French Empire Miniature Carpet

French Empire dollhouse miniature carpet in 1/12th scale is not nearly close to be finished. I flipped the rug over to continue stitching it from the center down to the bottom. I am working on the rows of solid colors that I call dividers or connectors. I like to use the word “connectors” more than “dividers”, because these lines do connect the borders of the carpet. You probably can’t see, but there are 25 total of rows on each side of the carpet between the borders, and they take a long time to finish.

Let’s do some Math. The pattern of French Empire miniature rug has 541 x 661 stitches. It means there are 1,082 stitches of 25 lines (top and bottom) and 1,322 stitches of 25 lines (left and right sides), making total of 27,050 stitches (1,082 x 25) top and bottom, and 33,050 stitches (1,322 x 25) both sides.

25 rows on each side of the carpet make total of 60,100 stitches. It takes me 444 stitches of these rows of solid colors to complete in 1 hour, or it will take me 135 hours to complete all 25 rows of solid colors between the borders. Obviously, I finished a little bit more than have of them, but still a lot to go.

If you look at the top of the carpet that is stitched, you probably won’t even notice these 25 rows of solid colors between the rows. A little reminder, I am stitching on 60 count silk gauze.

You might want to ask WHY? WHY is all that madness?

The customer who commissioned this rug requested the size of the carpet to be 11″ x 9″. When I worked on the design I needed to balance the elements of the carpet. To achieve a harmonical balance and stay within the requested size I had to add these rows to the design. I can tell, it seems to be faster to stitch these rows of solid colors along with the pattern while working on different motifs than just devote time to finish them separately.

What are you working on today?

Much Love!
Natalia Frank