Give a GiftCalling all rug hookers! We invite you to enter your best-hooked piece completed in 2025 or 2026 in Celebration of Hand-Hooked Rugs 37. We welcome all styles and sizes, from primitive to fine shading and traditional to contemporary. The deadline for entries is November 30, 2026. Entries are impartially and anonymously evaluated by a panel of qualified judges from the rug-hooking community. Rugs are judged on technique, color plan, and interpretation of design. Each rug is judged on a numerical scale on its own merit, independent of all other entries. Finalists will be featured in Celebration 37, published in September 2027. We hope that our simplified online entry form will make entering your rug in this year’s competition a breeze!
White Hart by Sarah Jones
Questions? Email caitlin@mequoda.com.
ENTER YOUR RUG BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2026
PHOTOGRAPHY
- We strongly recommend having your rug professionally photographed by a photographer who is experienced in photographing textiles.
- If you take the photos yourself:
- Use at least an 8 MP (megapixel) digital camera.
- Set the camera to save images as JPEG files at the highest resolution or quality (or lowest compression) settings.
- Photographs to submit (four total):
- One photo must be a full shot of the front of the rug.
- Two photos must be close-ups of two different details. (No names or initials should be visible in the close-up shots.)
- One photo must be a close-up of the finished edge from the front of the rug. (Those submitting framed pieces should still photograph the edge as it is in the frame.) Note: This is a change from previous years. We no longer request a photo of the back of the rug.
- Name each image file in the following format: Last Name + Rug Title + View (e.g., Smith Fox Front, Smith Fox Detail 1, Smith Fox Detail 2, Smith Fox Edge).
HOW TO ENTER
- Limit of one (1) entry per person.
- Visit welikerughooking.com and click “Contest” at the top of the site, beginning on October 1. Follow the instructions for electronic submissions. You will receive an email confirmation when your entry is received.
- The rug must have been completed in 2025 or 2026, regardless of when you started it. You may enter a rug that has been entered in other competitions; group entries are not permissible.
- Submission of an entry serves as a release that We Like Rug Hooking and its publisher may publish photographs of the rug in the future, with proper credit given to the artist. This may include promotional materials, online or in print, including the Celebration book, We Like Rug Hooking magazine, the WLRH website, and WLRH products.
CATEGORY DEFINITIONS
Note: Some rugs may not fall neatly into one category. Use your judgment to select the category that best represents your rug.
Commercial: If you purchased the pattern, enter the rug in the commercial category. Even if you adapted the pattern, if the rug is substantially based on a com-mercial pattern and design, it is a commercial design.
Adaptation: If your rug is inspired by someone else’s design in a different medium
(for example, a painting, a postcard, a photograph, etc.), it is an adaptation. We require written documentation that you have permission to adapt some-one else’s work in this way.
Original: If your rug is based on your original content and de-sign idea, it is an original design. Carefully consider who owns the copyright for your design before you classify it as an original.