get your Indie Fixx

One of my embroidery tutorials is featured today on Indie Fixx! Jewelry designer Jenn Wallace of Tilting Swiftly fame runs this blog that features the best in indie style and design. And every Tuesday there's a tutorial from one of those designers. Worth checking out for that alone. But there's also a shop and special holiday and seasonal-themed gift guides, too!

you can never have too many strawberries

Seeing all those pillows again in my last post got me reminiscing about some of the linens I used to make them. The two pillows on the top shelf at the far right were made from a set of embroidered tea towels that I bought on Ebay. And they had some of the prettiest examples of cross stitch embroidery I've seen. The colors were bright and the stitching was perfectly done—and tiny, too. The finished pillows were only 14 inches square so that gives you an idea of the size. The towels had some stains that I couldn't get out so I didn't feel too bad about cutting them up.



I love anything with fruit—fabric, embroidery, buttons (and to eat, of course!) and anything I make with them (especially cherries and strawberries) seems to fly off my website. So, I guess I'm not the only one feels the way I do about them.



I wish I'd kept a closeup picture of the raspberries so you could see the stitch that was used. It's sort of an interlocked chain stitch that makes little round loops—the perfect thing for a berry. I'll see if I can find it somewhere in my embroidery books.

I did make a pattern of the strawberry design right before I sold the pillows. And you can download your very own copy here. (You'll need Acrobat Reader to open the file and be patient—it may take a while to open.) The pattern sheet also includes the border design of strawberries and leaves that ran along the bottom of the towel. I used that section across the back of the pillow. For some reason I didn't make a pattern from the raspberries (maybe because of that weird stitch that was used). I'll see what I can do using my photo as reference.

Have fun with this pattern, which is perfect for tea towels but makes a pretty cool pillow, too!

in good company

In a very roundabout way I found out that a picture of my pillows appeared in the December issue of Romantic Homes magazine. I only occasionally buy this magazine and, with the holiday bustle, I guess I never picked up an issue that month. But I did buy the March issue and the picture appeared on the Letters to the Editor page. I did a double take when I saw it because it seemed to go with a letter from someone who makes pillows and I couldn't figure out why hers looked exactly like mine.

So I called the magazine and had a nice chat with one of their editors and found out that they had done a feature on the shop that I had sold the pillows to. The photo first appeared with that feature and was reproduced at a smaller size to fill space at the end of the letters column. None of which makes me famous or anything since my company wasn't mentioned. But hey, I'll take what I can get.



Romantic Homes has been evolving over the past few years and has a younger, fresher vibe—something that the older, long-time readers don't always like but that's a good strategy for attracting new readers and future subscribers. And they've featured several of my fellow bloggers in the past year—Susan (The T-Cozy) in January 2007 and Alicia (Posie Gets Cozy) in both the February 2007 and March 2007 issues.

Maybe someday I'll get the chance to join them. With a credit, of course :)

goodies

Some goodies from my trip to Weil Antiques Center in Allentown last Saturday:

Aren't these just the best buttons? In all my years of collecting and selling buttons I've never seen these before. And, no (don't even ask), I won't be selling these! I'm not even sure I can bear to use them myself.


A vintage Vogart embroidered runner/dresser scarf. Sure hope he's not going to tomahawk that cute little doggie. He does look a little worried, doesn't he?



A vintage border print fabric with bright red daisies was made into a curtain panel. I'll probably use it for something diffferent—maybe an apron.



It was good to get out and do some hunting—antique malls are great for that this time of year. Except for a few Ebay purchases I really haven't been buying much this winter. That's OK—my cash flow is better and I'm getting the chance to use what I have on hand.

happy valentines day

A vintage valentine from my collection. And this is unusual for me in that I usually go for the colorful 1940s and 50s kitschy ones—like these. But I love the 1930s black line artwork and the little touches of color brushed in on this one. And the fact that it seems more adult and serious—the kind you'd give to your spouse rather than your classmates.

If you'd like to see more vintage valentines, check out the almost 700 of them posted to the Flickr Vintage Valentine group.

and we have a winner

A quick thank you to the 31 readers who commented and it's nice to see some new names among them. There's nothing like a contest to bring out the lurkers - hee!

