Denver Hook-In

Several weeks ago I learned that there was a hook-in being held in Denver. I asked a couple gal pals to go with me - thought it would be a fun road trip - and Sharon had to cancel at the last minute because of a sick hubby, but Tonia & I went over the weekend and had a great time. It was fun just to be around so many like-minded people - there were probably 60-70 people there - and since we only have about 30 rug hookers here in Utah it seemed like quite a crowd to us! We enjoyed shopping the vendors booths, seeing what projects everyone was working on, and the rug show was inspiring, to say the least! I was busy taking pictures when my camera battery suddenly died, so I didn't get them all, but here are some of my favorites.

I voted for this one in the Viewer's Choce because I just loved the floral wallpaper that was hooked for the background. I believe this is an Emma Lou Lais design, but the hooker added the background on her own.

This one with the crock and the flowers is the rug that Tonia entered in the show - she finished whipping the edges during our 10 hour drive to get to Denver.

I really liked the proddy fringe that was added to this pillow which is a Karen Kahle design.

These next few pictures show the rugs that were being worked on throughout the day, and others that were shown by their makers. The first two show the results of a group challenge - the floral design was provided and the participants were free to finish it any way they wanted.

This was a fun one - the design was a simple branch with stars & birds, but the background with all these lovely swirls was what really grabbed your attention.

This long runner was 2' x 8' and being hooked with beautiful all as-is wools in a 8-1/2 cut.

This was a crazy quilt design that I really liked - she was using some fun techniques to add dimension -

And here's a close up showing how she used some 1" strips and hooked them in really high.

This design below was being hooked directly into a wool background that had metallic speck in it - purples and gold looked really pretty together.

It was so much fun to be there - I hope we get to go again next year!