rickrack redux

I found this very pretty embroidered runner at the flea market last weekend and wanted to show you how the rick rack was attached.



It's simply tacked down with a single stitch on just the top curves (the bottom curves hang over the hemmed edge so all you see is rick rack). The bottom row shows what the back side looks like.



Here's what happens at the corner turn:



This is pretty for a runner but probably wouldn't work so well for clothing—it's not very sturdy and could easily pull off with rough handling. But I love how simple it is and think of all the color combinations you could come up with!

fresh peas for dinner

You know how I've been complaining that we didn't have a good strawberry crop this year and I've been buying them to make up for our shortfall. Well, there's no shortage of peas—this is just a small sampling of the hundreds of pods still on the vines.



I sat on my porch this afternoon and shelled these. And I'll cook them for dinner tonight with our grilled lamb and roasted potatoes. And for dessert we'll have what's left of the fresh strawberry pie I made yesterday - yum! I tried this recipe but added a bit of sugar to the cream cheese filling and cooked the glaze longer. People were mentioning in the comments that they couldn't get it to set up and I thought that might help. It did. It's very simple and fresh-tasting, not too sweet, and really let's the berries shine.

going to the dogs

I never knew where that expression came from but it means going to ruin as in food that isn't fit for human consumption (i.e only good enough to feed to dogs). Poor dogs. None of this has anything to do with my post today but it's so hard to come up with catchy titles and I do have some doggy things to show you. Both are newly listed items on my website.



The first is a new pillow featuring an embroidered Scotty dog that I recycled from the corner of a vintage tablecloth. I think it's probably machine-done as I've seen it several times before and it always looks exactly the same. In fact, I think I made a pillow a couple of years ago with the same motif. This one is all about red, white, and black and I've used three coordinating prints in those colors and some vintage red buttons at the corners. This almost looks Christmasy with the little red berries and red bow around his neck.



The other is a set of six rectangular linen cocktail napkins—three white and three black—with appliqued poodles in the corners. I love the tiny stitches and little red collars! One napkin has a yellow spot near the edge but the others are in good condition. A nice example of 60s cocktail culture—break out the Salty Dogs (vodka and grapefruit with a salted rim)!

button jewelry

I've mentioned before that I have several customers who buy buttons to make jewelry. And that I'm fascinated by button jewelry and, really, anything unusual and different made from buttons. I met another button jewelry artist this past weekend—Judy Perilstein from Pequea, Pennsylvania—at the flea market I attended and bought a bracelet from her.



She named this "Get Fresh" and I love how she's combined buttons with beads and sea shells to create something that reminds me very much of what you'd see spilling from a treasure chest in a pirate movie—a jumble of seemingly disparate elements that somehow work together.



I'm also coveting her simpler Queen Anne's Bracelet made from white and cream-colored vintage pearl buttons on an elastic band. It's available at her Etsy shop—Round Two Jewelry. She has several bracelets for sale that are similar to the one I bought but in different color combinations along with gorgeous necklaces featuring larger antique and vintage buttons. I'm happy to recommend her work—and I'm pretty picky when it comes to buying jewelry!

10 flea market tips

Just my "two cents" and compiled after my recent flea market excursion on July 4th...

1. About timing. They say that you should arrive early to find the best stuff and that's true if what you're looking for is popular or the flea market is heavily visited by professionals. But, they also say that the best deals can be found at the end of the day because dealers don't want to pack everything up again to haul it home. So, it depends on what's more important to you. I'm an early riser anyway so I try to arrive as early as I can. But not so early that I leave my house when it's still dark outside.

2. Try to find out something about the flea market you'll be visiting ahead of time, especially if you'll be driving any distance to get there. Some flea markets are not what you think they're going to be. My local market, for example, is mostly junk—tables full of new clothing, shoes, beauty products, and CDs. I only occasionally find anything there and wouldn't go at all if it wasn't ten minutes from my house. The great thing about hunting for treasures at flea markets is the accidental great find and you want to travel to places where that might actually happen.

3. Wear comfy clothing and shoes. You'll be doing lots of walking and blisters are not a good thing. I wore a pair of crocs on my last trip and they worked great except for the tiny pebbles that kept working their way into the holes at the sides. Ouch! Next time I'll try sneakers.

4. Bring a big, lightweight tote bag for your purchases. It won't help much for larger items but it's perfect for smaller things—like the buttons, trims, and hankies I like to buy. I have a brightly striped one that is also good for identifying me in a crowd. That way if I wander off my husband can spot me from a distance.

5. Bring a tape measure if you're looking for furniture or something to fill a particular spot in your home. You don't want to buy something that's too big for the space you have to fill. Or too big to fit in your car!

