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Rug Hookers Celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday

Happy Birthday, Canada!
 
Rug hookers all across Canada are celebrating their country’s sesquicentennial year.  How are they celebrating? By hooking rugs and mats, of course!
 
RHM wants to be part of the excitement, so we invite anyone—individual or group—who has hooked a piece in honor of Canada’s 150th birthday to send it to us so we can show it to the world. We believe that there are many groups across Canada working on projects and we would love to see them all.

How to Submit Your Own Rug

We will collect photos of these rugs during the entire sesquicentennial year, so between now and June 30th, 2018, show us what you are doing to memorialize this historical event. In the comment section below, upload your photos and a short paragraph describing your celebratory rug, mat, or project.
 
RHM is pleased to show the world how Canadians celebrate. Happy birthday, Canada!

CANADA'S BIRTHDAY RUGS

For a closer look, please click the image to enlarge.

  1. Canada 150 Project
    The Sussex Tea Room Rug Hookers, located in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada, celebrated Canada’s 150th Birthday by creating a collage of rugs depicting Canadian icons from east to west and north to south.  The images were made by individual members on nine inch linen squares in the mediums of rug hooking, needle punching and needle felting. To coordinate the project, each square was whipped with red wool yarn as a finishing technique. The completed squares were displayed on a large piece of styrofoam covered in black fabric. A creative “hooker” constructed easel-type stands to display the finished project. Another member created a 3D hooked sculpture of an RCMP officer to guard our creation. This was a great project with a Canadian theme that was created individually and then displayed collectively.  This endeavour strengthened our bonds of friendship and united us in our love of creativity and of our Country.  

  2. The Down East Rug Hookers in Sydney, Nova Scotia made a commitment to celebrate Canada’s sesquicentennial in the fall of 2016. Work started in January of 2017 with Rita Wojtyniak and Betty Paruch coming up with the design. There are 14 cascading maple leaves with the sesquicentennial logo making 15. This represents the 150 years of Confederation. The background simulates the daylight peeking through the leaves. We are donating the rug to the Old Sydney Society.

Don't miss how Ontario rug hookers celebrated earlier this year! Visit this article: Canada's 150th Celebration.

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When the Cobourg hosting committee announced the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild theme for 2017 would be Images of Canada my favourite photograph came to mind. Being a relatively new hooker I knew it would be a challenge but I was fortunate to have many hooking friends who shared their input. The Muskoka wooden Steamships, R.M.S. Seqwun and Wenonah II are a favourite to enjoy a tour and/or dinner and even just watch them as they past. I was also reminded of my advanced diving certification which was on a third steamship that sunk. It was a challenge but also a learning experience. Suzanne Chaddock

Huronia Branch, who meets monthly at the Simcoe County Museum in Minesing, of the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild, each hooked a square to make a banner to celebrate Canada's 150th Birthday. The banner was displaced at the Museum as well the Ontario Hooking Craft Annual held in Cobourg.

I have fond memories of Ottawa so wanted to hook a rug to celebrate Canada's 150th. I was present on New Years Eve for the beautiful fireworks in honour of 2000, after celebrating my daughter's wedding. My oldest grandson Ryan works restoring buildings and has worked on the Parliament buildings. And being the capital of Canada it seemed fitting to celebrate Ottawa on the 150th. Isabelle Orser

This is the just-completed group project by the Edmonton Rug Hooking Guild. Our design committee used an unhooked vintage centennial rug showing the map of Canada as our starting point. (Editor I will get a photo with a better camera and email it to you directly.)

Great. Thank you, Deborah! I can't wait to see the rug.

My Canada 150 rug was in honour of my grandmother. She would hook a rug every time a special birthday date in our history occurred. My rug is a compilation of all of the landscapes of Canada from sea to sea. It is 24x60 and is hooked in #3-6. I broke up the canvas into triangles and would draw a triangle representing a province or our territories and then hook it. I used my memories of travel and books to create the icons included in each triangle. It is currently hanging in my gallery and gives my visitors a great piece to see our country.

Submitted by Joan Foster, Springdale, NL, member of Rug Hooking Guild of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 1967 my mother, Elva Stuckless (1912-2001), hooked a rug to celebrate Canadas 100th Anniversary. After using it for around 20 years, she sold it to a collector. In 2004 I found the rug in an antique shop in Corner Brook, NL and bartered one of my rugs to obtain it. For Canadas 150th Anniversary, I have hooked my rug using the same basic design but with different colors. Canada 100 is 28" x 49", hooked with recycled fabrics on burlap Canada 150 is 27" x 36", hooked with wool flannel on linen.

This is submitted on behalf of Christine Van Hees, of Cobourg, Ontario My name is Christine and I belong to the Northumberland Rug Hookers. I started rug hooking 5 years ago after a trip down east around the Cabot Trail and was hooked and was thrilled to find a bunch of gals and guys in my hometown of Cobourg that rug hooked. I have seen our group grow and grow and when I am in Florida for the winter I have a bunch of gals there that rug hook. I designed this rug for my mom showing her heritage of being Scottish and Canadian and adding a special background which reminds me of seeing the Northern Lights together with her.. This is how I depict Canada with our great diversity and nature. HAPPY 150TH BIRTHDAY CANADA!!!

I love those designs! Thanks for sharing your story, Jennifer!

Hello, my name is Nan Millette. I was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, now living in England. I learned to hook rugs about 6 years ago from Deanne Fitzpatrick. My latest rug commemorates Canada's sesquicentennial on July 1, 2017. This is my own design, 36" x 23", hand-hooked and embroidered in wool, acrylic, kid yarn, alpaca, and silk on a linen backing. In 2017 Canadians celebrate 150 years of the confederation of this great country that stretches from shores of the east coast on the Atlantic Ocean to British Columbia lapped by the Pacific Ocean, with the Arctic Ocean bordering our three northern territories. In my rug, an embroidered totem pole rises next to the western coastal and Rocky Mountain ranges, the wheat fields of the prairies ease into Ontario's towers in the national capital of Ottawa, before we see the lobster trap indicating the rich fisheries on the eastern shores, flanked by an Arctic iceberg, all illuminated by the northern lights in the sky, Aurora Borealis. "This land is your land, this land is my land, from Bonavista to Vancouver Island, from the Arctic Circle, to the Great Lake waters, this land was made for you and me."

This mat was designed by Alan Tibbetts hooked by the Carnegie Rug Hookers, Saint John, New Brunswick. It currently hangs in the lobby of the Saint John Arts Centre.

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