Hi everyone and Karen who asked ;) (I *love* talking about making pillows...)
Straw is one of the 'traditional' stuffings for our pillows, because it was commonly available and served the purpose. It still serves the purpose, and I must say a compactly stuffed pillow of straw is a joy to work on - and heavy as others have mentioned. A 'Midlands bolster' that I made from the snatch of directions in the Cassell Lace Dictionary is so heavy it could almost warrant wheels and a transmission - then I could drive it to lace meetings LOL Straw, while not as ubiquitous as it once was, is still around, supposing one is near to a feed store or a farm (the sort for midnight straw-snitching?) - if it isn't cut into v. small lengths it will not stuff solidly enough for our lace purposes, and this, though easy, is a physically tough job - tough on the hands, or the cutting device (but worth it). One bale of straw from the tack and feed store cost me $3.50. I stuffed one honiton pillow, 2 student cookie pillows and the Midlands bolster, and hardly made a dint in the bale - eventually shared some with another lacemaker and composted all the rest. Be careful when buying a bale that you get proper straw - with none of the seed heads - or you might have little plants all throughout the garden if composting the leftovers (but then that might not be a bad thing either). Now, to ethafoam - and by this I meant the ethylene-based plastic foam that is self-healing. Pool noodles are made of it. One pool noodle will last you for years - a short piece will serve as a roller, and when that finally wears out from repeated pinnings after several years of lots of use, cut another piece off the noodle - which, in the meantime, can serve as a core around which a quilt, for instance, can be wrapped, for storage. Just remember where you've stored it. Ethafoam planks are expensive, when you do find a place that sells them retail (ethafoam is used as flotation in sports equipment, for instance) - try a plastics fabricator. In Western Canada, try Industrial Plastics. I was lucky and got an endcut of a 24" wide plank, enough to construct a block pillow. I really like using ethafoam - it is lightweight but the pins go in and hold, so well. I have a layer of wool fabric plus the top layer of cotton broadcloth for the work surface - I haven't noticed any squeaky noises from the pins (they might mutter under their breath a lot from the abuse they get from being crammed in the pincushion...). Generally, the ethafoam is for roller pillows or block pillows - but there are domed/cookie pillows available made of ethafoam - Kenn Van-Dieren has a selection. http://www.bobbinmaker.com/roundpillowkits.html (usual disclaimers) In WalMart recently I thought I saw the surf skimmers for sale - these are like paddle boards for the pool, but they have a tether on them which the user is to tie to the wrist and another bit of plastic machinery that I didn't quite understand - but thought it could easily be cut away if I would buy this device to use as a plastic base for a lace pillow - the skimmers appear to be made of ethafoam but I couldn't be too sure, as they are covered with a fabric, possibly nylon (in a jazzy print, to be sure). The large sign read '$5.00' which would have been a cheap risk - but the skimmers were still tagged at $14.99 - not a clerk in sight to ask, and I had other things to do - with summer stock being cleared might be worth investigating this sort of thing. If you've read this far, you deserve to know the snippet from the lace dictionary from which I made my Midlands bolster: ...a tube of strong material, gathered at both ends and stuffed very firmly with straw. An average size is 43 cm (17 in.) long with a circumference of 80 cm. (32 in.). cheers Bev in Sooke, BC (west coast of Canada) - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
