High Atlas Rug – Progress 3

This rug is definitely progressing slower than my other rugs. Lots of details and separate sections. I finished the band with the large X boxes and decided to work on the first of the six inserts next. These inserts are each four and a half inches wide and four inches tall. As shown in the original section below, there is a band of plain yellow at the top and bottom of the insert. Within the black band is a design motif.

I used one strand of 2 ply for the yellow section. Nothing hard, but does take time to complete. Then I worked on the motif next. It’s partly done in the photo below. I think I’ll take out the off-white stitches until all the black has been stitched around the motif and then put the off-white stitches back in.

I used 4 ply of the black for the first pass on the right. This makes it very thick and doesn’t let the canvas show through when I’m doing stitches across 1 thread to set up the brick pattern. Then I switched to 3 ply for the rest of the background and it’s covering well. I’ll try to finish that part up today and work on the yellow band across the top of this insert. After this insert is done, I’ll start working on the motifs in the bands to the left and the right of this insert. We’ll see how far I can get by Monday, when I’ll post again.

This is how the rug looks this morning, after a week of stitching. The insert I am working on will be repeated at the bottom of the rug on the opposite side. I’ll change the colors too, so it won’t look exactly the same.