Road Trip: Lambertville/New Hope

On July 4th we headed down to the Lambertville, NJ-New Hope, PA area for some flea marketing/antique hunting. I'll admit that this may not have been the best day to do this because a lot of shops were closed and the flea market was sparsely populated with vendors. But both towns are full of historical architecture and it was a pretty drive down along the Delaware River. We still managed to find a few things and had a nice lunch at The Landing, sitting outside on their deck overlooking the river.

Our first stop was the Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market on River Road, about a mile south of Lambertville. There were enough tables for 200 vendors so, on a day other than a holiday, this would be a good place to look for treasures. I saw a lot of jewelry and artwork (paintings, drawings, etc.) so it's good for those things. Not a lot of the kinds of things I look for, but I found a handful of vintage buttons for a dollar—



And from a very nice grandmothery woman who was selling some of her vintage linen collection, a pair of crochet-edged pillowcases ($8), an eyelet embroidered towel ($1.50) and this gorgeous embroidered towel with thousands of tiny cross stitches ($3).



Just look at those fruity colors and lollipop flowers!



We browsed in several shops (the ones that were open, that is) and I wanted to mention one that I particularly liked. It's called No. 63 and was a mix of antiques, art, and vintage-inspired accessories. Loved the typewriter key charms and fun things for kids! The shop is decorated much like I would do it if I had a shop, so it felt comfortable the minute I walked in.

I wish there had been more places open, especially some of the antique shops. But it's an easy drive so I'm sure we'll be back!

Golden Nugget Antique Flea Market, 1850 River Road, Lambertville, NJ 08530
No. 63, 10 N. Union Street, Lambertville, NJ 08530
The Landing Restaurant, 22 N.Main Street, New Hope, PA 18938

Road Trip: Shupp's Grove Flea Market

Each weekend, the Shupp's Grove Flea Market in Adamstown, PA has a theme weekend. Sellers have the option of bringing things to fit that theme knowing that there will be buyers looking specifiically for those things. For the three years I've been going to this, I've always gone on the Textiles-Linens-Buttons weekend. No surprise there, right?

That's next weekend. This year we decided to try one of their 3 day extravanganza weekends and I'm happy to report that from my perspective it wasn't much different. The same booths I like to shop at were there and the same things I like to buy were there. So I had a good day.

I always look for buttons and I found some great ones (look for them on my web site soon). I got lots of aprons (one with an unusual use of rickrack that I'll show you in a future post) and a couple with chicken scratch embroidery (still another post). The handkerchief lady was there and I bought a bunch with pretty crocheted edgings in bright colors. I'll layer these under all those print hankies I got this spring.



For myself (as opposed to for-the-business purchases) I got a white painted vintage step stool ($25) and two vintage painted folding chairs ($8 each). And my husband surprised me with a vintage painted shelf that he'd found while browsing ahead of me. I think he's starting to "get" what I like :)

The best find of the day? This quilt top (for $25) with what I think may be 1930s fabrics.



I love the brightly colored prints that were used on the edges and inner borders—they're actually three colorways of the same fabric.



I'll have another road trip post in a few days. We're heading to Lambertville, NJ tomorrow and who knows what treasures we'll find there!

Stitch School: Interlaced Running Stitch

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peas, please (and cherries, too)

I've been busy the past couple of days cleaning and preparing my house for guests, who will be arriving in a few hours. The guest bedroom has clean sheets and piles of towels have been set out. We have a simple menu planned for tonight—grilled lamb chops (that are marinating in olive oil and herbs), couscous with pine nuts, a green salad, and some of these gorgeous baby French peas that are just coming ripe in my garden.



I'll wait to pick and shell them until just before we start cooking. I'm also going to make a cherry clafouti for dessert. I've been wanting to try this recipe (from Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 1) for years. The cherries at the grocery store were beautiful today and it's supposed to be easy to make.

(Updated to say that, unfortunately, this wasn't a big hit. I don't think I did anything wrong but it tasted very eggy, which is a bad thing in flan or creme brulee and now this, too). One of my readers commented that it's her favorite recipe so, as with all recipes, personal taste is key. The peas, however, were perfect.)

