Embroidered burlap pillow covers - how old and what kind of stitch?

Sure looks like the items sold in the late 60s, early 70s imported from India. Sold through Cost Plus and other places with batik and hippie stuff.

Edit - And now that all the pictures have come up on my computer, I see the back indicates they are hand done. So maybe not 1960-70 era.

 

Drugget rather than burlap?

 

From what I see, the edge stitches are blanket stitches. The decorative stitches kind of look like cross stitches, but a bulky version. Maybe they did some sort of knot in the cross stitches?

I agree that the stitches were definitely hand done.

I don't have expertise here, but for some reason I think it has a Scandinavian look.

 

I have a few pieces from the 1930s that my aunt made. She did all kinds of needlework and sold it and I inherited a bunch.

However, when I see those rolled buttons, I also think India or that part of the world.

 

The odd thread (or yarn??) toggle "buttons" are probably the key to identify the piece, IF you can find something also made with those fasteners?

Also the stitch type could be a good identifier. I don't know anything much about embroidery work, but I don't think it's exactly a X-stitch.

 

I have been wondering about the stitch as well.
To me it looks like the needle is brought up at the corner, and then down into the center - but the back has me confuzzled.
I *thought* I still had my big book on embroidery stitches, but I can't find it.

 

Oooo! Look at this one - it's called a Rice Stitch -
http://embroidery.about.com/od/Embroidery-Stitches/ss/Rice-Stitch.htm

That might explain the sort of "woven" look that stitch has.

 

Rats! The more I look at the stitches on the cover, the more I don't think it is the rice stitch. Ah well . . .

 

Hi,
It looks like the thread was twisted and used as a cross stitch. I have only done that to make BIG French knots.
greg

 

They look to me like the stitch called ... Lover's Knot. And I believe the purpose for this item is to bind a rolled up rug. I've had three of these in varying sizes. They are just as important and the hand knotted rugs they were created to protect. The fact that it's made of burlap and stitched with what I see as being WOOL (burn a tiny piece snipped off of the dark threads, if it smells like burnt hair, then it's wool); tells me that's exactly what this piece is.
Often times this rug protector was decorated with the same wools as the rug rolled up in it, and they would wind up long pieces of the colored wool threads and bundle them like they did the "buttons" on the ends of this piece. The reason? In case repairs needed to be made on the rug and they'd have the exact matching "yarn" from the same dye lot to fill in any holes that needed repairing.
Hope I helped a little bit?
JoAnn ... who keeps buying junk and selling antiques.

 

JoAnn, that all makes a lot of sense.

 

Thanks, I wish I had the rug protectors back. But I sold them to an Oriental Rug dealer. That's how I found out what mine were and this one possibly is.

 

Thank you so much for that information.

Goodness, what foresight and thriftiness is evident in the practice of that special way to save some of the colored wood thread for future use as needed on that object.

The only modern-day equivalent to such foresight and resulting thriftiness which I can think of is the practice of various manufacturers who sew two or three extra matching buttons on the inside bottom of a man's shirt or on an inside side seam of a woman's blouse when it is manufactured.

 

Oh, and one more bit of useless trivia about oriental rug protectors. They were originally made as a small scale pattern or a counting chart for tying and incorporating different patterns for rugs. Then somebody came up with the idea to use them to bind together rolled up rugs in progress of completion. Then like I said, somebody figured out they needed to make one at the same time as the rug to use the wool yarn for repairs. Those that made these rugs actually used them on the sandy soil and desert and they needed to roll them up to transport them easier.
There are some oriental rug dealers who will not pay a high premium for a knotted rug UNLESS the protector is sold along with the rug. So this particular protector on this thread should not be treated as "common". They are not common. They are unique.

 

Wool yarns are hand dyed and no two colors are alike. Like buying skeins of yarn at a craft shoppe, you may need to make sure ALL of the yarn you buy is from the same dye lot or you will not like the end results.
There are a lot of Oriental Rug dealers who demand the additional yarn along with the rugs they buy.

 

I have known about "dye lots" (and "fabric runs") for a long time, but I was not aware of there being "a lot of Oriental Rug dealers who demand the additional yarn along with the rugs they buy."