Who Doesn't Love a Tablecloth?

Gorgeous embroidery on Irish linen

I love tablecloths and so, it seems, do a lot of other people. My late mum made embroidered tablecloths and I still have a few of her pieces in my house. But I also buy wonderful boxes of old linen at auction, and launder them, carefully, because so often they have been neglected. I use some of these old tablecloths for myself, to decorate this old house - and I sell others.

So often they are embroidered with spring flowers, and I like to think of ladies, in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, because that's when most of these wonderful cloths were made, sitting in their armchairs on the long winter evenings, (a bit like the heroine of Brief Encounter) listening to the wireless, especially in the 50s when hardly anyone had a television, and doing some embroidery. I can't embroider, but I like to pick up some knitting, especially in winter, when I'm watching television.

Textiles are still under-appreciated and often undervalued, but not by me. Fortunately, they seem to be 'on trend' all over again, with people learning how to knit and sew and embroider. I think people often use these pretty cloths for spring and summer tea parties. They certainly deserve to be treasured as the small works of art they are.

Now that I've learned how to make static pages on my blogs (with many thanks to this lady for the information) I'll add some useful 'how to' pages in due course, including some information about laundering linens, and getting rid of those horrible old tea stains.