My blog featured on another blog

just found out that on November 5 th my blog was featured for having 0ne of the best rag rugging ideas for 2014.  Just makes my day.  If you want to see it and the other blogs featured please go check it out here.

 This is a rug I made for my husband.

My blog featured in Goodhouskeeping

My blog made it on good housekeeping a few days ago so fun. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/crafts/upcycled-clothes#slide-5  mine is slide number 5  this link will take you straight to it.  Such a fun way to start off a new year.

Braided rug

One of the fun things about going to families homes is I get to see things I made years ago long before I had a blog to keep track of everything.  This is a rug I made for my older sister.  Her house is pretty contemporary and minimalistic very nice and classy.  She and I grew up with handmade rugs so it was a way of adding a little of our past to her home.  The colors in the rug are mostly hand dyed by a friend of mine, Karen.  I special ordered the colors for this project.  So in the process of making a rug for her we didn't want it to have much color change in it.  Sort of monochromatic with a few hints of color.  The colors I was asked to use were eggplant, mustard and neutral with a little bit of a sage or olive green.  This is what I came up with back then. It had to be able to fit in her suitcase to go home with so this is a smallish rug just right for in front of a door way or in front of a chair.  This is what greeted us as we entered her front door of her home.

 

I wish my sisters and I lived closer together it would be fun to do projects with them.  I know my older sister has a great eye for style and colors.  She was very much an artist growing up life has pulled her away from it.  These days she is so busy with work there there isn't much time to have creative fun,  but it is still very much apart of her.

My younger sister is so much younger than me that I didn't get to be with her much after she was the age 9 as I had moved away and went to collage and got married and had kids.  She would be fun to get to know better.  Life goes forward and we change but roots are roots and they tend to draw people back together. Sorry just thinking aloud in type ( if that is possible).

Latch hook and kids

The kids had a four day weekend. So to keep them entertained I had them work on some craft projects.

The oldest daughter when we left our last ward was given a latch hook kit from a friend of hers. My oldest adores horses so it fits rather well. She started hers then the other two girls decided they wanted to do latch hook too.

Well I do own enough supplies to have them all do it at once the only problem is the supplies are still in storage from the move along with 80% of our possessions. So we have one hook I could find. So each is working on hers in tern. The oldest did hers first took 1 1/2 days. The second is working on hers so far one day she will finish it today.

The youngest will work on hers latter today. I expect that one to take the longest as she is the youngest and we will be back in school tomorrow too with home work. We have a little stool in our house that happens to match this one with the doll. Funny as we bought it at a thrift store before we had ever received this kit.

There is a story behind the second and third latch hook. These are kits that had been owned by my husbands grandmother when she was alive. She passed away before we ever had children in the first 3 years of our marriage. These kits are at least 15 years old if not more. So she never got to see our children let alone give them a craft project to work on. These have been stored over the years in different homes from great grandma's to grandma's to ours. Now our children get to finish a little gift from their great grandmother.

A fiber artist nightmare

In the process of sorting out the stuff from GGH house, I spread out moth crystals just because some of the old items had old holes and I wanted to be careful because there are over 700 lbs of wool in my rugs on my floors, not to mention the wool in my sewing room that I use for crocheting, knitting, felting, embroidery, and wool to make more rugs and wool in sweaters and other clothes such as winter hats and things. There's probably well over 1000 lbs of wool in this house, maybe more. I usually spread crystals twice a year when we go on week-long vacations so we don't have to live with the smell.

