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How to make rugs


pinkhare

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It's not good eyesight anymore, it's magnifying eyeglasses! I have a set of 3x glasses that I keep in the bag with my petitpoint. ugly as sin, but they work!

I'm about 2/3 through with the pattern i finally came up with for the bedroom. Since it's a Texas farmhouse, I came up with a geometric navaho style pattern. The center is finished, just have to add the borders at each end, but they will be wide borders. Early Indian rugs did not have borders, but to make them appealing to tourist type folks, they finally started adding just end borders. I kind of like the way they look. Anyway, I think it's going to blend well with my stripes and florals without overpowering them.

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Sherry, I think your room is perfect as it is. I love both the rug and chair and wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks Holly, I've not done any needle work miniature items for a long time. I've been so busy doing RL cross stitchings but I miss working on miniature rugs. I must make the time.

Your rug is gorgeous!

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I'm about 2/3 through with the pattern i finally came up with for the bedroom. Since it's a Texas farmhouse, I came up with a geometric navaho style pattern. The center is finished, just have to add the borders at each end, but they will be wide borders.

Since you haven't done the borders yet - consider leaving the third row in from the edge for last. Then you can fold over the edges of your fabric and stitch them to the bottom of the rug while stitching that row. (Maybe you knew that already, but I forgot about it until I'd already done my borders so I wasn't able to finish my edges this way on this most recent rug.)

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Does anyone still doembroidery the old fashion way here? My Mom used to make huge bedpreads, table cloths, wall art, decorative tea towels, and doilies that way. She would draw her design in pen on white gift tissue, then iron the pattern on her cotton, the ink would transfer to her linen, and proceed to embroder the lines in. She could even make full canvas loop stitches that looked painted on, rather than threaded. I was taught how many years ago, and one of these days, I'll pull out that stash of floss she left me, and try to do some mini rugs in her memory. I'm sure that would make really neat little rugs... Thanks for making me remember that. I love this place!

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Suzanne, I used to do a lot of embroidery. i wanted those days of the week cuptowels for the kitchen so I made them. Made flowered doilies and crocheted edging, all that stuff. I even did a crazy quilt a few years back and did all the different stitches on the seams of every piece of fabric. It was pretty cool! My mom made me learn when I was just a kid, and I still enjoy it more than crosstitch. Just don't do it much anymore, but you're right . It's just about a lost art.

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Is that the same as crewel embroidery? I have done some (from a kit though, I didn't draw the designs myself). I'm not very good at it and don't find it relaxing like cross stitch, but I have seen patterns for it at the needlework shop, so I know some people do still do it...

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As a newbie to this hobby, I rarely have any ideas or advice to offer, but I haven't seen this mentioned, so............

Perforated Paper (or even better), Plastic Perforated Paper is a great scale for doing needlepoint rugs. My mom made a number of them when she was doing her dollhouse years ago. The great thing about the plastic is that it holds it's shape and doesn't have to be blocked, but the scale is very small and tight and they have little bulk so they lay quite well. I bought some of the plastic recently, but haven't found a pattern yet......................

I love the rugs shown here. Especially Holly's. The colors are stunning and rich. I'm inspired to get one started after reading this thread!!!

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Thank you, Debbie! I hear colors, so sometimes I'll change the colors from a chart. I had forgotten all about the perforated paper! I haven't seen any, where do you find it? I find scrap linen in thrift stores.

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Wow now here's a whole new world I never entered before. The rugs are gorgious! I never heard of "bunka" rugs. How do you see to stitch those tiny patterns? I need new glasses so maybe when I get that far I can try it! Beautiful work on your site Casey!

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The nicest thing about making bunka rugs is that all you need is tacky glue! You draw your pattern onto the linen, put it into a stretching frame, lay it on waxed paper and glue your strips of bunka.

Harbor Freight sells loupes that clip onto your glasses so you can see to stitch on fine-count fabrics.

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A few years ago I bought several sheets of the plastic canvas for a mini project I haven't done yet. The project is for making small Victorian houses. I'm not positive if this is the same booklet I have, but if not it's similar. The houses are closed in the backs but I thought it would be easy enough to do them with open backs and put furniture inside. My recollection is that they're roughly 1/4" scale.

Now that I've finished the mini rug, I should dig out the supplies for the little house and start on it. I'm staying away from life sized needlework projects for the moment because frames are so expensive, and we're running out of wall space...

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