Davida has sent in a photo of the great rug that she has finished.  I always get so excited seeing a finished product.  Well done Davida and thank you for sending in a phot.

Laurel has sent me a photo of her finished rug.  Doesn't it look great! I love the colour scheme and the touches of the black and white variegated fabric scattered throughout. Laurel said that the finished size turned out to be 94 x 77cm. Well done, Laurel and thanks for sending in a photo.

On the afternoon of Saturday 9 February we had our second rag rug workshop.  Eight ladies attended the workshop.  Once again I was so excited to see the ladies get started on their rugs and to see how different all the rugs were just by using a variety of colours and fabrics.

Helen, one of my graduates from our first class, lent me her rug to show this group another finished product.  Her daughter, Olivia, also lent me her rug which is still a work in progress.  Helen gave me a little note which explained a little bit about her rug which she has kindly allowed me to share with you.

TA DA!! I've used small pieces found when sorting thrugh my sewing boxes - too small to make anything out of and cut on all angles.  Maybe that is why there's more loose threads.  Some peices are leftovers with nice memories - the girls dresses, my maternity dresses Bill's shirts and shorts, the kids library bags, curtains etc. (must have sewed a lot when the children were young!)  The thicker tartan was a bit trickier to pull through and some with the print on one side didn't always show up - adds to the texture I think.  It probably took me around 10-12 hours - hard to tell as you can stop and pick it up at any stage unlike other projects.  Olivia and I used a large container lid to keep it flat - as we would sit at different places.  I also discovered (when standing at the checkout) black shorts attract threads from rag rugs!  It won't stop me from another attempt though.  So with this rug the only cost to start was the needle and as Olivia and I shared the pack the cost was about $1.80 and I cleaned out my cupboard.  I'm really pleased to have learnt this.

Thank you so much Helen for allowing me to share this with everyone.  It really gives a lovely insight into making a rug. 

We had another very successful morning tea last weekend. It was great to see some new people come along.  We even had David Illife from ABC radio come along to do some interviews.  Hopefully they will be going on air this week.  To begin the morning we had a mango ice-cream demonstration.  James, David's son, helped me to make the ice-cream using an ice-cream maker.  The ice-cream was delicious. My friend, Rhonda, gave me the recipe which you can find here.

It is always fascinating to see what people bring along for the swap.  This time we had sauerkraut, laundry liquid, christmas cards, lemon grass, silverbeet, tomato plants and eggs just to name a few.  We will now be having a break over Christmas and January, so our next morning tea will be the second Saturday in February.

Michelle brought along some tumeric.  If anybody knows how to use fresh tumeric please let us know.  Quite a few of us are going to plant it so it would be great to know what to do with it.

Kay brought along her finished rag rug.  Doesn't it look fantastic!  I love how she has used some strips of fabric around the edges to make a frill.  Well done, Kay!