CAN MAKING A RAG RUG BE CONSIDERED EXERCISE?

There is a little gal at church that wanted to learn to do a rag rug.

It has been a while since I made one, so I wanted to refresh my memory.   When I was a teenager,  I made one for a boyfriend for his birthday.  He probably looked at it and went...oh, thanks!  

I am sure if he knew the amount of work that went into it he would feel differently?  Maybe...ok, maybe not!

Anyways, when I made mine, I tied all of the strip ends together so on the back you would have like a shag rug, but sparsely shagged.  That was a lot of work tying all those knots.  Then crocheted it.

This one, I sewed the ends together.  I found some 108 inch strips left over from backings, some pieces I cut off of my finished quilts.

I have to tell ya, this little rug sucked up a lot of fabric.

I cut 2" strips the length of the fabric, I did not care if it was straight of grain or not, just longer the better.  Then started crocheting.  There are many you tube videos out there on how to go about doing this, if you are interested.

I got some ugly fabric (if there is such a word), less favorable fabric from my stash, it is the red, black, and gray.  The outer border is from about three yards of fabric.

I need to learn to tie off better but otherwise I am very pleased.

This rug is 32" in diameter, it looks small in the picture but it is a nice size rug.

I do have to tell you that my hands started hurting part way through, then my lower arms and upper arms.

I went to bed last night with bio freeze rubbed all over my hands and arms.

This morning they ache some but not to where I am miserable.  So...

can I consider that exercise?

Then I am blanket stitching around 12 reindeer (Accuquilt Go Die).  I have four left.  I should be done by now but well....

you know, something else came up.

The reindeer is the "Check It Out" fabric by Island Batik.

I also have cut a bazillion 1" x 7" strips for my girls at church Activity Days, we are going to make wreaths this next Wednesday.  Took me about 3 days doing that.  I used up my Christmas Scraps. 

If some of you are reading this and think, wow, Barb has gone through a lot of scraps....

I can truly say I have but they keep multiplying.  Do you have the same problem?

Can you believe it is November already?  I can not!

REINDEER TEA TOWELS

I had to be somewhere last night at seven.  It was six thirty so I had a few minutes to draw the patterns on my Heat N Bond fusible.

This morning I got up at five and ironed them to their fabrics.  This is actually 6 projects, 3 reindeer and  3 penguins.

We are expecting our grandson today...whoooohoo so I decided to get going on these.

I timed myself when I blanket stitched.  Talk about nerve racking, seeing the seconds go by.  I finally told myself not to look.

The time did not show up but it took me 13 minutes and 35 seconds to blanket stitch around these reindeer.  See how fast this goes?

The most time consuming part is drawing out the pattern pieces on adhesive and cutting out.  Even then it didn't take that long.

I find that is is much easier to make 3 than one...maybe a little more time but once you have the fabrics picked out you are GONE!!!

The pattern is "The Wooden Bear Quilt Designs" and the fabrics are Island Batiks.

I love these reindeer on brown don'w know why but I do.