6. Bring lots of small change. Yes, they'll think you're crazy at the bank but vendors will appreciate it if you have exact change. Many won't take checks or credit cards anyway.

7. Don't be afraid to ask for a better price but don't be rude. A simple "Can you do better on the price?" will do just fine. If you buy several items from a vendor they'll usually be amenable to a group discount. I bought a patchwork quilt from a vendor and she gave me the handful of handkerchiefs I had in my hand for free. Chatting up sellers and being nice will go a long way.

8. Stop to refuel. Large markets often have food stands and they can be a great way to sample local fare. Smaller markets don't always have the healthiest choices though. If greasy junk food isn't your thing then consider packing a picnic lunch. We do this for the Bouckville show—not because the food isn't good but because the lines are so long! Make sure you drink lots of liquids, too, especially if it's a hot day. Lemon-Shakeups (my personal fav) are good for this purpose ;)

9. About those liquids, make sure when you arrive that you scout out where the bathrooms are located. You don't want to be hunting for them when you really need it, if you know what I mean.

10. Have fun! Laugh about the silly things you remember (and wish you'd kept) from your childhood. Be open to discoveries but don't be disappointed if you don't find anything. That's the beauty of hunting for treasure—it's like a game—sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

strawberry time

Wow, can you believe it's July already? Maybe it's because it doesn't feel like July weather wise—too much rain, not enough heat. Most of our garden is doing OK (at least I don't have to water it) but I was right about the strawberries—they never did very well. We got some but nowhere near the usual quantity. It was just too wet.

Luckily we have Pallman Farms in Clarks Summit, a wonderful place to pick your own strawberries! Since I'm still recovering from my bursitis, climbing around in a 10-acre strawberry field wasn't really an option, so I took advantage of the fact that they sell them already picked as well. This is actually the second batch I've bought—last week's eight quarts were either eaten (homemade ice cream and strawberry sponge cake) or in the freezer (put them in a single layer on a tray in the freezer until they're hard, then put them in freezer bags). Since it's raining again today (sigh), I'll be indoors preparing this new batch. But think how wonderful they'll be next winter, like a little taste of summer!



The cat is a stray I've been feeding since earlier this spring. I've hesitated to introduce him because I'm afraid he'll disappear as mysteriously as he arrived. He does go away occasionally for a few days here and there (I say he's gone walkabout) but he always shows up again. I've named him Little Bear because he looks like a mini version of the black bears we've seen so much of this spring. He's very sweet and well-mannered and obviously had a home at some point. My husband thinks someone dropped him off in the country to fend for himself, something I think is very sad. The average lifespan of a cat "on the street" is something like four or five years—it's tough out there. I do have to keep him outdoors (my cats hate him) but he's managed to find sheltered areas to hang out and knows I'm good for free meals.

Pallman Farms, 1511 Summit Lake Road, Clarks Summit, PA 18411

home sweet home

Karen at First Fruit Flowers blogged about the custom sampler project I recently completed for her. You may remember this as the pattern I copied from Susan's (The T-Cozy) original sampler and that she has for sale on her blog. A word of warning though—this is kind of an advanced pattern—if you're just beginning embroidery you may want to get some practice in on simpler projects first. It took me far longer than it should have but I realized something about the way I work that partially explains that. I'm easily bored and do better when I can work on several projects at once and can jump from one to the other.


A close up of the bird and birdbath.

Finding a fabric for this project was a real problem—we both wanted it to look like it could be vintage. I investigated options and even ordered several different kinds of linen and linen/cotton blends to work with. Nothing was quite right. Too stiff, too much like Aida cloth. So I ended up embroidering on a vintage towel that I had purchased several years ago. It had a nice weave, although a bit "soft" so it was a challenge to keep it from distorting the embroidery. I also discovered, after doing a bit of the border, that the weave wasn't "square". What I mean by that is that I counted four threads in each direction for each cross but the crosses weren't square. I backtracked, counted four over and down five, and that did it.

I mostly stuck to the colors of Susan's original except for the flowers—they needed to be brightened up—and I chose whatever colors I thought looked good together. I'm happy with the result but, honestly, I don't want to do anything this ambitious again for a while. I'm sticking to the easy stuff (and ones where I don't have to count threads) for my next few projects!

quilt blocks

I love to find vintage stamped-for-embroidery quilt blocks, even if it's just one or two blocks from a set. I might feel differently if I were making quilts but the single blocks are perfect for pillows. I can embroider them to match whatever fun fabrics I choose to use for the rest of the pillow, and they work up very quickly.



The cute blocks shown here are from a batch I found on Ebay last week. Forty four blocks in all, a few of which were already embroidered (and not very well, either) but most were undone. Just a couple of repeats and most were images I hadn't seen before.



I love the combination of cross stitch with simple embroidery on these and they'll make wonderful children's pillows after I've finished embroidering them.

