Saturday, December 30, 2017

Hey New Year, it's still Christmas, you know


As Christmas winds itself up to its sixth day crescendo, I scan the horizon of the new year coming. Christmas is falling now towards Twelfth Night. It's only the middle of Christmas, but the Gregorian calendar is forcing me to stop and consider new beginnings even before the old things are stored away. 

There are fairs to prepare for, local shops to fill, and an art show looming. The online shops - yes, there are two of them - are being cleaned out, reorganized, and stocked. 

And the goodies - oh! the goodies I find at flea markets and antique shops. Yesterday's discovery was a laundry line of doll clothes that will become art projects. Washed and ironed, the task now is the discover the stories within them and stitch these into the fabric of their past.


Who doesn't love a simple palette like these little treasures? And longjohns for dolls? Does it need a little bum flap made from vintage feedsack? 


And then there's this little plaid dress. Did you notice the two different edgings on the collar? And then there's the hand stitched button holes. These leave me breathless in their beauty.


Are you ready? Have you put Christmas away in favor of resolutions and new planners? Don't give it all up yet. It's still Christmas, you know. There are still gifts in the present tense.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Meet the O'Lanterns



The land and its outbuildings are coughing up more treasures as we tear down walls, remove layers of flooring, and dig out the crawl space under the house.

Housed between the two sides of the rotting dry wall of a shed behind the house, there were dozens of printing mats, short for matrix. These are heavy cardboard sheets steamed over typeset newspaper pages so the words and images are made in impression. The cardboard is rolled and covered with lead to produce lead drums that fill in the impressions. The drums are inked and used in rotary printing of pages of the newspaper.  

One of the pages has a date of June 1956.





 


 And then the walls gave us critters. One whole skeleton and somewhat mummified squirrel and two more skulls and a spine and ribs.

 

But the land gives us more. Meet the O'Lanterns. Pumpkins for carving and smaller sugar pie pumpkins for eating. Seeds and string removed for baking tonight, baked with brown sugar, butter, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. Seeds are drying for snacking later.










Little friends visit and the pecans fall. 



And just before sunset, one last treasure of the day is discovered between lost pages of time on the land.


 Just in time for a creepy Halloween.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Another batch of aprons


In the delicious mad dash to create fabric and stitchery "babies" for a local shop in town, I have had to absolutely reorganize my fabric hutch and supplies. 

It may not look different from any previous photo - except I now know where everything is. Because I have twice the amount of fabrics I did a couple of months ago, supplies were displaced to other areas and all the fabric is not in the hutch.

The lampshades are for mobiles. I've been taking the fabric/paper off and wrapping them and adding doodads. Some are too lovely though and will be embellished as is.


Windowsill collection.
 



Mr. True Love is building me a simple work table out of some plywood he bought to make himself a workbench for his man cave. It should be ready in a few days and I'm thrilled. When I did mainly hand work, the folding table I have was plenty of table, but with aprons and machine sewing going on, I need more work area to spread fabrics on.

I took a few more aprons to Mary's shop but forgot to take photos of them. But here's probably the last batch for awhile, hot off the press and ready to deliver.

These are all made from pillowcases and a sham. Vintage bits and bobs, table scarves, handkerchiefs, lace, tea towels, quilt blocks adorn them. 

Just in case it's spring in your hemisphere.

Poly/cotton pillowcase, linen napkin, cotton handkerchief, linen table scarf.




What an elegant sham. Rich colors and a bit of quilting and lacy bits.

Cotton and linen fabrics, cotton lace, otton ric rac.




I like the country, vintage, and cottage look. 

Cotton fabrics, linen napkin and tea towel, cotton embroidery.







The quilt piece came like that. Someone must have already taken apart a hand stitched quilt top using feed sack squares.

Poly/cotton fabric, cotton fabrics, linen table scarf, cotton doily bit, synthetic lace and ribbon.
 



The embroidered teapot is one of 34 embroidered squares I bought in a pack awhile back. It was likely supposed to become a quilt all together but had never been pieced.

I love the vintage fabric in the ties. I have about 2 yards of it and I'm wondering what to do with it. The green napkin is a pocket.

Cotton fabrics, linen napkins, cotton doily, cotton lace.
 




The large ruffled bit is a folded silk handkerchief. 

Poly/cotton, linen table linen with cotton embroidery, synthetic lace, silk handkerchief.
 




If you see any you'd like to buy, I won't be taking them over for a couple of days. Email me and we can arrange it. They are $25 each plus shipping.

Art aprons must be hand washed and hung to dry.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Apronology

Mary asked me to make aprons for her adorable shop. I love wearing aprons of all kinds. They just change up how I feel about what I'm doing. I even wear them out of the house sometimes!

I am so happy with the ones I've just finished, I decided to let you have first pick! I have these three to share today.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these, just email me for prices. I can ship in padded envelopes for about $5 in the US and $8 elsewhere.

All the aprons are 20" x 28" wide. They are all backed with cotton or cotton/poly fabric.

Candy stripey wrap apron

Made from cotton fabrics, vintage ric rac, and a scrap of antique cotton doily. The ties are 38" long each.

This apron has a good sized right handed pocket made from a vintage tablecloth.




Teal is "In" Apron

Is there anything that isn't teal these days? Still, it's a lovely color and I'm glad it's still making the rounds.

Made from cotton and linen with 2 plastic buttons, cotton ribbon, a cotton embroidered panel, and a couple of clothing labels. The seersucker stripe is a right handed pocket. The ties are 42" long each for a goodly wrap-around bow.

The photos are a lot more yellow than I wanted. The teal is a lovely shade and the whites are actually white, although the embroidered rose panel is indeed a creamy color.










Elegant Hostess

This one has no pocket, but it does have a gorgeous hand embroidered panel on the front that I just found this week. Made from cotton and linen fabrics and an unusual red and white handkerchief. The ties are 31" long each. 









It's good to be partnering up with Mary. It gets me out of the house and, in truth, online biz isn't holding its own compared with doing in-person local business. My online business has been a losing venture since the start even though I just love making new things to share and sell. I tip my hat to those who can make it work!


Off to the sewing room now! I have more fabric to sort through.