Make no doubt about it- Ontario rug hookers are as enthused as the researchers of the Hooked Rug Museum of North America about the preservation of rug hooking heritage. Maybe even more so, if the volume of e-mail questions following the Ontario Hooking Craft Guilds annual meeting is any indication.

Focus of many of the e-mailed responses was the unveiling of a very unique complete hand-hooked costume which had been hooked in Nova Scotia last winter by Yvonne Hennigar and Suzanne Conrod from a tiny snapshot dating back to the 1920’s- possibly earlier. It was the first knowledge that such a costume had ever been created by the Garretts to promote their rug patterns.

The image from an old family album had been donated to the Museum by Claire Garrett (daughter of the late Cecil Garrett , former manager of the John E.Garrett (1892) rug pattern factory in new Glasgow.) It had been created into a Canadian postage stamp last year and patiently hooked back to life as a Museum replication project over the past winter .

The original art work of the early rug pattern designs created by factory founder John E. Garrett was researched and matched up to the designs in the snap shot, then converted in enlarged form to tracing paper for transfer to burlap for the actual rug making. The task was complicated by the need to establish such pertinent points as the size of the model who would display it and the probable colors which would have been used in its original state. (See image)

At the Keynote address, Suzanne announced that a touch of history would soon walk in the door, and when it did the costume received a standing ovation from the more than 300 in attendance.The applause was punctuated with thousands of camera flashes recording the excitement of the moment.

The original model who wore the costume remains unknown, but it is known that she did carry a Garrett hooked rug design in her hands. It was decided that in this instance it would be one of the some 350 intricately cut Mystery Stencils which have also been recovered by the Museum from the old factory- the first to be replicated from the discovery. All will eventually be on display in the future Museum.

The Yankee Peddler Rug In Memory of Edward Sands Frost Ontario rug hookers coupled their fantastic rug hooking skills