Six years ago Andy and Caryn covered the table with a large cotton cloth and invited everyone to leave remarks in Magic Marker on it. The tablecloth comes out every Thanksgiving to receive more inscriptions. This year, however, they have a new table--longer, but narrower. Caryn was trying to figure out how to save the existing messages for the new canvas cloth. I suggested cutting them out and appliquing them onto the new one--so of course I got the job of making it happen. Both old and new cloths came home with us.
I used a black and white variegated King Tut cotton thread to zigzag the patches onto the tablecloth. It looks pretty good.
I had thought of this as a "tradition" but Andy and Caryn are considering it an "heirloom." I guess it will become one in a few years. Their son and daughter in law are already planning to inherit the tablecloth.
We'll send it back to Tennessee in a few days. I need to be sure all the edges got caught in the stitching. Neither perfection nor precision is a goal in my studio--my tradition, for which I give thanks.