Cherry Clafouti

3 cups pitted black cherries
1/4 cup kirsch or cognac
1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 cup milk
3 eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour

Let the cherries stand for an hour in a bowl with the kirsch and sugar.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put remaining ingredients and the liquid that the cherries have been soaking in into the jar of your blender. Cover and blend on high speed for 1 minute.

Lightly butter an ovenproof 7- to 8-cup baking dish or 1 1/2 inch deep pie plate. Pour 1/4 inch of the batter into the bottom and set over moderate heat for a minute or two until a film of batter has set in the bottom of the dish. Remove from the heat.

Spread the cherries over the batter, then pour on the rest of the batter and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.

Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned and a knife plunged into the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle top with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. It doesn't need to be served hot but it's supposed to be better when warm. And it will shrink down slightly as it cools. Serves 6 to 8.

(If you want to make this without alcohol, don't marinate the cherries. Increase the amount of milk to 1 1/4 cups. Sprinkle 1/3 cup granulated sugar over the cherries before adding the rest of the batter.)

Tomorrow we're heading to the Shupp's Grove flea market in Adamstown, PA for one of their extravaganza weekends. Hopefully I'll have some treasures to show you next week!

depression-era aprons

While browsing at a local antique store I came across an 8-page newsprint flyer from the S. B. McCain & Son department store in Rush, PA. Called Facts and Fashions and dated April 1932, it's an interesting glimpse into depression era products and prices. In amongst the products for sale (everything from silk stockings and synthetic pearls to baby creepers and wave combs) are several small columns about fashion trends...

Fashion has the BLUES! Navy blue, bright light blue, chalky blue....wear them plain or combine them with white!

T'will be a White Summer! You had better prepare early with an extra box of soap flakes for this summer will be "whiter" than ever—plain or combined with color.

and housecleaning tips...

Don't throw away old wide mouth glass bottles. Use them as handy icebox bottles for protecting food.

An ordinary dish mop—well oiled—cleans out dust from coil bed springs in a jiffy.

Most of you won't remember ice boxes or beds with coiled springs. I'm not that old either but I remember those things from my grandmothers house.

I really bought the flyer for the beautiful black and white line drawings, and I'll show you some of the aprons today.



The Pickford Apron, which I believe is named for Mary Pickford, the silent film star who wore an apron in the film "My Best Girl" where she played a five-and-ten cent shopgirl who falls in love with the owner's son.



And the Hoover Apron, which wraps around and ties in the front and is more like a housedress than an apron. Named for Herbert Hoover, who was in charge of the FDA during and after WW1, and was elected President during the depression. His wife may have invented the apron—the story isn't very clear.



29 cents and 69 cents for an apron seems cheap to us now, but I'm sure women found this expensive at the time. I know that many women in the area served by this department store (rural and dotted with farms and small towns) must have sewn their own aprons and clothing. There are other ads within the flyer for fabric and sewing notions (which I'll post at another time)—perhaps they found inspiration from the drawings and came up with their own unique designs.

embroidered flower skirt

I love when readers send me pictures of their embroidery projects and I'm always happy to share, especially when it's something a bit more creative than the usual tea towel. Like Sarah's solstice skirt.



She designed the skirt herself in bright orange linen and then embellished it with rows of interlaced band and palestrina stitches in purple and pink. The flowers are done in a combination of satin, woven filling, chain, back, and raised herringbone stitches—all of which she learned from my Stitch School posts. And I think she deserves an "A+" for this project!

Read more about her process and see more photos on her blog Pacific Rain.

Stitch School: Monograms

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black and white

And I'm not talking about those cookies made famous in that Seinfeld episode, although they're pretty good, too. Black and white as in buttons. In the comments to my post about my new button rack (which arrived yesterday and is as awesone as I thought it would be), Rosemary wanted to see some of the buttons that came along with the rack. Most of them are newer and pretty basic but I picked out some of the prettier ones to show you. All black and white, and the polkadots are my favorite—as if you couldn't guess that already :)



Some faceted black jet buttons by Streamline...



And a white pearl and black plastic, both with a square in circle design...



As with most groups of buttons I buy, I'll keep the ones I really like for my own work, then resell the rest on my website. I have nice groups of metal and pearl buttons listed now and just added another batch to the plastic button section (my biggest sellers) yesterday. If you see something you like grab it fast! I have regular customers, including a couple of people in Japan, who tend to snap up the good ones.

vintage button rack

My newest Ebay purchase is this vintage button rack from an old store. I'm sure I paid too much for it, but I couldn't help myself. It came with button cards attached (and I can resell some of those buttons to recoup my costs) but that's not why I bought it. It will make the coolest display rack for craft shows (if I ever get around to doing them) or for the shop I dream of having one day.



