Rug Making Course

Yesterday I finally got to go on the much anticipated rug making course that had previously been cancelled due to the icy weather. It was fabulous. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The people were friendly, there was tea and cake and lots of crafty chat and I learnt a fabulous new technique using the weird looking tool below which, I think, will prove to be highly addictive. 

Maxine, the lady who runs the course is extremely knowledgeable on all things rugs and rug-related (in fact all things craft related really) and has made some beautiful pieces such as the one in the poster. When I arrived at 10am, the frames had already been prepared with the scrim fabric and there were six of us all clutching bags of wool of various colours and thickness. As I already had a tapestry frame, which I found last year at a car boot sale for 20p, I dropped my frame into the shop the day before so the fabric could be attached and the image drawn on, ready for the class. Instead of an owl, I opted for hearts. This is the fabulous design Maxine came up with.

After a quick explanation on the technique and a demonstration it was time to have ago. I have to say, it is the easiest, quickest thing I have ever done! I know the frame doesn't look very big but it's actually 11"x 22" (28cm x 56cm), so quite large and I managed to fill in all the hearts and spots in about 4 hours!!.

It's not finished yet, I still have to decide what colour to use to fill in the background. In fact that was the hardest part ..... deciding what colours to use. I was so inspired that when I came home, I sat and made a cute little lavender bag with a hand rugged front and a felt back. It's only a prototype and will need a bit of tweaking but I was so thrilled with it and it only took me about 20 minutes!!

If you live in the Liskeard area and are interested in any of the courses they run there is a link to Painters, the craft shop where they are held, HERE