In July, 1951, the first Hooking Bee was held on the green at Storrowton Village in West Springfield, Mass. It was supervised by Mrs. Winans. Imagine the work it took to make this day happen; this history in the making; maybe even a record. One thousand plus women and apparently, one man, all gathered together in the name of rug hooking. Mind boggling!
What an incredible masterpiece! Imagine the time and effort to dye for and hook a rug of this size. I see very little quick and easy background. This rug is plastered with one delight after another, scrolls, flowers and stylized leaves. The dedication! This woman had to have a few burly men to help carry this piece to the hook-in!
I know for a fact that years ago, women were weren't shy about tackling the big rugs. In our little town of Mahone Bay, many ballroom sized carpets were hooked by local woman for Percy Inglis, who designed the most amazing patterns. He is the former owner of the Suttles & Seawinds building, and what used to be one of the largest single family homes in the area. In my time we called it the Quinlan property, for Clara, the proprietor, lived there alone. I'm not sure of the family history or how the name changed from Inglis to Quinlan but she is obviously a descendent, maybe a niece?
When we moved into the house on Cherry Lane when I was ten, there was the remnants of a small convenience type store in the front. I'm not sure if memory is serving me correctly but they might have sold material and threads and that sort of thing. But there were also boxes of cereal and canned goods on the shelves. By then no one did any shopping there as everything was old and stale.
My neighbours kept an eye on her and ran errands so I would sometimes visit when my friend dropped off the mail or groceries. We were always rewarded with candy, how many decades old is anyone's guess but I was warned not to eat it. It was dried to a tooth breaking lump that flavour had long since abandoned.
Clara always wore floor length dresses, big and full that fell off her hips and cascaded outward, possibly the result of a crinoline. She was a big woman making it difficult for her to get around but I remember the swishing of her dress as she laboured from one area to another. Her hair was always up in a bun, swirled around and fastened with hair combs. I remember the way she looked at me, piecing me with her stare, maybe wondering if I was one of the little devils who taunted her. Most kids were afraid of Clara, she was one of those mysterious recluses that kids dare one another to provoke. She made me nervous too, the place was always dark and dingy, never any lights on at night except for this one small stained glass pane and during the day all you could see was her head in the large store front window as she warmed her daytime perch.
Walking through the door was like taking a trip back in the past. Nothing had changed except the accumulations of dust and grime. You could smell the burning dust in the heat of the summer as light streamed through the unclad windows. There was also talk that she never changed her clothing since the era they were sewn in nor had any familiarity with bathing. There was a distinct pong that carried out the door on the wings of summer breezes and was present for every one of my visits. When Clara was moved to a nursing home they sold the contents of the house and the auction drew people from near and far.
I attended that auction in the eighties, interested in crockery and a flax wheel listed in the paper and had my first insight into the mastery of hand hooked rugs. I stood in awe to see men climb to the top of step ladders to hold up large rugs and unhooked patterns that Percy Inglis designed. Back then, I didn't even know what rug hooking was all about but I can remember being suitably impressed as a succession of WOWS escaped my lips. The auction left a lasting impression and when I started rug hooking I able to connect the dots to an even higher level of respect.
One of the rugs displayed had an amazing scalloped outer border with an abundance of intricately shaded roses and posies. Cabbage sized roses in the center with magnificently hooked, curled leaves and scrolls, so much to see a few moments, the rugs were heavy to hold up and the bidding was swift, so there wasn't a lot of time to take it all in. The finished rugs fetched high prices and now I know why. I remember someone commenting that people had attended the auction specifically for the rugs. The large patterns sold as well. I remember thinking I should buy one but I didn't know what I would do with it. They were just so pretty, little did I know that in just a few decades, rug hooking would be a huge part of my life. I'm wondering if any of the rugs or unhooked patterns are at the Settlers Museum here in Mahone Bay or at least pictures thereof. When they open I'm planning a trip to check it out and I'll pass the information on.
They also sold off box lots of pattern pieces and design elements that Percy was working on. One day, a customer came into the shop and said she bought one of the boxes and asked if I would like to have it. I was delighted and snapped it up and I've been able to adapt some of them into fantastic designs. Percy's Geometric, Percy's Posies and Percy's Tulips to name a few.
Patterns of yesteryear were done differently than we do today with red dot, at least this was Percy's way. They used cut outs to trace around for simpler motifs and for larger clusters, the perforation method. They glued layers of newspapers, magazine pages and tissue paper until it was thick and durable to work with for repeated use. They put some sort of wash over the top to thicken it, a varnish perhaps, or maybe oil? You can see the staining it created in the picture below. Then they would draw the design on the side with the tissue paper and do perforations every quarter inch or so along the drawn line so when they use their marking element, I assume it was some sort of ink, it would bleed through to the backing and then they would connect the dots for a filled in pattern. Can you imagine how long it would take to create a pattern on a rug of size by first making all those holes and then dipping some sort of ink pen into each one to transfer the pattern and then connect all those dots???????
In the box was also patterns for large scalloped borders such as you would see on those full room sized rugs, and templates for oval inserts of varying sizes. If you would like to see more of the items I can take more pictures. There are bags of small items, pieces of roses, petals, stems, geometric pieces, Chinese letters, animals and various shapes. It is also interesting to have his handwriting on a lot of them, his thoughts for colour choices and placement. Percy's past is a part of my town's history, and generations later he and I are connected by our love of rug hooking.
