Rickrack Redux

Since my first blog post about rickrack I’ve come across a few really nice examples of rickrack combined with crochet. I found the first in a box full of crocheted trims that a friend gave me. See how it’s looped back and caught with the thread to form a flower-like shape. The second is from a cotton bed sheet that I found at an antique store last weekend. Same basic design but with two rows sewn together to form a wide band that runs all along the top of the sheet. Really gorgeous work!





Someone asked me if I was going to cut up the sheet for pillows. Umm, no. Sometimes I find things that are so perfect it would be a shame to alter them in any way. And this sheet is perfect except for a very tiny hole near the bottom. Even though it's that heavy cotton that needs to be ironed, I'm going to use it as it was intended—on my bed!

Rain, rain, go away

It’s been raining where I live since Sunday. And not a nice soft drizzly rain either. The downpour kind. Not only is my basement flooded, but I’ve had a sinus headache and stuffed-up nose and just feel crappy. I don’t usually do this but on Monday I gave up and went to bed. I sipped juice, read and did embroidery, but mostly I napped. There’s nothing like a summer cold to knock me flat. Anyway, that’s why I haven’t posted since last week. I’m feeling better today and hope to be fully recovered soon. Because...

This weekend is the annual linen/button theme weekend at Shupp’s Grove in Adamstown, PA. (Weird music warning if you click that link) They have a flea market every weekend but this is a special one where vendors focus on textiles and sewing-related items. This will be my third year and I always find tons of stuff. I especially love the Amish and Mennonite women who come in from the surrounding areas to sell feedsacks, which are just about my favorite thing. I really should do a post about them one of these days. Not sure whether I’ll go on Saturday or Sunday—that depends on whether it’s raining. Did I mention that I’m sick of this weather :)

I'll be sure to pack my camera and post some pics next week. And tell you what I found!

Strawberries

People have definite likes and dislikes when it comes to strawberry shortcake. My grandmother always made it with biscuits (with some sugar added to the dough) and served it in a bowl with milk poured over it. My mom usually bought those little packaged sponge cakes and served it with Cool-Whip. She worked and didn’t have time to do much from-scratch baking or make her own whipped cream.

I’m not a big fan of pre-packaged foods so will usually take the time to make things myself because they taste so much better and I know what’s in there. So, I bake my own sponge cake. I don’t remember where I got this recipe but I’ve been making it for as long as I can remember. It’s easy (especially with a Kitchenaid to do the mixing for you), tastes yummy, and looks like you spent all day in the kitchen.

Sponge Cake with Strawberries

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
5 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 quart strawberries, hulled and halved
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, whipped, divided

Mix flour and baking powder; set aside. In a large bowl at high speed, beat eggs and sugar for 10 minutes, or until lemon-colored and thickened (don't scrimp on the time—it needs lots of air). Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter in the ¼ cup heavy cream, lemon peel, and vanilla.

Gently fold flour mixture into the egg-sugar mixture, then add the cream mixture. Divide batter evenly between two greased and floured 9-inch layer cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes, or until the top springs back when touched lightly. Cool in pans on rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely.

Gently toss the berries with sugar and let stand at room temperature until they draw juice, about an hour.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spoon half the berries and juice over; then top with all but 1 cup whipped cream. Place second layer on top and press down lightly. Spoon remaining berries and juice on the cake; mound remaining whipped cream in the center. Serves 10.

You can use a combination of berries and, if you want to be really fancy, add a little orange liqueur to the berries. Yum!

Happy Father's Day!

Back in May I did a photo tribute to my mom for Mother's Day. This one's for my dad who died of pancreatic cancer six years ago.


There was no date on this but definitely 1940s.


On a trip to Oklahoma in the mid 50s with his camera gear. He was an excellent photographer and I got my photo skills from him. Thanks, Dad!


1959 on vacation. Love that flat top!

Stanley Thomas Moir
1931-2000

Eye Candy...the printed variety

When my friend Deborah at ChicCosas mentioned the new magazine Adorn and how nicely designed it was, I ran right down to Borders to check it out. And she’s right, it is. And, true to its tagline “the crafty girl’s guide to embellishing life” it’s full of fun ideas. Like embroidering Chinese slippers (I love Chinese slippers and will definitely do this), painting on china, and sewing with eyelet trims. I especially liked the article about shopping for vintage stuff called “Secondhand Style.”



And, because it was Borders and I couldn’t resist, I didn’t stop at just one. I also picked up the premiere issue of JunkMarket Style, which features Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer who you may recognize from Country Living magazine or from their books about turning junk into treasures. I sometimes find their ideas a bit silly, but there are lots of great tips here. And a great article about a junking trip they took in and around Los Angeles.