I finally finished the big custom embroidery job I was working on and now I'm trying to finish up all the bits and pieces of projects I started and never finished. Some just needed a few French knots; others just facial features on animals (I don't know why I always save these for the end—I should do them first!) Most of these almost-done projects are baby things and you'll soon find them for sale on my website. I've been neglecting the baby section lately and this is my attempt to fix that.

I'm seriously sick of all this rain we're having here in the northeast. My sinuses hurt, the strawberries in the garden are waterlogged and bursting, weeds are sprouting like crazy—everything is a mess. I'm getting lots of embroidery done but a little sun would be nice. Please!

who's got the buttons?

I got a suspiciously large amount of orders for buttons over the past few days. Not that I'm complaining—that's the whole point, isn't it? Then I noticed that several customers, in the section where I ask where they've heard of Primrose Design, said Ready Made magazine. Hmmm, news to me that I was in the magazine. So, I stopped by Borders this morning, grabbed a copy and, sure enough, there I am.

It's part of The Ten Spot: On our radar this month and the short article talks a little bit about how crafters are using vintage buttons. Primrose Design is mentioned as one of the sources for them. Pretty cool!

I do know that many of my regular customers are crafters and use the buttons they buy for jewelry, children's clothing, and handbags.

I've been debating lately whether or not to add a fourth page to the plastic buttons section. These are my favorite buttons and also my biggest sellers. I have boxes full of buttons to be sold and this week purchased another estate lot so I now have even more. But, they're selling so quickly right now that I'll be frantically refilling that third page! The fourth may just have to wait!

the sound of music

I know, its 5 am and I should be sleeping. But it was warm enough to leave the window open last night and I woke to the sound of hundreds of birds singing. At least it sounds like hundreds.

It's been an amazing spring for spotting birds. Maybe they've been forced out of their usual habitats, perhaps the warming climate has pushed them farther north—I don't know the reason but they all seemed to arrive at once. At our feeders I've spotted three pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks, a sharp-shinned hawk, an Indigo Bunting (gorgeous blue color), purple finches, catbirds, cowbirds, red-winged blackbirds, a female turkey, a white-crowned sparrow, and two pairs of Baltimore Orioles that I've been enticing to my yard with cut orange halves (they love them).

This is in addition to the more standard birds that hang around all year—cardinals, titmice, chickadees, goldfinches, chipping sparrows, blue jays, juncos, nuthatches, mourning doves, hairy and downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, and wrens.

I've also seen a great blue heron flying over (there are several ponds near us and a creek so he moves around a lot), a pair of belted kingfishers, a pileated woodpecker (the kind that Woody Woodpecker is modeled after), flycatchers, red-tailed hawks, and the broad-winged hawks that have nested here for the last four years. I'm a little disappointed that they're not on our property this time but they do like to hunt in our yard (we have a fairly out-of-control vole situation) so I'm sure we'll see them eventually.

Last to arrive were the ruby-throated hummingbirds. The same two pairs come every year and as soon as I spot them I get out the feeder and mix up a batch of sugar water (4 parts sugar to 1 part water). No need to buy the fancy red-colored mixes—as long as it's sweet they don't care.

I love them all, even if they do wake me too early. Time to grab a cup of coffee and get this day going! It looks like rain...again. One good thing about that - it's forcing me to rest my hip - but, boy, is it boring sitting around :)

one step back

About fifteen years ago I developed a bad case of bursitis in my left hip. If you've ever had bursitis (and most people get it in elbows and knees) you know how painful it can be. We never did figure out why I had it except that I had just started exercising on the stair stepper machine at the gym I went to after work. That was the only thing we could think of.

Fast forward to this past weekend and I have it again. I was climbing up and down a ladder a lot on Saturday, cleaning the walls of our screened porch, then the tile floor, trying to get the porch in shape for the summer. All very tiring and I felt a few twinges on Sunday and Monday but there was so much that needed to be done so I worked through. I thought it was my lower back. By Tuesday I could barely move; then it all came back to me — oh, no —bursitis.

I saw my doctor's physician's assistant on Wednesday for some anti-inflammatory meds and I'm going back this morning for a cortisone injection. But at least this time my doctor ordered xrays of my hip and is trying to find out why. Different doctor, different kind of doctor. I recently switched to a D.O. instead of an M.D. and I like that he tries to find the cause of problems rather than just prescribing medications to treat symptoms. Hopefully, I'll know more later today.

If you placed an order while I was laid up Tuesday and Wednesday, your package mailed yesterday. And I upgraded everyone to Priority, too. I'm working on everything else as quickly as I can.

