Welcome to My Red Cape. Long ago in another time my husband Jack and I lived in a little old red house. It was the stuff of dreams to us for the few years that we were there. I live there still a number of hours every day in imagination, with old dolls and paintings and fabrics and feather trees. I draw inspiration and happiness from the memories of that space in time and share some of it here with friends who remember how to step with Alice through the looking glass and take delight in whimsies and antiquities. ~Edyth O’Neill

Saturday, March 24, 2012

A stitch in Time

Our white Lady Bank's Rose is a glory this week! I have never seen one fuller. They are more often seen in yellow, but I collect white flowers and have many times had a white banks through the years, Once Penny gave us a white rose when we first moved to the country. It was a fierce climber, with huge single blossoms and called Cherokee. It put out agressive branches 20 feet long in a season and had unbelievable thorns. Living with that over an entry to our back yard was like living with a shark! It surely was beautiful when in bloom. We finally took it down.
By contrast the Bank's are close to thornless. This one is medium in that respect.
How does it happen that I spend so much time making and mending rugs? A few weeks ago we had an opportunity to choose from a nice batch of orientals and came home with four medium sized ones. My artist daughter, Cheryl and her husband Glen, love the rugs, and as they are in the process of moving from their rustic high mountain home of the last 21 years, to a house in Denver, we are shipping a nice batch of rugs to them. So I am taking a few remedial stitches to help the rugs stay together a while longer.
As with any textiles, glues or tapes are a no no as those are not reversible when further work may be needed. I patch small holes in these soft old worn rugs, by putting a pice of heavy rug hooking wool under the missing spot, as I have every color in that. Then I stitch back and forth with Paternayan crewel yard in a near shade. This yarn is also good to overcast ravely edges on the rugs. Orientals are woven with generally two strong cords on each selvage edge. When these become separated from the sides of the rug through wear, the rug is close to gone. Best not to buy them in that shape. It pays to overcast this selvage or have it professionally serged when the rugs have this kind of wear. Less serious is the loss of fringe on the ends of the weaving. They may look ratty to some people. I told one of my daughters that a love of these rugs even when quite worn is like the affection for a worn pair of jeans which makes them more attractive to some of us. E

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