Friday, April 16, 2010

Rug Bee in LIFE magazine, July 1951

Looks like fun - plein air rug bee or hook-in; it's all getting together to enjoy rughooking! 
posted by Gene Shepherd.
[not for commercial use]


Nancy G, on The Welcome Mat, nosed out the info on this huge rug bee/hook-in:
"In the book Color in Hooked Rugs by Pearl K. McGown on page 295. 'In July, 1951, the first PUBLIC Hooking Bee was staged on the green at Storrowton Village (Eastern States Expo) in West Springfield, Mass.' It was supervised by Mrs. Ione Winans, Over one thousand women [and at least one man] came with frames, rugs and of course a lunch! That's a lot of rughookers in one spot!"

1000+ rughookers - almost all women - together on a beautiful sunny day to share their love of the craft and art of rughooking - heaven! Except, these days, if we were to get that many at an 'rug bee', there would be a serious scarcity of corsets, hats, pearls, dresses, hosiery, heels... it's a different world.

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