OHCG Rug Show

Although I wasn't shopping for wool for myself, I was shopping for wool to take to the McGown workshop in September. Though I may have snuck in a couple of pieces that I "fell in love with".

 Unfortunately I didn't think to go back to the rugs in the show that I had loved and take a picture of their info - title, designer and hooker, so many that I would have liked to post here I cannot without that credit. But some I did get on the second day......

Sitting and waiting to start photographing the show on the first night I sat across from, and really admired, this piece. It was hooked by Karen Kaiser and I was struck by her choice to use faded colours around the central motif. A choice that really elevates the rug.

Exploding Blooms hooked by Cathy North. This really caught my attention as a way to use up leftovers in my stash.

Julia Pigache hooked this Port Stanley Fishing Tug. Reminded me of Port Dover and a painting I am currently working on.

Julia Pigache also hooked this Pears, a Colour Study.

The snow and details of the house were beautifully done by Debbie Fabi and Shirley Lyons in Family Porch Memories.

Peggy of the Cove hooked by Linda Sullivan. I am not sure why I was taken by this one, perhaps the sense of looking up at the lighthouse, or the graphic nature  or the different geometric angles. Not sure but I love it.

This one, Three Sheep in UK hooked by Alice Bespolko, won in the Original Design category.

Not only was it beautifully designed and hooked but there were some lovely details. The horn of this sheep for instance

and reverse hooking for the stone with folded wool between. Moss and foliage on the walls was hooked higher.

This was hooked by Heather Davidson, inspired by a black and white lino cut.

This was my favorite in the whole show - Ice Huts on Lac Megantic hooked by Pat Lawson.

My Morning Walk hooked by Karen Kaiser.

Midnight Composing by Figaro and Ringo won an Honourable Mention in the Original category. Hooked by Brenda Malstrom. Such great decisions - taking the colour of the ginger cat into the background behind the black cat and vice versa, same with the musical notes.

Flower Button Tree hooked by Ingrid Hieronimus won the Ontario Craft Award.

Ontario Hooking Craft Guild AGM and Show 2024

 

Back at home, the battles of cat vs dog

continue.

 After not meeting in person for 3 years, the OHCG annual show and meeting is "in person" this year! Heather, Pam, Sue and I drove down to the Best Western Lamplighter Inn, in London, on Friday afternoon

and set up the display for J.J. Ruggers. We had more than we anticipated and couldn't increase the space we were allocated so ended up with a jam packed booth.

Heather and I helped with the show photography. Every piece being displayed had to be photographed twice (once with the identifying numbers attached and once without) I used Don's digital SLR camera as my little "point and shoot" tends to wash out the colours in the poor lighting available in the display rooms. The photos will go on the OHCG website (when it is up and running again) and in the magazine/newsletter. After the judging had been completed we also helped photograph some of the winning rugs.

Cindy also asked that we take photos of the room with the baskets and games

All of these baskets have been donated by guilds or individuals, full of rug hooking stuff and related items (wine, snacks, accessories even a sewing machine in one). At $15 for a package of tickets (you put the tickets in the baskets you want to win) it will help raise money for the OHCG.

There's also a couple of games

to win goody bags.

Saturday morning we all went for a (rather pathetic) buffet breakfast at the hotel and then sat through the annual meeting (by laws, financials etc) and then the announcement of the winning rugs.

Very excited that Pat Lawson's rug won in the Wide Cut category. Taken with my camera.

This one was taken, the night before, with Don's camera and really not a huge difference.

 Rather than going straight into the show we headed down to the market in downtown London. There we got a decent cup of coffee, perused the vendors

and of course, bought some stuff.

The next post will be some photos of rugs that caught my eye.

Eclipse Day

 Rick and I had a fabulous and full eclipse day. We went for breakfast at the Dover Dairy Bar (The DDB) and then drove to Long Point to see if the banding station was open. The parking lot was full. I had never seen so many people there. The "greeter" said it was because there were "birders" and "eclipsers".

First we walked out to the nets and this Brown Creeper was in the first one, waiting patiently to be rescued. Such a pretty bird. At that point the "net checkers" were returning with lots of bags

so we went back to the building to watch the banding. This was about half of the bags that came from that net check so they were doing "speed banding" with two people banding and one scribing and no time to really entertain the visitors.

Every now and then one of them would quickly turn and give us a chance for a picture (Goldfinch)

or would tell us a bit about what they were doing. Measuring a Winter Wren's wing.

Winter Wren.

Robin

Measuring the leg of a Grackle to see what size band to use.

Grackle.

He knew this was a Cardinal before he even got it out of the bag - very active, very vocal and bit him.

First time I had seen one of these up close. So colourful. A Fox Sparrow.

I could stay and watch them all day but we finished our walk around the nets. They had banded tons of Junkos and there were more in the nets.

A few Tree Swallows around.

When we got back they were about to release a Brown Thrasher.

It was like summer with people parking and streaming on to the beach with picnics and chairs and other paraphernalia..

This is looking West. Looking East the Provincial Park beach was very crowded, they had sold out of the day passes.

We were surprised at how few birds we saw along the Causeway; some Geese, some Swans

and a lone Bald Eagle. Photo by Rick. Sparse for Long Point.

Lunch was an ice cream at twins in Port Rowan.

Turkey Point was also busy

and Port Dover was really hopping.

When we got home Rick set up his camera, he had bought a special filter to use for the eclipse.

I had decided to take a picture every 15 minutes

to document the gradual darkening but really there was very little change.

In between we set up the cold frame (there are lettuce chard, spinach and beets already sown)

and increased the height of the nursery bed as I am going to use it for vegetables as well as growing flowers from seed.

It wasn't until the eclipse approached totality

that it got appreciably darker and colours started to look different.

At totality it got quite cold and the horizon, all around, went pink, like sunrise

and sunset at the same time.

Sort of creepy, no bird song, we could just hear the waves clearly and the other people along the shore.

I risked a quick shot with my little camera.

These last 3 are Ricks

obviously much better than mine

but marred by the sporadic cloud cover.

All together a great day with a fun mix of good food, interesting things to see, some gardening and, of course, the eclipse.