15 Years

-

Our BHCG website is 15 Years on the Net!


15 Years On The Web!. Illustration: Maria Romero.


I really got to know Maria when working with her for our 45th anniversary celebrations, all done virtually on our website throughout 2020, with 85 posts exhibiting many of our Guild members’ talents.

Maria is meticulous and has endless energy, enthusiasm, ideas, and creativity, not to mention a heart of gold! To mark our website’s 15 years on the Web, we would like to celebrate Maria, who dreamed it all and made it a reality. 

With sincerity and respect,

Emmy Maten / President


Meet Maria, our webmaster

Maria’s story starts in Venezuela, her country of origin. She studied Visual Arts, earned a diploma, and taught Drawing and Art History to Graphic Design students at the University. In 2001, she emigrated to Canada, making Dorval her new home at the time. In 2004, when driving her visiting relatives along the beautiful Lac St Louis lakeshore, they happened upon a sign announcing a BHCG rug exhibition at Centennial Hall! They went in to look, and so started her love for the art of hooked rugs.


Maria Romero. BHCG Webmaster.


In 2006, Maria was free only on the weekends thus she joined the St Henri Guild of which several members were also members of the Beaconsfield group. In 2007, she was able to attend Monday meetings, and consequently joined the Beaconsfield Hooking Crafters Guild. Denise Vandenbemden was the president at that time (from 2005 to 2011) and Maria proposed the idea of creating a website in order to show the Guild’s beautiful rugs to the public any day of the week, rather than only for 2 days once every two years at a rug exhibition. Denise agreed it was a great idea.


January 28th 2008: Celebrating the launch of the Website.
Web Committee: Denise Vandendemden - President /  Maureen Rowe - Editor and Translator / Maria Romero - Webmaster.


In 2008, she launched the BHCG website with the added goals of covering rug hooking techniques and learning from other rug hookers with “Show and Tell”. Meanwhile, Maria studied 3D animation and worked at the National Film Board for a year. Her animation studies inspired her to animate several rugs which you can see on the website Animated Rugs - BHCG (beaconsfieldrughooking.com). She also made many clever illustrations such as this Happy April Fools’ Day card, and Matty, who represents a guild member, and acts as the Guild mascot for communications and invitations.


April Fools' Day. Illustration: Maria Romero. 2015.


Matty_Hook In. Clip art #3. Illustration: Maria Romero. 2012.
 Annual General Meeting, April 2012:  Maria introduced us to our Internet mascot.
The members chose to name her "Matty".


Matty _Web. Clip art #25. Illustration: Maria Romero. 2013.


In the past, Maria hooked rugs and was an active member of the Guild and enjoyed participating in rug hooking activities with the public. 

Today, Maria’s creative outlet is the BHCG website, her “baby” as she calls it. Maria, always gracious and mindful of others, gives credit to each website committee member throughout the past 15 years, who have all worked hard to contribute to the posts from collecting stories and pictures through writing, translating, and editing. Without her team, she says, the website could not exist.

Thank you, Maria, for your extraordinary creation!


