Well one last hobby to give a whirl in addition to the quilting, just to ensure I really don't get bored with simply sewing. I'm going to try my hand at making my own area rug doing gobelin embroidery on netting. No worries if you haven't a clue as to what that is... I only discovered it tonight looking at antique patterns . I'm obsessed with the antiquepatternlibrary.org next to the Gutenberg project, it is my favorite sight. I just love all the Victorian through 1970's crafts they offer. And it seems there's always something new to peruse.

But basically you take a large blunt needle, and some very fine to fine yarn/threads and you just do a darning stitch around latch hook canvas. And what you should end up with is a Victorian era knock off of an oriental type rug. A very dense, rug with an almost embroidered design. It's ideal to at least make an attempt on since the needle should be quite large giving me more to grip than using a tiny embroidery needle and it's going on a very open and stiff netting so there won't be any tiny holes that I'm trying to line up.

Furthermore the darning stitch is basically just filling in the blanks in a straight line. And with 3.75 canvas and baby weight yarn it should take only about 5-6 passes around to fill in my squares, and I can use any cross stitch pattern out there that will fit to the "grid" so to speak, in that if my grid size is 125 x 225 then that's the size cross-stitch, filet or embroidery pattern is that I need (give or take depending on borders going around).

So in about a week or two, hopefully I'll have enough done on it to show ya'll, I'm really looking forward to have yet another thing to keep my hands and mind busy. Plus my new toy too, so yeah, my DH might end up being upset with me when the CC bills come in . Honestly though they're inexpensive enough crafts minus the electric cutting machine and only in the cost of the machine, but for an 3'x5' area rug I'm looking at well under $50 providing the yarn doesn't go on sale at Joann's or Michaels'. If I can get a good deal on the yarn I might even be sitting pretty at less than $30 for what I'm hoping will be a pretty sweet looking area rug for my living room.