Many moons ago, when I began to write this blog, I created a post called ‘Embroidered Vintage table-cloths, what’s not to like?’ (you can see it here). The photo showed a beautiful cloth which I inherited and tried to use, decoratively, in our house.
It had the most beautiful collection of hand-embroidered flowers all different colours around the edge – and I loved it.
However, it wasn’t very compatible with modern life and I preferred the table without a cloth. The cloth was just one of several that I owned and then I kept seeing more, in charity shops and felt compelled to rescue them and preserve all that careful handiwork.
So the decision was made to use these pretty things in some way and I made a quilt, called ‘Forget-me-not’, in honour of the unknown stitchers who had produced the embroidery. It went to the Festival of Quilts in 2016. I overheard one visitor say ‘What a lovely idea, my mother had a cloth like that’. If you look carefully, you can see pieces of the table-cloth above inserted into the quilt.
Only regular readers of this blog will know that in addition to being a fabric and quilt designer I am also an AirBnB host. One of the rooms in the house we let out has twin beds, so I made a second ‘Forget-me-not’ quilt.
This all took some time, so it is only now that I have completed the pattern for ‘Forget-me-not’, had it checked, re-designed the cover from my original model, done a photo-shoot (in the AirBnB house) and put it in my Etsy shop.
These are single-bed quilts, but the pattern could easily be extended to make a bigger quilt. I like to think of embroidered table-cloths being re-purposed and showing their colourful beauty in a new way, rather than being discarded.
You can find the pattern here.
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