Home Arts and Crafts

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21562, 5 August 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

Home Arts and Crafts

Simple wild flower designs make a fascinating trimming for table mats, •and it is interesting and varied work to watch. A red poppy, a blue cornilower or a white moon-daisy " grow " in the corners of plain squaro mats of natural beige linen. Each place mat has a little matching mat for glasses, adorned with a small single flower; and all their edges are bound with bias binding in different colours, to harmoniso with the various shades of tho flowers. The tips of tho poppv-buds are worked with red buttonholing, and tho rest of each bud is outlined with green stemstitching. Wee single stitches of green dot the insides. Work tho stems in stemstitch and outline tho leaves in

tho same way, adding more rows of stemstjtching inside these, to make them look richer. The moon-daisy petals are outlined with white stemstitching and filled in with sloping satin-stitch. The big flowers' centres are worked with yellow cotton. Leaves and stems aro done exactly like tho poppies', and so are those of the cornflowers. The cornflowers themselves are worked with blue cotton, each petal being outlined with stemstitching and filled in just like the poppies; the tiny single stitches between each petal of the bigger flowers are worked with navy blue thread. Thero aro other ways in which you can uue these care-freo blossoms to decorate the home. They would make a lovely trimming for a bedspread, for

A WILD- FLOWER DESIGN

example. Plain linen can be obtained in a 72in. width specially for counterpanes, or you can buy a plain linen bedspread and the meadow-flowers cpuld be embroidered in drawn-thread panels across the top and down the sides of the spread. They would form a fascinating decoration for a pale green linen duchesse set, too; a pair of large flower groups should be arranged, one at either end of the long runner, and the matching small motifs would go on the little mats. If you want to reverse the flower designs at any time just turn the tracings so that they are facing in the opposite direction. » Although the actual working is simplicity itself, there are soverjil little points to watch for to make sure of

completely succcsful results. For instance, when you start to plauttho mats from your linen, it is not enough to measure them out and cut them straight away. You must mark out the different sizes of squares with a ruler and pencil and pull one thread of the linen away to correspond to each measurement; then cut along these guiding drawnthread lines, as it is only thus that you will bo able to get perfectly truo squares of linen in tho two sizes. With an extra half-yard of linen you can make a table-centre to match the mats; it will be 18in. square and will need only_ two yards and four inches of binding*. All three flowers must bo embroidered on this centre, and it is best to choose green binding.