For my birthday, I got the most wonderful gift from my aunt: a beautiful textile from Lithuania. I had originally thought that she purchased it recently, but when I called to thank her, she told me that her grandmother made it! She even spun the wool herself! It's really a very well-made woven textile. The geometric patterns are very intricately woven from cream-colored linen and black wool yarn. Although it is meant as a bed cover, I decided that it was the perfect size to cover a bare wall in my bedroom.
I hung it up using a technique we often use with museum textiles. You machine stitch velcro to cotton twill 'tape' and then carefully handsew the twill tape to the textile. The other part of the velcro is then attached to a bar that is then attached to the wall. This is a nice way to evenly distribute the weight of the textile, and to allow you to put it up and take it down without much trouble.
11 comments:
What an amazing piece, and how wonderful that someone in your family spun the yarn and then wove it. Thanks for sharing how you mounted it, I have some old textiles and often wondered about a good way of hanging them.
This is a really beautiful piece, and te story behind is also amazing!
I was so happy to see that you are posting again. What a lovely heirloom piece.
That is just beautiful and to know its background makes it so special.
So cool! I love the museum-mounting technique, too.
Just got through the backlog in my Google Reader--congratulations on your new job & move! I hope everything goes well in your new place, and I'm glad you didn't decide to quit blogging : )
It's nice to "see" you back here! Your quilt is just lovely. And the Lithuanian woven piece - what a wonderful present! Not only is it stunning, but there is so much meaning behind it as well. Thanks for showing how you hung it -- I may try that some day.
The Lithuanian textile looks so beautiful - and then to find it was made by a ?great-grandmother - makes it really special.
Thank you for showing how you hang it with the velcro and tape - it will be very useful and also much better not to damage the textile.
Your quilt looks amazing - glad you came back to blogging...Julia
Hi! I loved this post when I first read it and I wondered if you could give a little more detail about the bar on the wall part? Did you just nail the wood in? I'm having a few issues (due to drought here in Australia) with cracking walls - apparently "only" cosmetic - which I'd love to cover in a similar way. Are there any books/websites you can recommend? Thank you!
Hi Michelle,
I just nailed the wooden bar to the wall, after I glued the velcro onto the wood. It just needs to be secure enough to hold the weight of the textile. Good luck!
Meghan
We've just found your blog. It is so nice that some things from Lithuania are appreciated. We are Weaving Manufactory from Lithuania, Vilnius. This is what we are and we do http://www.manufactory.lt/. Our compliments to Your works.
Virginija & Egle
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