The Cat's Meow

This beautiful rug is the culmination of many hands over many months and is a true work of art. The name seems more apt than ever!

This rug has been hooked by the members of the Upper Toronto Chapter of the OHCG to raise funds for The Rug Museum of North America. On February 2nd, at our 3rd Annual Hook In, we hope to raise more than $1,000 to donate to this worthy cause.

Here's a bit of a story on how the whole thing began.

A group of women in Nova Scotia, in their efforts to open a museum for rug hooking in its rightful home, approached a number of different organizations with a wonderful fundraising idea. Each group would be given this whimsical pattern, if they pledged to hook it as a friendship rug and endeavour to raise at least $1,000 with it. Their hope was to have 100 groups rise to the challenge, thereby raising $100,000 to fund the museum.

Our group, when presented with the idea, jumped at the chance. We had been looking for a worthwhile project to get involved with as a group, and unanimously decided that this one was perfect!

So, over the next year, the rug moved from home to home and each member of the branch hooked a couple of cats before passing it on to the next person. What fun it was to see it evolve. Each time it came to a meeting to be handed off, there were more funny cats in glorious colours and we took great pleasure in seeing the progress.

With just a couple of weeks till the hook in, I have basted it for whipping and will drop it off at the whipper's home this afternoon. It will be finished and proudly displayed just two Saturdays from today. Some lucky person will get to take it home from the hook in. I'm sure there isn't one among us who doesn't hope it will be them.

We have created a label for the rug which commemorates the group and the cause. And we will have a group picture taken with this work of art.

In so many ways, it has pulled the hooking community - both local and national - even closer together than we already were.
It truly is the cat's meow.