Raven and Sparrow

Lisa's autumn

Lisa's autumn table begins with a pale golden square topped with the runner I made with my water-stained linen/silk fabric. Click on the photo to see the details. Actually, clicking on all the pictures makes them look better, so if you have time, I'd suggest that.

I have a pot that is the perfect gray for the centerpiece, but I had some difficulty finding appropriately colored flowers to go in it. I finally secured some roses called "cafe au lait" and combined them with alstroemeria, wheat ears and St. John's wort berries for the best approximation of autumn I could make in springtime. In true autumn appropriately colored dahlias and chrysanthemums should be easy to find. My pink glassware was just the warm tint to accent the reddish color on the runner. Brick red candles in gold holders and madder-dyed buttons relate to the darker red in the center motif.

After all the effort it took to dye the napkins and find the right flowers I was worried that this table wouldn't come together convincingly, but now I think it telegraphs "autumn" pretty clearly.

 

Lisa's summer

Lisa's summer table is built on the dragonfly/foxglove cloth I made over a very long period of time (documented here on the blog). After so many hours working and imagining how this cloth would work, I finally got to see it's effectiveness in action.

The high patterning of the cloth prompted me to keep the other elements on the table as simple as possible. I chose clear glass and plain, rounded shapes for for the vase and glassware, and kept the candles small and low. (The little tealights scattered about reminded me of fireflies, although we don't have those magical summer insects here.) Plain napkins tied with lavender ribbon echo the colors in the foxgloves and the purple edge.

 

The cloth works a little better up close because the details of the flowers don't read as well when you stand back. The dishes and flatware break up the '"picture" so it is harder to read from a distance. I think a table should look good from the doorway to entice you to sit down, and then be equally enjoyable as you take your individual place. I'm not actually unhappy with this table as I stand back, but I do see the difference. Another thing that I notice is the difference between the table in real life, and in the photographs I took. Melding two layers of fabric can be tricky. There is a whole lot of stitching around all of the motifs, but the areas that are not as heavily stitched are hard to keep from wrinkling. When I set the table it didn't bother me, but what looked textural and hand-made in person just looks wrinkly in the pictures. 

This square cloth is large enough to use without an under cloth which makes the table simpler than some of the other seasons. The checkerboard edge is important to bring a sense of summery lightness to the rather dark central section. Does it look like summer to you? 
 

Lisa's spring

 

If Lisa's winter table was underdone, the one for spring is the opposite. Soon after she agreed to participate in my project, we wandered together through the fun shops of a nearby town and came upon a woven scarf that we both really liked. It had various graphic patterns in dark grays and blues, shot with unexpected bands of bright color. We both thought of spring and bought it as the foundation piece for her spring table. Like the winter table, this runner speaks to spring as we experience it here in the Pacific Northwest. Spring comes early, but in fits and starts, with much variation in temperature and atmospherics. The clouds can be low and oppressive one minute and then break suddenly, allowing shafts of sunlight to pierce the dark and illuminate patches of new growth or flowering trees. (The view from Lisa's porch on the day I was there to photograph the tables was a perfect example.)  The bright color spectrums woven into the scarf also reminded us of the many colors of primroses that decorate the nurseries here in early spring...usually the first flowers available as winter comes to an end. 

I thought layering the scarf over an under cloth of spring green would evoke our springtime nicely, but the bright colors in the cloth just didn't read strongly enough, even up close. I tried to punch them up by adding embroidery, but it still was too subtle. I needed more bright colors on a dark background, so I dug up some navy blue linen and made a small square embroidered with strong springy (I hoped) motifs. Then I made napkin rings with the same colors and designs. It felt like I was pushing and pushing.....more, more, more.

When the table came together I could feel the effort behind it, which undermines the design I think. I continued the multi-colored theme with the glassware (thank you Amazon) and tulips. No candles or holders that I could find added anything to the table, so I left them off. 

The large quilted square I used under everything else worked really well. I like the texture and it is much easier to iron and handle than a plain cloth made of the same linen in a single layer, so that experiment was a success. The strong graphics of the scarf and the bright colors escape springtime pastel cliche, but cliches are also a way to communicate, and I cannot tell of this table communicates or confuses. Nonetheless....spring.

Lisa's winter

After an interminable time....years, in fact.....I have finished my seasonal series for my sister Lisa and photographed the results in her dining room. I started with her Kate Spade dishes with the dragonfly motif, which I like very much. I designed a table setting for each season, including the tablecloths, napkins and accessories. Some of the settings started with purchased yardage, and others involved the hand-dyed and embroidered cloths I made myself and have documented in fits and starts here on the blog. 

The first setting I'll show now is Winter. I made an under cloth of gray undyed natural linen to fit Lisa's table. On top of that I laid a square made of purchased upholstery cloth (washable, of course) in a brown leafy pattern with random black marks. It reminds me of the forest floor here in winter, long after the leaves have fallen and lost their colors, but still are ankle deep on the trails. It takes all winter for them to break down and we often don't have snow to cover them up or speed up the process. The lack of color speaks of winter too...our climate is gray and the days are very short, so the dimness is more appropriate for us here in the Pacific Northwest than jolly snowmen or other usual winter motifs.

On this I set the dishes, with black napkins and taupe tumblers. For a centerpiece I used a black vase filled with thin brown branches and a wiry garland of gold stars, placed on top of a tatted doily. Gold candlesticks and gold cord on the napkins added a little more glitter to a very low key table.

 

 

I miscalculated on the proportions of the doily because I set this (and all the tables) up first on my own table which is seven inches narrower than Lisa's table. There is a little too much empty space around the very minimal centerpiece. I must admit I really like the way the lace doily shows up against the background without being too showy. It just should have been twice as large. The whole process reminded me how rusty I am with the photography and how tiring it is to set and re-set the table, but it is done and I will show you the rest of the settings in upcoming posts. 

 

 

A season of sadness

 

I was doing okay with my intention to blog regularly, until my dad's health began to fail. He has been declining since he fell a couple of years ago and this spring things really began to go downhill. All through March we kept the road hot down to Seattle to see him and then sit in the hospital with him and my mother. All seven of us siblings were able to be with him in the last week of his life, although the real burden of support fell on those that lived the closest. He died on March 28, eleven days after his ninety-second birthday. (Since he was born on Saint Patrick's Day, of course his name was Pat.) We all gathered again on May 1 for his funeral Mass. Even though his life was quite a long one and we have been watching the end approach for a while, the family now has a hole that can never be filled. I will miss him until it is my turn.