Immediate Past President Karen Lubahn
Dee-Dee Patrick
She will be “a hard act to follow” was the comment made by several members of the Rug Hookers of PebbleCreek when an announcement was made that it was time to elect new officers for our club. Karen Lubahn has served as president for the past two years and, prior to that, secretary for four years. Because of her involvement in the club and the fact that Karen is one of the original members, she is a wealth of information pertaining to the evolvement of the PC Rug Hookers.
Karen relates that she became intrigued by primitive rug hooking after watching a demonstration here in PC. She bought a book with rug hooking patterns and her first project which included blackbirds got her “hooked.” Although a perfectionist herself, she soon realized that it takes time and repetition to develop the rhythm with consistent tension, spacing and height. Her advice to beginners is to “just do it,” i.e., hook. Karen loves the wide choice of colors, texture and fiber that rug hooking affords and although she admits to completing numerous projects over the years, she has given most of the works of art away. Lucky relatives and friends were the recipients.
Her involvement with the club has meant meeting many new people from all walks of life. Karen describes these experiences as opening her eyes. Not only has she taken classes from nationally recognized artists, but she also values learning from women who have been involved in rug hooking for a long time.
Under her leadership the club has grown not only in number of members but also taken on new endeavors such as having mini instruction classes offered during our meeting time. Likewise, socialization outside of the actual group sessions has increased including occasional road trips to events outside of our immediate community. This has nurtured the relationships among the members while broadening our horizons.
Karen sees the changing of the guard with new officers being elected as healthy for the group and a means by which the club will be enriched with different ideas and perspectives. This former middle school teacher from Washington State has brought not only her organizational skills, diplomacy and commitment to our club, but her passion for hooking has been inspiring.
Watch for future articles written by Karen during the summer months when this writer is back up north. Better yet, stop in and see the hookers participating in one of their favorite pastimes – hooking rugs. The Rug Hookers meet every Monday afternoon from noon to 4:00 p.m. in the Fiber Arts Room in the Creative Arts Center. For further information contact our current Club President DeeDee Abolins at [email protected] or phone her at 253-278-1231.