I don't sell them on my website but I make fabric-covered buttons with scraps of vintage fabrics left over from other projects. And I package them sewn onto cards and inside little plastic bags with heavy paper folded at the top. Which I could punch with a hole and hang from this rack.

Are you picturing how cute that would be? Especially if I paint the rack a fun color—like turquoise or hot pink :)

Stitch School: Braid Stitch

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more ways to use rickrack

From a vintage baby pillowcase. Two rows of white rickrack attached along the edge with tiny tacking stitches at the points. It gives the illusion of crocheted or lace edging without being too frilly.



Updated on 7/2 to add this photo of the back so you can see how the rickrack has been sewn on.



Rickrack flowers that I found in a bag of vintage sewing things at the flea market. The points are gathered and tacked through to the back with tiny stitches to hold them in place.



A closeup of the back in case you want to try it for yourself. These would look cool combined with embroidered (or appliqued) leaves, maybe on a bag or clutch.



For those of you just discovering my blog (thank you Craft: magazine!), I did two posts about rickrack last year. You can find them here and here.

blog connections

When you have your own business, one of the hardest things is getting people to see your work. Do you spend money (which is always tight) on advertising that may or may not work? Do you send out postcards and newsletters to your mailing list? Do you send samples to magazines? Well, you do all of those things because you don't really know what's going to work. But, of all the things I do, I have to say that blogging has been the least expensive and also the most rewarding. I've met wonderful people that I may not have met otherwise and have found a forum for showing my work to a greater audience.

And sometimes it leads to unexpected opportunities. After being tagged by Charlotte a couple of weeks ago, then checking the blogs of the others who were tagged, I discovered T-Cozy and a kindred spirit in Susan who used to be a graphic designer, is also very tall, and who has very similar tastes in vintage things (sounds a lot like me). One thing led to another and I'm now selling some of my things in her shop in Connecticut. All of which happened in the space of two weeks! It's funny how some things just come together like that.

Susan is featuring some of her recent blog connections this week and wrote about Primrose Design today. I'm thrilled to be featured and to have the opportunity to be part of T-Party Antiques! So, if you live near Darien and want to see my things in person, plan to stop by. And do make a reservation for tea. It looks scrumptious and who could resist these tiny brownie cakes?

Some photos from the shop...


Pillows, handkerchief sachets, and tea towels.


Vintage eyelet sachets and sachet stacks tied with grosgrain ribbon.

I'm hoping to make the three-hour trip to Darien myself later in the summer, perhaps staying overnight and visiting the Elephant's Trunk Country Flea Market in New Milford, CT on the way back. You know me, any chance to visit a new source for vintage goodies :)

T-Party Antiques and Tea Room, 2 Squab Lane, Darien, CT 06820

early morning in the garden

I like to take a short walk outside in the mornings, usually with camera in hand just in case I see something worth photographing. We have an old fieldstone wall across the front of our property and I often see the garter snake sunning himself and chipmunks running along it's length with their tails straight up in the air. I've always wondered why they do that.

This morning our columbines are in full bloom. These are the cultivated kind, not the wild (we have some of them, too, but I missed getting photos this year).



I'm always reminded how perfect and beautiful nature's creations are. We try to capture that in our own creations, whether in photos or needlework or whatever crafts we make, but it always comes in second to the real thing. That's not to say that we shouldn't keep trying :)

Stitch School: Twisted Chain

Stitch School has moved to it's very own space on the web! You'll now find the Twisted Chain Stitch post here. Comments are now closed on this post; if you'd like to leave a comment please do so on the new one.

a little birdie told me so

My friend Jenny stopped by on Saturday to visit and to pick up a pillow I'd made for her to give as a baby gift. This one uses another of the original quilt blocks I bought several years ago on Ebay and have since turned into the Lil' Birdie Quilt Blocks embroidery pattern. See what cute pillows they make? And they would also make cute framed pictures, or bibs, or to decorate the bodice of a jumper or the front panel on overalls. Of course, you can use all ten of them together in a quilt—that's the original intent.



