[lace] making a Honiton Pillow

[lovelacejoy]

I must have made about a hundred Honiton pillows since I started teaching 
Honiton Lace in 1981.  It used to take me 3 evenings to cut up half a bale of 
Barley straw with a pair of scissors and many sore fingers  until I manage to 
find a chaffer.  I still have it now but haven't used it lately.   With the 
chaffer it would only take 20 mins to chop up a bale. I would make 7 pillows at 
a time for my students and to sell at a lace day  We just had to chose a day 
with no wind. 
 A 13/14 inch pillow should weigh 3 lbs  ( oops I'm talking old money )  LOL.  
about one and a half ks.  
When our famous marvelous lacemaker Pat Perryman heard I was making pillows she 
rang me to say they should weigh 3 lbs  I crossed my fingers and said I was 
sure they were about 3lbs.  I immediately went to weigh them and they were all
just over 3 lbs.  Phew 

Cut out 2 14 inch circles and a 3 inch strip to go around the centre, of strong 
navy denim like material and sew together leaving a 6 inch gap.  Stuff as much 
straw in the bag pushing it well down into the corners.  Put it aside for a day 
or two,   I used to put it in the airing cupboard to settle.  Then take it out 
and although you think it is full, stuff in almost as much again.  And I always 
used to put in a sprig of Lavender to make a nice aroma when the pins went in.  
An extra pair of hands are now useful to squash the gap edges together so that 
you can pin them ready to sew up with a strong thread.  Then you use a mallet 
to flatten the top and bottom.  I use to stand on them and  step from side to 
side.

I can't make them from scratch now with my achy hands but because I haven't yet 
found anyone who sells them, I buy them from charity shops or collect them from 
ex lacemakers , unstitch the gap and  stuff  more straw into the centre of the 
pillow.  And I make a new cover as well.  I'm still finding new lacemakers so 
on it goes.  Such a lovely hobby, so therapeutic and brings fun and laughter at 
lace meetings and it chases loneliness away

 so good luck with your pillows and 
Happy Lacing
Peggy

-
To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line:
unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to
arachnemodera...@yahoo.com

Re: [lace] Making a Honiton pillow

[lbuyred]

Mark,
I admire your fortitude in being willing to make your own Honiton pillow.  I 
have one aquaintance who tells me that she uses a string trimmer to get her 
straw finely chopped.  She does it outside on a concrete patio and has the 
straw in a 10 gallon plastic bucket (wearing protective gloves and goggles).  I 
have not tried this myself, but it sounds like much less work than cutting the 
straw by hand.
Liz Redford
Raleigh, NC, USA
 Tatman  wrote: 
> Hi all,
> I am going ahead with my proposed project of making my own Honiton pillow so

-
To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line:
unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to
arachnemodera...@yahoo.com

[lace] Making a Honiton pillow

[Tatman]

Hi all,
I am going ahead with my proposed project of making my own Honiton pillow so
I can get started on learning more about Honiton Lace.  My dear friend,
Celtic Dreamweaver showed me how to do this lace several years ago.  But I
was using her tools and pillow.  And I really want to get going on this lace
before my eyes give out!! :-D

I cut out two 14 inch circles of heavy tight woven navy fabric and a 3 inch
by 44 inch long strip for the side.  Sewn one circle to the side strip and
then the other circle to the other side of the strip but left a 6 inch
opening for stuffing.  I secured the opening stitches with heavy thread and
knotted, because I know from experience that the stitches get pulled really
hard and the stress could make them come out while stuffing.

Below are pictures I took of some of the process of me making my Honiton
pillow.  I plan on making a full tutorial and add it to my Bobbinburg
(http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/bobbinlace.html) section of my website.

I found this bag of barley straw at a tag sale and knew that I could make
use of it somehow with my pillows.  This is the first good project with it.

http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/howtoBL/bag-of-straw.jpg

Then you cut the straw into little pieces about 1 inch lengths.  I wasn't
too concerned about the little knots.  I have read that they just float in
the pillow and don't really cause damage.  So rather than spend months of
cutting and making sure I keep the knots out of the good straw, I just
started cutting.  I did make sure there were the unwanted twigs or rough
junk not to be cut and put in the good pile.

http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/howtoBL/cutting-straw.jpg

After cutting quite a bit of it in the bag, I scooped out a handful and cut
it over an empty cat litter bucket I had on hand.  We have three cats and we
reuse these buckets for other things.  The cuttings that go in this bucket
are more fine and even.

http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/howtoBL/cut-straw.jpg

After a few hours of cuttingand by the way, I do recommend you wear
gloves.  Use of scissors for that many hours gives you blisters and sores! I
have a nasty sore to prove it :( I proceed to stuff my flat
pillow case.

http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/howtoBL/stuffing-pillow.jpg

This is how my pillow looks so far after 3 hours of cutting straw and
stuffing it in the pillow.  And this is only 2/3rds full!!  I still have
more cutting to do.  Have to make it so full that I can't possibly stuff any
more.  The saying goes "a very firm pillow makes for better lacemaking" is
true!

http://www.tat-man.net/bobbinburg/howtoBL/almost-stuffed-pillow.jpg

So far so good!

-- 
Mark, aka Tatman
website: http://www.tat-man.net
blog: http://tat-man.net/blog
Magic Thread Shop: http://www.tat-man.net/tatterville/tatshop/tatshop.html
email: tat...@tat-man.net
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/tatmantats

-
To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line:
unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to
arachnemodera...@yahoo.com