Rug making at The Devil's Porridge Museum

Last week I was invited to The Devil's Porridge Museum to do a demo on Rag Rug Making. 

This was part of the "Pack Up Your Troubles" event to celebrate the 100 year birthday of the townships of Eastriggs and Gretna.

My brief was a tradtional style rag rug which might have adorned the floors of houses in years gone by.

I hemmed some hessian and got to work on a traditional(ish) design.

I was situated in the 1940's "house", a little section of the museum made up to look like those days of old.  I remember loads from this little corner, from my Grandparent's house.  The old Singer sewing machine, the carpet sweeper, the vintage typewriter... and much more.

Now, the donated fabrics that I had to work with were obviously modern and not like the traditional wool coats and bits that they used to use to make the rugs, so there was a mixture of modern materials with a traditional element, which I think works very well.

People got stuck in and had a go, the rug is large and will need to be a big community effort to get it all finished.

Although those fabrics were bright and colourful, at the end of the session I could see that they were really going to work well.

I just hope someone remembers to send me a photo when it is finally done, as I would love to see it completed.

If you have never been to the museum, do go. It's only a few miles from J44 of the M6 and a very interesting little place.

You can find out more about it here...

http://www.devilsporridge.org.uk/about/