Another needlework roll

While looking for fabric for the Boro workshop at the Guild last weekend, I came across another cotton banner that Jim had bought for me while he was on an official visit to Japan around 1996. These are lovely, but I hadn't found a use for them until I thought of using them in embroidery rolls - the device preferred by embroiderers to roll, rather than fold, work-in-progress (another benefit I derived from the Guild's Basics to Beyond Course).  Although having more rolls will only encourage me to have more works-in-progress, I felt that was preferable to the banner going unused in a drawer.

I had the inner cardboard from a roll of hand towel in my store of items-that-might-come-in-handy, so got to work while the mood was on.

The banner had quite a bit of plain green fabric at both ends. One formed wide hem into which the roll was inserted. I cut a strip about 6 cm wide from the other end, and from that cut two circles. Using a row of running stitch around the outside edge of each, 

I gathered them into balls which I filled with wool stuffing and inserted into the ends of the roll once it was inside the hem of the banner.                                .

I then stitched it around the edge of the tube to hold it in place.

The result is another useful roll. The banner will be admired, and the gift appreciated, each time the roll is used. 

Feels like progress to me!