Napkin Stacking 101

A Day in the Life of a Napkin Stacker
Guest Blogger: Annie Bruington

A napkin stack

I love working at Picking Daisies. Really. I get to play with and organize beautiful fabric all day, make the store look neat and tidy all day long, ogle at the newest fabric shipments, and tie scrap pieces of fabric in my hair. Can you think of a better way to spend your summer? I certainly can't.

My usual task when I come into work is to stack the napkins that are on display. Being the perfectionist that I am, I have developed a technique to optimally arrange these napkins to make them look their best. I (quite dorkily) take great pride in my napkin stacks. An organized, neat display makes me feel proud and allows me to work on other projects around the store.

I should not be so attached to these napkin stacks, for it is extremely helpful for customers to lay out the different napkins they are interested in to pick out their perfect napkin set. It's what I do when I pick out napkin sets for gifts. This means that I occasionally come in to work and find that my napkin piles have been searched through. Some napkins have been tied up with a ribbon and taken home. Other napkins were not right for a set and were put back.

A mess

These careful searches for the perfect napkins leave the display looking a little less than perfect.

A mess indeed

Oh, my heart. I should not be so invested in the stacking of napkins. I'm doomed from the start. Arriving to work every day, I tend to hold my breath in the nervous anticipation of how each stack could possibly look. If only I wasn't quite so emotionally invested. Most would recommend that I find myself a hobby to distract me from the emotional roller coaster that arises from the responsibility of stacking cloth napkins. However, being in Picking Daisies is one of my favorite hobbies; I love reorganizing and straightening up.

The first trick to making a beautiful napkin stack is to lay out all napkins that will be in the stack.

All laid out

Finding out how many of each pattern is available will help me place the right number of napkins in each stack.

Careful placement is key

By alternating which way the seam goes when stacking, the napkin pile won't be extremely lopsided. Placing each napkin carefully upon the next is truly the key to making each stack look perfect.

Coordinating nail polish is a bonus!

And voila, a close-to-perfect napkin stack.

Give that stack a little pat

Here is the final result of my hard day's work...

Wow - beautiful napkin display!

Now, don't be shy about taking apart a napkin stack to see our many different patterns next time you visit Picking Daisies; think of it as your way to finding your favorite napkins and my favorite job to complete.

My mom and I



If you like the napkins that I used in my stacking sample, they are from the fabulous new fabric line by Anna Maria Horner  The line is called "Loulouthi", and you can see the napkins and fabric here.



Bye - thanks for reading!