Weekend in Kansas City

This past weekend, my aunt and I traveled

up to Kansas City to visit my cousin, Katrina,

and attend the 81st Annual Plaza Art Fair.

The weather was glorious and there were so many people

attending the art fair that I didn’t get any pictures (of the fair) while

I was down at the plaza looking at the art.

 

However, I did get a few pictures of my cousin’s house below.

Isn’t it picturesque?

She even has egg-laying chickens…..

You will notice below that one chicken is out…..

she was pestering the other hens, so she got put

out. I guess she was “free-range” for the day!

Below are pictures of Katrina’s neighbor’s yard.

I can’t even imagine how much time and talent

it takes to make all of these topiary shapes.

 

 

Here is a list of some of my favorite artists that I saw

while I was there. You can click on their names to view

their art.

Patricia DeLeon

Joseph Bradley

Amy Gillespie

Bekah Ash

Signe & Genna Grushovenko

Attaching covered cording to your rug

As promised here is the final installation of attaching covered

cording to your rug.

(my way)

I like to use upholstery thread or button and craft thread….something

that is a bit heavier and won’t break when you tug on it.

Starting from the back of the rug, I insert my threaded needle into the

back of a loop like this…..

When doing this, it lets the knot catch on

the wool and the wool holds the knot in place

like so…

Now that you have your knot, guide your

threaded needle through the backing, right up next

to your hooking like so…

Here you can see it coming up from the “right”

side of the rug…..

Now just bring your needle into the “ditch” of your

cording….

Now that the needle is through, I think you can see

the “ditch” more easily in this picture…

Now I’m just taking the needle, and going back

down through the front side of the ditch and bringing

it back through the backing…..again, you are going through

the wool and then in between the hooking and the backing,

but getting it as close to the hooking as possible.

Now just go over a few spaces and come back up through

your backing and into the ditch again…..

you just keep doing this over and over….

I take smaller stitches on the front side and longer stitches

on the back side….see how closely

the cording is up next to the rug?

Here is a picture from the back side.

I think it really helps to pinch your cording right up  next

to the hooking when you are sewing the cording on. Yes,

your hands might get a little tired, but it’s worth it and it

actually goes pretty fast once you get started.

Don’t forget to pull those stitches TIGHT!

Now you’ve made it all the way around the rug….and you need

to attach your cording together…..

you might need some little scissors or a seam ripper to take out a little

bit of the seamed cording.

(thought I might throw in this little picture

so you could see the “ditch” the yellow machine

stitched seam and my hand-stitches in the darker

upholstery thread)

Here you can see how closely the cording is sewn

to the rug…..

Above, I’m pulling the attached cording back from the rug….

folks, I’m telling you this is sewn up tightly next to the rug!

Okay, on with how to get the cording pieced together.

Like I said, you might have to rip out part of the seam of your

covered cording so you can see both ends of the cording.  Obviously the ends

are going to have to be cut down, so they will be able

to match up with each other.

Make sure you tape them with masking tape before you cut, to keep

the ends from fraying.

So after a little taping and snipping, here is what I have…..

They still don’t quite match up do they?

Let’s do a little more snipping……

AHA! They match up….now let’s tape that together

with a little more masking tape!

Now you might have to trim your wool on the cording a

little bit, you want one part lying inside of the other part.

Yeah, like I told you….I’m really technical…..

NOT! I’ll let the picture do the talking……

 

Now, you have to continue stitching just as you did

before, but you won’t have that sewn “ditch” to guide you…

you have to picture it in your mind and make it happen.

Use your fingers to pinch it and hold the fabric tight around

the cording and stitch into the ditch that your pinching

creates.

Voila!

Questions anyone? Do you think you could do this on

your own now?

Making covered cording

I’ll preface this post by saying, I’m not an expert at

covered cording……

I come from the perspective of a self-taught sewer.

First you’ll need enough cording to go around your project….

I’m making covered cording to go around my Cleopatra

rug that I’ll then turn into a pillow.

First off, make sure you tape the ends of your cording,

so it won’t fray and come unwound.

Next, cut enough strips of wool to cover the

length of your cording…..my cording is thin, about

1/4 inch, I’ve cut my wool in 2.5 inch width strips.

Next, you’ll have to join these wool strips together,

to make one long continuous strip.  To do this,

place them at right angles, then place your finger at

an angle and then fold it back as if you had sewn

a line across it…..

Here, I’ll show you what I mean.

If I sew at the angle where my finger is,

and then turn it back…..it will look like this…

If I were to sew the line the other direction….

and then fold it back…..

Yeah, obviously, that is wrong….

make sense?

Go ahead and sew…..

Can you see the line that I’ve sewn above?

Now instead of 3 strips, I have one continuous strip.

This is what the front side looks like (above)

Here it is from the back side….see the dog ears?

We just need to trim those down….

So that now the back side looks like this…

Now that you have your continuous strip of wool,

now you can add in the cording…..

Since I’m making cording for a pillow, I don’t need a lot of

extra wool to cover up the raw edge of my rug….If I were

making this to cover a rug, I would have made my wool strips

probably 3-4 inches wide.

Here you can see the back side of the cording…..

I sewed it with a zipper foot, so I could get up close

to the cording…..I did leave some of the cording unsewn.

This way, I can fuse the beginning and ending of the cording

together when they meet.

This shows the cording from the finished side…..

Now I’m off to find a more sturdy upholstery or button and

craft thread to sew it around my rug.

I’ll share that part with you soon!

Please feel free to ask questions for clarification if you need it.

Ahh rain

It gives us a chance to stay indoors with no guilt!

I zig-zagged around the edge of my rug….

Then cut off the excess backing…..

Now to make the covered cording…..