2013 Artisan Design Team Finalist Blog Hop-Day 6

                                                                                                                        Can you believe that we are already over half way done with our Finalist blog hop?  I hope you all have had a great time looking at the wonderful creations.  I know I sure have!  Lots of inspiration for sure!                                                                                           I hope that you will enjoy the project I'm sharing with you today.  It is my second 3-Dimensional project and was by far- the absolute most time consuming project that I have ever worked on. Let's just say that I quit counting the hours after I hit 125.  Yes- that's one hundred twenty five hours.  There were many times that I was second guessing myself and I can't begin to tell you how many times I had to rip all the fabric out and start again. At first- I was a little worried about sending this piece in.  I had been toying around with the idea for weeks and I had already ordered/received my fabric when Stampin' Up! posted a rag rug to their blog.  I gasped in horror because I had already planned on creating the rug for one of my 3-Dimensional pieces and how was I supposed to be original when Stampin' Up! just posted the same idea?  After mulling it over for a few days- I decided to create a rug with a chevron pattern on the edges and a criss-cross pattern in the middle.  

To make this project- I started out by cutting my Beau Chateau fabric in to 1" x 5" strips.  This part in itself was extremely time consuming.  I had to make sure the fabric was straight and not cut all wonky. Unfortunately- I don't sew so I didn't have any cool time saving tools to help speed this process along. After I had cut all the fabric- a friend told me that I should have borrowed her rotary tool and mat that makes cutting strips of fabric a breeze.  Oh well- live and learn!

Here is a picture of some of the fabric strips that I cut.  The entire rug took 25 boxes of the Stampin' Up! Beau Chateau Fabric.  That's a LOT of fabric!

After I had all the fabric cut I began to create the actual rug.  I used a latch hook rug canvas for my rug base. It's not non-slip but the holes were bigger and much easier to hand feed the fabric through.  After each individual piece of fabric was fed into the holes in the canvas, they were tied in knots to prevent them from slipping out of the base.  

The bottom left of the above picture shows what the fabric looked like once it was put into the rug base.  Of course as I said before- I had to tear the fabric out and restart several times.  First because I put the wrong color fabric in and then I tore it out again because I messed the pattern up.

Slowly but surely- I was making progress.  Or so I thought.  When I started this project- I had no clue that it was going to take me over 125 hours to complete.  I had planned on making the rug 24" x 36" but it took a lot more fabric than I had anticipated and I ran out of time to get more.  

The above picture shows the finished product.  It's approximately 18" x 24".  It's not overly huge but it's the perfect size for a smaller space- like in front of a sink or in the bathroom.  I have been told that it would look great as a wall hanging so it really is multipurpose!  

The above picture is a close up to show just how plush the rug is.  It's super thick and heavy!

This picture shows what the back of the rug looks like.  If you've ever worked with latch hook canvas- you know that it frays really easily.  I wanted to finish the edges so that the rug could be used and not fray.  The dark brown trim is the bias tape that I used to finish the edges.  Just a quick informational bit- each square on the rug has at least 50 pieces of fabric.  

I must say that by the time I was done with this rug- I didn't care if I ever saw it again.  Yes- it was expensive to create and yes it took me what seemed like forever to complete but I was burned out from working on it!  Now that it's gone and I had a chance to see it again at Convention I really miss it!  It turned out beautifully and I can only hope that someone is enjoying it!

I must admit though that I was a little disappointed when I saw it at Convention.  It was folded up on the shelf and the detail wasn't visible.  I was really sad when everyone kept saying it was a pillow because folded up- that's exactly what it looks like but it's not!  It's a rug!

The last picture I'm sharing is of the rug and the little cuteness that thought it should be his.  He is sad that it's gone!  Every time I would try to do more work on it- Jake thought he should be sleeping on it!  Silly kitty!

Recipe:
Beau Chateau Fabric
Latch hook rug canvas
Craft and Rubber Scissors
Pencil
Ruler
Bias Tape
Sewing machine (used to adhere the bias tape)

I hope you enjoyed seeing my project for the day!  Please stop by again tomorrow for another day filled with beautiful projects!  Please click the next button to continue on the rest of the hop!  Have a wonderful evening!

Cathy Casey

Dara Gloden