Now I remember why I stopped whipstitching and went back to finishing rugs with binding tape. And why so many asked about my method of sewing the tape to the edge of the rug before I pull a single loop. ‘Cause whipstitching is a BIG pain in the heiny!
I can say that because I’ve spent part of the past couple of says whipstitching two small rugs. In order to save some of my dwindling supply of monk’s cloth (my old supplier closed over a year ago, and I bought a LOT then), I drew the two mats pretty close together and didn’t bother to sew the twill tape on. I’ll finish them differently, I told myself. Idiot.
The reality is that I find sewing on binding tape BY HAND ALWAYS pretty “zenning.” I listen to music or Prairie Home Companion while I do it. Not so much whipstitching. But it had to be done. And so it was.
In other news, last Thursday evening, Tom and I headed down to the University of New Mexico – Valencia’s Fine Arts Gallery in Los Lunas to hear Adobe Wool Arts guildmate Mary Schnitzler lecture on rug hooking in general and Grenfell mats in particular. Great job, Mary! Then a group of us walked over to the artists’ reception to look at all the mats that are hanging for the month-long show. If you’re in the area, stop by. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos.
I HATE it!!! can you show how you finish with tape? thank you so much
Hi, Theresa. I did a piece a couple of months ago about how I sew on the twill tape, though I wasn’t using twill tape in this case. You can see it at https://highonhooking.com//working-little-beyond-comfort-level/. Even better, I just came across an archived post by Hungry Hook Primitives; she shows a few methods for finishing, including mine. (It’s the first one she describes.) You can find it at: http://hungryhookprimitives.blogspot.com/p/rug-hooking-lesson-4-binding-your-rug.html. Let me know how it turns out for you.
Used wool yarn to whip stitch one table mat. Prefer the tape. Will try sewing a corded fabric on the current projects. Thanks for posting the pics. We live in one country but it’s fascinating to see the difference in subject matter.
What kind of corded fabric, Syl? I’d be curious to see what that looks like.
I forgot to say, in my last comment, that your sheet rug is great! It really does look different using sheets.
Thanks!
You’ve got interesting posts here. Your site can go viral,
you need some initial traffic only. How to get initial traffic?
Search google for: Marihhu’s method