ain cashmere or flannel, red, black or blue, on which small
fantastically shaped figures in variously colored velvets or cashmeres
are laid and button-holed down with floss silks. All sorts of forms
are employed for these figures--stars, crescents, circles, trefoils,
shields, palm-leaves, griffins, imps; and little wheels and comets
in feather-stitch and cat-stitch are inserted between, to add to the
oddity of the whole. These forms can be bought at a low price in
almost any fancy shop. A good deal of ingenuity and taste can be shown
in arranging and blending the figures richly and brilliantly, without
making them too bright and glaring. Table-covers in this work should
have falls of deep points, pinked on the edges. Smaller points of
white cashmere are sometimes inserted between the deep ones, and
similarly decorated. Bright little tassels are swung between the
points by twisted silk cords. The tassels are made of strips of
scarlet and white flannel, cut _almost_ across, in narrow fringes,
rolled into shape, and confined by a tiny heading of flannel
embroidered with silk. Sofa-pillows in this Oriental work are bright
and effective, also wall-pockets and brackets--in fact, it can be
applied in many ways. The bracket shapes must be cut in wood, and
topped with flannel, the embroidered piece hanging across the front
like a miniature drapery.

BEDSIDE RUGS.

The prettiest bedside rug which we ever saw was made in part of a
snow-white lamb's-wool mat. This was laid in the center of a stout
burlap, which projected six inches beyond the fleece all around, and
was bordered with a band of embroidery on canvas six inches wide, the
whole being lined with flannel and finished with a cord and a heavy
tassel at each corner. A simpler rug is made of brown burlap, with
a pattern in cross-stitch, worked in double zephyr worsteds of gay
colors. Initials, or a motto, can be embroidered in the middle. The
burlap can be fringed out around the edges for a finish.

[Illustration: VASE, PAINTED BLACK AND ORNAMENTED WITH FERNS
(AUTUMN-LEAF WORK).]

A RAG RUG.

An effective rug can be made in this way: Cut long inch-wide strips of
cloths, flannels, and various kinds of material (widening the strip,
however, in proportion as the fabric is thinner). Sew the ends together
so as to make one very long strip, which, for convenience' sake,
can be loosely wound up in a ball. Then, with a very large wooden
crochet-needle, you crochet a circle