As I write this, it’s cold outside, something close to 15 degrees.  It is expected to get to a balmy 19 today.  My husband, dressed in his lucky Bronco’s shirt and sweat pants, sits in his easy chair, outfitted with all the goodies he will need for the big game today.  Makes you think of Spring and weddings doesn’t it?

I never said I was well.  In my defense however, I am sitting here fingering and pricing beautiful damask tablecloths.  When I close my eyes, I can see these on a beautiful spring day, gracing a bride’s table at her wedding. Inauspicious patterns intricately woven together – shimmering when you hold it up to the light.  When paired against a white satin and lace wedding gown, vintage Damask showcases a bride on her special day.

Something old, something new . . .

Of all the vintage linen and lace tablecloth’s I have in stock, Damask is my favorite.  The definition of Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks is woven with one “warp” yarn and one “weft” yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced “satin” weave and the ground in weft-faced or “sateen” weave.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damask) This reversible weave is what makes Damask so durable.  One mother told me of having passed her Damask tablecloths to her daughter, just as her mother had passed them on to her, having had them passed on to her from her mother’s mother.  Four generations and each generation had used the same tablecloth to grace the brides table on their wedding day.  What a special tradition.

My mother’s Damask linens never made it out of the fire they had years ago.  I never had the opportunity to appreciate them as I do these I hold in my hand.  However, as I look over at my fourteen year old daughter, her head bobbing to sounds only her ear buds and she can hear (thank god), I think that in a few short years, her newly acquired Damask tablecloths, mine that I pass on to her, will be gracing her wedding table.  She may be deaf by the time she gets married, but on her special day, she and the Damask will be beautiful.

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You can start your own Damask traditions by stopping in any (or all) of our stores and picking out your favorite pattern of Damask linens.  Be sure to pick up a brochure with the discount card attached while you are there.  And, as usual, if you see a person with her nose buried in the fresh smell of newly laundered linens, it’s probably me.  Say hi.