When I got up this morning I put all the names on little scraps of paper and threw them into a hat (a vintage one of my great grandfathers actually). And we now have a winner! Congratulations to Danielle.

So, girl, email me your address (janet@primrosedesign.com) and I'll get your towel packaged up and on it's way.

And speaking of contests I'm thinking of doing one that's a little more complicated and one that involves the chance to show off all those embroidery skills you've picked up from my Stitch School posts. You'll actually have to send me a finished product but it will be something small and easy - like a bookmark perhaps. There would be three winners (chosen for quality of the work and creativity not randomly as I did today) and better embroidery-related prizes. I haven't worked out the details yet but it's been on my mind for a while. What do you all think? Would you be up to something like that?

sharing the love

As I mentioned in my post last Friday I made a couple of embroidered tea towels especially for Valentine's Day. Well, it's been a week and they haven't sold yet so ... lucky you ... let's do a giveaway for one of them!



Same deal as last time I did this. Leave a comment on this post. I'm going antiquing tomorrow so will pick a winner on Sunday morning and post their name here. And if I get the winners shipping address by Monday morning, I'll mail the package that day and the towel should arrive in time for the holiday on Thursday. Unfortunately, because of the high costs of shipping to foreign countries, I can only make this offer to readers in the U.S. and Canada.

The second towel will remain for sale on my website so, if you fall in love with it and don't win, you'll still have a chance to own one. And the 20% off discount (code HEARTS) is good until 2.15.08.

Good luck!

so many books, so little time

I'm heading to the library this afternoon to return my last batch of books and to see what new things I can find. I've been reading a lot this winter. Maybe it's the writer's strike and the fact that none of the shows I watch are on regularly. And the ones that are on are getting kind of weird (costumes for the WWE on Project Runway - what's up with that!) I find that I'm not missing much. I had some really good books this time so I thought I'd share my list:

These Granite Islands by Sarah Stonich

Chocolat by Joanne Harris. This was so much better than the movie which I saw when it first came out and loved but didn't like as much on second watching after I'd finished the book. Not even Johnny Depp as a gypsy could save this one for me. Too many things were changed for no good reason, the ending included. I should know better than to compare but it was an interesting experiment.

The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart

The Dressmaker by Elizabeth Birkelund Oberbeck

The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer (her first novel—I read her second Songs Without Words first)

I'm not going to do book reviews except to say that I liked them all. You can check out the descriptions on Amazon for more info if you're interested. I'm a big library supporter and don't usually buy books (except for craft books that I keep for reference!) but I do a lot of research on Amazon.

And if anyone has suggestions for good books you're reading this winter, please share in the comments. Don't worry, I like just about everything!

valentine goodies

Look for a writeup about my valentine specials today at Vintage Indie, including a discount code for 20% off your order. You can click on the cute kitty valentine to go directly to the page on my website.



There you'll find heart-shaped buttons, valentine hanky pillows and sachets, a couple of tissue cozies, and just about everything on my site that's red and white and has hearts on it! I've also created two tea towels trimmed with a valentine-themed fabric, hot pink rickrack, and an embroidered kitty from my Year of Cats vintage embroidery pattern. Isn't he cute?



Since I haven't been blogging much these past few weeks you may think I'm just sitting around goofing off. Not! I have five new pillows for spring on my work table and the paperwork for my taxes is just about done. Yay! It's also been really cold here and I do have a tendency to burrow in for the winter. I've been reading a lot, too!

embroidered bird quilt

Nancy emailed me some photos of a quilt she finished recently and I wanted to share it with you. Made for her fifth grandchild who is due in about a month, and named "Sweetie Tweeties for Abigail", it features five embroidered blocks using my Lil' Birdies vintage embroidery pattern. She embroidered the birds in blue, then framed each block with a pretty pink floral print and surrounded them with alternating white and print squares. So pretty, and I'm sure Abigail will treasure it always.



I'm so glad that people are rediscovering the value of handcrafted baby gifts. They're so much more personal than mass-produced ones, especially if you make them yourself. But, even if you don't have the skills to do that, a handcrafted gift made with love and care by someone else is almost as special.



