The 6th Annual Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair

The Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair is a great Summer event in the Northern Illinois area and though I could not teach for them this year, my rug hooking group had a booth so I was still a small part of things. This year the guild areas were front and center and people literally bumped right up against us. It’s fun to chat with people and explain rug hooking. Whether or not people actually want to learn to hook, they are always so taken by this lovely craft. Each day our booth was manned by different guild members, so those who are at the fair all weekend see a different show each day. We had lots of goodies on Saturday! These are some small things.

This is Barbara’s tree of life and a portrait done by Karen Maddi Perks, I think.

The top rug is the first rug I hooked many, many years ago. I am not sure whose work is underneath.

Karen’s Catfish rug was a big favorite and one lady wanted to buy it. I wonder what she might have offered had it been for sale…

The Foxy Ladies meet in a small room with a lot of tables and chairs so we have trouble seeing large rugs. Saturday we were able to spread out and admire Barbara Gaynor’s wonderful fox runner…or maybe it’s the running fox runner!

The Lake County Fairgrounds building was full of wonderful vendors!

There were so many beautiful fiber things to look at but I did so quickly so that I would not be tempted! Thanks Carol for another great fair.

Fair Finish-Up

One more post and then I’m done! I thought you might want to see a few views of the fair. So much to see and fondle and buy!!!

This is one of my favorite vendors; she goes to all the big quilt shows. Her business is called Nifty Thrifty Dry Goods. Look at the attention to detail, the items grouped by color and all the cunning little items. I always spend ages in her booth, touching and oohing and aahing in my head (I hope).

I had two English Paper Piecing demos. I spend a few minutes showing them the technique, and then they try it.

The ladies seemed to enjoy the technique and

were surprised at how easy it is to do.

The second demo was on Sunday afternoon, when I thought everyone would be tired out,

but these three ladies were very intent on their sewing!

I am still unpacking and trying to get everything back in its spot in the studio. It’s quite a rat’s nest down here…

Rug Hooking at the Fair

I was planning to do a quick post on Friday night and include pictures from the day’s classes and the Foxy Ladies’ display, but I decided that rug hooking deserved more time and space. So here’s the recap! I had 8 students this year. You’ve seen the heart and tulip pattern before, but not in these colors.

I do enjoy seeing what background fabric each student chooses, and then later in class the colors they want to hook for the design areas.

Can’t not say it – it’s always fun to have a man in class!

Look at the bright colors in this picture. It is interesting when a person chooses colors that reflect their attire.

And here we are on Saturday at the booth; such a welcoming and delightful entry area. This very wonderful rug was hooked (and sewn) by Karen Maddi-Perks. Hopefully the photo is good enough that if you click on it you can see the wonderful embroidery work and buttons on the border tongues.

Here is Karen with her latest rug design, explaining rug hooking to a visitor.

And the whole booth area, full of beautiful hooked pieces, enthusiastic hookers and interested fair goers…. ;-D

All in all, I think that rugs and rug hookers made quite a splash at the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair!

Off to the Fair!

Whew – I am almost ready for the big day tomorrow. Since I have taught rug hooking for several years, the preparations don’t make me crazy; I enjoy assembling everything. I had the wools spread all over the studio floor on Tuesday and saw a big gap…. Interestingly enough, most of the colors I have dyed are light or medium values, I’m not sure why. So I had to do some dyeing…. I did some dark magenta, blue purple and blue jean blue in dark values. And – I did some pretty spotty wools. I dyed a light value first and then drizzled a darker value on the top and popped it in the oven. I think they will be beautiful when they are hooked.

I’m organizing so I can pack up the car. Jasmine is making sure that I have enough wool to hook the clamshell rug.

Gizmo is counting the patterns and then I will roll them up.

Here are all the supplies…… Hopefully Peter will have a minute to go over the check list with me, as I almost forgot something very important last year. Wow – it’s going to be a very busy day!

Folk Art Fair Preparations

The Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair is coming! It starts Friday, so I’ve been getting the supplies ready for my classes. I will be teaching Primitive Rug Hooking on Friday afternoon. The first item I check is the backgrounds and count how many bags are made up. It makes more work for me, but I do like to have several choices for the students. (When I am a student, I like choices!) I will have several plain-colored wools and overdyed plaids. Then I make sure that I have a good selection of the heart and flower colors; colors that will look nice with the various backgrounds.

The biggest job in preparing the supplies is cutting the wool into strips. As you can see from the cutter, a lot of lint comes off of the strips, so I wear a mask. Jasmine likes to be front and center with any sort of preparations, but wool is always a big draw for her; so warm and fuzzy.

Gizmo has been testing out a hooking frame I thought my students might like to try. No decision as yet; he is a methodical little man.

I will be teaching two one hour demos as well; showing students how to do English Paper Piecing. It’s pretty simple really, so after my short demo, they will have time to start sewing a little hex. Many thanks to Paper Pieces! They sell a huge array of sizes and shapes of paper piecing bases and sent me packets to use with my students.

When not teaching, I will be hanging out with the Foxy Ladies Rug Hooking Guild. There will be a display of hooked pieces, and each day of the fair will have a different array of rugs and stools and mats, depending on what hookers are there and what pieces they bring. Fun! (I will take pictures!) I will need something to hook while I am there. I just dyed some more greens for my clamshell rug, so I think I will take that. It’s fairly mindless hooking so I can talk with people as they stop by.

If you live in the area, I hope you come to the fair!!! It’s a wonderful event.

Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair-

- Registration is Open!

This is the fair’s 5th anniversary and it will be held June 24 – 26 at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Illinois. This will be the second year at this location and I am sure will be better than ever.

I have been teaching there since the beginning and over the years I have taught some fun classes and enjoyed great students. One year I was crazy and taught an all day shibori class. The students were exhausted by the end of the day and I was too! In the morning we did folding and clamping and a bit of sewing,

and in the afternoon, it was on to arashi shibori. I often wonder if any of them still dye…

Last year I offered wool applique.

I think the ladies chose some pretty combinations.

This will be the third year I have taught Primitive Rug Hooking. Here are some of the colors I’ve dyed for class.

And here are a group of ladies happily hooking! Doesn’t it look like fun?

As well as rug hooking, I will also have several hour class/demos on English Paper Piecing. There’s yummy food, music, many, many vendors and lots of interesting artsy people to chat with. There are loads of interesting classes with some “big” name teachers this year, and as I said, registration is open, so I hope you will check out the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair.