A big tailgate thank you!

 The day of our inaugural photo-bee-for-the-annual arrived bright, but windy and cold!  We had lots of folks come out!  Here is a wee snippet of some of the photos we collected:

Gwen set everything up on the east side of the church where there was the least amount of wind. She arrived loaded with tarps and bricks and ladders and other paraphernalia to assist us to take photos of our members’ rugs. We’re very fortunate to have someone in our midst with these photography skills, and who is willing to share her time with us!  A big thank you to Gwen!

Everyone brought their rugs to the east side, along with the notes we’ll need to do the file naming required by the OHCG. This file naming is an important component that will allow the OHCG Image Advisor to manage our files and to create the slide shows that we’re looking forward to enjoying on the 17th of April.  A big thank you to everyone who brought rugs to be shown/judged at the Annual - your participation will make the day really special for us!

Everyone showing their best sides!

The waiting area

Francine and Brenda brought coffee along, which was gratefully consumed by all of the folks who were cold!  And there were cookies!  A big thank you to everyone who brought food and drink to share!

Karen Kaiser was there with lots of wool and patterns, and seemed to be selling lots!  This is from her email to us this morning:  What a wonderful day!! Thank you so much for organizing this.  I lowered my inventory significantly, had some great visits and thoroughly enjoyed myself.🤗🤗  A big thank you to Karen for allowing us to lower her inventory, and for driving in from Belleville!

It was hard to recognize everyone as we were so bundled up against the cold, and masked, etc.....

Hopefully our next tailgate event will take place during warmer weather!

If you’re into stats:  we took almost 200 photos of 73 projects to be shown and/or judged!  That’s a record for this group, I’m sure!  Thankfully, no stats were kept on the number of cookies eaten...

....and now on to the file naming......

Drive-Thru Photography Bee!

This is a draft post!  We’ll update it as more info becomes available.  (See late breaking news below!)

Time: 1pm March 13

Location: Grace Church

Around this time of year we usually bring our rugs to Grace Church where they are transported to the location of the OHCG Annual Conference and put on display with rugs from other branches across Ontario.  It’s pretty amazing to see hundreds of rugs all in one place - such works of art!

This year will be different as the OHCG Annual will be a virtual event.  They’re going to do their best to ensure we have as great an experience as in previous years, but it will be delivered via Zoom.  We will still see an amazing display of rugs, but it will be in a slide show instead of in person.  We didn’t do a display in 2019, so it would be great if we could pull out all the stops and do a really big one this year!

The OHCG has asked each branch to gather photos of their members’ projects, and submit them to our Image Advisor, who will create a slide show for the Annual Conference on April 17.  Normally we’d do this as an in-person thing, but with Covid conditions, we need to be mindful of how we approach it.

We’re going to do it in a “touch less” manner, where we can photograph your projects while you remain inside your cars - think of a drive-thru photography bee!  It will take place on Saturday March 13 at 1pm at Grace Church, 440 King St E in Cobourg. Here’s how it will work:

1. Select the projects you want to display.  They can have been completed in any year you like.  The only caveat is that the project cannot have been displayed at a previous annual. 
2. On the day of our Photo Bee, put your projects into the trunk of your car, along with a page providing specific info about those projects.
3. You head to Grace Church and pop your trunk open (hopefully without even getting out of your car).  We’ll have helpers on hand (masked, of course!) who will collect your projects to be photographed outdoors.  (We’ll also be using liberal doses of hand sanitizer before we approach every car!)
4. We’ll ask you to park in the church parking lot while we take the photos.  On hand will be member Gwen Brice who knows her way around a camera!
5. When the photos are complete, we’ll put them back in your trunk, and you can head on home!
6. Gwen and Jennifer will assemble the photos and deliver them to the OHCG Image Advisor.
7. April 17 you’ll be able to see your projects, along with all the other branches, in an amazing cavalcade of projects!

A few things to be aware of:

• Gwen Brice will be our primary photographer for the day - she has lots of expertise in photography, so we’re fortunate to be able to access her skills!
• we will keep an eye on Covid restrictions and will adjust the above plans to ensure we comply with the latest public health guidelines for social distancing
• If it’s at all possible we will also try to hold tail gate party on the photo bee day.  We won’t decide this until the week of the photo bee, so stay tuned for more details.  Even if we do the tail gate party, if you prefer to remain in your car to minimize your social distancing, that’s ok, too!
• The church will NOT be open to us, so no washrooms!
• What if you prefer to remain in your home, but have projects you want to display?  You can send us your photos via email and we’ll include them with the rest! Just make sure that they’re at least 1024 x 768 pixels and at least 1 MB (megabyte). Format can be jpg, png or tif.

If you’ve got a project (or more) that you want to include in our display, let us know via email to nrhookers@gmail.com, and tell us whether you’ll come to the touch-less event, or you’ll send us your photos via email.  Alternatively you can call Jennifer with this info.

*** Late breaking news:  Karen Kaiser may also be there on March 13, with things for sale!  This is, of course, subject to weather and pandemic conditions permitting.....fingers crossed!  Stay tuned for further updates.***

Zoom Bigger!

Tanya’s latest rug

Have you considered zooming, but are put off by having to look at such a teensy screen?  Never fear - we have a solution.....if your TV is new-er - eg purchased in the last 5 or so years, it can take the place of your teensy screen!  I tried it out this morning, and it works just fine! If you’re not comfortable monkeying with your TV settings, perhaps you have someone in your household, or bubble who can handle this for you?

Here’s how to tackle this “zoom bigger” thing:

“Airplay” is a feature that allows you to use screen mirroring with an iPhone or ipad.  It won’t work with Android stuff, sadly.  It’s commonly found on TV’s purchased in the past few years.  There are similar products like GoogleCast, but I’m not familiar with them, tho i suspect they do the very same thing.

a) with Airplay all you have to do is select “input” from your remote, and choose AirPlay.  Then go to your phone or ipad, swipe down from the upper right and choose Screen Mirroring and

b) select your TV (probably the only option there), and

c) bingo, whatever is on your phone or ipad is now on your TV screen.  Here you can see a shot of Tanya’s rug that she texted to me.  I’ve shown it on my phone, and because i have screen mirroring turned on, it’s now also appearing on my tv.

This feature is great to use when you want to watch a youtube video....or when you’re on a zoom call, and want to see it the big screen.  Particularly useful if you’re taking a zoom workshop, like all those lovely ones available through the OHCG for the Annual Conference!

Here’s a screenshot i took of a test zoom meeting (between the hubby and i - the only people here!).  If you squint really hard you’ll see my teensy iPhone in front and the same image on it as on the TV.  You still need an iPhone or ipad to act as the camera for the zoom call, but your TV screen replaces your ipad/phone screen.

Another possibility to do all of this is via a laptop with an HDMI port - it all sounds quite techy but if you have access to someone in the know, it’s really quite easy.

Another Zoom Under Our Belts

 

Yes, indeed - we had a successful zoom meeting this past monday, with 14 attendees.  We did a show n tell, and talked about classes we have done (via zoom, bien sûr), and generally had a good gab.

We used a ‘trick’ in Zoom:  because we have the free version, our meetings are limited to 40 minutes (which clearly wasn’t enough time for us!).  At the end of 40 minutes the zoom meeting abruptly stops.  All you have to do is click on whatever you clicked on to get to the meeting in the first place, and as long as the host is there with you, the meeting continues on for another 40 minutes!

Our next meeting is Monday February 22 at 7:30 pm.  Watch for a zoom invitation in your email....and we hope to see you there!  For help understanding zoom, check out our previous post on How to Zoom.

Francine wanted to share some of her rugs with us, but somehow we didn’t get her email with the photos so here they are.

She says:  The four larger ones are the three grandsons,  the sailboat hanging is for the granddaughter.   All four used a bit of my stash, not enough  though.  The Buddha will end up being framed,  the design was found on Pinterest .

GUEST BLOGGER! ON ZOOM!

Today’s post comes to you courtesy of a Guest Blogger*:  Robin Whitford.  Many of you will be familiar with Robin and her Hooking Outside the Lines site.  She sells a lovely selection of wools/textures and rug hooking equipment from her home near Ottawa.  She posts regular videos to facebook, and she offers some really great classes.....via Zoom.  Also available from Robin is her Creativity Club which is a weekly gathering of rug hookers, and more - it includes theme events, mini classes and yarn packs!  Head on over to her site to check all this out!  Her facebook page contains lots of videos, too!

