I used to see women digging through piles of linens and lace at estate sales. I never could understand what the attraction was. But now, I think I know!

My mother was the consummate entertainer. Every dinner party included linen napkins that she carefully washed and ironed. In the early years, she would always include a table cloth on her table, for a dinner party. In the later years, she substituted beautiful placemats instead.

While I always use cloth napkins for a dinner party, I never use tablecloths, because I hate covering up the wood grain of the table. I probably would never want to go to the trouble of ironing the tablecloth, either!

Since becoming a pillow fanatic, I am looking for all sorts of beautiful well-worn fabrics, that I can make into pillow covers. Today I discovered that my mother’s old dinner napkins that are huge, are perfect for pillow covers.

The old napkins have a wonderful sheen to them and a pattern that’s difficult to see unless you’re in the right light. By adding lace to the front of the pillow, it becomes much more interesting.

Since I have a very limited number of my mother’s old napkins, I thought that I would make a special effort to find more linens at the estate sale I went to this afternoon. As it turned out, I hit the jackpot! I found beautiful pieces of lace, a wonderful queen size sheet with hand made lace along the top and matching pillowcases, and a wonderful coverlet that I originally bought to make pillows with.

Once I washed and ironed the coverlet, I found that there was no way I was going to be able to cut this piece of material up. Instead, I put it on our bed. It may have been designed for a double bed instead of a queen size bed, so I left the white coverlet on underneath it. But I wish you could see it in person! The material is just wonderful.

I still have plenty of linen to make more pillows! Let me know when you get sick of hearing me talk about pillows, pillows, pillows!
Until then, I hope you’re having a wonderful day!
Barbara