_____________________________________

Web Committee
2022 - 2023

Emmy Maten
President

Dawna Matthew
Vice-President

Jacqueline Bouchard
Editor/Translator

Maria Romero
Webmaster/Designer

____________________________________

 Past-Presidents

2017-2022
Dawna Matthew

2014-2017
Ti Seymour 

2013-2014
Ti Seymour an Riita Jackson
Co-Presidents

2011-2013
Louise G. de Tonnancour

2008-2011
Denise Vandenbemden


Editors/Translators

2015 until now
Jacqueline Bouchard

2009-2015
Rose Kandy

2008-2009
Maureen Rowe

Webmaster/Designer

2008 until now
Maria Romero
____________________________________

Web Committee
2008

Denise Vandenbemden
President

Maureen Rowe
Editor/Translator

Maria Romero
Webmaster/Designer

Popular posts from this blog

Rug Hooking Designs

-
Image
Shelly Atkinson  is a self-taught visual artist and crafter from Nova-Scotia, Canada. She loves experimenting with styles, colours, textures and techniques in her paintings and illustrations. Shelly offers rug hooking patterns of animals, flowers, people, the four seasons, etc. She can create custom drawings of your pet or family and even revise her patterns, if requested. Her work can be found on greeting cards, journals, prints, rug hooking patterns, coasters. needlepoint patterns, calendars, posters, and a child's book. Go to  http://users.eastlink.ca/~shellyatkinson/rughooking/rughooking.html http://shellyatkinson.blogspot.ca/ Music Is Good For The Soul A Good Book Dog & 2 Birds Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe
Read more

St Valentine

-
Image
February 12, 2024. Red Day Valentine’s Day - a day to celebrate love of all kinds! For us today, we celebrated the love of our craft and our community, and we each wore something red to prove it. Our Sell and Swap sale drew in some members we had not seen for a while, which is always a treat, as friendships grow deep over the years. Standing: Brenda, Judith, Claire, Kitt. Sitting: Denise, Karen, Harold. Hearts and Chocolate! Liz chooses this hoop at our Sell and Swap sale. Jacques, Gaétan, Mayumi, and Isabelle.    Sue, Joanne, Ann, and Helen. Jacqueline is one of the lucky door prize winners!
Read more

Marianick & Gaétan / In The News

-
Image
Jeu de mémoire / Exhibition     Marianick Viatour and Gaétan Berthiaume are visual artists specialising in wood sculpture. They joined our Beaconsfield Hooking Crafters Guild in September 2023, after having visited our rug exhibition in April 2023. They are having a vernissage and exhibition in Gatineau from Wednesday, January 31 through March 28. 12 sculptures will be presented, including one hooked piece, along with a short film of 28 minutes. Wonderful news! Congratulations! For more information, follow this link: Jeu de mémoire  (In French) Picture source: Viatour-Berthiaume Info-letter (with the artists permission).
Read more

Show & Tell / Nancy Thompson

-
Image
In memory of Nancy (Farnam) Thompson (1947 - 2024)  Respectfully submitted by Emmy Maten Nancy Thompson (1947-2024) The guild was saddened to learn of the recent loss of Nancy Thompson, member of our guild since the early 2000’s. Our guild member Cathy was a good sailing friend of Nancy’s and introduced Nancy to rug hooking and the Beaconsfield guild. Judith became her rug hooking teacher and helped her with most of her rugs. Nancy is remembered as generous, caring, giving, discreet, upbeat and happy. She had a good sense of humour. From 2019 to 2022, Nancy was an excellent secretary for the Beaconsfield Guild. Yet she preferred rug hooking to naming and dating her rugs; In her daughter Katie’s words “she would tell you that the rugs were finished long after they were started”. Katie continues “She loved rug hooking and the camaraderie of your group; I know she missed it when she became sick.” Judith reflects “Nancy was a dear friend - she had a great sense of humour and was the salt o
Read more

Show & Tell / Sally Perodeau

-
Image
In Memory of Sally Perodeau (October 10, 1933 to October 3, 2024) Respectfully submitted by Emmy Maten Sally Perodeau (1933-2024) We are saddened by the recent passing of one of our founding members, Sally Perodeau. In 1978, she joined the Guild which was just three years in existence at the time. Sally was keen to learn how to rug hook after being inspired by seeing a friend’s rug. She became a skilled rug hooker and made many fine and beautiful rugs, usually using narrow cuts of wool which allows more precision and detail. Sally was a wonderful organizer and was generous with her time and energy. She was the Guild President twice, from 1984-86 and again from 1997-98 and remained an active member until about 7 years ago. Our Guild member Jacqueline Bouchard helped Sally with her garden and has memories to share. “My precious memories of Sally are her culture, great family values and her love for beauty. Her garden was especially a source of joy to her every day, through the window whe
Read more