More vintage

Another vintage find, this time a tray cloth from the Hospice shop in Pretoria. I’m loving the mini appliqué on these finds, although this time with the added bonus of some embroidery as well. 

The larger yellow and orange floral motifs are about 2½ x 2½" and the smaller blue ones are around 1½ x 1½". The appliqué shapes have been folded under and caught down by hand in blanket stitch. 

I never really use single strands of DMC cotton when embroidering, but whoever stitched this has used predominantly single strands and it’s actually so effective. Even the hem of the cloth has been caught down and then embellished in colour, before the backing was attached. The fabric is likely Irish linen and stitches used are blanket stitch, bullions, what look to be colonial knots, detached chain, stem stitch, straight stitch and zig-zag back stitch. The grid has been created by weaving a single strand of orange thread under every second strand of the linen background fabric – a canvas work technique? I’m not sure, but it’s really effective.