An update on the fawn situation. I checked the next morning in the last place I saw it but it was gone. There was a regular little nest in the grass and I suspect it may have spent several days there before the cat attacked it and I first spotted it. But, on Wednesday morning I was looking out the window and saw the mother get up from the asparagus patch at the corner of our yard and walk up the bank behind it. Although I haven't been able to walk up there and haven't seen any more movement, I'm pretty sure the fawn is hidden there. Hopefully he's not getting a taste for asparagus :)

oh deer

Look at this little guy.



Found yesterday morning at the edge of my yard. I was out hanging the bird feeders (still not taking any chances leaving them out at night with the bears around) and spotted the neighbor's big white cat up near the crabapple tree. Then I saw it leap in the air, heard a scream, and saw a flash of brown and spots and flailing legs.

I ran up there, mostly to chase the cat away (what cat tries to attack a deer?), but also to see what was going on. I thought the fawn had climbed the bank and that's where I looked first. No fawn but mom was pretty upset to see me and did some snorting and stomping around. Of course, I backed off, not wanting to make the situation any worse than it was already.

So I walked around the other way, still not seeing anything, and then I looked down. And there it was in the tall grass, curled into a ball, and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. When I first climbed the bank I was so close to it that I almost stepped on it. That's how well-hidden it was.

The photo here was taken later in the afternoon, and when I checked about 7:30 pm, it was still there. I did a little research online about deer and this is pretty typical behavior. Mom hides the baby during the day, then walks away to divert attention from it. She'll stay in the general area in case of trouble, but you won't see either one unless you look very carefully.

I haven't checked yet this morning and don't know if they've taken up residence in my yard or for how long. I love that they consider it a safe haven but wonder if I'll be able to mow the grass any time soon. Such gorgeous animals (it has the sweetest little ears) but also very destructive—they're voracious eaters of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and perennials, all of which we have in abundance.

tea towels

Yesterday afternoon I drove to a couple of my favorite nearby antique malls. I always look for cute and unusual examples of embroidery and I wasn't disappointed—three tea towels, each with a different look and feel.

The first is a really nice idea. A section of red linen is sandwiched between two of white linen. Over the sewn seam is white feather stitch embroidery and at the bottom of the red panel is a mostly satin stitch bunch of holly leaves and berries. All very nicely done.



The second is a cute cross stitch parrot on a perch and I love the pink and white striped border. This one isn't in perfect condition—kind of faded and with a few holes along the edge, but I think I'll be able to use it for something.





Third, and last, is a pretty blue-bordered towel with hollyhocks (I think) done in applique and embroidery. I love the use of the little circles in various shades of blue—simple in themselves but combined together to form the flower. I think this is probably from the 1950s but looks modern enough that it could have been made today.



The embroidery is just straight stitch radiating out from the center to form a circle.



The rest of my purchases weren't all that noteworthy—a few hankies, aprons, and buttons. Both malls aren't quite as good as they used to be and I hope this isn't a trend as I start my summer shopping.

may flowers

Even if I didn't know it was May I could tell that it was by the lilacs. When I was a kid living in New York we had huge lilac bushes behind our apartment and they always bloomed in time for my Mother's birthday on May 18th. I'd pick armloads and fill a large vase with them. They were her favorite flower.



We have a very large bush on the corner of our house and it appears to be quite old. Perhaps not as old as the house (built in 1862) but pretty old.

We also have a smaller bush near the vegetable garden that's a different variety and blooms a bit later in June. And there's another small one in front on the opposite corner of the house. I bought this one at the Philadelphia flower show six years ago. I went with my friend Jenny who lives in Philly and she'll remember that I bought a baby lilac bush at the show. The label showed a gorgeous burgundy colored flower and I fell in love. But, we'd taken the train and had to schlep back to her apartment the same way so I couldn't carry a larger plant.

Anyway, I've been nursing it along for the past six years, pruning it to a nice shape, and relocating it to the perfect spot. I was happy to see flower buds this spring for the first time and was so excited to see the unusual colored flowers. But, guess what? The flowers are exactly the same as the lilac bush in my yard! I'm so disappointed. And had to wait six years to find out!

Oh well. It's still pretty. We're planning to line the end of our property (alongside the road that leads up to our neighbors house) with lilacs instead of the extremely ugly pine trees that are there now, so, I'll get my chance for a red variety. At least I hope so :)

sourcing vintage fabrics

Where do you find vintage fabrics—aren't they really expensive?

Yes, often they are. And, if you look in the usual places, you'll often find that vintage fabrics just aren't in your budget. Or you paid so much that you can't bring yourself to cut into it and actually use it to make something. I have a few like that :)

So, what can you do? Definitely keep an eye out on Ebay because you can still find bargains. But expect competition and don't fall in love and get into a bidding war. Serious collectors, especially of feedsacks, will pay lots of money for what they're after! But the cool thing about fabric is that tastes are very subjective—everyone likes different things. I found these two fabrics recently—one a more traditional floral with roses and the other a mod stylized floral. No one bid against me. And both are 2 yard lengths so lots to work with. I'm experimenting with simple bags and have a need for larger quantities these days.