Thanks, Nancy, for sharing! And just so you know, I'm always happy to showcase the work of my readers and customers. It's inspiring for those of you who are new to embroidery to see where you can go with your new-found skills.

put down the camera

Said in a whining teenage girl voice: Mo-o-o-m, can't you see we're trying to sleep here. Put down the camera and leave us alo-o-o-ne.

Posted because who can resist a cute cat picture :)

Ebay goodies

I'm having so much trouble writing lately—not much is happening that's exciting enough to talk about. Maybe it's the time of year—it's cold and I don't do much antique hunting in the winter. Or maybe it's the aftermath of being sick—all that lying around didn't help with keeping me motivated. So bear with me—my "voice" will be back.

I can show you some of my recent Ebay purchases. I'm always looking for feedsacks to add to my stash—they're perfect for pillows and the scraps work very well for tissue cozies and sachet stacks. Here are a couple I found this week:


I'm always amazed at how bright and clean these look even though they're sometimes 50 and 60 years old. And I love the set of vintage embroidered baby bibs I won yesterday. Here's one of them:

There are three and they need just a little embroidery to finish them up. That shouldn't take more than an hour or so. Then I'll trace the designs before selling the bibs on my website. This year I'm going to try to expand my baby section a little. I'm working on some bib and burp cloth ideas—with cute embroidery, of course.

refashion

It's not often that I get to see how my customers use their purchases. When their packages leave my hands that's usually the end of it. Unless I sell to friends with blogs, that is.

Carrie, whose work you can see here, has been doing some clothing refashioning lately and bought some lovely red and cream vintage crocheted trim from me before the holidays. And she did a blog post about her latest creation—a sweater trimmed with that crochet and the buttons replaced with some matching red ones.



I'm sure I've talked before about how easy it is to update some of the old or boring things in your closet, or articles of clothing you've found in your travels. As someone mentioned in the comments of Carrie's post, manufacturers really do skimp on buttons. They either don't match all that well or they match too well and disappear visually. Sometimes they fall apart too easily—those shell buttons are the worst. And it's so easy to replace them. It could be with modern buttons but vintage buttons are unique and somehow more special. How cool would rhinestone buttons look on a plain black sweater?

I think it's especially easy if you only need a few buttons —like for a sweater—because vintage buttons often come in small quantities. I have a gray silk tunic blouse with plain shell buttons that I've wanted to replace for years. The problem is that I need twelve of them, they're an odd size, and I haven't yet found enough of them in a color that matches. Who knew that gray would be so hard to match? So the search continues.

But do consider swapping out buttons and trying other embellishments. Like Carrie's crochet trim. And if you've been practicing the embroidery stitches I frequently post about, you can try adding some embroidery, too. A couple of years ago, Anthropologie had the cutest sweaters for little girls with appliqued and embroidered flowers across the bottom. You can do that yourself and for a lot less money! Work with all six strands of embroidery floss and a needle with a larger eye, or try brightly colored wool yarns for a chunkier look.

belated new years wishes

After my last post I started to feel better and actually made it to a few holiday social occasions. I wasn't the life of the party—mugs of hot tea aren't quite as much fun as eggnog or mixed drinks—but I managed. Then, bam, it turned into a sinus infection. Which knocked me out. Basically I've been moping around the house for the past week, popping antibiotics, and working on things that didn't involve moving from the sofa. Like paperwork.

Everyone thinks having your own business would be so much fun. And it is. But there are so many not-fun things that you don't consider when you're dreaming of how creative you're going to be. I processed close to 200 orders last year (and a huge thank you to those of you who became customers!). Each one of those orders has an invoice and each item has a backup sheet on file. For crafted items I have to keep track of how much the materials cost to make it. And for every vintage item I need to track what it originally cost. There's really no way to do your taxes without this info. The IRS doesn't take kindly to guesswork :)

When I first started out I didn't have a clue how to track all this stuff but over time I've developed a system that seems to work. And every year about this time I start pulling all the parts of the system together. It's mostly mindless work and that turned out to be the perfect thing for my condition.

I tried to write blog posts several times last week but they either made no sense or were too boring. So excuse my lack of posting. Come to think of it, this isn't the most exciting post I've ever written. Hopefully I'll be back to my old self soon.

