Blossom Time

A N N D A V I E S

This particular rug, featuring a contemporary technique, was inspired by a postcard shoeing spring blossom. Nearly every combination of colours is effective in this simple design. It is not, however, a quick technique and it uses up a great deal material.

The choice of materials depends on how you want to use the finished article. For a rug, you would need and easy-to-clean material such as cotton, but if you wanted to adapt the idea for a wallhanging or cushion cover, it would be fun ton experiment with different kinds of material such as lurex, netting, organza and other speciality fabrics. For the base fabric, choose grey polyester or any other even-weave material which is not too closely woven.

An American rug-maker, Gloria Crouse, created a similar technique but she sometimes outlines her circles with fabric paint which gives an added dimension. She also cuts some of her material into squares, and use pinking shears to cut out some of the circles to give a different effect.

75 x 62 cm (29.5 x 24.5 in)

Materials and Equipment

• Stapler and staple gun or drawing pins
• 87 x 71 cm (34.25 x 28 in) grey polyester
• 2 x 86 cm (34 in) and 2 x 71 cm (28 in) artist’s stretchers
• Fine felt-tip pen
• Compass
• Soft pencils
• Strong card
• Scissors
• Assortment of cotton material (have plenty)
• Wooden knitting needle
• Plastic knife
• Latex/PVA glue
• Piece of thin foam to size of finished rug
• 79 x 66 cm (31 x 26 in) backing material (can be same material as rug)
• Cotton thread
• Needle
• Thimble

Assemble the artist’s stretchers and staple or pin the grey polyester to the frame, pulling it taut and keeping the threads straight.

Draw the outline of the rug by running a felt-tip pen between two threads of grey polyester (or use a ruler).

Set your compass to mark a 9 cm (3.5 in0 diameter circle on strong card. Cut around the circle to make a template.

Place the template on your material, and draw around it with a fine-tipped soft pencil or fine waterproof pen. You can fold the material and cut out two circles at once.

As a large quantity of material is needed for this project, cut out quite a few cotton circles at a time. (Keep the different colours and designs separate, perhaps in bags). To use, you will need to fold each circle in half and then into.

Work with the frame leaning at right angles to a table. Push a wooden knitting needle gently into the folded centre of a circle. Do not allow it to pierce the material.

Working from front to back and beginning in a corner, push the knitting needle and the tip of the circle about 1 cm (0.5 in) through the grey polyester.

On the reverse side, you will see little modules of material.

Continue placing your circles about 2 cm (0.75 in) apart, staggering them so that they slot snugly into each other. You do not have to work across – you can build up wherever you want your colours to go.

When you have completed a session, turn the frame over. Dip a plastic knife carefully into the latex – you only need to smear – and dab around each nodule to prevent them falling out. Be very meticulous in doing this. Then, just shake the frame gently to ensure all the nodules have been latexed.

When you have completely covered the rug with cotton circles, remove from the frame. Place the finished rug right-side down on a table. Trim the material to about 7.5 cm (3 in) all around the rug. Place a piece of thin foam, the same size as the completed rug, on the reverse of the rug. This is to prevent the nodules from wearing out the backing.

Turn the surplus grey polyester down over the foam and, just catching the fabric on to the foam, tack all around, mitring the corners.

Cut the backing material slightly larger than the finished rug, and lay it over the foam, turning the edges under. Slip-stitch the backing to the rug, turning in the corners neatly (it is not necessary to mitre them). When this has been completed, back stitch across the width of the rug at regular intervals, pushing the needle down through the backing and the foam and just catching it on the base material. You may hit some nodules which have been stiffened by the latex but just work around them.

Bright And Breezy

J E N N I S T U A R T A N D E R S O N

In this project, instead of hooking or prodding the materials, the strips are plaited/braided before being sewn together to make a rug.

Cotton fabrics, from a blouse, dress, skirt and part of a duvet or continental quilt cover, were used to make a cheerful rug a child’s room. If you prefer to make a heavier rug, then you could use woolen or synthetic fabrics.

You could make similar plaited strips to form a border for a hooked or prodded rug.

66 x 52 cm (26 x 20.5 in)

Materials and Equipment

• Scissors
• Assortment of cotton materials
• Tape measure
• Needle
• Cotton thread
• Dressmaker’s pins
• Large pin (safety, nappy or kilt)
• Wall (cup) hook
• Button thread
• Thimble

Cut the material into strips, 7 cm (2.75 in) wide. Sew the strips end-to-end to make lengths of about 2 metres (2,25 yds)

For each plait/braid, roll up three separate strips, leaving about 90 cm (35.5 in) of the lengths unrolled. This will help to prevent the strips from becoming entangled while plaiting. Secure each roll with a pin.

