RAG 'RUGS' OFF THE FLOOR

I recently purchased at an auction a rather lovely brass (admittedly quite tarnished) floor lamp. It already had an 'in good condition' somewhat attractive lampshade when a thought occurred to me that if I were to use it in my 'new' not-quite-completed basement, it would be nice to hand make a shade. Then my rapidly diminishing rag ball collection jumped out at me.

...and I thought, perhaps weaving a 'rag lamp' might prove interesting.

I also have a rapidly diminishing collection of old lamp shades that I have removed or will remove the 'shade' from, and selected the largest so that I could use it on this floor lamp...

...and the weaving began. I liked what was happening and once again was deeply struck by the work some grandmother, mother, aunt, sister had done when cutting, sewing and rolling these rag balls. Some of the fabric was so beautiful, I wanted to be able to actually show it's design

and so, I used strips of my favorite around the top and the bottom, and down the 'ribs'. It is an interesting shade, and although it does not seem to emit enough light to read by, it is plenty for accent, plus.

It has a celebratory feeling to it, somewhat like Christmas.
Excited about this project, I started another. This time I wanted to highlight the fabrics even more, and at the same time, emit more light. So on this shade, I left spaces.

Again, this was so nostalgic in that I thought I even recognized some of the fabric from my youth, which of course was far-fetched.

The completed shade...

...and lit.

This project was fueling me and I seemed to be running on high...so immediately I went on to the next lampshade. This time a much smaller one (at this point I am down to one shade frame).

I had a ball of white chenille that I thought might make a nice lampshade, so I started with that as my warp. I wanted, on this shade, to use only a couple of colors so I searched my dwindling stash and found a solid lavender and a printed lavender.

This is the completed shade.

I think this will make a sweet lampshade for a girl's bedroom. Iris and Jonel concurred, and it got promised to Iris who thought she could surely find a place for it.


I am still so taken with and stunned by the work these women have done in making these rag balls. Some of the 'strips' were quite long, but some of them were a mere 4-5 inches. These rag balls represent so much time and work, and I can imagine these women sitting around the old wood stove in a dimly lit kitchen/living room chatting and cutting and sewing. I sometimes feel their presence and thank them profusely. I wonder where I am going to get more of these rag balls? Do I have the inclination, patience and time to make them myself???????