The Rug Fringe Up Close

For all that the last post was to show the completed  fringe on The Rug, the photo just didn't really show it.

So, in what I can almost promise will be the last blog post about The Rug, here is the fringe up close and personal :)

It adds a rustic quality to the finished Rug that I really like

The Rug Really Is Finished!

In the last post I mentioned how I'd moved onto the Tiger cross stitch picture because The Rug was complete ..... and after a quick check, I realised I hadn't posted anything about completing the very final stage of The Rug, namely the knotted fringe. Well, here The Rug is in all its glory!

I wasn't entirely sure it needed the fringe but decided to do a little bit and see how it looked. I have to confess that it really finishes it off, so I set to and did the lot. It was surprisingly time consuming to do!

So now the finished Rug is on the floor in one of our bedrooms. This is the one where we listen to music, as John's extensive hi-fi equipment 'lives' in this room.

No one is allowed to walk on it wearing shoes by the way and the cats have been given very strict instructions to 'behave' if they come anywhere near it :P

Also, I must report that it is very soft under foot!

Did I really say The Rug was finished?

OK, I lied before!
It isn't quite finished and won't be for a bit!! We've had a very busy time over the last few weeks but three Saturdays ago, I sewed back the edge of the canvas as you can see. It took a bit longer than I anticipated and I still have yet to do the fringe!

The cats seem to approve :)

However, I dare not leave them in the same room as The Rug without one of us being there! Minstrel has already looked as though he was about to sharpen his claws on it! Argh!!

Hooray! The Rug is Done

Thanks to a very nice lady called Kimberley at the Customer Services of William Briggs, the company that now owns the Glorafilia brand, The Rug is now complete.

As she promised, she sent me the green wool and it arrived on Thursday. The wool was indeed a perfect match, much to my delight. After a little bit of stitching on Thursday evening and last night, all the cross stitching is now done. By the way, the wine bottle is only in the picture to give some idea of how big it is, although a celebratory glass of wine might have been a good idea :)

I really can't thank Kimberley enough! She actually sent me more wool than I need, so I will send the surplus back with a Thank You card for her kindness. It's nice to know that a company has a 'human face' :)

So, all I now need to do is to turn back the excess rug canvas and sew that down and also do the fringe on each end. Hopefully, that shouldn't take too long.

What big project shall I do now?    :)

The Rug - Gone As Far As I Can!

Well, what with the 42 mile sponsored walk, the Flower Festival and following along with the Ginger sewalong, you' d be forgiven for thinking that The Rug has been forgotten! Not so!

I've been continuing to stitch away at it and last night, I completed everything I can at the moment. I say 'everything I can at the moment' because I previously blogged about the fact that I have run out of the pale green wool, so there are bits that I can't finish.

In the bottom left hand corner, there is a little bit on the diagonal stripe.

In the middle section, more green is needed for a diagonal stripe and the stem of a flower.

On the right hand side, some green is needed in two diagonal stripes plus a leaf and a stem and a tiny bit in the border right down on the bottom..

I haven't run out of any other colour, thankfully, although the cream was very close with only a length of wool of about 12 inches being left ..... a definite close call!!

Trying to get more green wool is going to be a challenge. However, I will try phoning Glorafilia tomorrow to see if they can help. However, this might be tricky sourcing wool for a kit that is at least 20 to 25 years old that they no longer make :(

Does anyone in blogland know of any wool matching services?

As an update on Tuesday 7th June, I did indeed phone Glorafilia yesterday (Monday) and spoke to a very lovely lady. My enquiry wasn't at all odd; they get requests for extra wool all the time along the lines of 'My Mum passed away and I found this half-done kit and wanted to carry on but have run out of wool ... can you help'! Back in the days when I bought the kit, the Glorafilia name was run by another company and apparently they out-sourced the production of several of their kits and not having enough wool was apparently a common problem! Phew! Not just me then!

Matching the wool might be difficult as the wool is rug wool in balls (which is unusual) but only 4 ply (it's usually 6 ply), but she did recommend a company called Iriss in Penzance. However, having a blog came in very handy! I pointed her to this entry and, having looked at the pictures, she thought she might have a bag of similarly coloured wools (might even be for this kit). After a quick look, she found it and she'll be sending the green wool in it to me! The other shades in the bag roughly match with the wools in my kit, so it may just be the wool for this kit! What luck and how's that for great Customer Service. If it doesn't match, I'll just send it back and see what Iriss can do to help.

The Rug Progresses .....

Yesterday we didn't go on a training walk. I wasn't very well last week with a bad sore throat and, given that the weather yesterday was terrible, we thought going out in the pouring rain was not a good idea.