But the best advice I have is to expand your definition of fabric. Look for tablecloths and napkins, curtains, old quilts and coverlets, pillowcases and sheets—there's a lot of fabric in sheets!

I was shopping at an antique mall a few weekends ago and found a bin of half-price linens. Mostly junk except for a 1960s orange and pink striped pillowcase with a pink edge. 50 cents! When I got it home I soaked it in Oxyclean for a bit, washed and dried it, then cut it up. I got almost a yard of fabric from the case and another nice piece from the edge. Sweet!

I always find tablecloths at flea markets and especially like the printed heavy cotton ones from the 50s and 60s. Even if there are stains, you'll still have tons of fabric to work with. At least enough for a pillow or apron or bag. Well-made curtains often have deep headers and hems. Once you let them out you can easily get another 1/4 to 1/2 yard of fabric.

And, if you're into quiltmaking or use patchwork in your designs you have even more options. Look for smaller fabric items like dinner napkins, cotton clothing, and tea towels. I got this funny fabric with houseflies from a little girls dress at a flea market in Connecticut. It had a tear anyway so couldn't be resold as a dress, but I got a nice sized piece—enough to make a tissue cozy with a few scraps left over for patchwork.



You can certainly spend a lot of money if you want to (and that goes for most things) but there's always a less expensive solution if you keep an open mind!

about those computer problems

I wrote this post while sitting in my car yesterday morning in a little notebook that I carry with me everywhere. You never know when inspiration will hit or when you'll need to kill some time. I was waiting in the parking lot for my appointment at the nearest Apple store which, unfortunately is an hour and a half drive from my house. I probably left too early but with traffic and construction, you never know.

My brand new laptop, that I'd had for only a week, was very ill. Actually, ill doesn't quite describe it—it was more like in a coma. I had this brilliant idea that I'd try to run Windows on my Mac and there are programs that can make that happen. I use Quicken for my business accounting and, while they do have a Mac version, it gets terrible reviews and you can't convert files from one platform to another. That means five years of unusable backup files and inputting all of 2009 all over again. No thanks.

So, I followed all the directions to load this new program and it didn't work. Not only did it not work but it totally trashed my original operating system. As in, all software, all files, everything gone. I spent an hour on the phone with support trying to fix it but nothing worked. So I set up an appointment at the store. And made myself sick worrying for two days while I waited. They couldn't do a quick fix either so I left it, drove back home, and worried some more.

I just got the call that they were able to repair it - yay! Not so good that I lost all the software I'd already loaded, but I hadn't gotten far and can do it again. And I hadn't transferred any of my files over so I didn't really lose anything that I can't get back. As for that program and running Windows, I think I'll pass. Brian says I can put Quicken on his PC and run it from there. I wish I'd thought of that in the beginning!

Now I'm off for another 3 hour round-trip drive. I swear, I haven't finished a thing work-related this entire week!

a walk in the woods

A walk in the woods this time of year doesn't seem like it would be all that exciting. It's only just starting to warm up and the woods are still very brown and gray. But, if you look very carefully and at ground level, there's lots to see.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) is one of the earliest flowers to appear and it's really tiny so it takes a sharp eye to spot it.



The Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) has spotted leaves that are said to resemble the spots of a brown trout.



Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) look like little pairs of white pants hanging upside down...



Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) is also called Squaw-vine because Native-American women used it to treat irregular and painful menses and for pain during childbirth. I thought at first that this might be wintergreen but you can smell that by crushing the berries. These had no smell.



This Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum) isn't blooming yet but I thought the flower bud was kind of cool-looking. I'll check next week to see if they've opened.



I'll be checking back often to see what else is popping up.

...and bears, oh my

I have to apologize for my lack of posting lately. Sometimes I just lose my voice and can't come up with anything interesting to say. Most of the time I do okay with writing but it doesn't always come naturally and I've been busy with other things (the garden, sewing, taxes) and haven't put in the effort.

We spent a quiet day on Sunday. The friends we usually have Easter dinner with are in New Zealand for their son's wedding so we had a quiet dinner at home. After spending the day working outdoors. Brian made good progress on the stone wall he's building on the side of the vegetable garden. And I did battle with two extremely overgrown climbing roses that quite possibly have never been pruned in their lifetimes. They were twisted around dead tree trunks and some of the runners were twenty to thirty feet long. In spite of wearing long sleeves I still got scratched up, but they've been cut back to a reasonable height. And I can keep an eye on them in case they get out of control again.

