Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Sushi on cotton

One thing about living in Las Vegas that I have had to get used to, is that the thrift stores very rarely have vintage-y goodness. Mostly, they are stocked with used clothing (the ordinary kind, not vintage-y), and "next step beyond final clearance" merchandise from the department store with the red bull's eye.

This was a major disappointment to me when we moved here two and a half years ago. Thrift stores are one of my favorite things, after estate sales (which do not exist here, at all). Since I am nothing, if not compulsive about thrift stores, I continue to go and hope for the rare find.

About a year ago, I started thinking outside the box (my box, at least) and began to see potential in some of the inexpensive, unused linens. On one visit I found a plain white tablecloth in a lovely cotton fabric and on another 6 plain white napkins, also white cotton.

When Dearest Sister's first daughter moved into a new home, I decided to stitch them up as a house warming gift. I already had the Sublime Stitching Sushi transfer, and she and her SO are two of the few in my circle that eat sushi, so that was a natural choice of theme. I enlarged the designs on a copier - four larger motifs for the corners of the table cloth and smaller ones for the napkins. (I have not found a good light in my house for photographing white fabric, so the pictures are not great, but the project turned out pretty well, I think).

Since I really was not familiar with sushi, I went to the grocery store and photographed the fresh sushi to get ideas for the colors. In the end, I improvised a little, but after all, artistic license never has to be re-newed!

1 comment:

Iron Needles said...

I remember the inaugural use of this set. She offered us the napkins, let us admire them, then took them back so they wouldn't be stained and wouldn't need washing.