So ..... we stayed in and I did a lot of sewing instead! You can see I've made a lot of progress. I'm aiming to get the border completely done before continuing with the middle area. I'm almost 100% sure I won't run out of the pale mauve colour. The jury is still out on whether I'll run out of the pale beige but I don't think so. Surprisingly, I'm now not sure about the cream ....... but I may have a better idea once I've completed the border.

Aargh! Run Out of Wool for The Rug!

Well .... I guess it had to happen! Almost from the start of doing this rug, I have had the niggling thought ..... what would I do if I ran out of one (or more!) of the wools? It is such a big beastie that it had to be a possibility! Mind you, I didn't entertain the idea for too long as I am well known for being economical with my thread usage to the point of being miserly!

Still, on Thursday evening I needed to roll the rug up a little and for the first time, I could see the one of the lines on the bottom border. However, eye-balling the amount of green that still had to be done and the amount of wool I actually had left, I felt pretty sure there wasn't enough. Quick decision....... getting the green lines done in the border would be best done with the current colour so I rolled the rug right up and concentrated on just doing that. Normally, I don't like doing this as I prefer to always work downwards and not jump around too much as I think it can make the tension in the canvas uneven. However, in this case, I needed to make sure there was enough green for the border lines so I concentrated on getting those done. Any remaining leaves could be done in the pale purple and I could think of something or other for the diagonal bands.

Unfortunately, I didn't quite make it! In the photo above you can see the gap of about 12 stitches. Not forgetting, a few leaves and bits in the diagonal bands elsewhere in the design. What a nuisance!

At the same time, it occurred to me that I may not have enough of the darkest beige/brown so you can see that I have tackled doing the areas that have this colour as well. Luckily, there was enough of that. I actually wouldn't be at all surprised if the cream background colour also runs out but it's a bit difficult to judge at the moment.

So, I will carry on with what wools I have left but I now have to also search out some balls of rug making wool that are the nearest possible match to the colours I want. A tough call!!!

Once I know which colours I need, I will try phoning Glorafilia ....... not that they will have this kit as it is over 25 years old! However, a quick search on the Internet shows that they do still do this type of kit .... perhaps they might have similar colours?

However, John (helpfully?) suggested that even if any replacement wool is not quite an exact colour match, it wouldn't matter as, after a few muddy boots had been on it or if one of the cats had an accident ...... any colour mis-matches wouldn't notice! At such times, it is such a bonus to be the wearer of glasses ..... they enable me to look over the top of the lenses with a withering stare :)

Still ..... I did have to laugh at some of the more obsurd suggestions being made last night by John and our friend Don.

The silliest one relates to the picture that came with the kit which is below:

We decided that the book has been artfully positioned to cover up the bit that couldn't be completed :)

The Rug Progress - Saturday 12th February

Here's the rug at the beginning of my sewing session on Saturday .... accompanied by Flossie :)

And here it is at the end.

The shots below show it in more detail, from left to right as it 'sits' in the frame.

Before......

After .............

Before.........

After ..........

Before ...........



After ........... actually, didn't really do anything on the right hand side.



Whenever I sew, Flossie in particular is never far away! More often than not, she sits on the arm of the settee closely observing what I do! For Flossie, just about anything is an opportunity to play so she loves to watch the thread being pulled through the canvas! However, thankfully she's never tried to pounce on the threads!



I love spending Saturday evenings sewing! Not quite the high life ..... but hey ho! We always sit listening to music as well and we spent a portion of the evening listening to Gary Moore who died the Monday before (6th February) at the shockingly young age of 58. He was a tremendous guitar player, best known for playing with Thin Lizzy. I think he would have prefered to be known as a Blues guitar player but I personally prefer his rock guitar.

I didn't keep a note of how long I spent sewing but I'm quite pleased with my progress.

The Rug Progress - Thursday 10th February

Here's the rug at the start of a short sewing session on the evening of Thursday 10th February. The observant will notice that there's a chunk completed on the left hand side that wasn't in the last full picture I posted ...... in particular, the peach flower. I did that work on the Saturday before (5th February) but just didn't get round to taking photos. 

Here it is after about 3/4 hour sewing ...... a little bit on the right hand side.

More Rug Progress

I've decided that, in trying to record progress on The Rug, I need to just take photos using flash with The Rug in situ on the sewing frame. So, here's The Rug at the start of a small sewing session on 1st February. In my house, wherever I am, the cats are never far away ...... so here's Minstrel as well, doing an alien impersonation!

