Although there hasn't been too much to show, I have continued to work on Lisa's table settings. The embroidery on her autumn runner is extensive, but getting close to being finished. In the meanwhile I have been making the quilted undercloth for her spring setting. Actually, I'm not quilting it myself....I made the top by adding bands to a square of linen to increase its size to 63 inches, organized a backing (muslin) and batting (flannel) and sent it to our local long-arm quilting lady. I'll get it back in a couple of weeks. This adds quite a bit of expense to the project, but I couldn't face the effort of teaching myself to machine quilt (hand quilting is out of the question with all the embroidery I have undertaken) without knowing if this experiment will work. I'll get the square back and will be able then to judge its drape and ease of care and see if it is worth it to quilt tablecloths. If it is suitable I will have to get serious about doing it myself.
Making the undercloth this way has used much less of the six yards of linen I always buy for large tablecloths, so I have turned the surplus into napkins. I was able to get eight twenty-three inch square napkins (twenty inches finished) out of the scraps, which means thirty-two mitered corners. Practice has made me quite nonchalant about making mitered corners, so I was irritated to find that I had mis-sewn and then clipped one before realizing that there was a problem. Grrr.... way to keep myself humble. Now one of the set of eight will be the poor step-child, only used when numbers require it, and probably by Lisa herself if she follows my practice of reserving the stained or worn bits for me or Mike when setting our tables. Nothing is ever perfect, but the project soldiers on.