Saturday wasn't nearly as quiet as Sunday. We woke up to scattered bird feeders with the poles they were hanging from bent to the ground. The bear that came around in the fall was back, or so we thought. But later in the afternoon our neighbor called and said they'd just driven past our house and saw a bear and two cubs in our front yard. By the time we got outside they had moved down to the creek that runs alongside the road across from the house. We were able to watch them with binoculars until they disappeared from sight.

But about a half hour after that one of the cubs showed up in our side yard. Mom and the other cub were still down at the creek and I have no idea how they got separated. Cars were stopping in the road to gawk and one guy was standing on the other side of our stone wall taking pictures. Needless to say, the cub was freaking out, crying pitifully and making that breathy huffing noise that they make when they're scared. He scurried up the tree and wouldn't come down for almost a half hour.



The tree is just a couple of yards from our screened porch and I tried to take pictures through the screen but it just wasn't working. So, I went out and crept along the outside wall to the corner of the porch and managed to get a few pictures. Boy, was that scary. One thing you may not know about bears is that, although they look kind of fat and bumbly, they can run really fast! This one was more scared than I was.



Finally, it got dark enough and quiet enough that he felt safe coming down. We watched him run across the yard (very fast, from tree to tree) and then across the road. But that's not the end of the story. Fifteen minutes later he was out by our front porch revisiting the scene of last night's bird feeder crime. We chased him off and he crossed the road again. Still searching for mom and his brother or sister.

We realized after doing a little online research about bears that these were not newborns but second year cubs (they were pretty big for babies). They hibernate with the mother over the winter and in the spring she cuts them loose to make their own way. Which may explain the separation from Mom and the slightly panicky behavior of the cub.

No sign of them since so maybe they've moved on. But, I'm not taking any chances—the bird feeders are coming inside at night!

beetlemania

A visitor to my garden this past weekend...



The light was pretty harsh when I took this photo so it doesn't quite capture how electrically green he was. But the metallicness of it shows up pretty well.

That may be the last sun we see for a while since they're predicting rain (and possibly snow!) all week. I'm glad I got the chance to get some work done outdoors. The strawberry patch and herb gardens are weeded and I'm making good progress on edging the shade bed along our stone wall. There's just sooooo much more to do.

hostess with the mostest

I sometimes wonder whether my website is becoming too large. I do know that I need to redesign a bit to make it easier to find things because some of the items I'm selling get lost in the shuffle. Like my vintage knitting and crochet pattern books. See, I bet some of you are saying "I didn't know she sold those!"

I've always had a smallish section for these booklets but I've been finding more of them lately so the section is slowly expanding. Most are from the 1940s and 50s and there's a wide assortment of patterns, everything from baby clothing to socks and mittens. Lots of doilies and edgings, too.

I added about a dozen new patterns this morning and I love the one shown here. The 16-page booklet, published in 1956, includes about ten designs for embellishing hostess sets with crochet. Hostess sets are table linens (in this case placemats) with matching aprons. Several of the sets are shown in color photos and I love how kitschy they look. A perfectly-coifed housewife in a pretty apron arranges the dinner table just so.



There seems to a heavy use of vegetable-shaped serving pieces throughout. You don't see that much these days, although the dishes can be fun if used as accent pieces. I often see them for sale in antique malls and, while I don't collect them myself, I do have a relish dish shaped like a bunch of celery around here somewhere.

There's something very Stepford-wives about this photo. Her posture is so stiff and that vacant expression. I wonder what she's thinking?



Anyway, now you know about the patterns. And, if you thought I just sold pillows, sachets and tissue cozies you may want to visit the Vintage Finds section of my website. I found some gorgeous vintage eyelet trims over the weekend and getting them ironed, photographed, and listed is my project for today.

meow

Aren't these fun? Original can labels for Kalico Kat and Fuzzy Wuzzy brand cat foods! I found these at the Olde Engine Works Market Place in Stroudsburg, PA on Saturday. We woke up to a forecast of rain and figured we wouldn't get much done outdoors so we headed out for a day of antiquing.

I found a few cards of buttons, a small stack of sewing patterns, and some crocheted and embroidered hankies. And this funny appliqued towel—guess men didn't like drying dishes in the 1950s either!



Overall I found much less than I normally do. Maybe the economy is affecting the antique business, too—there were several empty booths and some of them had items that didn't seem all that old to me. David Bowie albums, for example? Maybe I'm being much pickier about what I buy. It is very early in the season and most of the outdoor flea markets haven't opened yet. That's where to find the real bargains.