Here it is at the end of the session on the 1st February. This was only for about 3/4 hour and, the observant will see I've done a bit below the middle peachy flower. Like I said ...... the cats have to keep me company, so here's Flossie this time! A half alien :)

Then, on Thursday 3rd February, here is a closeup of the right hand side of The Rug. On Thursdays, our friend Don always comes round and we sit and listen to music and I sew! However, because of the size of the frame, Thursday's sewing always involves me sewing only on the right hand side of The Rug. Otherwise, there would be no room on our settee for John and Don as the frame would get in the way!! As it is, I do get the odd comment about taking up a lot of room :)

Here's the progress after about 3/4 hour. You know, I've never really bothered to note how long I spend stitching and roughly what area I cover. It has now occurred to me (real Rocket Science this one!!) that I could probably work out how much sewing time I need to finish this beastie ...... but I don't think I will! It will put me off :)

Progress on The Rug

I haven't posted a photo of this for quite a while, mainly because the light conditions indoors haven't been very good and also it's a bit of a pain getting the rug off the frame and then back on again! It was whilst rolling the rug up in the frame to stitch a new section that I realised that the end is getting in sight and I thought I aught to try and get a photo! This is the best I can do, taken without any flash.

The last time I took a progress photo, it looked like this .......

This was taken back in July. I have been steadily making progress, although I did allow myself to get distracted by quite a few projects for Christmas. In some ways, I'm amazed with the progress I've made! Mind you, in another way, it has been taking a long time! I do so admire the many other people in blog-land who seem to get through masses of projects! I guess, in a normal week, I have been managing about 3-4 hours on The Rug ........ although not so much during October, November and December last year when I was concentrating on things for Christmas.

Still, it's nice to think I'm on the home straight with it now :)

Cross Stitch Rug Progress - July Holiday

OK ..... big alert! Here comes a very unflattering photo of me!

However, by having me in the photo, I think it gives a better idea of the size of this rug! I deliberately took it on 3rd July, the first day of our holiday, as a record so I could see how much I managed to get done whilst we were away.

And here's a closer one on the same day ......

When we are on holiday, I always manage to get lots of sewing done. Here's my progress by the time we came home on 17th July.

There is still a chunk to do, but I am getting there :)

Cross Stitch Rug Work In Progress

My current work in progress is a very large cross stitch rug on rug canvas using rug wool. This is a kit made by Glorafilia.

I have been getting my husband to take photos as I've been working on it as the pleasure of seeing how far I've got, each time he takes a photo, spurs me on to do more! However, John takes his photos in 'raw' format, so I have to wait to get him to process them before I can post them here. A round-about way of saying .... sorry, no photos at the moment :)

This rug has a story to go with it. I bought it ages ago, so long ago that I'm not entirely sure when! I think I bought it in the first few years of our marriage, so sometime around 1984/5. It was in a Glorafilia sale and I vaguely recall that it was about half price or something silly. I'm sure I didn't pay much more than £25. I also bought my first floor standing frame as it was obviously a project that would need one.

At the time, I thought I aught to make something 'useful' rather than the Penelope tapestry kits I was busily turning into pictures around the house and it looked like it would make up quickly! However ...... it got put into a cupboard and I forgot about it .... whilst carrying on with the Penelope or Gobelin kits and after that, cross-stitch kits.

A very long time after, I re-discovered it! It had been in the cupboard so long that the sellotape used for the delivery parcel had lost its stickiness and was falling off! So ...... do something about it! Get it started! This was approximately in 2003!!

It was tough attaching the canvas to the frame. Rug canvas is very stiff and it really hurt my fingers. Still, having attached it, I did the first couple of rows and then lost interest! It stood unloved in one of our upstairs rooms that we use as a music room...... until John noticed last September/October that the printed design that was exposed to the air between the top and bottom stretcher bars was fading, even though it wasn't in direct sunlight!!

I had to do something about finishing it before the design faded completely! And I have! I have made pretty good progress and I'm glad to say that I've got past the faded area. Thank goodness there was a pretty good photograph of a finished rug in the kit or I would have been lost! I have also religiously covered the work with a clean towel after each sewing session to prevent any more fading.

Here is a scan of the picture which came with the kit. The pastel colours look a bit washed out which may have more to do with how I scanned it! However, you can just make out the dimensions: 33 inches by 53 inches......... not small by any means!

What do I think of this project? Well ..... it's a bit of a slog! There's no real skill involved in the cross-stitches or following the design. Nevertheless, I am about half way and it is beginning to look reasonably impressive.

But will I allow anyone to walk on it when it's finished? Umm.......