I am happy to announce that after five years into a quilting journey that started because I wanted to make a little rug for my kitchen, I HAVE FINALLY MADE THE RUG! For the background that goes with this post, please check out my story here if you don’t already know how I went from searching for an idea to finding an unexpected passion.
Last fall I had a period of time where I was really thinking about projects that had been on my mind and one of them was this rug. Well, not specifically THIS rug. I didn’t know for sure exactly what style or color of rug I wanted, I just wanted to finally make one, to bring everything full circle, so to speak.
While standing in a fabric store I visited to pick up a couple of things, I noticed the mat in front of their checkout counter. I was nearly out the door with my intended purchase when I looked back and saw it and the whole idea of making a rug once again came to the front of my mind. I liked the size and the color and they had made it a bit differently than the now infamous Jelly Roll Rug, so it wasn’t as thick and that worked well for me with my kitchen cupboard setup.
In keeping with the set goals and knock them off process I had been working on to get ideas out of my head and into reality, I chose to be proactive, walk back to the counter, buy the jelly roll pack and head home to make my rug. I didn’t linger over the various color options; I asked for the one closest to what their rug was made with and bought it.
In trying to adapt the technique to suit my own needs, I messed up my math and instead of getting a longer narrow rug, I ended up with a regular sized mat (and a table pad from the extras that weren’t meant to be extras!) but it’s cute, it works, it washes well, and it makes me happy.
And the process was so much fun that I am preparing to make another one!
Five years and over 200 quilts later, I have actually made my kitchen rug. And seeing it regularly reminds me that you can start out looking for one thing and find something totally unexpected. You can open a door and end up on a journey you never imagined. Life is amazing!
Ann Walsh Quilting 