The picture I am showing here is of Mary Janet Mustard, one of the school convenors, at the Monday night trunk swap and ice cream. Three of them were dressed as hooking angels, and I thought this was an incredible shot.
I have been home for a few days - rainy and dreary - bringing my ma-in-law with me for a soggy visit. Here is a re-cap of my adventure.
One week ago, I had an incredible day at my friend Jane's. She assembled her hooking group for lunch and an afternoon on her deck with lots of "Show and Tell". We had wine and cheese and vichyssoise and veggies and more. It was a perfect afternoon - they insisted on a "hockey bag" show to see what I was bringing to share with my class. Then they showed me various projects they were working on. Most of them are relatively new to rug hooking - the youngest among them has been hooking for only a few weeks, and doing very well. If I lived there, I would really enjoy hooking with these wonderful ladies every week. They made me feel incredibly welcome.
Friday evening we went to an art show in Keene, a small village outside of Peterborough. The artist lives in a historic log house and has a coach house as her gallery. Her work is incredible! She painted landscapes and cows and boats and city scenes. Her range was immense and she did everything well. The framing on her work is the best I have ever seen, and she told me she and the framer have a special arrangement. For so many works that he frames, she gives him a painting. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a website, or I would provide you all with a link.
Saturday, it was off to Trent to get my classroom prepped and meet my students.
Let me tell you that whether you are teaching for two days or 20, you take the same amount of stuff and my car was packed! The largest size rolling suitcase held all my teaching stuff - books, reference material, cutter, binders for students. My new light box. My hockey bag of rugs. Bedding and towels and a fan for my dorm room. And a small rolling suitcase with my clothing.
The students got checked into their spots and we met to go to dinner at St. Veronus, a wonderful restaurant in downtown Peterborough with amazingly fresh and delicious food and a very long beer list. Everyone enjoyed the feast.
My 5 students, although small in number, were bicoastal Canadians. One from Vancouver. One from Newfoundland. And you know that to travel that far, they were dedicated. The other three were all from Ontario - Fort Frances, North Bay and Brampton. And we all got along famously. (Hope they don't mind me sharing this group shot of them.)
Sunday morning, classes began. With only two days to spend on Wide Cut Hooking with my Teacher Trainees, it was a lot of information to push at them and for them to absorb. They had two other teachers during the week - two days on Shading and two days on Pedagogy, so I was very happy to have them first, while they were still fresh.
The rest of the Trent students were arriving on Sunday so we were the only ones in class. And we ploughed through the work. Monday morning, we joined in the assembly with the rest of the school and I presented my Show Case before getting back to work. The day flew by and I couldn't believe I was done.
The objective of my two days was for them to have designed, enlarged, transferred and started hooking on their original wide-cut patterns. Happily, we all achieved that objective with time to spare.
I packed up my room, with help from my gals, and loaded everything back into the car. One last supper with the rest of the school and then Tuesday morning, back on the road. I felt like a camper who had been sent home early for bad behaviour. It felt strange to be leaving when they all had 4 days left. But it was a wonderful time, despite being somewhat abbreviated.
Hopefully, I will be able to go back next year for the whole week teaching a class of my own. And enjoying the rhythm of rug school without interruption.
1 comment:
Wow, what a busy week! I'm sure your students appreciated all you did for them. I just finished a week of rug school in Manistee, MI and it was difficult to get everything ready for that--I can't even imagine teaching!
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