Toothbrush rugs: Tutorial on how I plan a rug, pix of my two current ones

I've not posted to the rug blog in a while, nor about the rugs on my regular blog. So I thought I'd give you a couple of pictures showing how my current rugs are progressing and a video discussing the planning of my next rug (which I'll start while back at my mother's for her 80th birthday party.)

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The Sari Rug

The "Daughter of Monarch rug"

This one is almost finished.

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The Video

This video discusses how I go from a pile of clothes to a plan for a rug. As usual, this will be a free style rug. When making them for my own purposes/pleasure and stress relief, that's how I do them. Patterns or more precise sequencing put more work into it. I'm willing to do that from time to time as a challenge, but usually I only do those when its on commission or for a gift.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

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And here's a slideshow of all the rug pix I've uploaded to multiply

See you all when I'm back from my mother's 80th, and recovered from same! God bless and keep you all!

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

My mother's mother had a sign with this quaint saying on it hanging in her kitchen, and now, I can REALLY relate.

For five weeks now, its been "boot camp" intense and busy in all regards here. We had our anniversary in early June, then Tess got sicker, then we had to get everything ready for the trip back to the place-formerly-called-home, while there our car engine almost melted, my brother's alcoholism (and family's passive enabling of it) both exploded back in my life, and my dog died. We got back reeling from all that, got a new puppy, then Tess went into the hospital.

During this time, Barb's been trying to recover from a shoulder injury without going under the knife.

So if it's had to be done, I've been the one to do it. Well, I'm done done in!

I am going to have to be pretty selfish for a while and take care of and love myself because... somebody's got to!

I wish I could say when I'll be back to visit your pages or post more blogs, but I'd best not make promises I just don't have the ability to keep.

Here's a few pictures from the various aspects of my/our life to tide you by.

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The Sari rug is my "travel rug" - I work on it on the "L" at the store, etc. The Son of Monarch I started in Indy, worked on at the hospital, and now work on at home.

I'm sure I'll try to sell the Sari rug (really is made from Saris!), its not at all our idiom, but I've not had the time or energy to pursue selling the 50s/confetti rug on Ebay or Etsy. We could REALLY use the money, but... I've such a back log of things I have to do which I know how to do, that going into uncharted territory just isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

Tess and I went to the Lake this morning, and saw this

(Taken with the Aiptek, it actually got the color balance right for a change.)

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Savina is up to 5 pounds, and is very cute and cuddly!

The monarch rug finished & tutorial on matching an orphan color/pattern

I finished the "monarch rug" today, which is apt, since my wife loves it and helped me plan it, and today's our 13th anniversary.

So we will be keeping it, though I have very similar materials around should anyone see it and want one like it.



Here's two videos I shot with Tess as we planned the final row. The challenge was how to finish off the rug in a way which tied back into the center when I'd used up the entire sheet on the center. So these videos give you a glimpse of our artistic process, and our loving interaction.

It can be frustrating when you use a one of a kind fabric and then need to duplicate the effect of it, but we made it fun, and I hope you can have fun with it too.

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Part I

Online Videos by Veoh.com

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Part II

Online Videos by Veoh.com

One sheet, one week, one rug - The "Monarch Rug" - ¿Finished?

It took me one week to do this, which is pretty quick, but sheets are the easiest to process. It came out pretty small, just 15" - The Lady of the House definitely wants to keep it (so if you wanted it, let me know and we'll work out a way I can buy similar fabric, etc) but she hasn't decided if 15" is large enough for the niche she wants it to fill.

I'm pretty sure this must have been a twin at most. I didn't measure it before I cut it... I found it while walking the dogs before my final, took it and my heavy duty shears along to the final, chopped it up and started work on it while waiting for the results of my final, and so on. (On those, BTW, "A" both on the final and for the class.)

Rugs: My current one, the two "mistakes" I've made in it, and how I fixed them

I decided that I needed a nice low intensity, no brainer rug to work on in the aftermath of my final in Anatomy and Physiology. So as I scrambled together my stuff Sunday morning to head off for the test, I grabbed a needle, my best sisciors, and a wild animal print sheet I'd just "rescued."

After the test was over, I had time to kill waiting for it to be graded, and also waiting for the students who'd not presented their final projects to do so. (They'd sat through mine, it seemed only gentlemanly to sit through theirs, even though I didn't have to.) So I got out the sheet and shears, and away I went. This is 2 days work on it. In the overview picture with the uncut mat'l, I added arrows so you can see the rug... it blends into its source so well it took me a while to see it... I thought I'd goofed up the photo!

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Now here's closeups of the front and the back. I made two mistakes in this rug.

1) One time I joined a strip, somehow a 3" loop of strip got caught, and I couldn't get it straight. The presentations were about to kick in, so rather than doink around with it, I just made sure it lay flat along the advancing row, and made sure my needle passed through it each time.

I was going to circle it on the pictures below, but it worked its way into the rug so well that I can't even see it. When I first did it, it seemed like just a slightly thicker row, and if you spot 2 to 4 inches of row about 5 rows out which seems thicker, that's it.

2) (This is my most common mistake) I added too many repeat or double stitches as I moved from the rough start phase on to the rug proper. To fix that, I just skipped a stitch when ever I noticed pronounced puckering. As you can see from the pictures, the rug is still a little more 3d than is optimal, but that kept it from getting worse, and the natural evening out of tension will do the rest.

The problem I've noticed in myself is that I tend to think a double stitch is the solution to any problem... so sometimes I've made matters worse not better.

The moral of the story: Yes, you need double stitches, especially early on, but as with all things in life, don't overdo.

The more precise advice for you ruggers out there- pay attention both to the direction your needle is leaning AND to the surface of the rug. If the needle is leaning far back to the left, its time for a double. (Say, 40 degrees or more.) Otherwise, leave it be. If the needle is leaning forwards OR you have puckering going on, skip a stitch.

Yes, this is stuff better illustrated in a slide show or video, but my wife's still "hospital sick at home" and given how my previous attempts to be both the camera man and the rug guy worked out, I'm holding out for when my wife can help me do a quality shoot.

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Finished "Poodle skirt" trivets

They came out slightly different in size. This could be because the seams did not divide the skirt into exact halves, or it could be that I cut the 2nd set of strips slightly thicker. Either way, they came out very well. I'm sure our friend at Diamond will love them!

When rug making is not only recycling, its a humanitarian act to save us from horrible fashion

I found this poodle skirt last week, which was timely, as one of our dear friends who works at Diamond is retiring this week, and she has a thing for black and white patterns, so I offered to make her a pair of trivets with that scheme.

It was especially fortuitous for the people of Chicago that I needed to do such a quick turn around (I'm taking the trivets in Friday) as Tess' mother, our dear Barb, would surely have prevented me from taking the scissors to it and claimed it as our own. Barb is beautiful, a wonderful mother in law, a quality human being... but such things are best left as fond memories of ones' halcyon youth... rather like the peg legs and jean vests I wore to high school in the 80s.

Now... if I could only get my hands on a pair of candy apple red or lime green 3x hot pants...