In GGH stuff there was a box that was opened last night around 10 pm; it had a funny, musty smell. It had two rugs and three pillows and was set aside to air out. Today I brought the opened clear plastic box from the basement to the main floor of my home, over two wool rugs and such. Then it was taken to my wash room where it was left for about 3 hours, open still. Then, around noon, I washed the first rug and left the room. When I came back to wash the second rug that was stored in the box, I noticed white things on it. Well, they sort of looked like white inch worms with brownish, reddish heads. I was panic stricken; called my mother-in-law scared of what I thought they might be. Asked her what cloth moths look like, and while talking to her I was googling it. At the same time, I was looking at the clear plastic box closer when I noticed some insects with wings. I instantly reached for the cupboard next to me and dumped a half gallon of ammonia in the box and closed it; did the same to my washer. Yes, they are moth larvae and cloth moths, themselves, and probably eggs. Terror is the only way to describe the way I felt at that moment. All the things I had spent years and years making are now in danger of moths. I had always been so careful (whenever I buy old or thrifted items they are placed in garbage bags in the garage and the bags have moth crystal them. 2 to 4 weeks later I wash the items and dry them, then bring them into the home). I always had crystals on hand for if anything came into my home. But I wasn't prepared for tons of boxes coming into my home that had been stored in a myriad of places over the years and some stored unclean, a real big no, no.

Now my house smells of moth crystals and our praying mantis has to go live at my husband's work and maybe the fish, too I will take them tonight when I pick him up. I don't want to kill innocent by-standers. But, usually, I don't live in my home, either, when I spread crystals. It isn't good for humans, either, definitely not in this amount, anyway.

But there is no way I am going to let them set up housekeeping in my home, either!

Part 8:Braided rug butted ends, the end

Sorry so long in posting this.

1. The last round is braided while not attached to the rug. Safety pin three strands of material together -- see picture below.
2. Just start doing a normal braid.
3. When you have enough braid then some to go all the way around the rug, place a safety pin near the edge of the rug. This is to wind your lacing cord around (see photo) that will be used to tie a knot when you stitch all the way around.
   
4. Attach lacing cord to needle.
   
5. Start stitching braid to main body of the rug. Leave about 2 to 3 inches of the beginning of the braid not stitched down. Also do not start where you taped the last row.
6. When you get to the taper, see photo for to how to handle the small parts of the braid; they mainly get skipped.
7. Then continue stitching it down 'till you get within about 5 inches of your starting point.
8. Overlap ends of the braid, line up colors and place safety pins where they match up in color and in number of loops left on inside of rug. Needle is pointing to where my first twist is of the first braid; the next braid needs to match and end here, too.
   
9. You may need to have one or two more twists on the braid being attached to get the patterns to line up. Just your basic increase when stitching. The left side of this braid will be stitched down. Then sewn to the starting point of this braid. The right side of the braid (the side on the right of the safety pins) will be cut off.
10. Leave one strand long to use to weave at the end
11. Unbraid a little and match up the colors to their counter parts with the beginning and end of the rug, and safety pin two sets of strands together. Then stitch those two as well; I do this by hand, but you may use a machine if you want to.
    
12. This part is kind of hard to explain -- you weave the two that are stitched back and forth while weaving the third loose strand into it to reform the braid.
13. Match the last loose strand, pull it tight and stitch the two together by hand.
14. Then go back to lacing the rug together all the way to the end. That is 'till the two ends of the lacing cord meet at the beginning of your work. Tie knot. Sorry bad photo.
    
15. weave in ends for about an inch or two away from knot
    
16. Repeat last row 1 or 2 more times so you have two or three butted rows.
    
17. All done with the rug, now find a home for it

Part 1: Prep work and cutting fabric
Part 2: Sewing the strips together & forming reels
Part 3: Starting a t-started rug
Part 4: How to start a round rug, apple peel style
Part 5: Sewing and increases / tools
Part 6: How to change colors
Part 7: Ending in a taper/hemostat tool
Part 8: Butting last rows for a smooth finish
DO NOT USE THIS PATTERN TO MAKE THINGS TO SELL FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!!

