Beginning a new rug...

After completing the Isobel Rose rug, I decided that I simply had to start on the Amanda rug.  This rug had been calling to me ever since I designed it and I was so excited to finally be starting it!

You will notice that there is a grid on the fabric I am using.  The fabric did not come with a grid on it and I felt that it would help me to know immediately if I went wrong when stitching my rug.  Many times in the past, I have been happily stitching along, only to find I had made a mistake quite a ways back and had to unpick so much!  Not a fun feeling but necessary if you want your project to look right.  I added the grid myself using a quilter's pencil (one that says it washes out) and a ruler.  I put a line every 10 rows both vertically and horizontally.

I like to start stitching in the bottom corner of the rug instead of the center and the grid also helps me to find my starting point.  Here is the start of the rug.  I learned not to stitch around the entire border after stitching my Butterfly rug because it is very hard to count that many stitches correctly and if you are off even one stitch, your border doesn't line up.  When stitching the Colorful Amalgam rug, we didn't get enough of the pattern to stitch the whole border at once and I found this was a much easier way to stitch it.  Therefore, I now work from corner to corner across the bottom then work my way up.