The rug is finished

 Just finished the binding this afternoon. Here it is out on the deck...

I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out. I think the person who started hooking this rug--who knows when or where--would also be happy to see it now, and the thought of that makes me happy. And it looks great in it's new dining room location.

 I sewed the binding over with herringbone stitches. A wonderful, giving stitch that doesn't cause any pulling. I zipped up the 4 corners with ladder stitching to make it invisible.

Herringbone stitching

 

The corners are sewn with ladder stitches

This has been a wonderful project.

The newest unfinished rug, the one I purchased at the sheep and wool festival is not going to be worked on right away because I want to quilt this top that I made a few years ago.

I'm itching to start stitching!

But a note about the latest unfinished rug. I had developed a visceral dislike for the coloring of the largest center flower, which I believe is a rose. As seen here, it contains a lot of very, very deep red--just about brown.

Center flower creates a line with 2 end flowers.

I dislike the line it creates with the two Irises on each end, of the same color. It also, to my eyes, clashes with the rest of the pastel flowers. So even though I'm not going to work on it right away, I tore out the darkest of that flower, and in my opinion, looks much improved already. Not sure which tones of color I will re-hook it with, but it will be more in keeping with the general tone of the other flowers.

 

Dark color has been removed from center flower.

A pretty evening sky last week: