Guest Author - Iris ten Holder



In search for information on rug hooking, I found many links. They basically fall into three categories:

Rughooking groups, rughooking artists, rughooking supplies

In this article I wil concentrate on Rug Hooking Groups. In this category there are several organizations as well as individuals who to list these groups on their web sites. Many of these groups have their own web sites with information about their meetings, their events, and often a gllery of rugs hooked by their members, or award winning pieces.

Rug hooking Groups and Contact Information
This is a page Diane Fitzpatrick has on her web site. She is one of the artists I will discuss in another article.

On this list I found two groups that were of interest to me. one close to my home in Ottawa, Canada, as well as one in my native country – The Netherlands.

I have been invited by The Ottawa Olde Forge Rug Hooking Branch to speak about Bellaonline and to take a closer look at the work these local rughookers produce.

Another site is The Rughookers Network, which provides several links.
For Canada there are guilds in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Quebec,

In Montreal it is "Totally Hooked" Meetings are open to anyone interested in rug hooking. Living but a short distance from Montreal, I can see myselfIt goin to Montreal on a Saturday, perhaps even once a monthy.

They have beginners' courses in early fall and several workshops during fall, winter and spring. There are also open classes. In addition there is a yearly exhibition of completed works.

In search for information on rug hooking, I found many links. They basically fall into three categories:


Although the site seems a good source of information, some of the links are redirected; thus it can become a bit confusing.

www.colorsbymaryanne.com/TIGHR/tighr.htm redirects to McGown Guild not to TIGHR

The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers TIGHR started in the the UK - London - but is now worldwide.

Rug Hooking Online was an ezine by Deborah Merriam. Many of her writings about the craft ca stillbe found on the internet. The site waslast modified on 19 February 2000 by Deborah Merriam. Some entries were made as late as 2002.

The Colorsmaryanne site is still active on the Internet, although it has not been updated since 2005. There is no contact information. I will explore the site in a future article and see where that leads me.

The site of The Association of Tradional Hooking Artists - ATHA - is current - November 7, 2007 - although I did not see too much activity. Perhaps it is left to local chapters. Again, something to explore further.

Having given you a ton of information to explore, I hope you will have an inspiring journey. I also hope to have simplified the journey somewhat with the additional information in this article.