My September 1968 project was a quick, cute set of embroidery motifs on fabric table napkins.
The original pattern, for “table linens to be admired”, gave four smallish alpine-flower motifs to embroider onto a tablecloth, a cushion or a tea/coffee cosy, with a little zig-zag border. The flowers in question are gentian violet, edelweiss, primula (a.k.a. cowslip), and alpine rose (a.k.a. snow-rose or alpenrose and not a rose at all but a type of rhododendron.)
I had a larger set of pale yellow-green table napkins that I had inherited from my grandmother. Not in the sense of a treasured family heirloom — she just never threw anything away that was still useful, and had a house full of nice, everyday things dating from ca. 1950 to the 1980s. These napkins were plain evenweave linen, actually perfect as an embroidery base, and still in pretty good shape. I use them a lot, alternating them with the two other sets of table linens from my grandmother’s household.
As always, I didn’t have a transfer, as one had to send away for them back in the Stitchcraft days. Since the motifs were small and simple, I just drew them freehand with a water-based embroidery pen, based on the large, clear colour photo. I really noticed the extra colour pages in this issue! The stitches were easy, basically satin stitch for the petals and leaves and stem stitch for the stems and outlines, with French knots in the middle of the edelweiss and alpenrose, and a couple of straight-stitch and loop-stitch accents. There was no need for the zig-zag border.
That was it! Quick and easy. I washed them at 60 degrees C and nothing bad happened. My favourites are the edelweiss and the alpenrose, which are maybe-not-coincidentally the last two that I made.
Time for an alpine dinner party!
