Thursday, November 01, 2007

Thanksgiving Tablecloth

Are you up for another family tradition? We started a few new ones this year but this is an old tradition. I wish we'd begun this one YEARS and YEARS ago, but we started it in 2000. We've been doing it long enough now that our tablecloth is starting to look respectable.

Very simply, I bought the cheapest plain colored cloth I could fine. It WAS cheap - I probably should have bought better quality and splurged for a color....but then again it speaks of where we were when the tradition began. ::snort:: We have all our guests for Thanksgiving Dinner sign the tablecloth. BreAnne and Krista embroidered the names after the dinner for years. This worked well when they were still at home. Arielle pulled it out last night and we realized that she's not finished more than 2 names from 2006's celebration. She took this chore over. She wanted to do it because it had been the girls' job. Her stitching is MUCH nicer than mine, in fact I have no clue how to embroider or cross stitch...but I'm learning this year. ::snort:: We have 3 weeks to get all the names from last year done.
Oh yes, an important point to consider is how you will classify your names/years. The girls and I decided to pick one COLOR each year. We stitch the year and our location in the color and then stitch all names of visitors that year in that color. This works. Mike mentioned he'd like it better if we had areas sectioned off and had ALL the names from that year in that one box. Can you tell that he's more sequentially/organizationally gifted than I?

This is a fun tradition. We can watch the children's writing from year to year. We can track when a new family member entered our family. We can remember various friends fondly each year as we spread the cloth. I WISH we'd begun this when the kids were little...and Grams, Uncle Bill, and Mike's folks shared those holidays with us.....BUT I'm glad we began when we did.

It HAS become apparent that I have some children that will want this cloth when I'm finished setting Holiday tables. Because there are 9 children and I have one cloth, I've begun to think of other Holidays that need a special tablecloth. I have purchased a light gold cloth and will start a Christmas Cloth this year. I have NO IDEA how we'll get all the names stitched as well as a Thanksgiving cloth....makes me cringe to think of it....but we're going to give it a shot. 9 Holidays - Hmmmm.....
Jared and Arielle display our cloth - which needs laundering badly. The names will wash off, so we can't wash it until we are done stitching....oh the pressure!
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Here's a shot of Arielle's signature in 2002 when she was 5 years old - it's HER first signature as the girls had signed for in earlier years.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Here's Arielle's signature from 2005 when she was 8 years old.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

For the next few weeks Arielle and I will be sitting in the recliner and stitching names in all our spare moments.

18 comments:

Michelle said...

De'Etta, about a decade ago when my family was fortunate enough to attend a family reunion I took two tablecloths. As everyone showed up, I asked them to sign both tablecloths (in permanent marker). One was auctioned off (to help pay for the hall used for the reunion) and the other I kept for my family. Since our family size has increased it's too small to fit the table so I just use it as a topper. I treasure it especially now that my mom's parents are deceased and their signatures are on the cloth.

Maybe you could have everyone sign in permanent marker?

What about a birthday tablecloth for each child's birthday?

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Michelle - does the permanent marker fade or run with wash over time? Because I use permanent sharpies for baskets at co-op and I'm always having to remark them.....this would work great for birthday cloths - a good idea....

Anonymous said...

That is a really neat tradition and treasure!

Lisa~ said...

I love this idea. I would love to know if the marker fades too. Then again, to sit and stitch with your child could bring about wonderful conversation time.

What a wonderful idea!

Lisa

Debbie said...

De'Etta, I remember you mentioning this tradition last year and thought it a wonderful idea. We don't often have Thanksgiving at our home, but at my parents or my brothers. I'm not sure how we could use the idea, but Bessie and I are both stitchers and I would love to do something like this! What a wonderful family treasure.

Romany said...

DeEtta,

Did you mention what you use to sign the cloth with, that comes out in the wash? Perhaps I missed that?

Dorothy

Anonymous said...

I L-O-V-E this tradition. We'll be starting it this year. I bought the cloth last year after Christmas on clearance....thanks for reminding me!

Jen

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Debbie - one year we did not do dinner at home...Mike explained to his boss about my tablecloth and they asked me to bring it so all could sign. It was great and unqiue.

If you want - I could send you OUR cloth and you could stitch it. ::snort::

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Lisawa

Well it may bring fond memories at this point it's more like "Mom, um, I think you need to go slower". ::snort::

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Dorothy - we don't worry to much about it...we've used pencil and ink. USUALLY the floss has been dark enough and thick enough to cover it. I noticed with the light color that Arielle is using for last year the ink does show through - so we'll use pencil or go buy a fabric pencil that seamstresses use this year. It has to be permanent enough to stay while we stitch which takes us a full year. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Have fun Jen.

Jodi said...

This does sound like a fun tradition if a bit of work. Hope you can get last year done before this year! 9 cloths though, woah, that would not be easy at all!

Kathy in WA said...

De'Etta - I hope you don't mind, I posted two of your Thanksgiving traditions on my blog. I love this idea and your Thanksgiving tree, I wanted to share them with more readers. :)

Anonymous said...

We started a similar tradition for my daughter's 1st birthday. All of the guests wrote a message and signed their names on the tablecloth, and we'll continue to do this each year until the tablecloth is full. We used fabric markers. After you heat set them they won't fade. Now I'm thinking we should start Thanksgiving and Christmas tablecloths...

Melissa A.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Kathy - never a problem - thanks for linking back....

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Melissa - thanks for the tip - with fabric markers we could easily do this for birthdays - and maybe I can find the cloths on sale after Christmas or around here somewhere.....

I DO like the stitching for the Thanksgiving cloth - it's set apart and special - KWIM?

Cynthia said...

I've always wished that I would have started this when you did!

Kristine said...

WHAT a family heirloom, truly! I can't imagine having anything more special to carry on the Thanksgiving tradition, especially in those years when you are not all together.