I also found the new issue of Quilts and More with instructions for a cute patchwork tote bag, a strip quilt that will be a great way to use up small scraps, and a patchwork dog bed. How fun!

The fourth magazine, Marie Claire Idees came in the mail today from my friend Alex at Blossom Boutique. When I visited her a couple of weeks ago she had a copy and was nice enough to send me one when I couldn’t find it near where I live. This is a French magazine and I can only pick out a word here and there thanks to my one semester of French in college. But no matter. The photos are beautiful and, if I can’t figure out the instructions, I’ll find someone who can translate for me.

In case you couldn’t tell, I have a thing for magazines. Not so surprising when I tell you that magazine design is something I do in my other life. I’ve designed kids magazines, agricultural trade magazines (yawn), and some health and medical-related ones, too. Nothing as fun as craft magazines—unfortunately. But I do appreciate a good-looking magazine. If you have any favorites, dear readers, please do share.

Uh, oh

Guess who's taken up residence in my strawberry patch?



And it's worse than that—there are two of them! I went to check for ripe berries and some of the ones I thought would be perfect on my cereal this morning were gone. And others had little bites out of them. Now, there are lots of strawberries and I don't mind sharing, but can't they please eat the whole strawberry?

Look at this—they're not the slightest bit afraid of me!

The power of making

For as long as I can remember I’ve kept journals. Oh, nothing formal – just plain notebooks usually. I write quotes from books or magazines, paste in photos that I like, and draw little sketches for things I’d like to make someday. I was cleaning the other day and came across some old journals from years ago.

Often when I save things I'm not even sure why. So it’s interesting that something I wrote down more than 15 years ago can still resonate and have meaning – maybe more so now than it did then. Keep in mind that I wasn’t doing much crafting or quilting when I wrote this quote by Miriam Shapiro:

“What is a quilt? Among other things, it is the history of women, a receptacle of passions, attitudes, largesse, and anger. It is a reassembling process, which in itself may embody a solution to human problems. It is inspiration, a connection to self, the dogged will to make something extraordinary in the midst of family routine, a sense of wholeness, the wish to please, to succeed, pleasure in the act of working and knowing the power of “making.”

The power of making – wow, don’t you love that? And not just as it applies to quilting.

…the quilting tradition illuminates the darkness of women’s history like a torch, showing us the strength and power of women as artist-makers and the consolidation of women as a sharing community.”

A sharing community. And isn’t that exactly what we’re doing here online - just on a much larger scale? There aren’t a lot of crafty women or outlets for creativity where I live. The internet has given me (and all of us) a way connect with women who have the same interests and to form friendships all over the world. And I think that’s an amazing thing. And something Miriam wouldn't have even dreamed of back when she wrote that.

The picture above doesn't have much to do with this post, although I didn't want to do an all-text one (and we all like a little eye candy along with the words). I think a lot of us keep journals or scrapbooks of ideas - maybe one of these days I'll talk more about mine.

Eat your carrots...

I thought I’d show off a recent Ebay purchase and new embroidery project today. It’s a matching set with a baby bib and highchair tray cloth from the 1930s. At least, I think it’s 1930s. Designs from that time period tend to be less cute and sweet than later designs.





I just love the design of the carrots – a simple elongated triangle.



When I’ve finished the embroidery I’m going to back them both with an allover carrot print cotton and add some binding – probably orange. Maybe a thin layer of batting or flannel to soften them up a bit, too.

I also bought a set of four Colortex quilt blocks from the same seller. I’m going to use them for a set of pillows, although I haven’t decided if they’ll all use the same fabrics. Maybe that’s too matchy-matchy. And it might limit my color choices. Hmmm.



There’s also a girl puppy knitting, a girl kitty playing with a spool of ribbon, and a boy bear tooting a horn. These are from the 1950s—see the difference—much sweeter. Now to find some time to work on these.

Tie One On: Smock Apron

The May theme for the Tie One On apron show-and-tell was to make a smock apron to wear out—something I had wanted to do anyway. I bought a Simplicity pattern (#5201) a while back during one of JoAnn's pattern sales, so just needed some suitable fabrics. JoAnn's came through again with this daisy floral print that I found on the sale rack for $2/yard! The black and white polkadot came from my stash.

The fabrics...


The pattern...


