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!

I am stripping in the back garden today...

And yesterday I visited the Denham Roundabout Saturday car boot sale for the first time. Came home with a shopping trolley groaning with a rainbow of garments, and the whole trip cost £20 including fuel.
I have set up a piece of canvas on my large frame and am embarking on a rug for my mum in wavy lines, earth tones of pink, coral, terracotta, brown and fawn.

JWMT rug done: Next project!

A lovely feeling: my father's blue/grey/heather proddy rug is turned, bound and stitched, rolled, wrapped, tied and ready for delivery. Now for the next project - a hooked rug using the speed shuttle and frame.
I am making this rug for my mother who will be 88 in April.
I am choosing earth tones of brown, fawn, pink and a tiny bit of grey here and there. The picture shows a stash of 20 different items of clothing gathered in from family, friends and freecyclers.