Friday, April 5, 2013

Feeling Owlish


I am still working on the denim rug. The grid is small and the rug canvas makes my fingers raw. And, let's face, I got bored. So I took my worn out towels and made a towel rug. They were all shades of tan and I want to dye it anyway .... or I did until I washed it and found that it took almost FOUR days to air dry it and then I tossed it in the dryer for a good fluffing. The dryer has recently recovered and spit all of the terry cloth lint out into the atmosphere. And let me just say that when wet, this rug is one heavy s ........ sucker! Bet you thought I was going to wax profane about it!


You all remember my good friend, Insomnia. You know, my companion in the wee hours of the night. Well, I was pondering the rug canvas and my raw fingers and remembered that I had, in my sewing room closet, a whole roll of burlap. How hard would it be to create my own grid? I posed my question and answered it my self. Not hard at all. And I could customize the grid to take wider pieces of material and thus make the rug faster.

As you see I started by cutting the piece of burlap, then using a tight zig-zag stitch, I bound the edges. Then I started pulling threads lengthwise.


Theoretically, you would complete all the threads length wise, before going width wise, but I was impatient to see the end result. See the holes? I cut the strips of towel about an inch and 1/2 wide and 5" long. No hook or needle was necessary, I just rolled one end and pushed it through the hole, down, then back up to the right side and tied each strip. I should have flipped the rug over to show you, but it makes a very neat and tight back. It was fast, only a few nights in front of the TV and I was done.

It feels fantastic to stand on after a shower. Very cushy and I like the way it looks. The cleaning of the rug? Not so much. I was planning to dye it a persimmon color by mixing orange and brown and red, but after the washing and drying, I am resigned to the multi shades of tan. Maybe later, when I get bored again.


I have lots of little scraps of fabric, all of them representing clothes my grandchildren and their parents wore. I saw a little owl on Pinterest. I made one, then another and then decided I didn't like part of the design. It was a circle of fabric gathered around a piece of cardboard for the bottom. It made the owl into a tower of sorts.

After a particularly long session with my good buddy, Insomnia, I decided to open all my secret stashes of buttons (I have a bit of a fetish, I really like buttons). So, I played around and decided to make the base be a large button. I made my pattern of triangles a little smaller and find that I like the fatter, squatty little owl better.


Just talk among yourselves, I will be back with more tiny friends.

6 comments:

Brian Miller said...

wow you are productive to say the least....still love those little owls...so cool...and that rug of the old towels is pretty awesome...even if heavy...smiles.

SkippyMom said...

You're so cute. I wish I was crafty the seven days a week I can't sleep. I just write really long, rambly emails that make no sense. hee At least you are wicked productive.

Can you take a pic' of the whole rug laid out? If it isn't too much trouble I would love to see how it looks on the floor. I might try it too - with a shout out for it's crafty creator of course.

Hope you are getting some well deserved sleep. Soon the summer will be here and you will be falling into bed for happy sleep. :) Hugs to you!

mamahasspoken said...

Those owls are cute! You should open your own Etsy shop ;o)

Unknown said...

Those are ADORABLE!!! And I agree with Mamma has spoken. You should open your own Etsy shop. I'll bet those owls will sell like hotcakes at the camp this summer.

ellen abbott said...

the owls are very cute. you should write a book for all your little projects using scraps.

Practical Parsimony said...

I keep meaning to make one of those rugs. Have you tried melatonin for sleep?