My first blog post…. where to begin? What better place than where it all began for me…. my MOM!! Talk about inspiration… this woman is the epitome of creativity. For as long as I can remember, she has used her creativity gifts in all facets of her life. She sews, she constructs doll houses and miniatures, needle point, ceramics, and weaves rugs just to name a few! I am excited to highlight her passion of weaving rugs along side her dear friend, Kathy. Their business is called Little Town Weavers. They are a returning vendor to Harvest Daze in Watseka, IL this coming weekend! They have been weaving rugs (table runners and place mats too) approximately 8 years and have many loyal returning customers. I will post some photos of their rugs, but please know this is a small sample of what will be available this weekend.
Guest editor, Holly Janssen
The most common question people ask when they look at our rugs is “How long does it take to make one?” The answer is that it takes one or two hours to weave depending on the size and material. That is the fun part. The other 5 or 6 hours involved are spent preparing the weft (the material that makes the rug look like it does.) In addition to the weft, we spend about a day warping the loom (the warp is the long strings that hold the weft together) whenever we need to change warp color. Another question is about the material we use for our shaggy rugs. It is recycled upholstery salvedge which we buy by the pound all bunched up in a bag. We untangle it, roll it into balls and weave it. Our next most popular rugs are denim. We use old jeans for this and they are the most labor intensive rugs we make.
We are a returning vendor to only one craft show, Harvest Daze in Watseka, IL, the first weekend in October. Of course if someone calls us for a rug, we are happy to accommodate them and we do take orders for rugs although, since the shaggy rugs are dependent on the material available, we can’t provide a specific color.
Actually we don’t make a whole lot of money from the rugs but since we really like to weave them, we have to sell them so we can keep doing it.
This loom is called “Weaver’s Friend”. My mom purchased this at an auction in Topeka, IN.
This loom is called a Union Loom. She actually purchased this from a local auction and it turned out to be my boss’s husband’s aunts’. Small world.
My dad built this spool rack for her.
These are amazing!! All you have to do is shake them out every now and then. Love the variety of fall colors. Each rug comes with washing instructions.
These are examples of rag rugs. They use all recycled mateial. I know lots of bedspreads that have been cut up to make lots and lots of rag rugs.
This is one of my favorites! I love this color!! It happens to match my bedroom perfectly.
The ever so famous “Denim rag rug”. People give my mom their old jeans and she and my dad cut them into strips to make a rag rug.
material cut into strips and spools.
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September 28, 2015 at 10:56 pmWhat an amazing person to start off you blog! I personally have some of mama Holly’s beautiful rugs and they are wonderful and low maintenance! Looking forward to more of you awesome blogs!! 😘
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