Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there!  

I don't have any stitching to show you this week so I thought I would show you the latest rug I have designed.  This one is called Tatianna and is based on a photo of an antique rug I saw on the internet.  When I was looking for a rug to design, I was drawn to the light background of this rug.   I also liked the overall look of it.  As with most of my rugs, I started with the outer border and worked my way inwards, fitting design elements into the rug.  I started with the top left quarter of the rug because I wasn't sure what size I wanted it to be when finished.  Once I had the outline of the first border completed for the left upper quarter (and made sure the rope-like border looked well proportioned within the area), I was able to mirror the border to the top right and bottom left in order to determine the size I needed for the rug.  

This one turned out to be approximately 5" x 7" (12.5 cm x 17.7 cm) in size if stitched on 40 count silk gauze.
The middle of the rug took quite a while to fit in elements I wanted to keep from the original rug and I tweaked a few things in it to better suit the rug I was designing.  Colors were a challenge for me on this rug.  I changed them several times before I was satisfied.  I am so glad I invested in a real thread DMC color chart.  It has been of invaluable help to me.  When I actually have the skein of floss in my stash, I pull them and lay them side by side to make sure they don't clash with each other. But when I don't have the skein, this color chart allows me to place the skeins I have beside the floss in the color chart to double check.
One of the things I like about this rug is that there aren't any large areas of uninterrupted background to get bored with.  I like designs that have a lot of elements because I tend to get bored stitching large blank areas. On the flip side, sometimes it is nice to have large areas where I don't have to carefully follow a pattern so I design rugs like that as well when I want a change.
This rug pattern is now available for sale in the Etsy store, here, if interested in taking a peek.
Until next time, stay safe everyone and Happy Stitching!