We also had a nice lunch at Siamsa (I highly recommend the chicken pot pie, although you won't be eating dinner after eating it for lunch) and spent an hour or so browsing at Carroll & Carroll Books, both on Main Street. Found a lovely book—Some Flowers by Vita Sackville-West—with gorgeous watercolor illustrations accompanying short essays on her favorite flowers. For $9.98!

spring has sprung

Happy first day of spring! And this seems like an appropriate time for my annual getting-ready-to-garden post. And it also coincides well with the news that Michelle Obama plans to turn part of the White House lawn into a vegetable garden. This will be the first vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden during World War II.

There's a group of food activists, including Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, who've been encouraging the Obamas to consider this idea and I'm glad to hear that they've decided to go ahead with it.

I am disappointed that they won't be planting beets (because Barack doesn't like them); obviously he's never tried the baby variety like the one I'm going to plant this year. Even if you don't like the root part, the greens are so good sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic. Yum!



Our garden this year will be kind of basic with the usual peas, spinach, lettuce (several varieties), cucumbers, beets, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes. We'll try growing corn again, although maybe not as many plants—I like corn but not every day! Herbs, of course. I always grow lots of cilantro and basil—both Italian and Thai.

And that's a point I want to make. While I have space for a big garden and the White House garden will be huge in comparison to mine, maybe you don't have much space to work with. That's OK. Just start somewhere. You'd be surprised what you can grow in just a few pots on your porch. Or even a windowsill in your kitchen. No matter how small some of the places I've lived have been, I always managed to grow something.

It will be a few weeks until we get started with planting. Peas will be first and conventional wisdom around here is that you plant them on Good Friday. That's what we'll do. And since we're still getting light frost in the mornings I'm happy to wait a few weeks.

cut paper ACEOs

I don't know how many years it's been since I received my first promotion from illustrator Judith Moffatt. I know that I lived in Indiana at the time and was art director of a children's magazine there. It spent lots of time hanging from my bulletin board and then it traveled with me to my next job. Such a simple idea—a cut paper spider as Halloween card but also very clever in that it fit perfectly with her name (Muffet - Moffatt, get it?). Anyway, it wasn't long after I received it before I called to give her that first assignment. And I still have the card!

Mostly I didn't get the chance to meet the illustrators I worked with in person, but I did get to meet Judy at a function hosted by the next magazine I worked for. She's as delightful in person as she is on the phone. But the point of this post isn't to reminisce about my past life as an art director; maybe some other time.

I've been reading Judy's blog regularly but only recently got back in touch with her on Facebook. And she's just opened an Etsy shop where she's selling original hand cut paper ACEOs. In case you don't know (and I didn't) ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. These cards measure 2.5” x 3.5” and are sold as originals or limited edition prints. Each one is a mini work of art (one-of-a-kind, dated, and signed) and Judy's themes are taken from the more than 50 books she's completed during her career. I especially love her illustrations of animals and I know she uses her own cat and dog as models.

So, if you're looking for something unique and fun, check out her shop. I've seen Judy's work up close and you won't be disappointed—it really is wonderful!

he likes it!

Remember the baby quilt I was working on for my friend Jenny and showed you all the stages of it's creation here on my blog? Well, I delivered it early last month but forgot to get a picture. Jenny, of course, has had plenty of things to occupy her time besides taking photos. Until yesterday. She emailed me some pictures last night and the quilt looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Thomas is pretty cute, too!

you can never have too many cats

I've been really good about staying away from Ebay lately. Not that I don't still look but I'm more careful about what I bid on and how much I'm willing to spend. I lose more auctions, but that's OK. Sometimes my patience pays off and I win something great. Like this super cute stamped-for-embroidery linen towel.



One thing I've learned is that I can always sell pillows with animals on them, especially cats and dogs. Three kittens sailing in a tea cup with a spoon for an oar—no problem!

This towel uses the Colortex process where the lines to be embroidered are printed in color instead of black (or blue). The idea was that you knew which colors to use for embroidering each section. I find them too limited and like to do my own thing when it comes to color. I really don't have time to complete this right now so I'll be setting it aside for a while. It's sure going to make a cute pillow though!

coyotes

I've been reading The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming by Shreve Stockton about her adventures raising a coyote pup. I've had a fascination with coyotes since the summer after we purchased our house. That's when we first heard them in the woods out back and down near the creek across the road. They have a wide range so it's sometimes several weeks before they come back around but they're fairly regular visitors. They really do howl and it's the eeriest sound you've ever heard.

While we hear them all the time, seeing them is a much rarer thing. Last summer around dusk two of them ran across the road in front of my car but it happened so fast that I could almost convince myself that it didn't happen at all. I'd given up hope of ever seeing one up close and personal. Last weekend it finally happened.

I was driving to the grocery store that's about 4 miles from my house and there was a truck stopped in the opposite lane. I stopped, too, because that usually means a deer is going to run across. Believe me, you don't want to hit one if you can help it—they can total your car. The guy in the truck pointed over to the field and there was a coyote standing there. He must have just crossed the road, and was walking across the field. There was no one on the road behind me so I sat and watched him for a few minutes. He stopped, looked back at me, then walked along the creek at the back of the field. Gorgeous golden fur and a bushy tail and, even though they're in the canine family, you'd never mistake it for a dog.

