Fun in Arizona!

We had a lovely trip to Arizona for 12 days away.  The only downside was catching the flu in our final vacation days and returning home to a full week of illness.  Fortunately my flu was about half as serious as others we know have experienced.  I consider myself lucky to have had a lighter case of flu.  Today I had a "nearly human again" day and it was wonderful.

During the first weekend we were in Mesa AZ and I took a class hosted by Carol Miller (see blog links on the right for Carol's blog Ticklepie) who sponsored Sharon Smith as our teacher.  It was a lovely class and everyone was pleased with progress on their rugs.

Sharon Smith with Carol Miller in the background.  You can see by the colors Sharon is wearing that she likes fun colors.

Sharon's use of color is very exciting.  She is not afraid to use color and a lot of it.  In addition to her color schemes and being a prolific hooker, Sharon is clever in developing patterns which are very popular.  She brought many of her rugs, handbags and tool bags to the workshop which was an added bonus.  Seeing rugs in person is always so much better than in pictures.

I am sure you have seen many of Sharon's rugs so I won't repeat them all here, but I will show some closeup shots.  This will help you appreciate Sharon's style in backgrounds and using a variety of wool in motifs.

I think one of Sharon's "signatures" in her rugs is mixing wool for backgrounds and adding interesting direction and shapes in the backgrounds.  The backgrounds really aren't backgrounds as we typically know them.  I would describe them as a motif in themselves, given the interesting shapes often incorporated into the design and varieties of wool used.

Here are more examples of backgrounds that are every bit as interesting as the motif areas.  Clever huh?

Class with Sharon was delightful and well worth the trip.  I am sure everyone had a great time.  She absolutely pours herself into her rugs.

I hope you have a healthy week and can avoid the flu at all costs!