Hooking Memory Vignettes

The Potting Shed. Designed and hooked by Aileen Ross, Trenton, NS, 2008. 

Last year, my rug hooking group, the Harbour Hookers, decided to hook small mats that we affectionately called Harbour Vignettes. A "vignette" is a small scene that captures or freezes a moment or idea. Little Harbour—a fishing and farming community founded 225 years ago when Scottish soldiers who fought in the American War of Independence were given grants of land in Nova Scotia—presents its share of vignette subjects. The town lies tucked away on the north shore of Nova Scotia, the easternmost part of mainland Canada. On a map, the province juts out into the Atlantic Ocean like a giant lobster claw ready to grab whatever crawls out of the sea.

Some of the members of the Harbour Hookers were born and raised in Little Harbour, others are summer-cottagers-turned-year-rounders, and a few arrived after marrying a Harbour man. We all enjoy the ebb and flow of our rural life by the ocean; in fact, each one of us can see the water from our homes. It's a rare hooking session that doesn't include a comment about the water.

This article is from the September/October 2010 issue. For more information on our issues, check out our issues page.