My sister, Laura Kenyon, and I hadn’t done a sisterly kind of vacation for at least 10 years. So I thought it would be fun if we went to our ancestral stomping grounds in Maine and try something new - “Traditional Rug Hooking”. I had seen an ad in Rug Hooking Magazine for a workshop with a teacher in Scarborough named Jacqueline Hansen. We were excited before we even got there just looking at the magazine and dreaming up our first projects.
We were absolutely “hooked” the first day. We would hook until late afternoon with the most delightful group of women at Jackye’s studio, the 1840 House, and go back to the hotel to hook until we couldn’t keep our eyes open.
Here's a photo of Laura hooking her first rug in 2006.
About that same time, Jackye was looking for someone to take over the pattern business that she had grown over 40 years. Well, I told you we love rug hooking. May 11, 2007, we became the new owners and caretakers of “Jacqueline Designs” patterns. We are so proud to bring forward the many pattern designs by one of the women who along with Pearl McGown and Joan Moshimer brought our dear craft of rug hooking back from near extinction in the US. We named our new adventure the Seaside Rug Hooking Company.
Funny how history repeats itself. We later found out that Jackye had started out exactly the same way. She took a rug hooking class at a little needlecraft shop called “Berry’s of Maine” in 1968 and ended up buying the place!
Debra