I know for a fact that years ago, women were weren't shy about tackling the big rugs. In our little town of Mahone Bay, many ballroom sized carpets were hooked by local woman for Percy Inglis, who designed the most amazing patterns. He is the former owner of the Suttles & Seawinds building, and what used to be one of the largest single family homes in the area. In my time we called it the Quinlan property, for Clara, the proprietor, lived there alone. I'm not sure of the family history or how the name changed from Inglis to Quinlan but she is obviously a descendent, maybe a niece?
When we moved into the house on Cherry Lane when I was ten, there was the remnants of a small convenience type store in the front. I'm not sure if memory is serving me correctly but they might have sold material and threads and that sort of thing. But there were also boxes of cereal and canned goods on the shelves. By then no one did any shopping there as everything was old and stale.
My neighbours kept an eye on her and ran errands so I would sometimes visit when my friend dropped off the mail or groceries. We were always rewarded with candy, how many decades old is anyone's guess but I was warned not to eat it. It was dried to a tooth breaking lump that flavour had long since abandoned.
Clara always wore floor length dresses, big and full that fell off her hips and cascaded outward, possibly the result of a crinoline. She was a big woman making it difficult for her to get around but I remember the swishing of her dress as she laboured from one area to another. Her hair was always up in a bun, swirled around and fastened with hair combs. I remember the way she looked at me, piecing me with her stare, maybe wondering if I was one of the little devils who taunted her. Most kids were afraid of Clara, she was one of those mysterious recluses that kids dare one another to provoke. She made me nervous too, the place was always dark and dingy, never any lights on at night except for this one small stained glass pane and during the day all you could see was her head in the large store front window as she warmed her daytime perch.
Walking through the door was like taking a trip back in the past. Nothing had changed except the accumulations of dust and grime. You could smell the burning dust in the heat of the summer as light streamed through the unclad windows. There was also talk that she never changed her clothing since the era they were sewn in nor had any familiarity with bathing. There was a distinct pong that carried out the door on the wings of summer breezes and was present for every one of my visits. When Clara was moved to a nursing home they sold the contents of the house and the auction drew people from near and far.
I attended that auction in the eighties, interested in crockery and a flax wheel listed in the paper and had my first insight into the mastery of hand hooked rugs. I stood in awe to see men climb to the top of step ladders to hold up large rugs and unhooked patterns that Percy Inglis designed. Back then, I didn't even know what rug hooking was all about but I can remember being suitably impressed as a succession of WOWS escaped my lips. The auction left a lasting impression and when I started rug hooking I able to connect the dots to an even higher level of respect.
One of the rugs displayed had an amazing scalloped outer border with an abundance of intricately shaded roses and posies. Cabbage sized roses in the center with magnificently hooked, curled leaves and scrolls, so much to see a few moments, the rugs were heavy to hold up and the bidding was swift, so there wasn't a lot of time to take it all in. The finished rugs fetched high prices and now I know why. I remember someone commenting that people had attended the auction specifically for the rugs. The large patterns sold as well. I remember thinking I should buy one but I didn't know what I would do with it. They were just so pretty, little did I know that in just a few decades, rug hooking would be a huge part of my life. I'm wondering if any of the rugs or unhooked patterns are at the Settlers Museum here in Mahone Bay or at least pictures thereof. When they open I'm planning a trip to check it out and I'll pass the information on.
They also sold off box lots of pattern pieces and design elements that Percy was working on. One day, a customer came into the shop and said she bought one of the boxes and asked if I would like to have it. I was delighted and snapped it up and I've been able to adapt some of them into fantastic designs. Percy's Geometric, Percy's Posies and Percy's Tulips to name a few.
Patterns of yesteryear were done differently than we do today with red dot, at least this was Percy's way. They used cut outs to trace around for simpler motifs and for larger clusters, the perforation method. They glued layers of newspapers, magazine pages and tissue paper until it was thick and durable to work with for repeated use. They put some sort of wash over the top to thicken it, a varnish perhaps, or maybe oil? You can see the staining it created in the picture below. Then they would draw the design on the side with the tissue paper and do perforations every quarter inch or so along the drawn line so when they use their marking element, I assume it was some sort of ink, it would bleed through to the backing and then they would connect the dots for a filled in pattern. Can you imagine how long it would take to create a pattern on a rug of size by first making all those holes and then dipping some sort of ink pen into each one to transfer the pattern and then connect all those dots???????
In the box was also patterns for large scalloped borders such as you would see on those full room sized rugs, and templates for oval inserts of varying sizes. If you would like to see more of the items I can take more pictures. There are bags of small items, pieces of roses, petals, stems, geometric pieces, Chinese letters, animals and various shapes. It is also interesting to have his handwriting on a lot of them, his thoughts for colour choices and placement. Percy's past is a part of my town's history, and generations later he and I are connected by our love of rug hooking.
 Some of the pattern elements in my little box of treasures from the Quinlan estate auction. You can see the back of one design showing newsprint. Each of these pieces is made up of many layers. The greenish one is a very thin tissue paper with a paisley pattern and the browner patterns is a tissue with a stripe through it. |  You can almost see a skip in this woman's step even though she's toting a heavy load. Imagine the excitement to join a group of rug hooking peers of this size, see old friends and make new. |
 Taking notes at a lecture perhaps? Pretty serious faces there....these woman came to have fun but also to learn.  Making an adjustment to the frame?  So much fun to do a walk about and see what your neighbour is doing. How could you hook with so much eye candy to feast on? It would take days to meet and greet everyone and share their story. |  Hooking under the hot July sun covered with wool rugs. Hmmmm...now that's a woman dedicated to her craft!  Gorgeous geometric designs, layers of them! |
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