I thought this would be easy to make because there were four pattern pieces and just four seams, but I didn't account for the binding. Because it goes around the entire outside edge it ended up being miles long and was kind of tricky to work with. If I make this again I think I'll sew one edge of the binding on first and then flip it to the front instead of the way they said to do it. It's another step but I think it would go more smoothly and involve less pinning (and yes, cursing). Another weird thing happened with the binding. When I cut it on the bias (which you really need to do for the curves) the dots lined up in rows. I think that looks funny.

Front view...


Back view...


I have to say I'm a little disappointed with how it turned out. I like the combination of fabrics and the pockets are cool, but I'm not happy with the fit and will have to adjust the side seams a bit if I'm going to wear it. The reason my hands are in the pockets in the front view photo is because I'm holding down the underarm/side seam bagginess with my arms. If I'm going to do more sewing for myself I really need to get a dress form. If I'd had one I would have realized this was too big early enough to do something about it. Oh well, live and learn as they say.

There are lots of cute aprons this month—check 'em out in the gallery.

Art Star Crafts Bazaar

For those of you in Philadelphia this coming weekend, be sure to check out the 3rd Annual ART STAR CRAFT BAZAAR on Saturday from 11-7 and Sunday from 11-5 pm. (Click on the poster for more info and to see who'll be there.)


©2004 Art Star

Hosted by Art Star Gallery & Boutique and held in conjunction with the Northern Liberties Music Festival, the event features more than 50 artists, crafters, and designers who will be selling their wares along the Liberties Walk (1030-1040 N. 2nd Street) & down Bodine Street, meeting up at the annual Northern Liberties Music Festival in Liberty Lands Park.

I won’t be exhibiting but you can find some of my things at the Blossom Boutique booth. I’ll be delivering a bunch of stuff to them tomorrow—so much that it's more cost effective to not mail them. Road trip - yay!!! Besides pillows (of course), there will be tissue cozies, credit card wallets, vintage fabric covered buttons and feedsack towels—many of which are not to be found on my website. The weather is supposed to be good and it should be a great time.

And we’re off!

Ah, Memorial Day weekend. The start of summer and never mind that it doesn’t officially start until the middle of June. It is the official start of junking season. Yard and garage sales, auctions, estate and tag sales, the local flea market—all are fertile ground for finding treasures.

Magazines often publish a list of junking tips this time of year, and they bear repeating.

• Wear comfortable clothes—things you don’t mind getting dirty—because they will. Comfortable shoes, too—you’ll be walking a lot.
• Get there early if you want the best stuff. But go later to get the real bargains. Vendors would rather you take items home than have to repack them up to take home themselves. They’ll make deals to get you to do that.
• Bring cash. Would you take checks and credit cards at a garage sale? I didn’t think so. Small bills are appreciated, too.
• Bring bottled water and something to eat, especially if you’re trying to eat healthy. Yes, they serve food at flea markets, but it’s more the fried corndog variety than anything you’d want to eat regularly.
• If something “speaks” to you, just buy it. As Mary Randolph Carter says “ Don’t ask yourself ‘Do I have a place for this?”’ Room in your heart means there’s room in your house.” Don’t think you can go back and get it later because chances are it won’t be there.
• It’s OK to haggle for higher ticket items but don’t nickel and dime the small stuff. It’s insulting to the seller and doesn’t make you look too good either. You can often get a deal if you buy several things from the same seller.

To which I would add:

• Be sure to look down. I’ve found some of the best things underneath tables in boxes.
• Carry a big bag. I have a barkcloth tote bag that, I swear, is bottomless. Great for all the small things I tend to buy—like bags of buttons and linens.
• Don’t take things too seriously. Just because something is supposed to be used for a certain purpose doesn’t mean you can’t be creative and use it for something completely different. It’s supposed to be fun!

Unfortunately I had too much to do in my garden this weekend after the rain last week, so I didn’t hit the garage sales. But I did stop at a church tag sale on Saturday and found some amazing things. A bag full of knitting and needlework books and magazines from the 30s, 40s and 50s – for (can you believe it?) $1. I also found two of these plates for $2 each.



I don’t know much about china and bought them because they’re pretty (and I'm sure those smaller flowers are primroses). So imagine my surprise when I did a little research online and discovered that they’re Grindley china from England and are worth about $18 each. In perfect condition, which these are not. My point is that you should trust your gut. Buy what you like—you’ll figure out a use for it later. And happy hunting this summer!

Weekend Finds

I made a quick stop at the antique mall on Saturday and found a bunch of cool stuff at the button booth. Notice the square and diamond theme I've got going. Funny how that seems to happen.



And I scored a bunch of cool handkerchiefs for $1 each!

