FINAL SAUDER RUG SHOW POST ~ ~ ~

This is my last Sauder Rug Show post and shows the rugs of Mary Sheppard Burton.  Leonard Feenan was there in person and I got to chat with him about his dear friend, Mary and what they brought to each others lives ~ a very nice fellow for sure! 

Noah's Ark was the highlight of the show ~ a collaboration between Lennie, the artist who drew the patterns for Mary's vision ~ and Mary who hooked her vision along with many other volunteers who helped bring this work of art to fruition. Sadly, Mary died a couple of months ago, but did get to see the installation of this great work of art at the ATHA convention last fall.  If you go to Gene Shepherd's blog , you will see many close-up photos of the ark and the animals that give you a very good view of the magnitude of this work.

I love the big rug at the bottom titled "Luster"  ~  Beautiful pieces of lustreware floating in a sea of green!

Another beautiful example of Mary's fine rug hooking ~ such a pretty rug!  As I understand from talking to Lennie, Mary never sold any of her rug hooking.  So all of these rugs on display were in her own collection and must have been hanging ~ they were in perfect condition!

Isn't this little capelet gorgeous?  This is one of two on display ~ the other was a long white cape ~ absolutely such fine hooking ~ it must weigh a ton ~ I wondered (but didn't ask) if she wore it.  They both are works of art, for sure!

The four  rugs depict  Sycamore Hollow Farm in the four different seasons ~ really detailed work!  The Canadian geese and whimsical turkey rugs display more of Mary's talent!

My very favorite of all of Mary's rugs is this half-moon shaped seascape!!  Lennie said this was the last rug she hooked and he did all of the embellishments after she died.  This photo does not capture the true beauty of this piece of art!  I loved everything about it ~ the colors ~ the movement ~ the sparkles ~ the pearl buttons as bubbles ~ the hand-carved wooden sea creatures that Lennie did just for this rug! Someday, this will be inspiration for me to hook something  on a smaller scale over a door,  at the lake!  It is a thing of beauty!!

The final picture is a roomsize rug that Mary hooked and it is fabulous!  It's hard to imagine tackling a project that large and with so much detail! To the right of the rug, Mary's granddaughter was sitting in Mary's rocker, hooking on an unfinished rug of her grandmother's.  That was very sweet and she was doing a great job!  I should have gotten her in the shot, but I wanted to get as much of this rug in as possible.  If you double click on the photo and then click on the little plus sign that shows up at the end of your curser, you can really see the detail in all of the photos.

Thank you for reading my posts on Sauder ~ I'm happy to share these rugs with you ~ we're so lucky to be close enough to make it a day trip, if we choose ~ after reading your comments and emails, I value that even more!  This show is well known among rug hookers far and wide and if you have the opportunity, you should put it on  your vacation schedule! 

Have a happy day!
Alice