Thursday, June 30, 2011

Falling & Getting Up

Well, that’s a good thing in my case! 

As for the “sewing story”…….

I went to the fabric store, bought some black linen,

brought it home and got out all my “tools” to make pockets

for the back of my garden rugs, which would then house

this piece of wood…..one piece of wood on the top, one piece of

wood on the bottom, to weight the rug.

I measured, I measured again, I cut, I sewed, I swore, I sewed

some more.  I hand stitched the pocket onto the back of one

of the rugs….one irritating stitch at a time. I stitched, I stuck

myself, I bled, I persevered and I got the frickin’

pocket sewn onto the back of one of the garden rugs.

I threaded the piece of wood through the pocket and I hung it against

the wall to see how it was looking before I sewed on the

pocket on the bottom edge of the rug.

)(*#$)@(#Y$)@(#*$)@(*#$

The pocket with the wood in it, made the rug pucker and it just

looked BAD…..I tried not to cry over all the time I had spent

doing all of this…..I bit my lip…..perhaps if I just sew the piece of

wood directly onto the back of the rug on the bottom, I can save

myself a lot of time and see if this is going to look any better

once the rug is weighted at the bottom.

Piece of wood

Fishing line

Needle

Oh the stitching is going quite  quickly….this is good, I think to myself!

I get the bottom piece stitched on and hold the rug up to the wall…..

)(@*#$)(@#*@)#(*$

The top STILL puckers…even with the weight of the wood along the bottom.

I stop

I do some deep breathing

think

Tammy

think

Aha!

Sewing that piece of wood directly to the rug was

so easy……and I’ve been making this waaaay

too hard!

I got out my little scissors…..I snipped and snipped

and snipped some more…..ahhhh, the sheer pleasure

of pulling out all of those tiny irritating threads that

I had stitched so carefully one by one, to stitch on the

100% linen pocket……

gone

done

finito!

Now I was like a woman possessed!

I sewed and I sewed and I sewed….but this time it was

different……

Me, the needle and the fishing line were as one!

I had the piece of wood at the top stitched directly to the rug

.

.

.

I placed it against the wall……

.

.

.

it didn’t pucker!

(Insert singing of angels)

 

I hope to have these “installed” over the holiday

weekend!

I’d love to hear your questions and comments about

this process. I’ve worked tirelessly with a framer

who is quite knowledgeable about the archival process.

Many things were taken into consideration and I

hope to discuss some of those things in some of my

upcoming posts.

7 comments:

  1. Ah Tammy..............I love you to death! You are one tough cookie.

    BUT..............

    Why did you not just cut a couple pieces of carpet tack strip and slip the rug onto it???? That's how I hang all my rugs. Then if you needed to tweak a corner, here or there............you could just hide a few straight pins with glass heads, that you insert into the rug with pliers.

    Everything hung in my house is either done by straight pins or carpet tack strip.

    SERIOUSLY.
    xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

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  2. Hooray for perseverance!! Can't wait to see your installation! Your rugs are awesome!

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  3. Wow Tammy I am glad it has worked. If you ever want a really easy way to mount rugs foam board works like a dream. I buy black foam board, cut it to the size of the rug and baste the rug on it. Then I nail it to the wall. Totally flat.

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  4. Very clever indeed. And that is what I'll do when I get ready to hang my Sheep over my mantle! Thanks Tammy.

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  5. I'm with Ter'e and the carpet strips - are the rugs too heavy for that? but very smart the way you did it! Good luck with the installation and hope you can sit back and really enjoy your rugs!

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  6. WOOOOHOOO!!!! Standing and cheering for you girl!! I know that feeling and those trials and errors all too well! LOL Sucks when you're there. But the feeling you get after pushing thru until you BEAT IT and WIN and have a finished project worth being proud of is worth all of it! :D Way to go!! xoxo

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