And I don’t want this penny rug to become one of those UFO’s. For one thing, I really do need a table covering. For another, I am really starting to enjoy the whole idea of this penny rug. (I have come to appreciate this particular art form even with all of the time consuming steps.)

So, in an attempt to keep this project out of the UFO bin until I can get some more wool fabric, I thought that I would experiment a little with the blanket stitch surround for the penny motif. Would I like it better if the stitches were closer together? Farther apart? Would it really matter?

It didn’t take me long to realize that a little experimenting with this project is good; a lot is just plain time wasting.

I like the wider stitches. Mystery solved. Now I just have to get some more wool before this project ends before it begins…

Really.

I wondered why it wasn’t felting the way I am used to 100% wool felting (hasn’t everyone ‘accidentally’ put a piece of wool clothing in the washer and dryer?), but I didn’t give it a second thought. After all, wool is wool.

So, naively, I carried on with my project and once I had all 298 circles (yup – all 298 of the them) cut out, I started working on the stitching. And I must say here, that blanket stitching circles together is a lot more relaxing and therapeutic than I thought it would be.  (I thought that it would be just plain boring. ) That is, of course, until I realized that my wool fabric wasn’t felted like I had assumed it was. And every stitch brought me closer to tears than to relaxation.

How could 100% wool that was carelessly washed and dried in a home washing machine, (aka felted on purpose), still fray.

IT FRAYED.

It started out as a little fray, and I thought, in my naive optimism, that this wasn’t so bad, and I could fix any little areas that needed a little help.

Ha.

It just got worse. The fraying, I mean. The stitching and the circles look awesome (I say this because I used my worst-cut circles for a practice piece, and the motif still looks fairly good). And I am going to love this penny rug project by the time it is done.

But it is going to take me longer to get it done… arghhh… I have to go back to the drawing board and find more felt. And cut more circles.

This is where I remind myself that nothing in life comes easy, and that I will love it all the better for the challenges, right? Who knew that 100% wool could be so fickle?

The good news is that cutting circles is only a part of this particular project, and I am convinced that this little table penny rug of mine is going to look fabulous.

And yes, I decided to go with the green.

After much playing around with, and rearranging of, circles, I think that I have come up with a design that I am going to love. It isn’t entirely penny motifs like the more traditional penny rugs, and it doesn’t have a whole lot of green on it… and I suppose you could say that since I have used single and double circles (as opposed to sticking with the 3-circle motif) that I have departed from an original penny rug. And maybe I have. But I think that it is going to look great!

All that is left is to decide on the colour of string I will sew this little masterpiece together with. And then…. the sewing. Lots and lots of sewing. But I must admit that now that I see the project on my table, I can see the value in all the work there is to complete this penny rug.

This may not be a quick project, but I have a feeling that I will enjoy my penny rug for a long time to come (even if I grow tired of the green).

And this one is no exception.

I started out this penny rug/table linen project having picked three colours that I was really happy with. After my struggle with not having enough fabric, and then my misguided attempts at counting the exact number of ‘penny’ circles I was going to have to cut, I got down to work cutting out my circles. And then I realized that maybe I didn’t like those three colours after all.

And the longer it took to cut out my circles, the longer I had to reconsider my colour choices. After all, I had intended to use a fairly strong apple-y green colour… could it be too much for my humble kitchen? What if it was? Should I spend all this extra time cutting out the green felt only to find out that I wasted all that time and money on something that is, well, … green? Here is what  I mean…

Green. Very, very, very green. Oh – but don’t get me wrong, I LOVE this colour of green and have used it for a lot of the accent pillows and colours in my home. I am just having second thoughts about using something THIS green in a project that will -hopefully- become an heirloom. (Especially after I spend FOREVER cutting out hundreds of little circles.)

Originally, I really felt that this particular colour of green would work well. Remember my planning notes? They looked something like this:

But then, as I got some circles cut, and once again put all the colours side, by side, by side, I realized that I might have just been wrong.

The real question now is, do I follow my first instinct and go with the colours I had chosen right from the very start (you know what they say about first instincts), or do I listen to my inner voice as this project takes shape and pull the green ‘off the table’ (so to speak)?

All I can say is everytime I work on a project that takes a whole lot of prep time, I have the same sort of dilemma. You’d think I would be used to this by now…

I will need 480 circles.

Yup… one hundred more circles than I originally thought. Maybe my miscalculation was more hopeful thinking than it was reality, but since I will need 160 circles time three, I will definitely need to cut out 480 circles if (and this is a big if) I decide to cover the entire penny rug in motifs.

In either case, I am off to cut some circles.

But I can tell you that if I were to cover the whole space in penny rug circular motifs, I would need 380 circles.

Yup.

380 circles.

That is 160 big circles, 160 smaller circles, and 160 smallest circles. 380 circles.

Guess we know what I will be doing for the next few days…

Until now.

