I've done it! Well, apart from the backing and binding. I can't believe I've actually finished this enormous rug. Not enormous really of course - it is 122cm by 85 cm - but large by rag rug standards.
What have I learned from this project?
1. To persevere, doing a little at a time but very regularly. Otherwise it sits doing nothing for weeks and makes me feel guilty. The "little at a time" habit requires a dedicated work space which does not need to be cleared out of sight from day to day. I think I could have done this rug within 3 months if I had done a little every day.
2. To neaten as I go. At first I couldn't be bothered to tuck the strip ends towards the front at all because I was so enamoured of the wonderful power rush the speed shuttle gives me. This meant they dangled down over the canvas and annoyed me as I was working. So then I started tucking them back, though not all of them. So when I had finished the whole rug I had to go over it all again tucking all the threads to the front. Then I had to go over it all again snipping the ends level. Doing one job across a large rug is boring and physically something of a strain - I am getting a bit of pain in my right hand that doesn't respond well to repeated actions. Better to tidy up as you go along.
3. To decide early on that a particular colour isn't working, rather than carrying on using it thinking I might get used to it. When I had come to the end of the rug I realised that the light grey ribbed cotton jersey and the pink and white printed jersey didn't work and I had to go back and take all of it out.

So - I feel really proud of the rug but it's been a learning process too. What I haven't mentioned is that I just love the way it looks. This photo does not do it justice: in real life, it looks positively alive.

Wavy pink and orange and brown rag rug nearly finished!

The wavy pink/orange/brown rug is almost completely done. I can't understand why it's taken me this long - I just stopped working on it for a while I think. I certainly took a break from rag rugging when we got Merlin the magical cockapoo.
I am currently working to eliminate the pale grey and light stripy fabric strips which don't sit well with the other colours. This means pulling out about 100 strips and replacing them one by one. In this photo you can see several of the pale grey strips (from a ribbed top of mine) and pink and white printed jersey strips (from something donated). They don't work, they are too pale and the printed jersey is worst as it's hard to keep the printed side facing outwards. No more prints for me, not for my rugs anyway! I used some wigwam yarn here and there, as my colours started getting too samey.

I haven't actually used up all the canvas I marked out for this rug as I felt I was getting a bit bored, it was big enough for a decent hearthrug and anyway my stock of strips was starting to get a little low. (Hence the purchase of wigwam yarn.)
I still have a lot of the brown strips left however, as I used these sparingly to create the wavy section dividers.
My next plan in the rag rugging department is to make cushion covers, probably using linen and that amazing wigwam yarn which I used a bit on this rug.
And my other big project is to get back into dressmaking, inspired by my daughter Edith who was fired up by the Great British Sewing Bee programme to get me to teach her to sew. The trouble with sewing is it takes so much time to get everything out and set up and then put it all away again when you need the sitting room to look tidy, so I plan to turn the top landing into a functioning space again, a real sewing room.
I've bought an overlocker on Ebay!

Update on my mother's rug

Progress has been slow not because the work is difficult but because I would rather be watching the Olympics than in my bedroom rag rugging. I never imagined I would write that!
Looking at the rug this way up, the worked area measures 87cm along the left-hand edge and 67cm along the bottom edge. The ends of fabric strips hanging out are nothing to worry about - they will all be trimmed back later. You can see quite a difference in tidyness between the left-hand part which has been already trimmed and the more recently worked area to the right.

It just keeps getting wavier

Those last pictures were terrible! I took them in the evening under electric light. Never again!

Wavy Cynthia rug so far

Loving my speed shuttle. It is a living thing.
The canvas, too, becomes alive after a few square inches have been hooked; a tension is developed which was not there before.
These pix show back and front. A lot of ends to be trimmed.

starting Cynthia rug

My mother wanted pinks/terracottas/earth tones. I stripped up 28 garments in a mixture of appropriate tones including the light blue she wanted. The result I am getting is bright, bright, bright - I am worried that she won't like it - it's too bright for her. Should I add in more brown (which I was keeping for borderlines) or what?

Notice however how easy it is to manage the stitches with the speed shuttle when natural light comes through from the back of the canvas. Bright or not, this was one happy hour spent listening to Radio 3 and painting in fabric.

Finally, the speed shuttle

At last, after many weeks of calculating, stripping and prevaricating, I actually started work on the speed shuttle rug I have been planning for my mother.
We have had a bit of trouble finding a place where I can prop the frame up securely enough to work on it. I tried several options in the living room; Dan and I experimented with step ladders and easels in the kitchen; finally I took it to my bedroom and discovered that the ugly plastic crates I keep teaching stuff in have a kind of lip on the edge. They are also so full of teaching crap that they are really heavy. Lean the frame against my window - natural light from behind the canvas is great! And the lip on the edge of the box holds it up.

That orange square check thing is a seat pad from one of our dining chairs which fell apart. Dan fished it out and has given it to me as my Official Rag Rugging Kneeler Pad. So that's why we never threw it away!