It's Growing, ever so slowly

I'm not breaking any speed records on this rug that is for sure. (There was the 13 day rug.) However, it is coming along nicely.

In the mean time, I needed some instant gratification. Hand hooked rugs are labor intensive and time consuming. So how to break the monotony and get a rug done now? Weave it.

I spent last Saturday cutting up old sheets with my brand new, worth every penny, killer, 12" scissors. Let me tell you, these babies are sweet. If you're aren't careful, you could literally cut your finger off with em. They are sharp, sharp, sharp; and it is so nice to have a pair of scissors that cut easily. They cut straight, they cut curves, they can even cut skinny strips of wool for rug hooking. Nancy from The Hen House ordered em for me, thank you, thank you, thank you. I just folded up the sheets and laid em out nicely and just cut my strips 2 1/2 inches wide.

I finally have a "cutting table" of sorts. I'm tall, I can't do this bending over the dining room table stuff, it's just too low and besides my house is really too little to have a 6 or 8 foot long dining room table for cutting fabric on even it it would be too low. So I've been dreaming and scheming and I think I've finally got it.

I took an old wooden baby bed with adjustable legs and set it up at the heighth that works for me. Then I took the hollow folding door off the closet, simple and easy enough, and put it over the top of the baby bed. Incredibly cheap ($10.00 for used baby bed), and it provides a ton of storage also. Almost all my fabric fits in it. Maybe some day when I get real bored or real organized I might actually put it all on bolts and make it real neat. For now, it's just in the baby bed, most of it anyway.

Sunday I went over to Allegan to Baker Allegan Studios and met and friend and we wove rugs. You pay by the foot. You can bring your own materials or use theirs. My friend took the loom with the off white/natural warp with a stripe at each edge, and I took the one with 4 different colors. I really, really, like her rug and it would not have looked good using the warp I used. How's this for a first rug. She used plaid and polka dots. Who says you can't mix plaids and polka dots. I think they look spectacular together.









My rugs are okay. They had changed the warp to a dark warp whereas I had been expecting to use a light warp. It turned out okay though, I have lots of scraps and whatnot to turn into rugs and, as you can see, using upholstery selvedges, you can't even see the warp. I just wish I'd made better color choices for that first inch or so that gets turned under and sewn for the edge, but I'm not going to fret to long about a rag rug that one of my dogs will just claim as theirs anyway. It's a rug. On the cotton one I think I should have used black. Blue/Grey? What was I thinking. I would say I quite obviously wasn't thinking. BUT I was having fun and I happen to think that's more important. And we all agreed the upholstery selvedges felt great on the feet.