Zoom is a major component of Robin’s communication strategy for her business and she is very adept at using it.  Robin recently wrote an article in the OHCG Newsletter on the use of Zoom and we are posting it here with her permission.  We are hoping to do a few more zoom sessions within our group so we’re putting this info out there again for anyone not sure about Zoom.

A Quick Zoom Primer:  Try it for yourself!

During these unprecedented times of physical distancing, limited social circles and maximum number of people in public gatherings, our regular branch meetings have been anything but regular for months and there is no clear end in sight.  As we move towards colder weather, limiting even our outdoor gatherings further, alternatives are important to keep our communities connected.  Luckily, technology such as Zoom provides an easy and low-cost alternative to meeting in person and everyone that i have helped try it has been excited to use it again and again.

As a member of the Ottawa Olde Forge Branch, I missed having the option of attending any of our usual 3 monthly meetings when the pandemic was first announced.  However, as many of us were familiar with Zoom, I decided to host informal monthly online meetings since April - we now meet twice a month, since fall.  For anyone who has not tried it, imagine all your friends coming on your computer or tablet at the same time.  You can see each other, talk to one another, show your work and ask questions from the safety and comfort of home.

You can use Zoom to teach a class, do a demonstration or have a show and tell.  Olde Forge has mainly done the latter, as it is a great way to check in with each participant, see how they are doing and what they’ve been working on.

Zoom is free if you keep your meetings under 40 minutes, but if you with to have longer meetings, the host is required to pay $20/month for a membership and this could be covered by the branch.  The host of the meeting is the only person who needs to initiate a meeting and would then send the meeting invitation to the other branch members (Zoom provides and easy ‘copy and paste’ option for the meeting invitation).

To attend the meeting, once you have received an invitation, is very straightforward - you simply follow the prompts to create a basic account at no cost.  To join future meetings, you will just click the link provided, enter the password provided in the invitation (if required) and that is all!  Once you are in the meeting you can select to have your camera and sound on or off (or just mute yourself while the dog is barking).  Of course, there can be glitches and sometimes people have trouble joining a meeting, but they are the exception and not the norm, and can often be fixed by logging out and logging back in.

There are also dozens of YouTube tutorials who will walk you through each step.  I’ve added the link below for one video, for anyone wishing to see what it is all about, or it can be shared with all branch members with the meeting invitation.

CLICK HERE FOR HOW-TO-ZOOM VIDEO

(THANKS ROBIN!)

(If you want to come back to read this info at a future date, rather than have to wade through previous blog posts to find this one, we’ve put this information in a tab at the top of your screen:  Click on HOWTOZOOM above!)

*if anyone else wants to take a stab at writing stuff for our blog, let me know - we’d looooove to have you join in on the fun - no technical skills are required - just write something and we’ll post it!

Tailgate!

We held a tailgate party in Cobourg today - we normally gather at this time of year to celebrate the season and exchange small gifts, and eat, eat, eat....but due to Covid, we opted for a tailgate party that would allow us to congregate in a socially responsible way.  All of this was the brainchild of our own Christine!

There were about 20 of us, at the Frink.  The weather was somewhat cooperative - no snow or rain, but some sunshine would have been lovely.  We got to meet up with old friends, and new!  (Welcome to the folks just joining our group!)

Karen Kaiser joined us with wool and other goodies for sale.  She also had 2 free patterns she brought along to share - check your emails!

There were lots of cookies, and caramel corn, along with thermoses of hot chocolate, tea, apple juice, all served via the trunk of Christine’s and Bonnie’s cars.

Some of us haven’t seen each other since February, so there was lots to show and tell about.

And then there was the gift exchange.  We encouraged folks to make and/or bring something small, and there were lots of different items!  There was felting, embroidery, jewellery making, crochet, knitting, and even some hooking!

Tanya even got one of the guys working on the rink to come over and take our photo!

Maybe we’ll do this again?!?

A HUGE thank you to Christine for mobilizing us on this extravaganza!