Southern McGown Teacher Training 2015 - Ripley, West Virginia - Ruthie's Rose

After a very fast turn around after Maine, time to do laundry, repack and gather up my hooking items, I drove down to West Virginia with my McGown sponsor. It was a nice drive of about 7 hours from Fort Erie and the last of it through the rolling, tree covered hills of West Virginia.
The training is held at a State run education facility called Cedar Lakes with accommodation in a motel like atmosphere, workshops held in classrooms and a lovely grassy, tree lined campus. As a first timer it is all a bit overwhelming but everyone is very welcoming and understanding. There is lots of  "eye candy" as students bring back finished rugs from previous workshops and teachers present the rugs that they are teaching.
My first course was "Ruthie's Rose" designed by Jane McGown Flynn and it was taught by Janice Frank.

This is Ruthie's Rose hooked by Janice Frank in a 12 value swatch, which was
one of Janice's examples for the class. We could try a 12 value but I chose to
use an 8 value swatch.

I haven't hooked a shaded rose for a very long time so it was a nice experience to go back to the basics and the 3 cut.

We were given copies of the pattern to identify the order in which the petals should
be hooked, the hooking direction for each petal and the shading. These are mine.

The prep work , choosing our wool and cutting took most of the morning but we got seriously into the hooking in the afternoon with a discussion of the hooking in the lightest and darkest areas, fingering and blending. Janice had lots of information and useful hints. She recognized that we were all experienced hookers but was happy to answer any and all questions.

Janice had lots of resources in the package she gave us, a power point presentation showing the
progression of her piece, examples and even roses on our tables.

This is how far I got by the end of the class. Just looks like a blob to me right now
but with lots more work it will start to resemble a rose.

After class there was time for a quick walk around the property before dinner and then after dinner a chance to buy rug hooking materials and books at a flea market.