The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-08-11
DECORATIVE Art ITEMS.

MafSellleS cOunCefpaneS are once more
coming in favor.
Few lace curtains are sold now, except
in the very fine qualities.
Gilded gourds with gathered silk tops
are used for wall pockets.
Red and white are the fashionable
colors for table linen, china and glass.
Rich curtains are bordered across the
top and bottom instead of down the inner
sides.
Knitting is once more in fashion, and
coin-purses and silk stockings are the
gilt-edged phase of the fashion.
The intricate designs and softly
blending colors of Oriental rugs are now
copied in carpets of all grades from
Administers down to ingrains.
Persian embroidery holds its own with
all who can afford it, and, indeed, the
rich Oriental needle-work, transferred
neatly to a background of plush, is won
derfully effective.
A tray of sand, filled with grass,
among which peoples and daisies appear
to be growing, is poetical idea for q
dinner table decoration, which is bor-
rowed from Dore's picture Of wild
flowers.
Inexpensive covers for small square or
round tables are of cloth in olive, cardi-
nal, etc., pinked on the edges and stamp
ed with border formed of successive
single figures, or groups from "Under
the Window" These are also done in
the easy outline stitches in embroidery
silk.
Old-fashioned patchwork is revived,
and very pretty cushions and table,
covers are made of bits of silk and velvet
plush carefully pieced together after the
fashion of our grandmothers. A quantity
pretty table-cover is formed altogether of
bits of silk cut into irregular shapes,
overlapping each other, and every edge
button-hole stitched in silk, which con-
trasts effectively with the pieces it joins.
For halls, rugs are preferred on inlaid
floors; but when these are too costly, the
Wilton carpets are made up with bor-
ders, and the staircase is carpeted to
match. The bare staVways have proved
to be so cold and noisy that they are in p
great measure abandoned for all but
country houses for summer use, while
the thickest lining of wadding stitched
between layers of paper is placed beneath
the stair carpet.
Ladies who are fond of color, yet who
wish to use white china that has been
bequeathed them, introduce q colored
cloth on the table-deep red or blue
and cover this with a white cloth that
has open patterns of drawn-work down
each side, and embroidery in brighter
red or blue representing tiles, or quaint
little old English figures wrought in out.
line stitch; a bank of Jacqueminot roses.
carnations, buttercups, or other flowers
down the center supplies additional
color.
When rugs are chosen for rooms
Filling" of plain color, not heavier than
ingram carpet, is now used when the
rug does not cover the entire floor. This
filling is not sewed to the rug, as was
formerly done, but consists of a sepa-
rate breadth of carpet from four to two
feet wide, which is fastened to the floor
around the room, and the rug is then
laid upon the center of the floor without
being fastened down. and its edges lap
over those of the filling. This is not so
expensive rs heavy filling or as a mar
auetry floor would lie. Tie darkest ma.
room, red. blue. gold, and olive tints are
chosen for these plain Filings and mast
NO III VIII WIN
of the rug.
In the decoration of the table with
flowers, many ladies prefer one color;
and the most beautiful tables of the win
ter have been dressed with Jacqueminot
roses throughout, or with white or yell
low roses unmixed with other flowers.
The pink Glorie de Paris makes beau
tiful effect in this way. Even the hum
BILE daisy has set forth more than one
table this winter alone. However, flowers
seem to need company, and masses Of
gorgeous and well-assorted flowers are
more often seen. Flowers of very heavy
scent should be avoided, as they make
some people faint.
The easiest and most inexpensive work
as we'll as the pleasantest for mid-sum-
mer, the Bazaar thinks, is that done on
linen and monte cloth in outline designs.
Toilet sets, tides, towel slams, table
cloths and dollies are among the useful
things ornamented in this way in Kate
Greenaway designs, or Pickwick carica-
lures, or else Japanese figures, Chinese
pagodas. a single great vase, or perhaps
a willow cup and saucer. These are done
in the simplest outline stitches in the
Turkey red cotton that washes so we'll,
or in the black tiloselie (split), which is
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