Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Next Rag Rug Workshop at ACHM

I hope you can join me on Saturday morning, July 11 (10 ~ 12) at the Aiken County Historical Museum for our third Tatter Party & Rag Rug Workshop. It's FREE, and in a very "cool" place to be for a few hours on a Saturday morning. Everyone is encouraged to bring any rag rugs you may have for show & tell. We'll talk a little about the history of rag rugs. (Do you know why few if any rugs were made from rags before the mid 1800's? Clue: the demand for paper. Curious? Come hear the whole story.) You could also bring along a colorful old bed sheet, if you have one, to tear into tatters. Everyone gets to help prepare rags and spend some time weaving on our old loom. 

For this workshop I'll be taking us beyond the classic "Hit & Miss" design approach where the length and color of the next strip to be woven is totally random. Hit & Miss does make for an interesting and colorful rug, but we're going to go beyond interesting - to fascinating! We'll be cutting uniform lengths of two fabrics (recycled cotton sheets) and looping them together in an alternating sequence. If all goes according to plan, we should see a series of criss cross diamond patterns that drift back and forth accross the rug, something like the little mug rug sample below. It will be fun to see how the pattern develops. 
Call the museum at 803 642 2015 to let them know you're interested and are planning on attending. It's still free.  

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