Meet My Friend Shari

Shari always loved putting color together either with scrappy quilts she made in her 20's to her Santa and primitive doll business from her 40's to her 60's.  Her love of anything antique led her to discover hooked rugs. 

Shari continues....."I met Saundra at this time and coincidentally she was intrigued with hooking as well."  Like me, she struggled on her own at home teaching herself to hook.  Finally in 2003 we decided we could use the help and expertise of a teacher, to take just ONE class to get us on our way. Years later we are STILL taking classes and enjoying every moment." 

The above rug was Shari's first camp rug where we attended together. It is a pattern purchased from House of Price, neither she nor I can remember the name of the pattern but was either a Charco or a Primco design.  

Shari has been influenced by such people as Barb Carroll, Lucille Festa and Karen Kahle's rugs.  Shari likes the way Karen is able to pull soft colors together and her goal is to one day take a class with Karen. Meanwhile she will strive to perfect her color choices of soft old colors on her own.

Above is a design by Karen Kahle called Small Flowerbox which Shari hooked.  She likes to hook florals most of all so will choose soft old colors for them.  Shari likes old teal, mustards, yellow green, and soft purples can be found in many of her rugs.

Shari will often change the design to suit herself; an example of that is her rug below where she is using teal in the triangle border.

It is an adaptation of a rug (Old Chatham) she purchased from Hook Nook who carried Lib Callaway designs.

Now Lib Callaway designs are offered by New Earth Designs.  Above is the original pattern and the banana shapped basket Shari changed.

Shari said her biggest hurdle was trying to keep her business going, responsibilites of husband/home life and finding time to hook. Then since retiring from her business she can enjoy her great love of rughooking freely! 

Sadly, while keeping the business going Shari had to sell some of her precious rugs but is thankful to have had a venue to sell them to make ends meet at the time.  The General George Washington is a rug which was commissioned.

Another cherished rug she sold was an adaptation of an E.S. Frost rug. That design is offered by Woodland Junction.

Now Shari can spend her day playing in the wool to her heart's content.

Above is a foot stool she hooked last year in a Barb Carroll class.  

Last September at Cape May Shari designed and hooked the design above.  You can see the inspiration she is channeling from Karen Kahle in it's design.  

Shari's light bulb moment came when she realized an 8 and 8.5 cut enabled her to keep to the primitive style yet small enough to give the slight detail she likes her rugs to have. 

Want to thank Shari for the idea of this segment and for sharing.  If any of you wish to participate and share your rug hooking journey, you can get the questions on a previous post HERE.

Saundra