craftgrrl | Crocheted "Rag" Rug (Fabric)

I posted here a few months back that I was starting a crocheted rag rug. My mother sent me some extra fabric to strip (make into strips that is) and crochet into a rag rug. (It helps to have a quilter for a mother - lots of extra fabric). I bought a little bit more fabric to flush it out, it's about 80% legitimate scrap, and 20% purchased. I didn't use a pattern, just did it by feel. I sewed the fabric together so let it change color when it will rather than by plan. Much more "rag rug" feel that way.

I was reading online about people who make these rugs (including a couple of entries in this community) and a lot of people just overlap the strips as they go along. That's a good method, and it would drive you nuts to sew each strip individually. I took a piece of fabric, folded (the way it comes off the bolt) and cut it into strips (1 inch wide) up to about two to three inches from the top/bottom. Then you take the fabric and line up the (not cut apart) top and bottom so they overlap by about an inch or half an inch and then move them one strip down. So you should have one strip on the bottom that is not overlapping on the left side and one strip on the right that is not overlapping. Then you sew it together. You're basically making a spiral. So when clip the remaining couple of inches of the fabric apart, it becomes one long piece, one long strip, as it unwinds from the spiral. I didn't take a picture of this process, so I am hoping this make sense. If you have questions, please ask. I'll try to explain better or get a picture of how it works.

I was piling the fabric strips beside my sewing chair as I worked and my cat loved them. It made the best fabric nest. So of course I did take a photo of that.

I define that expression as this is my fabric nest and I dare you to take it away.

There is my fabric ball, wound up fabric strips. It was so pretty by itself.

And lastly there is my cat sitting on the new rug which I do not think she likes as well as her fabric nest. Oh well.

And that is my rag rug, just like my mother and grandmother and great-grandmother have made, and probably women before that. I like new crafts, but I also like to do things that connect me with the past, my heritage.