Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Big Coast to Coast Canadian Rug!

I belong to a street team on Etsy called the Trans Canada Etsy Team. A couple of months ago at a virtual meeting, we were talking about Canada Day and what we could do as a team to celebrate it. I am very quiet at meetings, large groups scare me, even virtually. I didn't say anything.
 The next morning as I was lazing in a hot soaky bath, I wondered what I could do for the team. There was talk about offering a discount shops wide, I will admit now, I have a problem with discounting my work. It feels to me to cheapen it, my rugs are works of art. I had an idea, what if every member participating sent me a cut up t-shirt. I posted it on our forum thread and the idea flew, right across the country. How exciting for me to weave a rug that everyone had their hand in. Also exciting that I had these ladies do the work for me, not quite as much cutting for me! It was so exciting checking the mail everyday and getting packets from across the country. I loved watching the colours coming in, at first the were all similar and then they weren't. Once all the tees were here, I used t-shirts from my stash and blended colour to make the rug work. Here is the rug, which is part of the Canada Day Road Trip and Giveaway  .                                                           
Trans Canada Road Trip Giveaway rug!

the cut up t-shirts

the loom is warped, ready to go

me & my loom

weaving has begun
I actually unwove the rug when it was almost finished, and then wove it again, so this pattern is not in the finished rug

finished rug, still on the loom 

finished rug! yay, it's a beauty!

Follow the Canada Day Road Trip link above and check out the participating shops so you can have a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes!

7 comments:

MountainManCreations said...

cool rug peg

Uli said...

I love how that rug turned out and how you documented the process.

adornyourself said...

What a wonderful post documenting the process, and the gorgeous outcome!

the rikrak studio said...

oh fantastic, five! you're sooooo amazing! and i love this little behind the scenes roadtrip thru the making of the glorious rug!
you're so great!

Darlene Martin said...

Congratulations Peggy, that rug is gorgeous AND symbolic! Bravo!

mchen said...

An absolute BEAUT! And I absolutely love the idea behind this — what a terrific group effort. WOOHOO! Absolutely priceless..

PrairiePeasant said...

Wow. Thanks Pegg for sharing the process and the great pictures! There will be one lucky winner for this gorgeous rug!