A Gift for a Gift

My friend Vivian has been working on clearing out her parent’s apartment for the past couple of years. Vivian’s mother, Ruth, was born in Austria with a taste for fine things.

Ruth inherited beautiful linens from her German born mother. Like many people displaced from their homes, Ruth collected lots of stuff. Vivian’s job has been to sort through all of her parent’s possessions and decide what is really meaningful to her. She also has been working on finding good homes for many of the wonderful things that she does not love enough to keep.

I have been the very fortunate inheritor of Ruth’s textiles. I now possess hand woven Austrian tablecloths, hand embroidered Austrian bedding, embroidered doilies, tatted table cloths, embroidered table scarves from the late 19th century and the early 20th century, damask table cloths of various sizes and ages, German day month of the year embroidered tea towels, black net gloves, fingerless dance mitts, a red 1940’s cotton two piece bathing suit, a pre-WW1 burn opt velvet evening shawl in gold, Yemenite style embroidered scarves from Israel from the 1940’s, embroidery samplers from the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s. This list is incomplete. needless to say that Vivian has given me LOTS of wonderful stuff.

Vivian is a sharp dresser. She loves and wears wonderful jewelry. Vivian also loves scarves. Her collection is neatly hung on hangers in her bedroom. Vivian loves a particular palette of colors. Vivian's colors range from deep purples and rich blues to softer blues and into sea greens.

I found a remnant at Metro textile. Kashi, the owner encouraged me to buy it. I was a bit reluctant, it’s beautiful but not really my colors. I do realized that it’s in Vivian’s colors.

I cut the 60 inch chiffon and edged it with metallic thread.