Sunday, January 09, 2005

Cross Stitch Napkins

I have a dream of someday making 12 cross stitch napkins for my mother-in-law. My fantasy is that each napkin will have a different flower on it. So when Bonnie at RoundRobinCrazy asked for suggestions for round robins, I suggested napkins. There was a great response! A lot of people besides myself would like to make cross stitch napkins.

The only problem was finding napkins which are amenable to cross stitch. I hunted on the web (I've done this before) and couldn't find what I wanted. There was something in England, but they were too pricey. I decided I would ask 1-2-3 Stitch if they could find napkins for me -- they say on their website that they will try to get special requests. They found some cross stitch napkins by Crafters Pride, made of 14 Ct. SaLem fabric. They are washable, fringed, and come in white or ivory. They are a bit more casual than I had in mind, but I ordered 12 of them.

If I want more formal napkins, I will need to make them myself. I got a book on napkin folding -- The Simple Art of Napkin Folding: 94 Fancy Folds for Every Tabletop Occasion, by Linda Hetzer -- and it has two pages of instructions for making seven different kinds of napkins. I will need to figure a way to explain how to make these napkins in my blog, without plagerizing or violating copyright laws!

Napkin folding is interesting. Now I need some china and some Waterford glasses! My mother-in-law says there is a place in St. Louis that sells complete sets of china on consignment, stuff that other people no longer use. I would do that if the pieces were open stock. I don't know how I would get it home to Appleton though. But getting china is one of the things I would like to do. I have never had china. It would be wonderful to be able to set a formal table, with fancy folded, hand-made stitched napkins.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I discovered your blog today, and you are quite a good writer. I started my own blog this afternoon, not exactly sure what all I will be writing about, but I have had a "hankering" to do some cross stitch lately.
One of your entries mentioned the Barnes and Noble University - what an interesting concept. I may take a class soon ...that FOCUS title sounded perfect for me.

Unknown said...

Thanks Debbie! I'll have to take a look at your blog!
Candice