Saving pieces of the past...

By Guest Blogger Charlene Scott

Here is what is left of an old, badly damaged rug.  The interesting part is that the beige section is burlap strings hooked on burlap.  Someone gave me the rug and asked if it was repairable.  It wasn't really.  However I could not bring myself to throw away all that work. The Boston sidewalk or inch mat, whatever you call it, represents many hours of work by someone from bygone days.

So I cut off one end and sewed a binding on the cut edge.  The rest was thrown away.  Most of the binding was okay and seemed fairly newish.  I have a sneaking suspicion that the rug end was already repaired as the border kind of disappears. 

I also salvaged the center medallion.  It measures about 10in x 10in.  I sewed it to a piece of burlap.  Hooked a black edge to surround it and then put glue all along the edge so the burlap would not fray.  Then I cut off the excess burlap and glued a wide piece of cut wool all along the side of the medallion.  It will make a centerpiece or a trivet or whatever you would like it for. 

So there will be some further use of this wonderful old rug.  The person who gave it to me is coming to visit soon so I will re-gift these two pieces to her to take back to her home.

Cheers
Charlene

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