I've been reading a book from the library by Pat Long Gardner called Handkerchief Quilts and I'm getting ideas for how I might use some of the handkerchiefs I've collected to make small quilts. I sometimes make pillows with them but I like the idea of having a slightly larger (18 to 24 inches square) size to work with. Pat uses printed hankies from the 30s to 60s, placing each in the center and building outward with coordinating colors and patterns. Like this one called Shall We Dance?:



And this one by Tom Lamb called Marching Bear that uses a 1930s children's hanky:



Aren't they cool? And, with my funkier stash of fabrics and color sense, I think I can do some fun things with this idea. Can't wait to get started!

Scenes from the Scrap Bag

If you do any sewing, and especially of you do a lot of it, you end up with a bag full of scrap fabric - pieces too small for pillows or clothes or full-size projects of whatever it is that you make. That's fine when you're crafting for fun but it's another thing altogether when it's your business. It's wasteful and goes against my thrifty nature. But, what to do with them all?

I've been trying some patchworky pillows based on an idea I saw in an old Country Living magazine (the British one, not the American - it's much cooler). There's nothing new about the idea but I never thought of using bits of embroidery in amongst the fabric. I often find linens that are too damaged to use whole but have wonderful perfect bits, so this will be a great way to use them. Here's a very pink, vaguely rose-themed one I completed yesterday:



The squares are about 4 inches across and I've added some small buttons where the seams meet. This ought to work with even smaller patches—just more of them. Or maybe a border of small patches around a central image?

With some slightly larger pieces I made a bunch of tissue cozies with tab and vintage button closures...




And, also with larger pieces, a batch of sachet stacks. Basically these are small lavender-filled pillows, each one a little larger than the last, stacked up and tied with grosgrain ribbon...



Yes, I've had a productive week. What can I say - it's been raining just about nonstop. The sun popped out briefly this morning and I managed to get a small part of the yard mowed in between the grass drying and the rain starting again. Now it's thundering and the sky is that funny shade of greenish-gray. Better head back to the studio. I've barely made a dent in that box of scraps—let's see what else I can come up with :)

Pretty Ribbons

I discovered this website recently and thought I’d share. I love the clean look of the site and the fun sketchy drawings of ribbon jars. And the page where you can shop for ribbon by color. The drawings are grayscale and turn color when you mouse over them. Fun idea!

And how cool are these special collections?



Each themed collection is packaged in a new or vintage jar and comes with a hand-crafted numbered tag that lists the collection name and the total yards of ribbon and trim inside. The one pictured here (the monthly theme jar for April) is a vintage Ball canning jar and is packed with 15 yards of ribbon (satin, grosgrain, ric-rac and woven) in one and two-yard pieces—all in shades of spring green. Honestly, these are so pretty that I probably wouldn’t use the ribbon. I’d sit the jar on a shelf and just look at it :)

You can sign up to receive their monthly newsletter. And maybe, if you do something crafty with ribbon, even become a guest designer. Makes me want to do things with ribbon!


The Ribbon Jar
http://www.ribbonjar.com

Violets

violets
Originally uploaded by primrose_design.

We planted these last summer and they're looking pretty spectacular for their first year in bloom. All the flowers seem to be early this year, even though it's still very cold in the mornings.

Just thought I'd post a pretty picture today. I'm in the studio finishing up a batch of vintage eyelet sachets and working on a patchworky pillow - kind of a new design. So, more pics coming soon.

Studio Friday: Sounds

“What are the sounds in your studio?” Sit quietly and listen. I am sure you’ll be surprised at what you hear!”

My studio is a pretty quiet place. There’s the whirrr of the sewing machine, of course. And the occasional hiss of steam from the iron that stays plugged in most of the time. My red clock ticks softly.



The room I work in (which used to be a spare bedroom) is at the back of the house so I can faintly hear cars going by. Even though I’m in a rural area my house is right on the road. That’s typical of homes built before cars and mine dates to 1862. I usually walk down the driveway to get the mail from the mailbox across the road, but, when I have packages, the mailperson drives up and honks her horn so I can run down and sign for them.

When I have the windows open I can hear birds singing. My studio faces the woods in the back and the yard on the side and both are home to many species of birds. One (and I’m not sure what it is) has the most amazing long trill that’s just beautiful.

My cats often hang out with me—mostly sleeping but sometimes knocking buttons or spools of thread off my work table just for the thrill of it. But, when it’s time for their noon treats, they let me know by meowing loudly. I talk to them sometimes, too.

