Cute new linens deliver bluebonnets for spring
In a sign of spring, the founders of two Houston brands, Margarita Mercantile and Spice Paper Designs, have collaborated on a set of heirloom-quality linen cocktail napkins.
Using the artisans who hand embroider the delicate flowers on Margarita Mercantile’s traditional dresses — designer Celina Villarreal says she looks for ways to give the women new projects and additional wages — the two have debuted a napkin that isolates bluebonnets from designer Becca Gips’ paper collection.
With a rococo stitch that Villarreal learned from her mother as a child, a group of artisans in Aguascalientes, Mexico, employ a dayslong process to hand draw each bloom, then pull thread through the fabric with a technique that Villarreal describes as a lost art.
“A talent we are trying to bring back,” she says of the type of needlework in this part of central Mexico that is distinct from other regions. “More delicate, more defined” — a heritage acquired from the Spanish and the French.
Seeing her art translated from paper to textiles is exhilarating, Gips says, and the painstaking process is evident in the napkins’ rich detail.
“The stitches that they are using on the bluebonnet makes them almost three-dimensional
in a way that I could never have imagined,” Gips says.
Villarreal says the napkins are suitable for use at family celebrations and milestones and can be passed down to the next generation.
Both agree that the bluebonnet — one of Gips’ most popular patterns, available in note cards, letterpress stationery and wrapping paper — is the ideal subject of their first project together.
“When you’re driving on the
highway and you see endless bluebonnets that time of year, it just seems magical,” Gips says. “There is this carpet in front of you and around you that emerges seemingly out of nowhere.”
Villarreal says the blankets of blue wildflowers remind her of colorful fields in France and Italy. Each spring, when the state flower blooms, “it’s a sign of a fresh beginning and of joy.”