If I weren't so tired, I would be doing a major Happy Dance!

HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY!

The rug is finished!

Yes, much to the surprise of a certain individual who thought it would never happen, the rug is finally finished!

I put a major push on this, worked all weekend, and finally finished it up.

Here is row 57, the final row:

Next, the braid was cut off. (This part is very scary)!

Then, about 8 inches was un-braided. The braids were tapered, and re-braided as far as they could be. When you can't go any further, they have to be sewn to the rug. This was the part I am not too sure of. It doesn't seem strong enough. I just hope it doesn't come undone!

Here is the 'rattail' finished.

Then came the really hard work. The rug was very large, so all the furniture had to be moved!

I bought an organic rug pad to go under the rug. Not so sure this was necessary, or a good idea now. It was very hard to maneuver it into place, position the rug over it, and then cut around it. Of course it wound up a bit skewed under the rug.

Unfortunately the rug did not lie totally flat! Really an OMG moment - My worst fears!

Thank God for my steamer! It really worked wonders!

The rug lies mostly flat now, and hopefully over time one of the other ripples will work its way out. If not, I can live with it the way it is!

The final measurements wound up 95-1/2 inches (8 ft) wide by 11 ft-6 inches long. A good bit of it wound up under the couch but due to the long thin shape of the room, there was no avoiding that.

It was very hard to get pictures of this, but I tried to get some before the furniture was moved back. You can click to enlarge the pictures to get a better look at the colors (and the bumps before they were steamed away)

Gracie had to position herself right in the center to inspect it. This was before the rug pad was cut around it.


The problem with it was the weight of the rug. It is extremely heavy and maneuvering it, especially on top of the rug pad, is a really tough job.

Oh my aching back! Literally! I pulled some muscles moving the furniture that put me out of commission yesterday, but today I am a little less sore, and yes, I am very, very happy that it is finished! I will make another one for the dining room (much smaller), and I will make some small rugs for the traffic areas on this rug, but I will be taking a break for a while.

Keith helped with all the furniture moving. He thinks the rug is ok, just ok, not sure it was worth all the work.

What can I say?!?