You see, not only had I been struggling with the layout for my penny rug  (because I didn’t like the geometricality of the traditional designs) but, if the truth were told, my real problem is that I just didn’t have enough wool felt. (Because a penny rug must be made from 100% wool.)

Not nearly enough.

And while I wanted to work on this project, I wasn’t sure I wanted to work on this project enough to buy another piece of wool or wool felt. So, I was very grateful when I realized that I had a piece already in my stash – just waiting to be used.

And it was exactly the right size for the base of my table runner/cloth thing, penny rug,  (or whatever we are calling this little project now).

And then, just when I was thinking that I might run out of fabric again (as it turns out, a penny rug can eat through A LOT of wool fabric), my dear husband came into the room with an old pair of 100% wool dress pants that had seen better days.

Now I have enough wool to complete the project. (I think.)

All I can say is – Thank Goodness for the Stash!!!! (And now I know why it is that I keep a stash of fabric around in the first place.) Now that I have my fabric, it is time to get to work

It turns out that I am going to make a Penny Rug! (Well – not a rug for the floor, but a tablecloth is a kind of rug, isn’t it?)

And I am so glad that the mystery is solved. But just what is a Penny Rug?

Thank you to Australian Country Threads Magazine, and Jamie-Lee Hogan for describing a Penny Rug so well:  “Traditionally, penny rugs were made mainly out of wool felt, as well as scraps from clothes and blankets. Concentric circles of cloth pieces referred to as ‘pennies’ were blanket-stitched to a felt background in layers, along with other shapes such as animals, fruits and flowers.”

And now that I know what the name of the technique is, looking for inspiration has become ever so much easier! In one very quick little internet jaunt I found a very talented penny rug artisan from Nova Scotia. Not only is this work fantastic, but I think that the whole “make do and using up” philosophy that describes the penny rugs makes me even more excited about using this technique for my tablecloth/placemat thing. Check out the Early Style Penny Rug site here for some great artwork!!!

And then, even more important to me at this moment, is the eHow site on how to make a penny rug. I already thought that I knew what my approach was going to be, but it is ever so much nicer once you know how a project ought to be done! Check it out for yourself here (and maybe you can join me in making your own penny rug!).

Sometimes it strikes, and sometimes it misses.

And then there are the times when inspiration does a near drive by – close enough to see the plates, but not near enough to jump in the car.

I know what I want to do (the table covering in felt with the mystery technique that I can’t seem to find anywhere even though I have looked seemingly everywhere). I know what supplies I have to do the project with. But that is where I am stalled. I can’t seem to ‘picture’ the finished project in my mind. Not at all.

And I am not happy with this little burst of stalled inspiration, so… I took to my pile of old needlework and workbasket magazines… and although I didn’t find the name (or any projects using) the mystery technique I really want to use for this project, I did find some fairly close projects and techniques that might just serve for a little ‘kick’ to my otherwise stalled inspiration:

McCall's Needleworks & Crafts Spring-Summer 1970, pg.107

McCall's Needlework & Crafts Spring-Summer 1972, pg.171

Neither of these examples is really want I wanted, but it did strike me that I really do not like the really geometric pattern of the second picture. And that reminded me of the magnetic board project I did a very long time ago when this blog was very new: I didn’t like the ‘geometricality’ of that project either… until I went with circles instead.

Circles.

Why am I thinking squares  and rectangles for the background space (just because the table is rectangular maybe?) when circles just may be the ticket (after all, the technique is all about circles)…

Maybe inspiration has just found me after all

I still don’t know what it is called… but I started planning it already anyway. I gotta start somewhere, right? Who knows, I might even get through the whole project before I figure out what it is called!

For now, I will affectionately call this funky felt needlework table-mat project my mystery felt project. And not only is the name a mystery, but so is my planning on this one. I have a vague idea of what I want, but I seriously cannot decide how the materials I have are going to turn into a functional, yet gorgeous table mat.

I have decided that I want the table mat to be approximately 32″ x 48″ inches – just big enough to cover the table without hanging down, and leaving a fairly healthy 2-3″ border of table.

I have 15 – 8 x 12″ squares of white felt, 5 – 8 x 12″ squares of brown felt and 10 – 8 x 12″ squares of green felt (but it is a really really really really bright green).

I need 16 squares in total to cover the area of the table mat I am looking to make.

The base of the table mat won’t be a solid colour like I had hoped unless I go to the store for another piece of felt. And I am having a hard time envisioning this particular table mat having a square (geometric) base with the round motifs that I fell in love with at that store in Bayfield (remember? I posted a sketch of the motif here)… especially since the geometric base will be so much more noticeable with more than one colour…

Needless to say, that I might just have to jump in and start the project before I really have a defined plan here (… sorta like I jumped into planning before I really know what I should be calling this project). I wish I had more to say here, but I will keep you posted…