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Beginning the Second Half of the Middle

7/17/2024

I am now beginning to stitch the second half of the center of the Mariko rug. The first half was fun to stitch and I am looking forward to the second half.
I am so glad that I have been filling in the background while completing the motifs because, when I get to the end, I won't have to go back and stitch background only.
As usually happens with me, I am looking forward to the next project I am going to stitch. It doesn't usually happen this early in a project though. I may take some time and do some test stitching for some rugs that I have designed, but haven't tested yet. Generally, when I design a pattern, I do a test stitch square in which I test all of the colors and some of the elements to make sure they work before I offer

the pattern for sale. Logistically, I don't have time to stitch the entire pattern because I have way too many patterns for that, so I make up a square that incorporates key portions of the design. Most of the time, the square I stitch is not something that I can show or offer for sale because it doesn't make sense to anyone. Sometimes, I can get a pleasant pillow/cushion design and will offer those patterns for sale. I have several patterns I have been working on over the last few months, so it is time to do some test stitching. As I get each tested, I will be offering the pattern on the website. The most recent one is my Louise Rug Pattern that uses some wonderful colors to create a square within a square.

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Moving Right Along!

7/2/2024

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I am now approximately 1/3 of the way completed the center of my Mariko rug and still enjoying seeing the pattern emerge.

As you may see, I am stitching the elements first and then the background. When stitching the background, I am not carrying the dark blue across the elements if there are more than 2 stitches in a row. I turn and go back to finish filling in beside the element, then stitch across it to get to the next area that needs to be stitched. This helps keep your project thin and more in keeping with the miniature scale I am trying to create. When you carry threads across previous stitching too often, it has the potential to make your project quite thick.

This doesn't matter when stitching a pillow because that thickness will be hidden when you stuff the pillow.

The backs of my rugs are not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like to have them as neat a I can. Most people do not like to show the backs of their work, but I will show you here. I received an email from a reader asking for advice regarding the back of a rug project and feel this is a great topic. I responded via email to the person who wrote to me, but thought it wouldn't hurt to show a picture of the back of one of my rugs here as well.

The pattern does not look exactly the same, but you can see that I have not carried threads across an element very often. Sometimes I do if it is a light color with only a few stitches that I am working with.

I am hoping to reach the halfway mark with my

stitching of the center very soon. The nice thing about this pattern is that I am not repeating the same design after I pass the halfway mark, so it should continue to be interesting until the end.

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Beginning the Second Half of the Middle

Moving Right Along!

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