A friend sent me the January / February 2004 issue (that’s not a typo; it’s from two years ago) of Piecework magazine. See www.interweave.com for information on their publications.
In this particular issue, there was an article titled “Antique Crocheted Insertions,” which included a pattern for crocheted pillowcase edging (shown above). The author, Maggie Petch, wrote that the original piece came from an estate sale in South Dakota, and was probably done around the beginning of the 20th century. It was a set with pillowcase edging and a quilt cover with matching insertion. 
What I thought was interesting was that the pattern is very similar to the that for “Dinner Cloth Edging” included in Rose Wilder Lane’s Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework, published in 1968. There are yards of lace crocheted in this pattern on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Lane Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri, probably done by Laura. The Wilder lace wasn’t insertion, so the scallops were left free to hang at the bottom. The straight side was a bit different, and Laura’s lace had a bobble in the middle of the single crocheted areas.
Once upon a time, I crocheted enough of this lace to edge my own tablecloth, but I’ve never sewn it onto one. The picture of the piece of white lace on black is a bit of lace in the same pattern that I made to cover one of those little “candle” lampshades with. I crocheted five repeats of the pattern in the round – so I wouldn’t have to join it later, then I ran a ribbon through the top, adjusted it to fit over the paper lampshade, and tied a bow at the top. I used a white shade; the black in the photo was paper I put inside the lace so you could see the stitches. Voila! Instant fussy LIW focal point.
