Calling all rug hookers! We invite you to enter your best-hooked piece completed in 2024 or 2025 in Celebration of Hand-Hooked Rugs 36. We welcome all styles and sizes, from primitive to fine shading and traditional to contemporary. The deadline for entries is November 30, 2025. Entries are impartially and anonymously evaluated by a panel of qualified judges from the rug-hooking community. Rugs are judged on technique, color plan, and interpretation of design. Each rug is judged on a numerical scale on its own merit, independent of all other entries. Finalists will be featured in Celebration 36, published in August 2026. You may notice some changes to this year’s submission process. We hope that our simplified online entry form will make entering your rug in this year’s competition a breeze!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER YOUR RUG

For a primer on how to photograph your rug for Celebration, check out the articles linked below: 

Photography Primer Part 1

Photography Primer Part 2

A special note about copyright: If your entry is an adaptation of someone else’s design, include with your entry written permission from the original artist or publisher who granted you the right to use the design in a hooked piece. Copying a design directly, even for your own use, is a violation of copyright.

Questions? Email celebration@rughookingmagazine.com.

ENTER YOUR RUG BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2025

PHOTOGRAPHY
1. We strongly recommend having your rug professionally photographed by a photographer who is experienced in photographing textiles.
2. If you take the photos yourself:

• Use at least an 8 MP (megapixel) digital camera.
• Set the camera to save images as JPEG files at the highest resolution or quality (or lowest compression) settings.

3. Photographs to submit (four total):

• One photo must be a full shot of the front of the rug.
• Two photos must be close-ups of two different details. (No names or initials should be visible in the close-up shots.)
• One photo must be a close-up of the back of the rug, clearly showing the finished edge. (Those submitting framed pieces should still photograph the back as it is in the frame.)

4. Name each image file in the following format:
Last Name + Rug Title + View (e.g., Smith Fox Front, Smith Fox Detail 1, Smith Fox Detail 2, Smith Fox Back).

HOW TO ENTER - Entries will open October 1, 2025. Come back to this page on October 1 for a link to the entry form. 

To enter your rug, follow these simple rules:

1. Limit of one (1) entry per person.
2. Visit rughookingmagazine.com and click “Celebration: Enter Your Rug!” at the top of the site. Follow the instructions for electronic submissions. You will receive an email confirmation when your entry is received.
3. The rug must have been completed in 2024 or 2025, regardless of when you started it. You may enter a rug that has been entered in other competitions; group entries are not permissible.
4. Submission of an entry serves as a release that Rug Hooking and its publisher may publish photographs of the rug in the future, with proper credit given to the artist. This may include promotional materials, online or in print, including the Celebration book, Rug Hooking magazine, the RHM website, and RHM products.

RHM will award prizes for the three top rugs. The highest-scored rug will be
awarded $500; second-highest will receive $250; third will receive $100.

CATEGORY DEFINITIONS
Note: Some rugs may not fall neatly into one category. Use your judgment to select the category that best represents your rug. For more information about these categories, go to  rughookingmagazine.com and click on Celebration. 

Commercial: If you purchased the pattern, enter the rug in the commercial category. Even if you adapted the pattern, if the rug is substantially based on a commercial pattern and design, it is a commercial design

Adaptation: If your rug is  inspired by someone else’s  design in a different medium  
(for example, a painting, a  postcard, a photograph, etc.),  it is an adaptation. We require written documentation that you have permission to adapt some-one else’s work in this way. 

Original: If your rug is based on your original content and design idea, it is an original design. Carefully consider who owns the copyright for your design  before you classify it as an  original.