As far as I know the pillows vary a little bit from region to region. Here
in Catalunya they are rounded at the bottom, the bit that sits in your lap
and the top end has the fabric cover holding the straw filling stitched to
across the width of the fabric tube in a straight seam then it is as if the
corner are tucked in and stitched across to give a rectangular shape. The
straw used to stuff them, or as I have seen one pillow maker filling a
fabric tube, is not chopped straw as in a mushroom shaped pillow, but is
long stalks of straw pushed in the tube to the top with a rod, the end of
the straw with the ears of corn on them hang out of the bottom of the tube
to be later cut off level. The way they are stuffed gives a slightly
flattened shape on the front and back of the top end of the pillow but which
has more of an oval shape all around the top end. The flattened area
extends down the pillow for quite a way and the pattern is pinned over this
flattened section. The bottom end of the fabric tube has a hem stitched
round it through which a draw string is threaded and once the straw is all
in and the ears cut off level the string is drawn up really tight and tied
off, the end of the string being tucked inside the little remaining hole in
the centre.
I know that in the Galicia they will have a short stick sticking out of each
side at the very top of their pillows, the sticks are what would be used to
keep the pillow off of a house wall when working outside. The pillows need
their top ends propped against something and a house wall would be suitable,
or a chair back, table anything height enough to support the pillow top.
Another area, I am not sure which it is, has a square of leather sewn across
the back of the top of their pillows to protect the pillow from the
roughness of a stone house wall.
There may be other regional variations that I don'¡t know of.
The width of the pillows can vary, some wider than others to take wider
patterns but they are mostly all the same basic shape.
Bobbins also vary from regions to region some more ornately turned than
others, Catalan bobbins are very plain, those from Galicia are the most
ornately turned that I have seen here.
Karen you could try doing what the Spanish lace makers to these days to make
moving the lace up the long pillow easier. Cut a rectangle of the plastic
foam sheeting used for camping mattresses under sleeping bags, make sure the
foam is big enough to go under your pattern and to extend round the sides of
the pillow enough not to hinder thread and bobbins flowing across the
pillow. Pin the foam to the pillow, put the pattern on top and cover with a
cover cloth across the lower end of the pattern where your bobbins will go.
Once you need to move up the lace you need lengthen your threads
sufficiently to allow you to move the lace up the pillow without wrenching
the threads at all and distorting the lace. Tie the bobbins in bundles and
wrap in cover cloths pinned to the pillow with plenty of slack thread
between the pins and the bobbin heads. Lay the pillow down on a table.
Loosen the pattern without removing the pins, the tips of the pins should
only just be into the pillow and should come out easily enough. move the
pattern up the pillow and set about straightening up the pins once more. At
least you don't have to find the pinholes you just need to ease the pins so
that their tips will once more go into the pillow a little bit.
I tend to have my piece of foam in two sections so that when I have worked
enough lace to enable me to take the pins out of the top of the pattern and
the section of foam beneath it I can remove that piece of foam and when
necessary put it back under the lower section of pattern. Sometimes on a
long project, say for a tablecloth edging, I will have two section of
pattern that match each other so that I can rotate them, using the foam
pieces as I go.
Regards
Jenny DeAngelis
Spain.
Jenny - I thought the Spanish pillow was flat at the back. At least that
is
what I saw in La Coruna last year and before that on books. In fact I made
myself a "half sausage pillow" trying to combine our Maltese sausage shape
with the flat Spanish back (so that the pillow doesn't roll around when
working). Now I am trying to find some time to make a similar pillow with
movable blocks in the middle to save moving the lace so often.
Karen in Malta
-----Original Message-----
From: Jenny De Angelis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 9:43 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected]
Subject: lace] Re: interesting book (category) on eBay... ;
Karen in Malta wrote:-
<<I have also printed the pictures of the three plait crossing. It looks
so
pretty that I would be reluctant to tighten it up. I wonder if there would
be a successful way of leaving this crossing as shown i.e. not tightened,
but left wide to look like it is in the picture.
I have looked through the pictures and one of the pillows, the one with
millions of bobbins hanging on it (no, ok, hundreds). These are tied in
groups and hung to the pillow and this seems to me to be a Maltese pillow.
Karen in Malta >>
The Three Plait crossing is in Pamela Nottingham's book of The Techniques
of
Bobbin Lace but it is called a 6 pair crossing, it does look nice before
it
is closed up around the pin. Whenever I have to do one of these crossings
I
have to get out the book and follow the instructions as it is the most
difficult crossing I have come across in lacemaking, I can never remember
how it goes.
The pictures of pillows and bobbins contained in those books on e.bay look
to me to be from France and Spain as well as England. There are some
bobbins shown in a group which reminded me of those from Denmark, Long
slim
shanks with bulbous bottom ends and beads around the bulb.
The Long sausage shaped pillow looks to me like a Spanish pillow. This is
exactly the way the ladies here in Spain work, when they have a great
number
of bobbins on their pillow they tie those not in use at the moment in
bundles with tape or elastic and keep the bundle to one side of the pillow
with divider pins. The bobbins in use are always held in the hands to
make
the stitches and the pair that are to be cast to the side once the stitch
is
made are dropped to the side of the pillow ready for the next time they
are
needed and the pair to be brought in for the next stitch picked. I taught
myself to work in this way when I first came to live here and quite enjoy
the rythm of the work picking up and putting down the bobbins, which
actions
have also crept into my work when using my English pillow and bobbins, I
have to stop myself picking up the bobbins work the stitches as doing so
makes the lace rise up the pins when working on the flat.
There look to be bobbins in the photos from England, Spain and some that
look to me like Danish bobbins with their long slim shanks and round bulb
at
the bottom and with beads around the bulb.
The very plainly turned bobbins in the picture to the far left of those
Danish looking bobbins, on the long sausage shaped pillow, look very like
the bobbins used here in Catalunya but could be from another part of
Spain.
You will find that Countries of Southern Europe tend to mostly use the
long
sausage pillow worked down it's length rather than around it's
circumference. While countries in Northern Europe tended in the past to
use
the bolster pillow or flat pillow with the pattern worked around the
circumference of the pillow.
Women here in Spain working on those upright pillows often make fan leaves
on them and you can imagine how many times the pattern has to be moved on
the pillow in order to work the curve of the fan shape. I have never used
my Spanish pillow for such a project, I couldn't face the challenge of all
those moves, but made a fan shaped block pillow years ago especially for
the purpose of making fan leaves.
Regards
Jenny DeAngelis
Spain.
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by
NextWeb,
and is believed to be clean.
-
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
