How to hook a large rug – My temporary rug hooking set up

I actually rearranged this corner of the living room. This way I can hook whenever I have a few spare moments. They really add up. The wire shelving is the same shelving I use in the studio. It can be set up and torn down in just moments. See my website for more details. Click on the rug eSchool and take a look at the pictorial tour of my studio. They are old pictures. I have actually added another row across the top.

After about a week I decided to roll the edges of the backing up and baste them in place with yarn so that I could deal with only the center of the rug. That helped a lot.

I initially tried to use clamps for quilting to hold the edge of the rug out of my way. I need to get my arm under the frame either at the bottom or the left side. The rug was just too heavy for these clamps. I found these heavy duty clamps at the home improvement store. They were even on sale for about $4 apiece! They have helped a lot. Even if I cannot get the heavier hooked part of the rug inside the clamp, I can close the clamps on the rug itself and still get the bulk of the rug out of the way. 

Update: The clips were more trouble than they were worth. I stitched up the folded sides with old acrylic yarn.

I also had to add a 1/4 sheet of plywood to the bottom. I simply added screws from the bottom into the wooden feet of my stand. That added the stability I needed.

Over time, the weight of the rug did degrade my 20 year old grippers and I had to replace them. The wire itself was fine, it was the material they were attached to. They would no longer stay in the tracks of my Puritan frame.