Dear John Mead, Welcome to our list. I put aside your letter from the other day, and will comment on it later as it requires some more thinking time. A cover cloth is usually a large square of fabric of a size that will completely cover a bobbin lace pillow. It can be pinned to the pillow with something like pearl-headed corsage pins from a craft shop. It becomes double-insurance against tangled bobbins when you are moving a lace pillow, such as when it is being taken to another table or being put in a tote bag to be taken to a group meeting or lace-making demonstration site (historic house, museum, school, etc.). People with inquisitive small children and pets also find a cover cloth necessary. Most cloths are in color, but definitely must be color-fast (no dyes that will run when a liquid is spilled on them, or rub off dye on lace threads), the fabric should be tightly-woven not a fuzzy material that sheds and can get worked into lace. Some lace makers embroider their cloths and edge them in lace, but it is not necessary. When I was around beginning lace makers years ago, I used to bring a supply of large dinner napkins for the purpose, so they would have something that did not add to their start-up expenses. A cover cloth also keeps dust, pet hair, insects, etc. from settling into your threads and lace equipment when your pillow is not in use. (Though not recommended, some lace makers put works-in-progress away for a long time!) Years ago, Arachne had a topic about people walking around a lace demonstration site looking for pillows that were unattended. Perhaps the makers had gone away for lunch, for example. There were sinister types who would walk around with small scissors in their hands, and snip off interesting bobbins (antiques, and fancy painted ones with very desirable spangles (spangles are glass beads that prevent some styles of English bobbins from rolling and weight the bobbins, threaded on wires through drilled holes in the bobbins). Ever since, demonstrators have used pinned-down cover cloths whenever pillows are left unattended. Hopefully, this dastardly criminal behavior is no longer practiced. Spangling is another big topic. Whenever you encounter a new lace term, we recommend our Arachne archives. Go there, and put the lace term in the Search box. All our past correspondence is there, making our Web Master the busiest of all our Arachnes. At this moment there are 138 entries under "Cover Cloths", and this one should find its way there because I changed the subject line. The address: _http://www.mail-archive.com/lace@arachne.com/index.html_ (http://www.mail-archive.com/lace@arachne.com/index.html) Jeri Ames in Maine USA Lace and Embroidery Resource Center -------------------------------------------------------- In a message dated 3/16/2013 12:38:33 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, johnbobm...@gmail.com writes:
OK, I'll air my ignorance, a quick google search didn't look very successful. What's a cover cloth? John Mead Tacoma, WA USA - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
