C2—Lancaster faming, Saturday, Septar-br 20,1910
It’s fair time in Lancaster County, and crafty people are
buy searching out samples of their finest work to ready
them for display and competition at the local fairs. _
Kathleen Denlinger, Denlinger Road, Gap, has been
eriwTiitme at three local fairs and the Pennsylvania State
Farm Show for many years, and is currently gathering a
sample of her nig braiding and smpcking tp enter at the
Solanco Fair. Later her entries will travel to the Lam
peter Fair and to the New Holland Fair. \
, This is being written before Judging at the first fair is
completed, but the wool braided rug she is entering is a
work of art. Kathleen recalls that she learned rug
braiding about 12 years ago and started entering fairs
after that. “The very first time I entered a braided rug at
file Farm Show I took first,” die says proudly.
She became interested in braiding through a brother-in
law who makes rugs and took her initial course at Oc
torara High School “to help fill a class” which didn’t have
enough applicants. She says learning to braid is not hard,
“for me. I don’t think it’s difficult. ”
Kathleen wanted to make a braided rug for her dining
room, but was cautioned against making a 9 x 12 rug for
her first project. So she quickly completed a smaller 3x5
nig and then moved onto the larger one. The largest rug,
she ever made was a 12 z 16 foot rug which was sold and
which took over a year to complete.
Kathleen’s rugs are made from 190 percent wool and she
prefers wring new fabric. “I don’t like to use scraps. For
the time you put into it, it doesn't make sense not to have it
wear well,” she states. She purchases her wool by the
pound at the Amish Farm and House. She estimates that it
takes approximately one pound of wool per square foot of
rug.
Choosing colors for the finished product is a job
Kathleen enjoys and she admits that she has a good sense
of what looks good together. She laughs when asked if she
her products, and says, “I do, but I don’t charge
enough.”
She has one rug in a home in New Jersey and before she
tackled the colors she traveled there to visit the home
trhere the three living room rugs would be used. Usually
she says die uses a piece of wallpaper or a covering from
the arm of furniture to help with the selection. -
After selecting the wool, the first step is ripping the wool
or cutting it. Some wool will rip, once Kathleen starts it
with her wool cutter. Strips are cut 1-5/8 inches wide.
When she has a quantity of wool to be ripped,.Kathleen
invites the neighborhood children for an afternoon, and
then treats them to ice cream. “They think it’s fun,” she
says. She recalls doing the ripping in her home, but the
fuzz was overwhelming so now the chore is done in the
garage.
Once all the wool ia cut, she begins to braid. As the
braiding progresses she works with lacing the rug
together with linen lacing thread. She said her rugs are
laced so the right and wrong side are the same.
While she does the braiding on the small rugs in her
family room or kitchen, Kathleen says she sits on her
basement floor to work on larger ones. “I sit on a pillow
and go around the floor,” she states.
hi file Spring, she helped with some braiding at a local
church and as she demonstrated, she beard comments
like, “She must be strong. It’s good she’s so small or she
couldn’t work on the flow like that.” Kathleen responds
that the floor work does not bother her, and she does have
good strength from pulling the lacing thread tight. “The
tighter it is the better it is,” she points out. She also noted
a blister on her fingerfrom pulling the thread.
The wool rugs she braids are extremely durable. “I turn
my rug at every housecleaning so that each side wears
better. You should also put a pad under the rug. It makes
it last a lot longer," she states.
Kathleen is exhibiting a rug she made for the minister of
her church, done in muted shades of off-white, light blue,
reds and dark blues. She said, “I will take the rug to all
three fairs, but you can’t enter a rag a second time. I will
probably enter this rug at the Farm Show in January but I
Needlepoint is a favorite craft of Kathleen’s.
Here is an antique shoe polishing chest which she
refinished and created a needlepoint for.
Kathleen Denlinger ripe into
BY SALLY BADt
Staff Correspondent
Despite her dry garden, Kathleen has had real
success with her hanging plants this year and is
considering entering them in fairs along with her
braided rugs and smocked dresses. She is holding
a Tahitian bridal veil andls standing next to a lush
Swedish ivy, both of which she started from
cuttings. ''
might make another one to take there.” She has good
thoughts about the rug she is exhibiting, saying, “I think I
will win. It rolls out flat.” Whatever she does, it’s a sure
bet it will place right up there with the best Kathleen says,
“I’ve never lost.”
