Rug Started

The following picture shows the stitches for the first motif and several borders. They are in color so you can see approximately how it will look when it is stitched. I’m now working on the canvas now and doing this much of the design. I may have to make changes, so I’m doing it a little at a time.

Design Plan for Rug

I still have one or two borders and motifs to translate into stitches, but I’ve drawn a “map” of the order I’m going to use for the rug.In the next post I’ll show you the stitch guide for the first part of the rug.

Materials for Sample Rug

I’ve started the design for the rug and wanted to list the materials I will be using before I get into the design. I’m using Congress cloth and threads that are silk/wool combinations. Since the Moroccan rugs are done in wool, I wanted to stay close to the traditional materials. I’ve selected Impressions in a dark red, black, yellow and off-white (true white is rare in the rugs I saw overseas and in the pictures I’ve found on the web). The brown is Sheep’s Silk. Though there is a little green in the pillow my neighbor made for me, green is rarely used in the homes in Morocco. In Islam, green in the color of paradise (heaven).

More Motifs and Borders

After a day of computer problems, I can finally get back to work.

This is Border #10. The stitch I used looks similar to the one in the rug, but I think I need to invent something better. You’ll see that the rug stitch has three colors, so I will need to analyze it again before I can use it in a design.

This second picture is Motif # 11. Again, it looks similar to the one in the rug and I think I’ll try it in a sample rug to see if it will work out. I think the main part of the design will work but the border at the right needs to be redone. I will try it in the sample rug I’m working on.

Next time I’ll be showing my plan for the sample rug I’m working on to see if my motif and border designs will work in a project.

Creating Motifs and Borders

Now that I have pictures of many Moroccan rugs, I need to try to duplicate some of the motifs and borders onto canvas. I started by buying a notebook with blank pages (art pad) and making smaller clips of some of the patterns from the rugs.  Then I played with 18 ct canvas and #5 perle cotton. These rugs and pillows are flat weaves that are created on a loom. Translating them to needlepoint takes some trial and error. The pictures that follow have notes written on the page, showing that I need to adjust some stitches to make a better match.

 

 

   This is Motif 3 and it’s 35 stitches wide. I did a pencil drawing of what I was going to do. When I did the sample stitching I made the design smaller. The pencil drawing has 7 stitches and the stitched sample is 5 stitches. The width of the pattern will change as well.

 

 

Below is Border 3 – which worked out well the first time.

I’ll put up several more next time. Then get  on to the design itself, which is about half done.

Starting a New Design

I started out as a elementary school teacher and my first job was at the Rabat American School in Rabat, Morocco. I was there for three years and have many wonderful memories of my time there.  For two years I had a neighbor, who combed and carded her own wool and spun her own yarn. She did not do the dyeing herself. I watched her create beautiful rugs and carpets on the loom in her kitchen. She wanted me to always remember her and her family, so she made a pillow for me, shown below.

I want to recreate some of these motifs in needlepoint. I started by looking for other examples of Moroccan rugs so I would have lots of ideas for the various motifs and borders that are used traditionally. Here is another example.

 

In my next post I will show how I’ve started to work on a new design based on these rugs.

 

Choosing Colors

I’m in love with overdyed threads. When I begin a new design, I choose an overdye first. To make it easier to match other colors to this overdye, I take one end of the overdye and tie it to the tag so I don’t lose it. Then I wrap the thread around the tag until it is completely covered.Using this wrapped tag, I can now go through my stash and find just the colors and types of thread that will match. The project for this particular thread, Rainforest Watercolors by Caron, was French Perfume by Jean Hilton. I didn’t want to use any of the blue, but wanted lots of olive green and rust. There are many shades of olive and rust, and using this method I could find the right ones to use. Below is the middle section of the design. My husband proudly displays it right above his computer in our home.