach them over the holiday break.  I said SURE…..as long as Leah learned too.  This was very funny to me, because Leah has longed expressed NO DESIRE to be a rug hooker.

So here they are….8 kids, Leah and Shelley, a mom who came along to drive.  Little did she know that she was going to learn to rug hook too.  I drew simple stars on linen, cut up bright colors of wool and let them pick their colors.  They were 5 to 14 in age, and all did a fine job.  Peggy, above with Claire, is a foreign exchange student from China.  I am not sure she understood why she had been kidnapped and drug off to learn rug hooking, but she was a champ and did a fine job.  Our only boy student, Hayden was the one most interested in rug hooking and he did a great job too.  He is a leftie, so I had Ken Petersen, another leftie, come show him how he holds his hook etc.

Because I have the best rug hooking group of ladies EVER…..I asked several to come out to help….you know, more eyes, more hands.  Well, Pat Shafer, shown right with Ken and the kids came out, as did the mother/ daughter team of Jackie Brown and Jeanette O"Brien.   Sandy Weller, (a real lover of small children haha) came too, always game to help.  I noticed she stayed close to Leah the whole time for protection. They were all wonderful, patient teachers and we all enjoyed it as much as the kids.

I had to include this picture below, right.  This is Maddie and we should all look so happy while we hook!!!!!!!

Of course, no trip to the farm would be complete without a visit to the barn.  It was a miserably cold day, so the horses didn't get turned out that morning.

Perfect….so they were inside and happy to be visited and petted by this rug hooking gang.  Hairy, always the gentleman, was first and stood patiently for all to pet.    Next we went to Ava Crowder's stall.  Ava took one look at all those kids and must have decided that her life of leisure being Carl's personal mount was all over.  She was a lesson horse for a while in the last few years.  One look at all those kids and she went and stood in the corner.  I think she was happy when they left and she was unscathed.

Last but never least, was Tooey, pictured on the bottom.  Tooey is a girl who knows what she wants.  When it is dinner time, she bangs the stall door til dinner arrives.  When those kids walked in the barn, she started in.  Banging the door, while we paid attention to Hairy.  Banging the door, while we took our passing glance at Ava.  Then it was her turn.
She fairly oohed and aahed at those children.  She would have
stood for days for their attention.  You can see her at the bottom with little Maya.  Tooey is just soaking it up.  Fortunately Tooey missed the comment, when one little girl said "Oh, she looks like a mule".   Hmmmmm…..well in the winter her chocolate buckskin self, does get light around the muzzle.  We didn't mention it again, so as not to hurt Princess Charming's feelings.

If you need to brighten your day….I recommend teaching children to rug hook.  Or at least teach THESE children to rug hook.  It made for a marvelous time for MAN, WOMAN, CHILD AND BEAST!

Remember, 1st Saturday hooking is tomorrow January 3rd from noon to 5.

Auditions for Music Man are Sunday, January 4th at The EVCT at 6pm.

Pat Shafer's Santa face classes are on Saturday Jan. 10th AND another one on Jan. 17th.  Write me for more info.

Pat Shafer is teaching 2 weekends of REAL FACE classes in Feb, the 7th and 8th and the 14th and 15th. Bring a picture of any face and she will teach you to hook it.

Wayne Kalal is going to teach an ART and COLOR class on January 24th.  This is $50, lunch included.  Wayne will talk about everything color, value, perspective etc.  This is a wonderful class for all rug hookers, to incorporate what painters know that we should know.  Great class, wonderful teacher.  Bring a problem rug along for problem solving.  Contact me at 402-359-2699 or janicelee@me for more information.

Whew…that is is for now.
Soon…
Janice

PS  Leah turned out to be the most perfect and meticulous rug hooker you have ever seen.  Far more persnickety than her mother.  See Leah….I knew you would be a GREAT rug hooker.  What do you want to do for your next project?