Sometime around 20 years ago I was hunting around yard sales and came across a pumpkin colored linen napkin for ten cents. I thought to myself, "Self, you have a pattern that would make this into a great bread cloth!" So I made the extravagant purchase and took my prize home with me.
If I remember correctly, the reason I wanted to even try this was because a woman who had been stitching since she was a girl (and at that time was somewhere in her 60's) had shown me the linen she learned on and still had the scraps with the original stitching. Very lovely.
As you can see, it turned out very nicely and in my excitement I could not pass a yard sale without looking for more linen napkins.
About ten years after the pumpkin bread cloth was created I found a Celtic Cross pattern I wanted to experiment with. Digging around my totes of fabrics and such I came across a linen napkin that was a wonderfully old looking shade of green. I set to work on my project and loved every stitch.
Because the linen was so well used, it gave the design an ancient look. I have to say, there's fun stitching on linen, and then there is fun stitching on really old linen!
Linen napkins are the perfect size for pillows, bread cloths, hand bags, samplers....and I plan on using variegated floss on my next project with a linen napkin.
Next time you are wandering around a few yard sales, check out the linen napkins. You can't beat the price and that worn look really does add to the project!
Until next time, happy stitching!
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