 My name is Susanna Brown, and I am the president of the Green Mountain Rug hooking guild. I became president during COVID, and so I have had a lot of Zoom meetings. I actually met my board for the first time this summer for real in person when we rented a house and had a little sabbatical together. But we have been planning this show for a very long time. There was supposed to be a show in 2020, but of course that didn't happen. It became a virtual show, so we are very happy to finally be back together again to have a real live show. And for any of you who have looked at any of the rugs, it's a lot different looking at a picture than it is looking at the real thing. And so we are very happy that we have this display. We had quite a few stumbles along the way, most of them due to COVID. But fortunately, things are happening. We are going to have workshops the rest of the week. The show will be open through Sunday afternoon. So tell your friends to get over here and check out these rugs. We have vendors next door and a hook-in area, so you can come back and join us again. I talked to a few women here who aren't hookers yet. They're going to get hooked on hooking. I do want to thank my board and some of my other volunteers. This show could not happen without a lot of work and a lot of people helping. So Biffy, Sue, Barb, Sharon, Deb, Sandy, Belinda, and Fern are my board members. And they should be walking around with tags that say board on them. They're hiding among you right now. But if you meet one of them, thank them. And then we had a few other people who put in a lot of time, Gail, Jen, and Pam, to make the show come together and this reception happen and all of their volunteers. So thank you to them also. So you got a red ticket when you came in. If you can find that, Pam is going to pull a number for our first drawing. And the first drawing is for a pack of cabbages, a gift pack, not one bar, a gift pack. Six, three, eight are the last numbers. Okay, meet you at the bottom of the stairs over here by the drinks. Congratulations. You have two more shots. Don't throw your tickets away. So next I will invite Barb Ackman up to the microphone to introduce our first featured artist. Hello. Hello. It's amazing to see everybody here in person. It's been a lot of work, but here we are. As Sue explained in 2020, we had to not have a show having already put a lot of work into it. And COVID for all of us presented obstacles, but there were some silver linings as well. And when I volunteered in 2020 to put together a virtual show to take the place of our in-person show, my husband volunteered to help me with videos of the featured artists, Sandra Grant and Grace Collette. And what a treat that was because we got to go to their studios, meet them in their space surrounded by their rugs and their art. And we heard stories about how they got started and about the different rugs. And in that virtual show, you can watch some of those videos that we shot. And if you aren't familiar with that virtual show, then I encourage you all on the way out tonight to look for our colorful little business cards on a table that's right underneath me on your way out. And it has a code and a URL for seeing the virtual show and you'll want to learn more about these featured artists by visiting that. So meeting Grace Collette was one of the biggest silver linings for me because it wouldn't have happened if we weren't doing that virtual show. And I think about it and when I started hooking about 14 years ago, one of my first rugs took me about two years. To pull all the loops and to finish that rug. But Grace's first rug took her about 37 years. She started it as a young mom who was taking her son to the Y to have a play group while the older brothers went off to school. And she said, is there an art class or something I could take while my son plays? And they said, well, we have a rug hooking class. She said, whatever. And she got hooked. Her teacher was born in the 1800s when she took that class in 1971. And Grace learned to hook the way that woman had hooked as a young girl. And so she stuck with that and but she didn't get back to finishing that first rug until she retired from teaching accounting. Her kids grown and she got back into it. So she needed to know a little bit more about art. And when Grace needs to know a little bit more about something, she hits the books and she studies and she reads and it all kind of percolates and it becomes her. And her rugs tell stories of family memories and family trips and reunions and different things. One of my favorite that had resonance for me because I was the youngest of three girls. And Grace told us the story about her rug called Mayfly. It's a picture of a fisherman in a boat catching a fish. And there's a border of fishing lures and it's one of her sparkly pieces and it was great fun. But the story was that those kids that she was shepherding through school and taking to the YMCA, they were all born in February. Not every year, not one year after the other, but every time it was February. And one year after the youngest was born in February, her husband said, you know, next May I'm going fishing. So that's the kind of story you'll get if you visit with Grace Collette in her featured artist area just right over there. And you'll look at those pictures and you'll wonder, well, what's the story behind this one? And I encourage you to spend time and meet my friend Grace. One other opportunity you have is that in our multi-prize raffle, Grace's contribution of a prize is six private lessons with her on either starting hooking or improving your hooking or just your way of looking at things in the world as art. So check that out. And I've only known Grace