Dusty Old Thing wrote about
Karen Fortny's photo of her mother's chenille bedspread:
"Tradition has it that a young woman from Dalton, Georgia, in the late 1890's, saw an early candlewick spread and set out to recreated it with a more tufted finish. "Chenille" is French for a hairy caterpillar. The making of chenille spreads became a cottage industry in Georgia and parts of Tennessee. Many were sold along major roads leading to Florida. In the '50's major textile companies were making them by machine. The end of their popularity probably came in the mid '60's. Travelers to Florida or the Smokies were, by then, going on Interstates."
I was given a chenille bedspread when I married in 1959 and remember seeing them sold on roadsides in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. I still have one on my shelf that's very plain and all white, not nearly as beautiful as this one. As a teenager, I hated the patterns they left on my skin when I stretched out on my bed to read during the day. Does anyone else remember these bedspreads?
1 comment:
Very interesting story about the history of the chenille spread, starting out in north Georgia! Yes this does bring back memories, on my teenage bed was a white spread, I thought it was chenille until I read this, it was apparently the predecessor - the candlewick pattern, as seen HERE
thanks for the memories!
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