Return to rag rugs

We returned to making rag rugs on Saturday.

The last time we were busy cutting up fabric and hooking and prodding  was in the blissful heat of the summer. I think we should make rag rugs more often as it seems to make the sun shine!

I got some coffee sacks from Brick lane market this time as they are great for the hessian base in which to work your rag rug. Others also used the jute shopping bags to work into, working on hiding a certain logo, how all shopping bags should be...

Some great organised chaos...and fierce concentration, we didn't feel the time flying by.

And there was even more fabric to choose from than last time as clothes and bedsheets are not given away to charity anymore (even friends and families unwanted clothes and bedsheets...I am a magnet for this stuff), they all get recycled into fantastic rag rug creations. 

And the tools with funny names - hooky and proddy - how those words can be interpreted in so many ways.

 

It was great to see the progress on a rag rug from the last session, all that time ago... OK, it wasn't so long ago really.  

Beads galore

On Saturday we threaded many, many beads through wire and wondered if we would make anything by the end of the workshop. As with much creating and making we were testing out the ability of waiting in order to achieve...delayed gratification...

Well most of us managed, and very enjoyable it was too. There was even time to make a wee bumble bee, well, maybe not so wee, it being almost the same size as the flower...

Everything matched, even nail varnish, I think this was down to the overall bias on the colour red today  






 
And here is a picture demo of how the whole threading the bead thing worked. The beads are sort of like knitting stitches, you have to make sure to count your rows so that you get the right shape. Much scolding by me if you add an extra bead where there wasn't supposed to be one! Ah, but sure that's what I'm there for...















So increase and decrease depending on the shape you are after.

You end up with a whole heap of petals ready to be all rolled into a flower formation.

And hey presto, there it is, all rolled up with green florist tape, you can't see the tape in this picture though. 

Socks and more socks

On Saturday we turned a humble old sock (well..they were all new socks) into a cuddly creature of some description. 


We cannot tell what kind of creatures they were, but they all turned out very cute and were a joy to create. The possibilities are just endless, and all from the simple shape of a sock!


The inspiration came from Stray Sock Sewing a fantastic book with great ideas an ingenuity. With some of our own creative twists thrown into the mix our wee friends were brought to life.

We even had two very attentive young ladies all the way from Italy creating along with us as part of the circle, which was fantastic.

But to get to the end result there was LOTS of sewing to do, and depending on the length of one's sock ears it took a few cups of tea and concentration. 




So there were a few stitches that came in handy - the back stitch, slip stitch and the split stitch. Bit of a tounge twister but once these were mastered it was plain sailing, or sewing....

There was one sock rabbit that didn't make it to the final photo shoot and it was the fluffy pink sock Laine was transforming, but it was definitely getting there. We will have to see the finished fluffy bunny at the next gathering.