She explains that judging is done on the basis of the
color combination, how flat is lays when it is unrolled, how
tightly it is laced and if the edges show. Kathleen pointed
out how carefully color changes are effected, usually at a
comer, so as hardly to be noticed.
Asked if she has a hard time parting with rugs she has
9! (omestfiod
dotes
made for sale, she laughed and said, “I usually want them
done. You get tired of working with the same one.” One
advantage of braiding and lacing together is that color
changes occur which makes it more interesting as the
work progresses.
Kathleen’s husband Thomas died five years ago at this
time of the year, and he was very supportive and helpful
when fair time comes. She has four children, Tom, 24, who
lives on a dairy farm in Leola with his wife Janice and
eight-month-old son Tommy; Heidi, a graduate of
MUlersville State College; Kathi, 16, a senior at Pequea
Valley High School; and Todd, 12, a seventh grader. The
children all help around the house, with Heidi sharing her
This is an example of the smocking which
Kathleen does on little girls'- dresses. She will
exhibit a smocked dress at the community fairs,
along with other hand work she creates.
9 braiding
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Kathleen Denlinger shows the braided rug which
le wiil exhibit at the community fairs this Fail,
er braided rugs are made of 100 percent wool,
id are carefully braided and laced to make them a
ark of art.
mother’s interest in > needlework. Kathi and Todd are
members of the New Holland Baby Beef 4-H Club.
The Denlinger family enjoys doing things together as a
unit, and Kathleen says she traveled with her three
younger children to Kansas City when Tonrreceived his
American Farmer Degree in 1977..
Another speciality of. Kathleen’s is smocking, a little
practiced art these days. She recalls that she learned to
smock before she .was married when she was helping a
woman with a newborn baby. That same baby was in her
wedding, and Kathleen estimates that she’s been
smocking for 28 years. In that time she has made 237
smocked dresses. She knows the exact count because she
keeps a swatch of each piece of fabric with the name of the
person for whom it was made. Kathleen says, “I started
making them as baby gifts. Hove them.”
She has a favorite pattern for a baby dress which has
now been discontinued by McCalls. Kathleen said, “I
wrote to them and asked them please to start including it
again. I always get an answer when I write.”
A third love of Kathleen’s is needlepoint, and she has
lovely examples throughout her house. Her needlepoint is
something she keeps close at hand to pick up and take
along to a doctor’s appointment and other [daces where
waiting is involved. “I keep a piece in the car,” she noted.
She admits that she often sits with the phone on her
shoulder and works on projects as she talks.
Kathleen entered her first exhibits at the New Holland
Fair, and added the Lampeter Community Fair and the
Solanco Fair. “Once it gets in your blood you don’t want to
quit. I pick out something and I take it. I used to take stuff
from my garden because I figured if I was going I may as
well take a lot,” she said about her exhibiting.
When she arrives at the fair, she knows exactly what
category each item belongs in to save time in entering
them all. She laments that this year her garden suffered
from lack of rainfall, like many others, and she will not be
entering vegetables. She has several lush hanging baskets
which die is considering entering if she cm figure out a
way to get them safely transported there.
Kathleen feels there is more competition and interest in
handwork than ever, and she feels exhibiting is a lot of
fun. She said she has met many people whom she gets to
know as they each return to the fair to enter and pick up
their exhibits.
An extremely busy homemaker, Kathleen also sings in
the choir at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Gap and
serves as a substitute Sunday School teacher as well as
helping with Bible School. She is active in the women’s
group'which serves wedding-receptions, funeral lunches
and other food functions at the church.
Kathleen is in charge of Meals on Wheels in the Gap
area, something she said she thoroughly enjoys. “It’s fun.
You get attached to the older people and it makes you feel
good. I’ve enjoyed it.” She arranges for drivers for the
nine families they are serving, and when someone'can’t
make it she usually takes the meals herself. '
Kathleen-said she enjoys anything outside, and she i
relishes telling how she worked a full afternoon this J
summer cutting tobacco with an Amish neighbor. “I
speeded out the row,” die says with a laugh. ~
(Turn to Page C 4)
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