Rag wreath gets finished (and cake memories)

By the end of the lovely day in The Studio is Skipton with Rachel Terry making our spring rag wreaths, none of us had finished, far from it. But we had all got just a little bit addicted to making things from rags. No more parting with clothes that are a bit worn or that don’t fit, or that you’ve partially ruined in the wash. No more guilt about any of that because they can all be reborn as rag rugs or more wreaths, or pictures. The possibilities are endless.

The main starter picture in this blog is of the lovely cakes that Coopers Cafe brought to us with steaming hot cups of tea or coffee in the last hour of our workshop. The lunch had been fab, freshly made bread with a choice of three fillings. I had grape, brie and fruity chutney.

But the mini cakes really were the icing on the top. The best rocky road I have had for some time, with loads of mini marshmallows, fruity flap jacks, almond croissant and lovely chocolate nutty pastries. And so many of them. I managed to get my pic in before all the hands, suddenly idle from rag rugging, descended.

More rag rugging at home

Later that evening I was able to get a few more hours to continue working on the wreath…

It was a strange mixture of therapeutic relaxing activity and excitement. Only a crafter would understand why. I filled in the shorter spaces between the orange flowers and then was left with quite a lot of space at the top – not quite half of the wreath but over one third.

I decided to use up some strips of fabric that Rachel had provided that she had hand-dyed, the deep blue that makes up a fourth flower at the top of the wreath.

By the end of Saturday

I used other shades of blue, turquoise and some ribbon and net but needed something to fill the two gaps left. I found some fabric that I had in my craft stash, a very pale cream textured fabric that was still quite fine. But by then it was nearly midnight, so I had to leave the wreath for another day.

Sunday progress

On Sunday morning I couldn’t wait to get out of bed to re-start the wreath. Cats were fed and I made a big mug of tea but my son was still sleeping after his late shift so I had a lazy Sunday morning doing my wreath in my pyjamas and dressing gown. Another couple of hours and the ragging part of the wreath was complete.

A few days pause

After the ragging was finished I couldn’t go any further because I had no copydex glue. So, ordered that to come later in the week and made a small felt heart to go in the centre of the wreath one evening and then, on Friday, I finished the final steps.

The glue was nasty stuff, the sort of glue that forms a second skin on your fingers and peels off. Yuk. It also was slow to dry so I had to wait until Sunday afternoon for the final bits of assembly, putting the ribbon on the heart, adding buttons and adding more ribbon to hang the wreath up. But there it was. A week after it was started in The Studio in Skipton, it hung on my wall and I was mightily pleased with myself.