CAPTION FOR THE PICTURE: The Tyler farm animals, designed and hooked by Nancy Phillips, include a border collie, horse, goat, cat, and chickens who lay colorful eggs. It measures 26 x 41 inches. This primitive rug design and style mimic the rugs created by Magdalena Briner Eby in the late 1800s. She lived in Pennsylvania and hooked a collection of rugs during her lifetime (1832-1915).
Few events handle the test of time, such as the Hooked in the Mountains Fiber Art/ Rug hooking show hosted by the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild. The first show was in the spring of 1996 in the Joslin Round barn in Waitsfield, Vermont, and was the brainchild of Judy Phillips. From there, the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild (GMRHG), which sponsors the show, moved it to the Shelburne Museum, the Essex Fairgrounds, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont.
This year’s show will be May 15-18 at the Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday. There will be a large variety of hand-hooked rugs on display created by a wide array of talented rug hooking artists. A special traveling exhibit, Bugs in Rugs, created by 40 artists worldwide, will also be on display. Visitors can try their hand at rug hooking and shop in the guild store or with fiber art vendors. There is a $10 admission charge to offset the venue cost. For more information about the show, visit the website, gmrhg.org.
One of the displayed rugs will be “The Tyler Farm Animals,” designed and hooked by local rug hooking artist Nancy Phillips of Fayston. Phillips has been hooking rugs for over 40 years. She enjoys hooking in a style called primitive rug hooking, which uses wider loops and antique colors and whose themes sometimes depict a story.
