Today is the first day of Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week.  Monday is largely reserved for rug drop off (for the exhibit) and vendor set up.  For attendees not much else goes on, so it makes for a perfect travel day! 

I won’t bore you with stories from our 10 hour drive which included singing, planning for Rug School (lots of improvements headed your way – we get very creative when we are bored) and various unhealthy snacks.  Instead, I thought it would be helpful to explain what Sauder Village Rug Hooking Week is.

 The Venue – Sauder Village has old fashioned exhibits where you can see how things were made in the past.  It’s a family owned and operated business (a model we fully support) and Sauder furniture is also made there; somewhat of a predecessor to Ikea.  They have a hotel and restaurant onsite as well.  Other than that, you are pretty much surrounded by cornfields in the middle of Archbold, Ohio.  The venue lends itself well to being fully immersed in Rug Hooking.

The Exhibit – this is main attraction.  If you want to see one of the biggest and best rug hooking exhibits in the county, this is the place for you.  It houses the Rug Hooking Magazine Celebrations winners each year.  In addition, they typically have a few specialty exhibits.  Last year, Judy Carter’s personal compilation and Susan Feller’s year study were some of those featured.  Lastly, those of us who do not have a rug in celebrations or a specialty exhibit can participate by submitting rugs in 5 various categories. 

Workshops – They run classes.  Some are long (4 days) some are short (only an afternoon) and they have everything in between.  You can expect to see some unique classes centered around other fiber arts or different ways to use wool. 

Vendors – They hand pick 11 or so vendors.  Typically, about half are repeat vendors (The Wool Studio, Dorr Mill Store and Ali Strebel Designs will all be familiar faces) and every year they invite a few new ones.  Either way, there is no lack of wool for you to purchase.  One thing to note about the vendors is that there are often a few that are not specific to rug hooking  – if you aren’t interested in buying rug hooking supplies, you should still check out the vendor area as there are always different goodies to purchase.

We are so excited to have finally arrived and can’t wait to tell you about everything listed above.  Stay tuned for tomorrows blog!

OK, because it's raining today, the photos don't do it justice but wanted to share anyways.

Our hotel room (Mariah's bed is the messy one).

The view from our breakfast table outside - it's raining

The breakfast hall - Yum!

The main lobby with a beautiful fire place

The view outside from our room - see, cornfields!  I wonder if Jen Lavoies "Corn II" was inspired by Sauder?!?