for two years, but she just had a birthday and now she's one of my oldest friends, Grace Collette. You know, I kind of think it sounds like a cliche, but man am I honored to be here. And when I first was asked to be here, I did what everybody else does. You go online, right? And you look up what he's supposed to say. And it said I'm supposed to make everybody here feel like I'm personally connecting to them and welcoming them. And that at the same time, not boring everybody else. I thought, wow, there's a neat trick. So I wanted to tell you that a joy shared is a joy double. So I plan on spending the whole week right here and I'd love to see every one of you come and talk to me. And I'd like to hear more about you and you can hear all you want to hear about me. So when thinking about what I was going to say, I was thinking how I used to take the kids to the baseball games every year we go down and see the Red Sox. And I don't give a dime about Red Sox. I couldn't care less. And then I'd be at the game and I'd be jumping up and down and screaming just like everybody else. And I thought, isn't that just what we're doing here? It's so contagious. We all just make each other more excited about hooking. It's really a wonderful thing to be together. So I'm only supposed to talk five minutes and I guess that five minutes is enough. And I hope I'll see all of you soon. So as a thank you for being one of our featured artists, we are giving her this beautiful hand carved bowl with a plaque on the bottom so that she can remember where she got it. Thank you. And we will have another drawing. So get those red tickets out. So this is for some Tunbridge Woodworks hand-made salad tongs. Beautiful Vermont gift. I'm going to read just the last number. Five, nine, six. Somebody. All right. All right. Five, nine, six. We got a winner. Now you'll find out how great they go. Okay, I am going to invite Susan Snyder up to introduce our next featured artist. Good evening, everyone. And welcome to this phenomenal show down there. I was asked, I have to have the honor of introducing Sandy Grant as one of the featured artists. I have to say I am not a rug hooker, but I am a kindred fiber artist as Sandy is. And she continually tries to encourage me to pick up that hook and some backing and some worms and get going. So maybe by the end of the weekend I will be able to do that. There probably wasn't a time in Sandy's life when she wasn't involved in art or fiber arts in particular. Sandy has a BFA in art and has been a art teacher in the public schools and then went on to get her master's degree in weaving and spinning and textile design. So she has been continually immersed in the fiber art world. She's an artist, has studied water color, design, painting, drawing, etc., which has informed her beautiful rug hookings that you'll see here this evening. And one thing you'll notice is that they're mostly of birds. And that seems to be a family affair because she's learned a lot about birds from her husband who I understand is a very avid birder. And from that she has been inspired on their walks through the woods together in her designs of the birds here. So I hope you really enjoy the show. Sandy will speak more about her inspiration and how she comes to really hook some beautiful designs. So here's Sandy Grant. Thank you Susan. It's so nice to have a friend that has a fiber mill if you're a fiber artist. Well, I'm honored and excited to have been chosen as a featured artist for this show. And I want to thank all of you for coming. I appreciate all of you being here. I'd like to thank the board. I'd like to thank the board for all the hard work they put into this show. Being on the board as the education chair, I've seen exactly how much work it takes to put on a show like this. And they've just done a great job. I can't say enough about working with these women. It's a fabulous board. So people ask me, of course you know I like birds. There's a lot of birds over here in my booth. People ask me, where do you get your inspiration for your work? And one thing I did was go to Vince for their owl exhibit. And I got to see owls and raptors up close. And when I was there, I met a man that wrote a book about owling. And I've learned a lot from his book, everything he's shown me about his birds. Got to see them, touch them. And that kind of inspired me to go home and make some birds. So that's one of my inspirations. My birds have, I think I'm too short. My birds have transitioned from being on a frame, raised and sculpted to my three-dimensional hawk. That is all 3D hooked and felted to the most recently, my cut-out birds, owls and raptors. So I hope you'll come over and see everything I have there. And if you have any questions, just ask. Be glad to help you. Answer them and please enjoy our show. Thanks again for coming. Thank you. So as you heard, Sandy is not only a featured artist, but she is part of our board. We were trying to secretly plan this gift. And Sandy kept saying, what are you talking about? Nothing, Sandy, nothing. She did eventually find out that we were giving out beautiful made bowls. These were made by Bob Gibson. His wife Carol is a rug hooker and was part of the board, I think, years ago. But they're something different. It's not what they usually give us gifts. So it was a little bit of a, you know, like should we go out on a limb and do something different? But I think they're beautiful. And we were trying to surprise Sandy. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank all the board. So last but not least, we have one more drawing. And this one is from Maple Syrup. And the number is 637. 637. Oh, we got a winner. Thank you, everyone. You can go back to looking at the rugs.