Today I learned that the Japanese tree with the fan-shaped leaves is spelled ginkgo, not ginko. Who knew?!
I cross-stitched a ginkgo rug to go in the Craftsman bungalow vignette. The rug is approximately 2 7/8″ x 3 5/8″, stitched over one on 36(?) count fabric. The question mark is because I thought that was the size, but when I do the math (81 stitches x 104 stitches) it doesn’t come out right. Anyway, it fits well in the corner of the bungalow!
I charted this design based on a real Craftsman-style rug I found online.
Want to stitch your own ginkgo rug? I’ve made the chart available for free here: Ginkgo Rug Cross Stitch Chart (for personal use only)
I liked how the rug and rocking chair looked in the corner, and it got me thinking about these beautiful Craftsman rocking chairs that showed up in Bauder Pine’s Etsy shop last week. They were pricey ($129 for the pair), but perfect for the roombox.
I hesitated because I’d already bought a Jane Harrop kit for two Craftsman recliners, but after a bit of hemming and hawing I decided to pull the trigger… but I was too late. :(
(If the person who bought them happens to read this, I’m jealous!)
So I put together the Jane Harrop kit after all. I’ve done a few of her kits before, most recently for the attic roombox. I love these kits — the materials are good, the instructions are clear, and the designs are unusual. The wood in this particular kit is mahogany.
I stained the wood with a Minwax Red Oak stain pen, which brings out the grain nicely.
I especially like that Jane’s kits are old-school wood, not laser cut. Laser cut kits can have beautiful detail, but they look very flat to me — especially Craftsman furniture, which should have some bulk to it.
Here they are with the carpet. I still think those rocking chairs would have been perfect here, but these work too.
The kit doesn’t come with fabric. I looked through my stash and found this mottled dark green fabric that I used a loooong time ago as a backing on some (life-sized) needlepoint pillows. It has a Craftsman vibe.
But in the room, it seems too dark.
I tried again with off-white, but this might be too light?
I could have sworn I had something more olive that would look great in here, but couldn’t find anything in the fabric bin that satisfied me. I’ll leave the cushions like this for now. They’ll be easy enough to swap if/when I find something better.
Here’s a wide shot of the room. The table and chairs came preassembled (also from Bauder Pine on Etsy) but I think they started out as a Theresa’s Miniature Creations kit. I love them, but this picture illustrates what I was saying about laser cut pieces looking flat compared to “real” wood.
(Also, it might be an optical illusion, but does the tabletop look very off-center in that picture? I’ll have to investigate…)
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
I love the rug. Beautiful work! I think the kit chairs look great there.
Thank you! I might try scratch building some footstools to go with them.
Marvelous! and the rug is fantastic (thanks, will have to try that.) The room looks better and better. I see what you mean about the wood; didn’t think of that though I have a couple laser kits and they still look okay. Can’t wait to see more details!
I do love laser cut kits in general, certain styles just look kind of skimpy compared to their real life counterparts. I wonder if thicker wood could be laser cut?
People are doing interesting things with laser cut kits these days, though. Red Cottage Miniatures has some chairs that come with beautiful chunky legs (I posted about them here).
The room box is looking very true to the time period…you did an amazing job charting and stitching the carpet! All is looking so very attractive!
Thank you!
I love your rug! You do beautiful work including the chairs you constructed! I agree with you about the laser cut wood, and sometimes the residue on the sides can be a pain if you miss getting it all off. I’m enjoying this build and sorry I haven’t commented before :)
Thank you for commenting! (And for the compliments!) :)
Thanks for the chart, Emily, it’s lovely! and it is perfect for your room.
What charting software do you use?
Thank you! I use a program called KG-Chart Pro. It’s pretty rudimentary and has some weird quirks but it does what I need it to.
I don’t like how the charts print out, especially because you can’t force the page to break at a certain row or display a grayed-out overlapped area between pages, and it includes some extraneous information (like the fabric color and the finished design size in cm). It’s fine when I’m just stitching it myself but I try to clean up the charts I post online.
For this one I just used KG-Chart’s chart for the first page and the legend, and I added the rest of the info myself using a layout program called InDesign (not something most people would have lying around, but I use it for work). The Jungle Animal Rug is one I didn’t do any clean-up to, so you can see how KG-Chart normally displays: https://www.emilymorganti.com/charts/jungle-animal-rug.pdf
It also gives the option to include a color chart if you prefer those.
(Oh, I should mention that I don’t do the charting in KG Chart — I do that in Photoshop and then import the graphic.)
That’s a beautiful interior, and your rug has captured the original design perfectly!
(BTW, I did the math and it’s 28 stitches per inch in both directions. You can always verify by counting the stitches in one inch!)
Hmm, as it’s cross stitch I guess you stitched over 2×2 threads, and it would be 28×2=56 threads per inch.
Thank you! No, I stitched it over one thread (using a full cross stitch). I had counted the stitches per inch before I started and I thought it came out to 36 but either I miscounted or I misremembered…