Although I had to undo the blue part twice, it was such a fulfilling project that I ordered more batting from Temu to stitch another one. The undo part was rough will millions of little pieces of thread to remove, but the stitching itself is utterly relaxing, just you, your thoughts and your machine chucking away. And the best part, it is finished when the rope ends! No quilting, nothing. It is done.
So, using the nifty Clover Tube Maker, the strips with batting are turned into a long tube 4 layers thick
and rolled into a ball by starting with the colors you want on the outside of the rug on the inside of the ball.
There are a few ways of starting out in the center for an oval mat and I chose the more traditional way which use this template. To calculate the beginning of the start strip, just deduct the width from the length of the rug. I think I started with about a 12" strip and ended up with a rug of 34 x 44".
I did not experience any trouble with the inside bends, just keep scrunching around the bends, keeping the outside of the tubing flat and iron regularly.
With the blue parts though, I somehow didn't feel the need to keep on feeding extra fabric around the bends, big mistake. But, after fixing it, it came out great. The photo was taken just before the final press. so I can guarantee you it lays flat.
At end of the rug, I just added a handmade label to both sides and added the quilt's label to the back and off to Bloemshow it went.
Three of the Rotary Cutter members finished their items as well.
Rika stitched a beautiful turquoise rug,
Marietjie did a rug in shades of blue
and Hesmari made a gorgeous beach bag.
This group offers so much help. Do join them and just follow the posts for a few weeks before starting your own.
Uniquely Mateo is another goldmine of information. Another big help is
this Jelly Roll Calculator which tells you how many strips you need for a specific size. So, what are you waiting for? Take the plunge and enjoy!