The little birdie is looking at his reflection in a silver spoon. How sweet is that?



I've actually made quite a few of these pillows and blogged about them here and here. In case I haven't yet convinced you of their absolute adorableness :)

puppies and birdies

I added two new embroidery pattern sets to the website—one of extremely cute puppies with polkadot bows (two designs) and the other of the little bird designs that you've seen me use many times for baby pillows. They'd be super cute used together for a baby quilt, too!


VP109 Shaggy Puppies


VP110 Lil' Birdie Quilt Blocks

More designs coming soon!

Stitch School: Ladder Stitch

Stitch School has moved to it's very own space on the web! You'll now find the Interlaced Running Stitch post here. Comments are now closed on this post; if you'd like to leave a comment please do so on the new one.

happy 5th birthday...

,,,to my not-so-little-anymore girls, Sienna and Amaya!



This photo was taken when they were only a few weeks old. Now they weigh 10 pounds and are fully mature (at least most of the time). They'll probably sleep most of the day since they were up all night chasing a mouse in the kitchen. We have an unfinished basement with fieldstone walls and they often catch things down there and bring them up here. Sigh. See what I mean about maturity :)

Happy birthday, ladies!

summer fruit

There's something about watermelon that just says "summer" like no other fruit does.



I bought this vintage 1940s-50s fabric on Ebay last week and it arrived yesterday. Love the colors! I make a lot of fruit-themed pillows so I'm always looking for interesting vintage cotton prints with fruit. This was the first I'd ever seen with watermelons.

And I found some cute watermelon slice buttons at Hancock's store closing sale for half price. Unfortunately I can't show you them because they seem to be lost somewhere in my studio. (Note to self—clean studio). I think I see a theme developing here :)

And thanks to Jen at Indie Fixx for featuring one of my vintage aprons last Saturday along with new aprons crafted by my friends Carrie at Sommer Designs and Jennifer at Textile Fetish.

embroidery pics and questions about t-shirts

I've decided not to do a Stitch School post today. I'm sure you're all out celebrating the holiday or picnicking or something other than sitting at your computer. At least I hope you are. We're finishing up planting the vegetable garden today and doing various outdoor chores.

But in case you have stopped by today I'll leave you with some pretty pictures of an embroidered table scarf with what are probably thousands of French knots. No, I didn't count them but just look at it. This scarf isn't in perfect shape but I didn't pay a lot for it and the embroidery is just extraordinary.



There are a couple more pictures on my Flickr page (click the photo). It's all French knots except for the leaves and daisy petals, packed very tightly together to form a solid mass.

I also found this very cool example of spiderweb flowers on Ebay. This is what they look like when you leave some of the underlaying structure showing:



And finally, I have some questions from readers about embroidering on t-shirts that I can't answer. So I'm turning it over to you guys:

I would like to embroider something on a t-shirt for my daughter. Can you recommend a stabilizer suitable for this type of project?—Anita

I recently embroidered a t-shirt for a toddler. Do you typically put some sort of lining on the back of the embroidery? I used some back stitching so there is quite a bit of thread on the back side. I have considered using iron-on interfacing as a backing but am worried that it will cause visible lumpiness when the shirt is worn.—Andrea

Can anyone recommend stabilizers or give any general advice about embroidering on t-shirts? Thanks in advance (and thanks from Anita and Andrea, too)!

chickens

Vicki, of Pattern Bee and turkey feathers fame, has a picture up of the towels she embroidered using my diner chicken patterns. And I commented that I should show a picture of the pillow I did, forgetting that I already had shown the embroidery and fabrics in a previous post. Last August - yikes. I finished it some time during the winter. I often have pillows in various states of completion and it takes a while to finish them sometimes.

But I never followed up to show you the finished pillow.



This time, I stuck to my original plan and didn't make any changes to the design. The only thing I'd change now would be to make the outer borders (the chicken print) wider but the pillow is already 20x20 and the next standard size is 27x27—that's pretty big. I made this from the original stamped-for-embroidery towel and the design was set diagonally on the corner so I had to use it that way on the pillow, too. It took up more space than I would have liked.

You can find a tracing of this pattern (and a few others) for sale here. And don't forget to use coupon code STITCH SCHOOL when you check out for 25% off your pattern purchase. Good until the end of this month!

