You Gotta Have Goals

I've just returned from a great road trip to visit 2 quilt shops in the midwest. The first one was located in Fox River Grove, Illinois...a suburb of Chicago. The 2nd shop The Woolen Needle in Williamsburg, Iowa.

Both shops stimulated my imagination beyond description. I can see myself shifting from my love of creating quilts to creating with wool. My ultimate goal is to create a table rug made from wool pennies. I saw a picture in Country Living magazine and fell in love. I have had a picture on my inspiration board for quite some time and I've decided to get started. I hope I am done in 2013...you gotta have goals.

For those of you not familiar with wool pennies, they are cute little triple stacks of wool circles sewn together with a blanket stitch. The circles are then sewn to a piece of cloth...either black felt or black felted wool. I found the most basic and easy to understand description of a penny rug on Wikipedia:

In the 1800s, starting around the time of the Civil War, thrifty homemakers would use scraps of wool or felted wool from old clothing, blankets and hats to create designs for mats or rugs. Using coins as templates, they created circles and each piece was then stitched in blanket stitch fashion. (Thus, the name "penny" rug). Sometimes, the mats or rugs were backed with old burlap bags or feed sacks. Sometimes a penny was stitched inside the mat to make it lie flat.

Penny rugs are not actual rugs for the floor, but decorative coverings for beds, tables and dressers and mantles. Sometimes they are used as wall hangings or pillows. Most designs include circles and some include images from everyday life such as cats, flowers, birds and shapes such as stars and hearts.

Penny rugs are made by selecting good quality 100% wool. It must not be too thick. It may be hand-dyed or overdyed to give the piece dimension. Circles are cut from the wool in varying sizes and then stitched together concentrically using complementary colors. The circles are stitched to a wool backing in a pleasing design. When finished the entire piece should have a backing to cover the stitches and to protect it. The backing may be wool, linen or burlap.

I don't have any pictures to post of my own "pennies" as I haven't started yet. If you Google wool pennies or penny rugs, then click 'images', you will find hundreds of pictures.

This art is not for someone who hates hand work because it is almost entirely handwork. However, if you enjoy sitting in a comfy chair with a nice cup of hot tea and relaxing beyond description, you will love making wool pennies!