About Tricia Travis

Rug Hooking is my passion! It began in 1988 as a companion hobby to my antique collecting. Historic Deerfield, Shelburne, Nina Fletcher Little's house, and other museums from the Northeastern part of the country became frequented areas of interest to study old rugs alongside the fabulous antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries. My passion and hobby turned into a business when I opened Country Gatherings in 2001 in our own historic Bracken Village in San Antonio, Texas. There I found an appropriate location for those who also love this form of fabric art to gather to socialize, hook, and expand their knowledge of rug hooking. The shop became an excellent source for imported wool, patterns, and rug hooking supplies. I am a rug hooking instructor and vendor selling my hand-picked unique wools to groups all over the United States.

I am a certified public-school teacher in Secondary Education and have taught in the public sector, so teaching comes naturally. In 2008 I became a certified McGown instructor, and I have taught others to become teachers at the North Central McGown Workshop in Iowa. I am a guest teacher at numerous hooking events across the country. Locally, Country Gatherings quickly expanded to include classes of rug hookers on a continual basis year-round. Classes are filled with unique projects to expand each participant's knowledge and talent. I teach hooking from a #3 to a #8 width cut, but we cover it all --- fine cut, historic primitives, dying, color planning, wide cut shading, proddy techniques, rip and tear, binding techniques, rug mounting, 3-D figures, applique, scrap booking with wool, challenge rugs, and more. Participants have lots of fun while becoming better hookers. Color planning and quality hooking is my expertise. My favorite color palette is the muted historic colors --- but I still love and use bright colors. 

Dozens of the rugs I have hooked have been sold by commission and at the Round Top Antique Folk Art fair. My work has been featured in Edyth O'Neill's book, Rugs for My Red Cape, in the San Antonio Express News newspaper, in special programs on KENS TV Channel 5 in San Antonio, and in books by Jessie Turbayne and Amy Oxford. I have been a frequent contributor to ATHA Magazine and the Wool Street Journal and have had a front cover feature rug for ATHA Magazine with one of my postcard rugs. In addition to teaching, I am also heavily involved in workshops and hook-ins --- six years as the Director of the Angela Pumphrey Heart of Texas ATHA workshop in San Antonio, eleven years as co-Director and then Director of the Fredericksburg Hooked Rug Wool Gathering and Workshop, Co-Director and Director of the Two Stars in Texas Rug Camps in Tyler, Waco, and now Fredericksburg, Texas. I was also the Chair of the 2015 ATHA Biennial in San Antonio. Numerous special workshops with guest instructors occur in Country Gatherings each year.

I have served as the Region 9 Representative of ATHA, reporting on the activities and hooking events in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. I began serving in October 2017 the thousands of members of the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists as its National President. I was recently elected to begin my third two-year term.  From my shop and through ATHA I hope to expand the love of rug hooking across North America and other countries.