From: Beth Stoll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> .Working out a scheme for a portable block pillow to take there, involving > fabric sides and a foam core base, that will fold down to fit in the > suitcase.
When I needed a folding pillow, I started with one of Snowgoose's "One and Only" pillows. These come as a kit (cover & glue it yourself). It's ethafoam (archival polyester foam) in a circle, a circle of corrugated cardboard, and a "box" made from foamboard in the center. There are square and half-square blocks that fit into the box area, plus a cylinder so you could use it as a cookie, a block, or a roller pillow. Hence the name. I cut the circle of ethafoam in half, along with the long foamboard pieces, and cut most of the way through the corrugated cardboard. I glued fabric to the uncut side of the cardboard and folded then edges over onto the cut side and glued them down. This forms the hinge so the carboard (and the pillow when it's glued to the cardboard) folds in half. Then I covered each half of the circle of ethafoam (except the cut ends) and glued each half onto the halves of the cardboard. Then I glued the short foamboard pieces and halves of the long pieces into the opening in each half-circle. I put ribbons along the top of the cut edge each half-circle of covered ethafoam (so the ribbons lay side-by- side with the ribbons of the other half-circle when the pillow is laying flat). I put ribbons around the edge of the foamboard box and the ribbon on one side was long, so it could be lapped over the cut and pinned on the other side. I also put ribbon around the bottom outside edge of each half-circle, woth one side long enough to cross the gap and pin. WHen the ribbons on the outside edge and the box are pinned down, the pillow can't fold up on you, but just unpin and the thing can be folded in half with the pricking/pins/threads/bobbins outside. At the end of a workshop, I make sure the pricking (the part with pins in it, if it's a long pricking) is at the "near" end of the box (the end closest to me when I have the bobbins in front of me to work on it). I carefully bundle the bobbins into a cover cloth (after securing them in order with crocheted holders) and pin the cover cloth onto the half-circle. I put the bundle close enough to the pinned area so that there's no tension on the threads (in case there's anything trying to move the bobbin-bundle while it's in the suitcase). I use another cover cloth to protect the lace on the pricking and to make cure the block with the pricking doesn't move in relation to the bobbins and to the half-circle. I've [packed that into a suitcase with no breakage. Another time, I took the block with the pricking and the bundled bobbins and put them into a box for protection, then put the folded pillow into the suitcase. Robin P. Los Angeles, California, USA (formerly Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
