Look what I finished!!

I still can't believe I've actually done it,  but I've finished the braided rag rug! 

Seriously, this was such a massive effort, my finger tips ache, my back aches, I'm so glad this is done. I started this rug ages ago, I can't even quite remember when, then got bored after I had done around 15" of sewing and the project was banned into the attic. I found it recently, together with a huge stack of fabric for braiding, when I was looking for something totally unrelated. I brought it down with the vague idea that I was going to work on it a bit to see where it was going.

Well, something happened then and I  got the bit between my teeth. I just kept going, and going, and when I had used up the huge stack of fabric I went through my stash and found some more... seriously the amout of fabric that has gone into this rug is insane.

I developed a routine - braiding in the evening while watching TV, sewing in in short sessions throughout the day whenever I had a few minutes to spare. That seemed to work quite well and the rug grew and grew. It outgrew the tatty old rug that we had in the living room and after several discussions with the kids it was decided that it should be a bit bigger still.

Once it finally reached a size that we were all happy with it became apparent that the very middle of the rug, the bit that I'd done ages ago, wasn't very good - it had a different tension and it was kind of baggy. I'd got better at adjusting my tension as I went along so the rug would lie flat. Even knowing that I would sew on a rubber backing I was not convinced that I could get that middle to behave, so I made the decision to undo it. I got away without having to re-do the whole lot, but I did unravel perhaps 10 rows or so and added another few hours tightening the centre of the rug. I'm glad I did, it's so much better now!

I used some rubber matting that D had in the shed left-over from another project (I think it was mats for the boot of the car) that I loosely stitched on because without some kind of backing the rug was sliding around rather dangerously - between the kids sliding around on it and the dog digging on it it was never lying flat for more than 5 minutes.