Studio Friday: May's Studio Treat!

Treat yourself to something your heart desires, maybe some chocolate or flowers or new art supplies... a nice little something (no spending a fortune). Celebrate yourself !!



Salt water taffy. Licorice swirl. I have a strange addiction to this stuff even though I'm trying to eat healthier. So I bought just a dollars worth and when it's gone, it's gone :)

More studio treats here.

Happy first official weekend of summer!

recent finds

It's been a while since I've had something to show for Thrift Thursday. I don't go thrifting much during the winter and the local shops don't have high turnover so it's best to not go too often. Saturday was cool and not a good day for working in the garden so we hit the road and visited some of the old favorites. I think I did pretty well.

My husband spotted a tray of silver (Wm Rogers silver plate) and I liked the iced tea spoons and serving pieces but wasn't sure I wanted all of it. But, at $8 for the whole thing, how could I resist?



These are fun—chicken hotpads with red fabric combs and button eyes! Not completely sure they're vintage but the fabric looks like it could be feedsack cotton. Just $2.75 each.



Two striped linen towels made in Poland and with their labels and store tags (Gee Bee, a department store that started as a one-room shop in 1906 in Johnstown, PA) still attached—sold originally for 22 cents! They cost me $3 each.



And an original signed print of a Parisian street scene in a white painted frame. Written in pencil across the bottom 35 Paris - Eglise St. Pierre de Montmartre. $5



See more vintage treasures and show us your vintage finds at:

my turn

Having been tagged by Charlotte, here are seven somethings about me. I'm not sure how interesting they are, but here goes.

1) I may be the only person on the planet who hates Starbucks coffee. They roast their beans too dark and the resulting coffee tastes like crap. No wonder everyone orders their drinks full of sweeteners, creamers, etc. It's to cover the taste :)

2) I love jewelry and have several friends who are very talented jewelry designers but I rarely wear anything more than my wedding band and simple earrings. That doesn't stop me from buying jewelry but, mostly, I just like to look at the pieces I've collected and admire their craftsmanship.

3) I've never been able to choose between being a city girl or a country girl. I grew up in a city and have lived in several others, but I've spent lots of time in the country, too. Some of my best memories are of the summers I spent with my grandmother when I was 14 and 15. Luckily, I've never really had to choose. I live in the country now, but it's a short drive to both Philadelphia and NYC so I have the best of both worlds!

4) I don't have any children. Sometimes I think "what if?" but for the most part I'm happy with my decision to remain childfree.

5) Like Charlotte, I had my ears pierced the old-fashioned way, by a friends mother in her kitchen. Ice, sewing needle, potato. I got kind of light-headed after the first ear so had to lie on their living room floor for the second one. When I had my second set of holes done, I did it at the mall. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to feel faint.

6) I have never traveled outside of the U.S. Now that I'm finally getting a passport, maybe I'll actually get to do it. I've been drooling over Tara's wonderful photos from her recent trip to Tuscany, and Italy sounds like a definite possibility.

7) I'm not a typical girly-girl. I don't get excited by shoes (and would actually rather not wear them at all), am not so fond of shopping (except for vintage, of course!), and don't wear makeup (or not much anyway). I only read fashion magazines when I get my hair cut. I'm an advertiser's worse nightmare :)

Most of my friends will kill me if I tag them, so I'm breaking the rules and not tagging anyone in particular. Feel free to take up the challenge if you like. If you're new to blogging it's a good way to let people know a little more about you. I've found so many kindred spirits online, mostly through something they said that spoke to me.

Stitch School: Up and Down Buttonhole

Stitch School has moved to it's very own space on the web! You'll now find the Up and Down Butonhole Stitch post here. Comments are now closed on this post; if you'd like to leave a comment please do so on the new one.

new patterns

A big thank you to everyone who's taken the embroidery poll I placed in the sidebar a couple of months ago—all 246 of you! I was trying to get a sense of what people are looking for and whether I needed to change my focus with my own patterns. Based on those results:

34% of you don't mind tracing your own patterns
33% have no preference
17% only purchase iron-on transfers
15% like to buy packaged kits with supplies included

and from the comments of my testers (thanks to you, too), I'm going to stick with my original plan. For now.