Anyway, the book is pretty interesting and the author is a photographer so lots of cool photos. The cover shown here is courtesy of Amazon.com where you can purchase the book if you'd like.

Coyote hunts are a popular sport where I live. I'm not sure how I feel about that because they're beautiful animals and they were here long before we were. I do understand that the population can easily get out of control and hunting helps to keep their numbers manageable. I was happy to hear that hunters are cooperating with local researchers who are studying the coyote population and physiology. At least some good comes from it.

I still hope to see coyotes on our property but I'll take what I can get.

for the birds

In spite of the two inches of snow we got yesterday afternoon and last night, it's 40 degrees today and the snow is quickly melting off. In my studio it's already looking very much like spring. I didn't set out to do a bird theme for my spring pillow line but, as I was going through my linen stash, birds kept popping up. I think they were trying to tell me something so, OK, it's not a bad idea :)

I have quite a lot of things that still need to be embroidered—I'll get to them next—but, for now, I'm concentrating on using up pieces that are already ready to go. I finished four pillows yesterday, two with bird themes. And I have several more tops done! Will finish the backs later today.

This little guy is from a pillowcase I bought last spring at a flea market for $3. It had a very stubborn yellow stain running across the front right above the bird so I had to cut it a bit closer than I would have liked. Sometimes you have to work with what you've got.





Likewise for this one. I used this piece for a pillow a couple of years ago but I was never happy with the result. And, when I photographed it, I noticed a yellow stain that I hadn't seen while I was making it (note to self—always check linens outside in natural light). I threw the whole thing in my reject pile (yep, I've got one of those). Yesterday I revisited it, took the whole thing apart, then cut off the stain and ended up with a narrow piece.



And this is what I ended up with (still need to do the back). Much better the second go-round!



Which just goes to show that there's no right way to design something. And that's also why I don't design multiples. It would be easier, sure, just because anything done in production-line fashion takes less time. But I'd rather take matching motifs and create something completely different with them. Like this pillow that uses half of an embroidered vintage runner.



The other end is exactly the same, but I'll do a different design with it. Not sure what yet but there are some pretty blues and purples in the birds and I might go in that direction.



All of the pillows I'm working on now will be listed in a few weeks. It's been a while since I've done new pillow designs and the older ones are still on sale at my website. If they don't sell soon, I'll be taking them apart for reworking. It's hard to know why something doesn't sell. Poor design? Not connecting with the right customer? Bad economy? Who knows? But, judging from my recent redesigns, whatever they become next will probably be better than they were before!

read all about it

I did an interview a few weeks ago with a writer from HomeStyle, a bimonthly syndicated publication of a company called Content That Works. They provide lifestyle/special interest content (in this case, home-related) to more than 500 newspapers and media outlets (radios stations, Web sites, independent local publications/magazines, etc.) throughout North America.

Thanks to my weekly Google Alerts email (a great way to keep track of your company on the internet by the way), I discovered that the article ran in the Evansville (Indiana) Courier & Press last week. It's about mixing vintage linens from the past with modern pieces from the present, and the author used several of my quotes and a couple of my photos, too. You can read it online here.

Since the content just came out, it's possible that the article may get picked up by other newspapers over the next month or so. I'll be watching my alerts carefully :)

Dr. Duck says...

Happy Valentine's Day!



Artwork from a vintage valentine card that I bought recently.

more buttons

Wow, February already! At least that means that winter will be over faster :)

I've been keeping track of my camera's progress—it's been received and they're working on it—so I should have it back soon. I was going through withdrawal but then I stopped worrying about it. I had taken a bunch of pictures before it left and I've been processing those. And working on new items—lots of sachets coming soon!

I would love to show pictures of the buttons I purchased last week because they truly are spectacular. They were from the estate of a seamstress in Albuquerque and she had wonderful taste in buttons. They're all in near mint condition and many are in very large sets. I often have people on my website try to order several sets of buttons (they haven't read the fine print) and I just don't have more. Now I'll be able to offer some options. I know what it's like to find vintage buttons that you really love but there are six and you need eight—or whatever. Some of the buttons are the same style but different sizes so there will be that option as well. There are slightly more than 1300 individual buttons, most on cards, so it's going to be a very big job getting them all ready!

In the meantime, I've added about 50 new plastic button listings to my site. I know some of you who bought buttons last month were wondering when I'd have more. I do! Since I hate posts without pictures, here's a closeup of a pretty gold plastic button with a green jewel in the center (1950s-60, one card of six available).