Granddaddies rug and other things

We went to Granddaddy's funeral and viewing in Nevada on the 4 and 5th. It was a lovely ceremony. While we were at his house, I decided to take a photo of this rug. I made this for Granddaddy a while back. There is a story with this rug, as there is with all of the rugs I make. I usually only make rugs for other people as either a Christmas gift or a thank you gift. This one was a thank you. My husband and I where coming from California, hauling furniture. Just outside of St. George, Utah, the bearings broke and the wheel came off of the trailer. We were traveling in two cars; we, the children and myself, gave my husband all the babies' blankets and a pillow and traveled on to home, four hours away, in the middle of the night and a snow storm. A very long drive all by myself; I was exhausted, and my phone was near dead so we couldn't stay on the phone talking to him. I had to pull over a few times to sleep for a few minutes so I could continue on home. All this is nothing compared to leaving my husband on the side of a ravine with about 8 inches of land then a cliff on one side of him and about 6 inches on the other side of the vehicle from all the cars passing by. I was so scared he was going to be hit and get shoved into the ravine. We called Granddaddy, who lived a little over an hour the other side of St. George. In the morning he came with hot food for my husband. Best breakfast he ever had because it was a cold, long night on the side of the road. Granddaddy, being who he was, looked at it and figured out how to fix it and sent my husband on his way. That is just who he was and we love him for it. This rug is in Granddaddy's front room; it matches a quilt in the room that the families gave him and grandma for their 50th wedding anniversary, which was 1 week before I got married. My name is on the quilt, but there was a debate at the time because we were not quite married, yet. I am glad I was added to the quilt.

Granddaddy was in the army, so I put old army blankets in it for the green. This is one of the very first rugs I made; that is why it doesn't have a butted row, same as my husband's.

rug groups on flickr I admin for

Part 7: Ending in a taper/hemostat tool

Well, finally part 7 of the rug tutorial. In this part you will need to have a hemostat; you can get these at most medical supply stores or your family doctor. This tool aids in pulling the tails into the rug when finishing your last round before the two butted rows.

When you have braided the rug to the length you want, cut the braid.

Unbraid the last 12 inches of the braid,

then trim each piece of the braid. Trim both sides so that they tapper down to a point. I am showing, also, that you are not supposed to use one that has a seam in the middle of it because it makes it hard to braid one so skinny that has a seam. My other two do not have a seam in them; that is the preferred way.

Pull each stand of the braid and fold the sides over and whip stitch closed. I am using blue for the tutorial; please make your thread match the color of your fabric. Do this to all three strands of the braid

Here I braided them together, so you can see how the braid gets skinnier now. However, this is not needed for braiding the rug, so I have to un-braid this part and continue with tutorial.

See above photo where the linen cord is coming out of the rug; this is where we will pick up on our rug. The hemostat in the below photo shows where the green strand is going to be woven into the rug.

This next picture shows the hemostat going through the space between the braids to pull the green strand into the rug.

Here it is being pulled through.

Repeat 'till it has gone through about 5 to 7 loops on the rug

When you have it as far as you want to in weaving it in, cut it close to the rug and make sure the tail is tucked in and not visible.

Now do a few apple peels to get to the next color to be woven in; in this case, the red.

Repeat with the last color. After you are done, make sure and check to see if your ends are cut close enough not to be seen. As you can tell, I need to tuck the red one in or cut it closer. To cut closer, grab hemostat, pull on it hard, and cut below hemostat then let the strand pull back into the rug.

Remember that linen cord that is holding the rug together up 'till this point? Well, now you have to weave its tail into the rug, as well. This is much easier to do than the strands from the braid. Just insert your needle into the next loop and go under about 5 loops this way, then make a u-turn and go under about 3 to 5 in the opposite direction; cut the thread and you're done with this step.

Part 1: Prep work and cutting fabric
Part 2: Will be about sewing the strips together and forming reels
Part 3: About starting a t-started rug
Part 4: How to start a round rug, apple peel style
Part 5: Sewing and increases / tools
Part 6: How to change colors
Part 7: Ending in a taper/hemostat tool
Part 8: Butting last one or two rows of the rug for a smooth finish
DO NOT USE THIS PATTERN TO MAKE THINGS TO SELL FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!!