The patterns I'll be selling are ones that you'll have to trace yourself. After I investigate the feasibility of iron-on transfer patterns, I may switch to that option. It's the same amount of work for me but if it adds a lot to the cost of producing them —and thereby the purchase price—I may decide not to go in that direction.

Given that I'm a one-person operation working out of a spare bedroom in my home, it's very unlikely that I'll ever be able to offer things in kit form. Sorry to those of you who like that option.

So, without further ado, the patterns are up! Just six to start—with more on the way as I get time to package and list them on the website. The amount of sheets in each pattern varies, but each will arrive in a plastic zip-top sleeve with a basic stitch guide. Some patterns include a copy of the original manufacturer's directions (if they were included with the original project I purchased). And yes, these are all traced from stamped-for-embroidery projects in my collection—everything from tea towels to baby bibs—and designs that were never available as printed patterns!

As an extra thank you to my Stitch School "students" and blog readers, take 25% off your pattern order until the end of this month. Just enter the words STITCH SCHOOL when you check out and the discount will be applied. If you're planning to order more than one and will be paying with Paypal, I can send you an invoice with reduced shipping. If you're paying with a credit card I'll reduce the shipping for you when I process your card.

the girls approve

This past weekend was a whirlwind of outdoor activities—there's so much to do this time of year. The vegetable garden is mapped out and the paths laid out in preparation for planting some of the early things (like lettuces and spinach) later this week. The lawn got mowed for the first time. The strawberry patch is weeded and straw put down between the plants to keep more weeds out. One of our redbud trees died over the winter and we bought a dogwood to replace it. And we ripped out some horrible bushes near our back patio, something we'd wanted to do for years, and bought a small tree to put in it's place.

And I washed the tile floor of our screened porch and started to put out some of the summer things—like the hammock and chair cushions. The girls tried them out right away and they appear to meet with their approval.



They'll spend a lot of time out here as it gets warmer. As will I. I wonder if they're dreaming about summer?

Stitch School: Portuguese Stem Stitch

Stitch School has moved to it's very own space on the web! You'll now find the Portuguese Stem Stitch post here. Comments are now closed on this post; if you'd like to leave a comment please do so on the new one.

vintage handkerchief pillows

About a month ago I got an email from Donna who had recently posted about a shopping bag full of old hankies that were her mothers and grandmothers. She didn’t know what to do with them. Robbie, one of her blog readers and also one of mine, commented and referred her to my post about hankies. Thanks Robbie!

After some discussion in which I agreed to make four pillows for her, Donna sent me the hankies—all 144 of them—and I got to work. First up was a good soaking and washing. I figure that any hankies that don’t make it intact through the washing/drying process aren’t fit to make pillows from. Not that I expect my pillows to be thrown around or become the weapon of choice in pillow fights, but I don’t want them to fall apart either.

I lost about 20 of them along the way. And lots more have stains that didn’t wash out or holes in the corners. That’s OK—I’ll cut out the damaged sections and use them for sachets. There were still plenty of good ones left for pillows.

Donna didn’t give me too much guidance, although some customers do and that's fine. One was to be for her son so it shouldn’t be too feminine; the others could be as girly as I wanted them to be. She liked purple.

So, here’s what I came up with:

From a hanky with flower bouquets in the corners, I cut it into quarters and reassembled it so the edges faced inward. I added some yellow vintage buttons (in the center of one of the flowers) and a border of new coral/white floral cotton.



From a hanky with a bouquet of roses tied with a blue ribbon in one corner, I cut it in half diagonally and layered it over another hanky with a crocheted pink and blue edging. A turquoise and pink vintage button stack and two coordinating fabrics complete the design.



This was the most challenging and also my favorite design. I took a more masculine hanky with autumn leaves in gray and orange, added a border of orange and red striped cotton, a sprinkling of orange buttons in one corner, and finished up with a vintage gray and white print outer border. There’s no getting around the fact that hankies are feminine by nature, but I think I succeeded in not going too girly with this one.



Last but not least…the very purple one. From a hanky with bunches of violets, I cut it into quarters and reassembled it, added a purple-striped border and another of purple polka dots, and kept it from being "too" purple with the addition of eight green buttons in the same shade as the background green of the hanky.



