This is the thread that won't die. Such a good topic. I didn't see much that interested me at craft fairs still. Except someone was making fairy wings for dolls, I thought they were awful cute, but didn't buy. Then I wished I had for the little girls down the street for Christmas. Well I didn't do too well last year. So I kind of stopped making to sell and managed to put all my plate flowers in my own garden, almost. Then people started asking me for things, and I sold some on word of mouth, so maybe I'll start up again. Last fall may have just been slow. A friend of a friend asked to buy a couple of my coffee bag wallets so I sold them to her. She just emailed me to say that the local coop may be interested in carrying them. Woudn't that be fun. I've been concentrating on my house this spring/summer (repainting, overhauling garden, refurbishing porch furniture, getting ready to build new garage), but I'd like to try selling crafts again. I'm planning to start drilling glass so I can make more elaborate flowers and other things and not have to worry about them falling apart. Kathy

It is very cute, I have seen them at craft shows, quilters do something like that also and call it a rag quilt. It looks like so much work, very exact work~~~I would be all excited and start one and never finish~~~;(

One way that you can obtain "yarn" for your rugs is to buy old wool sweaters and wash them in really hot water with a good amount of detergent and strong agiatation. In other words, ruin them! This will felt the wool and it can then be cut into strips that will not unravel. The wool gets really thick when it felts. For the best felting, it should be 100% wool. The best sweaters to use for this are the finer guage ones. Avoid the ones with a lot of yarn changes, the ones that have designs embroidered into them or knit into the rows. I use these old sweaters to crochet rugs. I have one rug that is all cashmere wool! I crochet them in continuous rounds and place a stitch only through the upper yarn on the previous stitch. Usually, when you crochet, you put the hook under the two threads. I only use the top one. The result is a stitch that has the appearance of a braided stitch. I call them a "East Texas Spiral" rug because I learned to crochet rugs from my old family members. I also make them from any and all old clothes and sewing scraps. I have made a few of them from denim, but it is very heavy and is a workout to wrestle with. Cutting woven fabric stips on the bias will help them not to fray. Usually, though, I just render the old garment into strips in any direction that will yield a strip. Instead of sewing the strips together, I use a cutting method where I cut the strip just to about one inch of the end. I, then, turn the piece around and cut down the other direction for the next strip, thus, leaving a small square of fabric that holds them into one long strip. I used to sew the strips together and it took forever! The little square hinge is just incorporated into the crochet and there is no bulk of seam allowances or double thickness. The felted sweaters are cut up using the same method as the woven fabrics. I find that cutting along the directions that the rows of knitting are running is best, as opposed to cutting across the rows of knitting. But, really, once it is felted, it is pretty sturdy. You can also use wool worsted woven to make rugs. Wool is really durable! I have several made from cut up wool pants and discared wool garments. The only thing is that sometimes the felted wool is so pretty that it is a shame to cut it up! When I cut up the old felted sweaters, I save the seam allowances that I cut off. They look a little like noodles. It takes a lot of cutting up old sweaters to get a basketfull of them, but they are just too good to throw away! They are all wool! The rugs made by RAdd would be a good use for these "noodles". I have a basket of wool noodles by now. Maybe I will try Radd's method of rugmaking with the noodles.

pipsmom, you might enjoy some of the cross stitching groups on Facebook. There are a number of cross stitching artists that have wonderful designs - Mirabelia, Nora Corbett, Joan Elliot, HAED, Silver Lining to name a few. There are general cross stitch groups too, like Cross Stitch and Discuss, or Cross-Stitching It's My Thing. And groups for specific topics like Christmas and Halloween. I've learned about hand dyed fabric, railroading stitches, various lap and floor stands, loop method of starting a thread, using a tablet to search and highlight symbols on a pdf chart (especially good for confetti stitches), copyright infringement and just a lot of good discussion with needleworkers from all over the world. If you are on Facebook you might want to take a look-see. This is the piece I'm starting on: Witching Hour. Artist is Lisa Parker. 229,600 stitches, full coverage, no backstitch, no fractionals. Um, make that 2 years! One stitch at a time... The Witching Hour - artist is Lisa Parker