Using a large pin, fasten three of the strips together at the unrolled ends, ready to start plaiting.

Hook the large pin over a wall or cup hook which you have screwed into a beam or door frame, just above eye level.

Turning the raw edges towards the back (away from you) as you work, start plaiting next to the large pin. This end of the plait will not be neat at this stage. First, bring the right strip over the middle strip.

Bring the left strip over the new middle strip and continue plaiting fairly loosely.

Remember to turn the raw edges back as much as you can, gradually unrolling the strips as you work. On reaching the ends of the strips, secure with a pin.

Arrange a selection of plaits on the table and move them around until you have a colour scheme that pleases you. Cut 16 plaits, each 53 cm (21 in) in length, securing the ends with pins so that they do not unravel. You must work with the plaits flat on the table, otherwise the rug will be misshapen. Using a needle and button thread, catch a little of one a plait, then a little of the adjacent one, working from side to side and along the length to sew two plaits together. The stitches should not show. Repeat to secure all 16 plaits together.

Sew together the loose ends of all 16 plaits. Sew a 70 cm (27.5 in) strips of fabric across the ends of the plaits at the top and bottom from the right side of the rug, using a simple back stitch.

Turn the fabric over to the back of the rug and hem down.

To prepare for the rug border, taper one end of a new long plait, and stitch it neatly.

Sew the long plait around the rug, using the same technique as in step 8. Cut the plait a little beyond the point where the ends meet and taper one end neatly, sewing it to the other end of the plait. Sew two more plaits all around the rug, in the same way, staggering the places where the ends meet.

Place the rug face-down on the backing fabric and cut around the rug, leaving a border of 3 cm (1.25 in). Turn the rug over and pin the backing to the edge, turning it under and following the shape of the rug. Pin the backing to the rug a t regular intervals. Using button thread, back-stitch lines about 6 cm (2.5 in) apart across the rug at right angles to the plaits. This joins the plaits together more securely. Hem around the backing.

Broken Glass Rug

A N N D A V I E S

Odds and ends of woollen material left over from other projects were used to make this traditional-type hooked rug. However, it is worked with much narrower strips of material than is usually found in old hooked rugs. By hooking the outlines in black or another dark colour, rather than beige, the design could be made to look bolder.

No traced designs is really necessary for this rug; you just have to outline the dimensions of the rug; you just have to outline the dimensions of the rug and then break up the surface into pleasing shapes, using a felt-tip pen. Outline all the shapes in the same colour and then fill them in with whatever materials you have available. This idea could also be adapted for cushion covers, chair seats or possibly even a tea cosy.

98 x 80 cm (38.5 x 31.5 in )

Materials and Equipment

• 106 x 91.5 cm (42 x 36 in) hessian/burlap
• Medium black felt-tip pen
• Tape-measure
• Medium-sized frame
• Assortment of materials
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Hook
• 4.5 m (5 yds) carpet binding tape
• Strong linen thread
• Darning needle
• Thimble
• Iron
• Towel or blanket
• Pressing cloth

As the design used for this rug does not require a pattern to be traced, just outline the required dimensions directly on to the hessian. Allow about 10 cm (4 in) extra all around when you have marked the actual size. Then sketch in the ‘broken glass’ design in a variety of pleasing shapes.

Fit the hessian into the frame, rolling the surplus material around one end and stretching the fabric. Cut your chosen outlining material on the straight into strips about 5 mm ( 0.25 in) wide, and begin to hook in the outlines.

Cut up the materials you intend to use for filling in the shapes. You may have some strips left over from other projects and this design is a wonderful way of using them up. Aim for a pleasing mixture of colours, and avoid putting all-light or all-dark strips adjacent to each other. Begin to hook in the inside areas of colour. Pull up your loops to height that appeals to you – not too high so that people could catch their heels in the pile and not so low that the pile will wear quickly. A height of about 5 mm (0.25 in) is usual.

The reverse of your work (down here) should look like running stitches. If any loops are showing on the back, then you are not pulling these up sufficiently to the front of the rug. Always bring the ends of the strips up to the front of the work.

Continue to fill in the spaces. When you have completed the part of the rug that is visible in the frame, take out the side pieces of the frame and roll the finished part over the opposite side of the frame to the one on which the spare hessian is rolled. Re-frame and begin again.