As of yesterday, they’re on their way to their new home. Thanks Donna—hope you love 'em! Next up, one of my embroidered bird pillows for my friend Jenny to give as a baby gift. I planned the design (fabrics and buttons) last night and also started on the embroidery. Yesterday afternoon (which was gorgeous by the way and almost 80 degrees) I photographed lots of vintage goodies for my web site so look for more vintage aprons, linens, buttons and trims in the next week or so.

Stitch School: Spider Web

Stitch School has moved to it's very own space on the web! You'll now find the Spider Web Stitch post here. Comments are now closed on this post; if you'd like to leave a comment please do so on the new one.

We're not in Kansas (city) anymore

An occasional post about quilting

But if we were and it was 1928 we would have been present when a quilt phenomenon got it's start. Beginning that fall, The Kansas City Star and it's sister newspapers, The Weekly Star and The Star Farmer began publishing quilt patterns in a ready-to-use format. Instead of sending away for mail-order patterns, quilters could clip and save favorite patterns for later use. Patterns printed in these newspapers were distributed throughout Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, and Colorado and, in later years, as far away as North Carolina, Kentucky, and Texas. This widespread network allowed quilters from urban and rural areas to share patterns.



Nell Snead, The Star's woman's and fashion editor was responsible for finding the patterns, which were submitted by local quilters and newspaper readers. The patterns were then professionally created by a series of designers including Ruby Short McKim (an art needlework editor for Better Homes & Gardens), Eveline Foland (who added an Art Deco touch) and The Stars' own fashion illustrator, Edna Marie Dunn.

As you can imagine, it's rare to find clippings of these patterns. I bought a bagful of Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt blocks a few years ago and was thrilled to find an original pattern cut from this newspaper inside. Dated 1931, and you can see Eveline Foland's signature in the corner.



By the time the last pattern (Fan of Many Colors) was published in May of 1961, the newspaper had published more than 1000 patterns. Lots of traditional pieced patterns, of course. But also special patterns for appliqued and embroidered quilts, including several series of designs to be sewn together when completed: Santa's Parade Quilt (1929), Memory Bouquet Quilt (1930), Horn of Plenty Quilt (1932) and Happy Childhood Quilt (1932).

Pickledish.com , which seems to be the official site for patterns, has downloadable paper patterns for a few of the designs here. You can occasionally find them on Ebay, both originals for serious collectors (i.e. expensive) and reprinted copies for quilters. If you just want the patterns there are a number of books that reprint them, and you can find them at The Kansas City Store.

Some links to photos of quilts based on Eveline Foland designs:
Memory Bouquet; published in twenty installments in the Kansas City Star and later in the Detroit News, where it was renamed Flower Garden. Another photo of a quilt using the same designs.

Donkey Quilt, designed to commemorate democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide victory in the 1932 election.

vintage transfers and buttons

Do you know of a way to make new transfers from old embroidery patterns? Or do I just need to hand trace old patterns every time I want to use them? We got a bunch of old embroidery patterns at a garage sale and we would really like to figure out a way to use them that doesn't require squinting through fabric to trace a pattern if possible! Thanks!—Sarah

Unfortunately there isn't really a simple way to do it. But, with the right equipment and a bit of computer savvy you can try this: First scan your original transfer pattern. Open the file in a drawing program (I use Photoshop) and clean up (or trace over) the lines—old patterns almost never scan cleanly. Print them out on inkjet transfer paper that you can purchase at office supply stores, then iron on to your fabric. This won't give you the same results as older iron-on transfers because it doesn't wash out, but it's the closest you can get at home.

The vintage buttons are cute, but I don't know how you tell if one is vintage or where to look for them.—Appliejuice

I could probably write a whole post about this subject (maybe I will!) but basically you get a feel for what's vintage by experience. Buttons on cards are easier to identify—the graphics look old-fashioned, the manufacturers aren't in business anymore (or were swallowed up by larger companies), the prices printed on the cards are very low (LOL-anything that sold for 10 cents is definitely vintage!). Early vintage buttons are often attached to their cards with string instead of staples. After you've looked at enough buttons you'll be able to tell.

And once you start looking for them, you'll see them everywhere. I often find plastic baggies full of them at flea markets, jars and tins (like grandma used to have) in antique stores, cards of them on tables at garage sales. Ebay is a good place to look at buttons and you'll see a lot of collector buttons that sell for very high prices. Buttons made of bakelite (an early plastic with very distinct colors) are a good example of this. Look in the Vintage Sewing subcategory of Collectibles.

