A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY -

In addition to being a member of ATHA, I am a member of the Cattail River Chapter (Chapter49) of the National Guild of Pearl K. McGown Rug Hookcrafters. I have belonged to this group for a number of years and the ladies in this group are my oldest and dearest hooking friends. We meet twice a month in the homes of members and every June we have a pot luck luncheon at which time we share with each other some of the hooking that we have done during the year. All of the ladies in this group produce prize winning rugs and several of them have had rugs in Celebrations, not just once, but one member 9 times!

The other thing that this group does is eat! Good cooking, rug braiding and quilting seem to go hand in hand with rug hooking. Here are two pictures of us at the luncheon table. Enough good food for a army.

The desserts consisted of a blueberry tart with chocolate, cookies filled with fruit that had been soaked in bourbon! and assorted other goodies.

This is Angie holding the newest member of the group. Her name is Nellie and she lives with Margaret R. whose home we were in.

And now for SHOW AND TELL - Ginny brought two rugs - this first oriental is just completed and really is a beautiful color plan. My picture seens a little washed out.

Ginny's second rug is just underway and is a beauty. She started this with Jane Hallowell Green who gave classes for the Mason-Dixon Chapter of ATHA.

This Iris rug is a Pearl McGown Design.

This next rug was hooked by Margaret B. It depicts Margaret and her two daughters and was done with a teacher that visited the Mason-Dixon ATHA from the West Coast.

This next rug is so long that I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture. It is almost finished and is being hooked by Margaret R. She has very high ceilings in her home and she is planning to hang it on a high, long wall. It will look great there.

The next rug was hooked by Lina. This is a really beautiful rug. All of the material was coathanger or dip dyed ( depending on which term you like best). The strands were so long that the young lady that did the dyeing had to stand on a chair in order to handle the wool. The rug is more vivid than shown here - I think some of the pictures washed out because of the light in the room.

This next rug is being hooked by Meg. She is a specialist in orientals. Note the beauty of the color plan. The blue is marvelous. The floors in her entire home are covered with the orientals she has created. A truly talented hooker.

This next rug is being hooked by Denise. She is new to our group having only attended 2 meetings - also a new hooker. She designed this piece to depict some of the things on the farm where she lives.

And finally we come to Barbara's rug. This is her "bug" rug in progress. We have kidded her about this rug for some months now. It is really curious and very cute. She is making it for a grandchild.

Angie, Carol and Violet did not bring anything to share with us. Angie and Violet are both working on big rugs probably to heavy to cart around. Carol just returned the day before the luncheon, from a months vacation - two weeks in Hawaii and two weeks in New Zealand. Still a bit jet lagged I suspect.

The final pictures show members of the group as we sat and watched a video of the McGown National Rug Show. Of course, there were many comments about the quality of workmanship and the color plans shown in the video.

All in all, a great time was had by all. For my part, it is always a joy to get together with good friends and break bread. I consider it a pleasure and an honor to be a member of this group.

I hope that each of you who are intersted in hooking can find a group that is as loving and sharing as this group. If you do, your hooking will have many rewards other than rugs and the bonus of friendship cannot be beat.

Hope to all of at the Boonsboro Library for the June meeting of ATHA. Until then HAPPY HOOKING.