When you have completed all the hooking, remove the rug from the frame. Your carpet binding should be a colour that blends in with your design and should have been washed previously to allow for the shrinkage; you lose about 7.5 cm (3 in) to the metre (yard). Using a strong thread and a hem stitch, sew the binding on the right side as close to the last row of hooking as you can. Do not begin to sew the binding at a corner, but start halfway along one edge.

Ease the binding around the corners of the rug; do not allow any excess for mitring.

Cut off the excess hessian to about 5 cm (2 in) all around. Cutting across the corners to prevent a build-up of material there.

First turn down the hessian on to the back of the rug and tack it down, catching the hessian lightly to the reverse of the rug. Do not take the stitches through to the front. You will see in the photograph how the hessian has been cut away at the corners.

Then turn the binding down over the hessian and hem it down, again catching the stitches in the reverse of the rug. Coax the excess binding at each corner into a mitre and catch it down. You can then sew over the mitred corners, if liked. Hem the binding covers the turned down hessian.

Place the rug right-side down on a towel or blanket and, using a damp cloth, press all over with an iron.

Cushion Cover

A N N D A V I E S

This design was adapted from a motif on a Chinese rug. By using strong colours it has been given a contemporary look but if you chose softer colours, the design would seem totally different and more oriental in appearance. The shape of the design could also be adapted easily for a round cushion. Alternatively, the motif used here could be repeated several times to make a rug. Tweeds, plaids and plain woolen materials were used in this cushion cover.

This may be a good hooked project with which to start, as a cushion cover obviously take less time to make, and its straightforward design is more accessible than other more ambitious pieces of work.

46 x 46 cm ( 18 x 18 in )

Materials and Equipment

• Floral design
• Tracing paper
• Transfer pencil
• 61 x 61 cm (24 x 24 in) hessian/burlap
• Ruler
• Medium felttip pen
• Iron
• Pins
• Staple gun and staples or drawing pins
• 4 x 61 cm (24 in) artist’s stretchers
• Rotary cutter, mat and metal-edge ruler or scissors
• Assortment of materials
• Hook
• 49 x 49 cm ( 191/4 x 191/4 in) backing material (to blend with cushion colours)
• Sewing machine
• Needle
• Matching cotton
• Thimble
• Pressing cloth
• 46 x 46 cm (18 x 18 in) cushion pad

Draw your design on to tracing paper, using a transfer pencil. Because the design is symmetrical, it is not necessary to reverse it. Keeping the threads of the hessian straight, use a ruler and felt-tip pen to mark the corners for the size of cushion cover you want. The drag your open down from one corner mark to another by pulling it between two threads (or use a ruler). You can mark the centre either by measuring across the width and length and length and marking with a pen, or by holding the hessian in half, first one way then the other, and lightly creasing it with a hot iron. Place the design, traced-side down, on the hessian, matching the centres, and pin down to prevent it from slipping. Go over the design with a hot iron, lifting a corner to check that the design is being transferred on to the hessian.

Staple or pin the hessian on to the assembled stretchers, leaving at least 10 cm (4in) all around the finished design and keeping the threads as straight as possible

Cut your material into strips about 5 mm (1/4 in) wide. You can either use a rotary cutter, mat and metal-edge ruler to cut several folds of material in one go, or cut single strips with scissors. Do not cut all your strips at once; you do not really know how much you will be using. Do, however, make sure you have enough material to finish the project.

Commence by hooking the outline.

Continue to build up the design. If you work some of the detail and then some of the background, you will avoid being left with all the boring background to complete at once. When the design is finished, remove the hessian from the frame and cut the hessian down to about 4 cm (1.5 in) all around the marked square.

Place the right side of the backing material against the right side of the work, and pin or tack all around. Using a sewing machine (or you could sew by hand, using strong thread), stitch round three sides very close to the last row of hooking, securing the beginning and end with an overstitch.

Cut the hessian and backing material to about 1 cm (0.5 in) on the three sides, leaving about 2.5 cm (1 in) on the fourth side (which has not been sewn down) Snip enough hessian from the corners to ensure there is no ‘bump’ when you turn the cushion cover right-side out. Having done so, paying particular attention to the corners, place the cushion cover right-side down on a towel or padded surface, cover with a damp cloth and press with a hot iron. Insert the cushion pad and slip-stitch the remaining side, turning the hessian and backing under so that they are not visible.