I’m probably the only person on the planet who doesn’t listen to music when I work. I was one of those kids that couldn’t do homework to music either – if that explains anything. I like quiet when I work—it helps me to stay focused. When I’m in my car? Now that’s a different story :)

More sounds here,

New tea towel designs!

I've been slipping up on my blog updating this past week. And I had such good intentions, too. It's just that it's been so beautiful outside and there's so much to do in the garden. Pruning raspberry bushes, cleaning up the herbs, dragging out the big pots that I plant morning glories in. We have 4.5 acres - half woods and half not - and there's always something that needs to be done.

But I managed to spend some time in the studio, too, and cranked out a dozen tea towels. These are a new style and have borders of authentic (1930s to 1960s) feedsack cotton and jumbo rickrack, which I've been able to find in cool colors like marigold, nile green, and geranium. I just love these old feedsack prints - and the originals are so much prettier than the reproductions. So colorful and modern in spite of their age.



The other style, which I'm still offering, have fruit print borders and embroidered anthropomorphic fruit motifs from vintage transfer patterns. Because of the embroidery (done by hand, of course) this style takes a lot longer. I have two more Sugar Plums in the works and just found more of the blueberry and strawberry fabrics on Ebay (yay!) so will be able to make more of those designs. Special order for now until I get caught up.





I also made two with a feedsack print of tiny tomatoes and green rickrack. The embroidery will be from another transfer pattern in the same style (same artist probably) of a tomato dancing with a green pepper. So fun! I promise to post pictures when it's done.

Happy May Day!

Wildlife

One of the very best things about working at home is that I can stop working when something really interesting happens. Like today when one of our broad-winged hawks was hanging around our yard and woods. I heard him a couple of days ago, and he has a very distinctive cry, so I knew he was back from his winter travels. The female will arrive in a week or so. Maybe his cries are to help her find the way back. They've been coming here for the past three years so they must have some kind of sense-memory. I really should read up on their habits.

I saw him briefly this morning out on the lawn and then after he flew up into the apple tree. Just now he was perched on a dead branch up in the woods. I watched him for 15 minutes or so with binoculars while he cleaned and fluffed his feathers. Maybe they'll come closer this year and I'll be lucky enough to get a photo. I feel lucky to be able to see them at all.

It's also the time of year for wildflowers in the woods. I found a bunch of dutchman's breeches this morning, and the trilliums and trout lilies will soon follow. Aren't they cool? Like little white pants :)

Studio Friday: Sparkle/Shine

I was saving this picture to go with a future post about vintage buttons. But, when I heard the Studio Friday theme this week was Sparkle/Shine, I couldn’t think of a more perfect picture to use for it.



I bought these vintage rhinestone buttons at an antique mall near where I live around Christmastime. It was snowy outside and they looked just like sparkly snowflakes. I sent some to a friend who uses them in her work and tucked the rest away in a drawer. I‘ll use them some day but, for now, I’m content to just look at them every once in a while. And now you can, too!

Shades of White

I’ve been selling at a wonderful little shop in Stevensville (Bradford County, Pennsylvania) called Shades of White. Owned by Monika Kennedy, it’s located in a cute space attached to her home. You walk along a path of lavender and flowers to reach the front door and you can hear the bells tied around the necks of the goats that her husband raises. (And there are 18 new babies this spring!) There’s often a line of vintage linens on the clothesline drying in the sun. Inside it’s filled to the brim with beautiful things—mostly vintage linens but some clothing, sachets, soaps, and china, too. It’s not a large space (just one big room), but she manages to fill every space perfectly.

When she called me a couple of weeks ago to place an order for sachets, she said I could ship them if I wanted to. But, the weather is nicer now, and I was up for a road trip, so I said that I’d deliver them in person. My ulterior motive in this is that she always has wonderful surprises for me – some bits of lace, a few pretty buttons, some vintage fabric that she picked up in her travels. I bought that small bluebird plate – the one I used to announce my spring collection – there last fall.

So, I thought I’d post some pictures of the shop. Don’t you just love everything and the way she’s arranged it?




That's one of my pillows at the top.



I think many of us have dreams of opening a shop of our own – I know I do. Of course, we’re thinking of the romantic side of things – how we would decorate the space and arrange products, what kinds of things we’d buy to sell. Not the bookkeeping and taxes and all the behind-the-scenes stuff. But, if I did have a shop, this is how I’d want it to look – a happy mix of pretty things!

Shades of White, RR1 Box 20A (Route 706), Stevensville, PA 18845. Hours: Wednesday 11-3, Friday & Saturday 11-6