I'm sorry that I don't always have time to answer your email questions personally, but I often turn your queries into blog posts. So, if you've asked me a question and I haven't answered, check back here. There, I think I've finally caught up :)

rick rack aprons

I haven’t had time these past few months to participate in Amy Karol’s Tie One On apron challenges, but I always look at the new gallery of submissions when she gets them posted.

The March/April theme was rick rack and there are some amazing apron submissions. Like this from Amy (love the vintage fabric and giant button!):



And these wonderful rick rack roses from Chelle:



So many pretty aprons that it was hard to choose just two for this post. But you can see them all here.

May Day

Spring has been a long time coming this year and the only flowers we have so far are a bunch of rather droopy daffodils. So, to find a May Day bouquet for today, I turned to my box of vintage handkerchiefs and found this lovely bunch of tiny blue violets.



But I must gather knots of flowers.
And buds and garlands gay,
For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother,
I'm to be Queen o' the May."
—Alfred Lord Tennyson

Happy May Day everyone!

Stitch School: Overcast Stitch

Stitch School has moved to it's very own space on the web! You'll now find the Overcast Stitch post here. Comments are now closed on this post; if you'd like to leave a comment please do so on the new one.

Darth Amaya?

Here's a funny picture of my cat to tide you over until I get a chance to post again.



Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, both of the magazines I design were due to the printer yesterday. That's not supposed to happen but an editor was on vacation, ads wouldn't print, etc. etc. Problems galore, and it's been so nice outside that all I want to do is be out there. I have a conference call/phone meeting at 10 and then I'm going to take a walk.

We had some fruit trees (two plums and a peach) and blueberry bushes to add to our growing orchard delivered yesterday, too, and I need to get them in the garden temporarily until we can plant them properly on the weekend.

Hope you're all getting a chance to enjoy the spring weather that we're getting—finally :)

more embroidery Q & A

I'm off to Philadelphia tomorrow so won't have time to do a full Stitch School post. But I have more embroidery questions from readers and this seemed like a good time to answer them.

I wonder if you could explain how to do the lazy daisy flower with two contrasting threads. It's the last picture in your lazy daisy instructions. That flower is so beautiful! Just love to be able to learn it. — Irene Heikes

This is the flower that Irene is referring to:



And this is what it looks like on the back:



I didn't do this embroidery so I can't be 100% certain of this, but it looks to me like it was done with two needles and two colors of thread. The technique is the same (see lazy daisy post) except that you'll need to hold the loop while you maneuver the second needle to make the small stitch that catches the curve of the loop. That may be a little awkward—it even sounds awkward. My other thought was to do the stitch as you usually would and go back over the catch stitch with your second color. I'm not sure it will cover completely and might be kind of lumpy.

I don't use a hoop. Is that wrong? When I use a hoop, I tend to push up the fabric to get the needle through. I do have a Q-Snap hoop. Maybe I should pull that out of the attic and try again. Will it make the stitches neater? — Appliejuice

Everyone has to find their own best way of doing things and if you've found that embroidering without one works for you, then it's not wrong! Personally I think you get better results with some tension on the fabric but there are some things that I don't use a hoop for—like quilted baby bibs that have enough weight to them already. I do find that some stitches are a bit harder to do in a hoop and often will use a "stabbing" effect with the needle rather than a "skimming the surface" technique, which can cause the fabric distortion that you mentioned. As for neatness, I think that has more to do with the person doing the embroidery :)

I had a question about embroidering on pillowcases and I thought maybe you could help. Embroidering is so much easier when a hoop is used, and with my first three projects I have been able to use one without any problem, but what does a person do when you embroider on either pillowcases or flat sheets when the embroidery is on the edge and you can't get all the fabric in the hoop? How do you keep it taut? — Carrie-Lee

They make very small embroidery hoops that might work for this, but I find that the area they contain is so small that you have to constantly move the hoop. You could try a stretcher frame. But there is another way and this will work for anything that's too small for a hoop. Take some wide strips of fabric and sew them (with long basting stitches so they'll be easy to remove later) onto the edge of your piece. Complete your embroidery, then remove the strips.

Since I began writing this I've received several more questions. So, if you haven't heard back from me, I haven't forgotten you. You'll be in the next batch!