Happy new years—six days late!

happy holidays

Somehow, not only for Christmas
But all the long year through,
The joy that you give to others
Is the joy that comes back to you.
—John Greenleaf Whittier


Illustration ©1991 Sally Holmes from The Book of Christmas published by The Albion Press, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, 1991.

miserable cold

Sorry for the lack of posting the past few days. Not sure where I picked up this miserable cold I have but my nose is running and I can't stop coughing. I haven't been sick for so long that I forgot how bad it feels. And how really awful cough medicine tastes! As soon as I get off the computer I'm heading to the sofa with a book and a hot cup of tea. Hopefully, none of my clients will need anything from me today.

Hope you all are enjoying the mad rush to Christmas and finding some time for yourself amongst all the shopping, baking, wrapping, crazy relatives, etc. Take some time to stop and smell the gingerbread :)

get your indie fixx

If you're looking for some great holiday gift ideas this year may I suggest the Indie Fixx Holiday Guide for inspiration. Yes, I'm participating (that's one of my tissue cozies in the bottom row up there) but you know about me already. There's a whole handmade world out there and this guide has a little of everything—from crochet sushi magnets to dog bandanas, beehive neckties, and monster pals finger puppets—there's something for everyone on your list.

mystery solved

Remember that cute laundry-themed fabric that I used for the cat pillow? The one that someone asked where I'd gotten it and I couldn't remember? This one...



Well, I was at Joann Fabrics on Saturday buying zippers for some little vintage fabric cosmetic bags I'm working on and I walked past the quilting cottons (which I always do because you just never know what's going to jump out and say "you must have me") and there it was. There wasn't a huge amount on the bolt but I told the cutting person I'd take 4 yards. And wouldn't you know it but there were exactly 4 yards left. Fate, I tell 'ya.

Unfortunately I can't tell you much more about it. On the selvedge are the words Our Family and the ten colored circles that show the number of colors printed and that's all. Usually when a fabric is manufactured exclusively for Joann it will say so, and this didn't, so I don't know. No other colorways either. OK, maybe we haven't solved this mystery after all.

paper cranes

Looking through an old Christmas issue of Better Homes & Gardens (December 1961), among the weird recipes for cookies made from peanut butter, butterscotch chips and chow mein noodles* (no kidding!) and the letters to the editor about the dangers of communism (this was during the "red" scare), there was a section on making homemade Christmas ornaments. Most seem kind of silly, but the origami cranes made from colored tissue paper still look modern today.



I like the directions for folding paper cranes on this page.

This is a one of the harder designs to make with lots of tricky folds, so if you need more help, try here (and read about the peace crane project), here, and here (this is a Greek blog so you probably won't be able to read it but she has a nice photo of the finished cranes on a tree).

I bought a package of origami paper (the folk art print kind) yesterday at AC Moore so I'm going to try a few of these for my tree. And I think a string of them along the top of a window would be kind of cool, too.

* OK, I guess I know nothing about cookies because yes, these haystacks are quite popular and can also be made with chocolate chips and no peanut butter. I didn't know. Maybe it's a regional thing? They still don't sound good to me but having never tried them—who knows? Anyway, I stand corrected :)

And the winner is...

Tammyca. Congratulations! I actually made this a two-day contest because I was sure I wouldn't get enough participants otherwise. Thirty six comments later and boy was I wrong. Thank you all for the wonderful comments and welcome lurkers—I knew I'd get a few of you to speak up :)

To answer some of your questions from the comments. No, I didn't embroider this—it looks machine-done as many handkerchiefs would have been. Yes, Stitch School will be back soon. My work load (the graphic design one, that is) got overwhelming and I just couldn't manage it every week. I can't promise I'll do it every week but I will be doing more of them.

Several of you mentioned handkerchiefs. You can always frame them (and they can be very pretty that way), but don't be afraid to use them either. Most of the ones I use for sachets are damaged in some way so I don't feel guilty cutting them up. As long as you have one corner that has no holes, stains, or frayed crochet, you're good to go. And even if there is a tiny hole or spot, you can always cover it with a button.

So, Tammy, email me (janet@primrosedesign.com) with your address. And watch for more contests in the future. This was fun and I'll probably do it again!