Antique Linens and Selvage Fun

This is one of the treasures that I found recently at a nearby antique shop.  I don't know how old it is,  or who stitched it, I just knew it had to come home with me!  And at a price of only $5.00, the decision wasn't difficult.  I thought the word "hame" was odd, but I did some googling and found that it was a Scottish word for "home".    However it's said, I agree with the sentiment!

Some of the stitching has rotted away from being so old.

If you look closely, just above and to the right of the little black dog, the thread from an entire animal has gone missing.

The happy couple!

If anyone has an idea of how old this sampler might be, I would love to hear from you!

More treasures:

This lovely cross stitch design is on what looks like a dish towel made of very soft linen.

It was stitched with what looks like one strand of flower thread over four threads of the linen.  The linen is so fine I can barely see the threads, but this cross stitch was definitely counted and not done over a stamped design.

Another beauty, I'm guessing this may have been done in the 40's or 50's.  I love the crocheted edging.

A nice doily for only $3.00.  I'm often amazed at the bargains that can be found with antique linens, I bought all four of these pieces for $18.00!

Now, here's a couple of fun selvage projects I've been working on:

A drawstring bag to use as a purse or to hold needlework projects.  As you can see, I shop at Jo-ann Fabrics quite a lot!

A smaller bag with a slightly brighter color scheme.  Thank you for stopping in again to look at my pictures!  I'm going to leave you with one last one.  

This was an old abandoned house, built in the 1800's just around the corner from us.  The owners decided to let our local firefighters burn it down for training purposes.  I know it was a good thing for the firefighters to be able to use it this way, but at the same time I hated to see it go.  We have been driving and walking by that old house for 22 years and and will absolutely miss it!  

Thanks again for visiting my blog!

Patchwork Bag Set

It's been a while, but I finally have something done to show you!  I picked out some of my favorite fabrics from my stash and made a nicely sized bag that I can use as either a purse or a stitching bag.  In the middle is a tiny basket of flowers embroidery.  The pattern for it is yet another one from the Flickr group Hoop Love Vintage Transfers.  I don't know how I lived before I found that place and its huge supply of vintage patterns!

This embroidery only took maybe 2 or 3 hours to complete.  I used some of my favorite Cosmos Seasons variegated threads and the brown thread for the basket is a DMC variegated.

There's a large patchwork pocket on the back as well as two small side pockets.  And since I already had some extra patchwork squares cut, I decided to make a little pincushion and needlebook to go with it.

I got the little pom-pom trim on sale at Jo-an Fabrics and thought it would look nice around the edges.

Here's the inside of the needlebook.  I just love these fabrics and the nice thing about patchwork is having so many favorite fabrics all together on one thing!  The vintage doily underneath it is one that I was lucky enough to find at a yard sale one summer.  

Thank you for stopping in, it was nice visiting with you!

A Walk in the Woods and Our Neighbor's Garden

Behind the local college where I work, there's a Natural Area that's a great place to walk.  The weather was perfect today so I decided to go.  There are a couple of miles of trails with boardwalks where it might otherwise be muddy or messy.

I took my "walking purse", a small over the shoulder bag for holding a few necessities.

The trail was sunny and beautiful, at least for this time of the year, not very many flowers left to look at.

But I found a few things to photograph anyway.

A lovely fern.

A small river running through the woods.

A lot of twisty, turny paths with roots to catch your feet if you're not careful.

And moss.  I love moss.

On the way back I noticed some little wild flowers peeking up through the boards.  I'm thankful for such a nice place to walk in and I can't wait to go back!  We were at our neighbor Lana's a few days ago, she has a beautiful garden of flowers.  This giant pink one is a hibiscus, I was surprised, I thought it only grew in more tropical areas.

Gorgeous peachy roses.

I can't remember what this plant is, but it's pretty.

I think the grasshopper likes this red rose as much as I do!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Margaret Wins the Chart!

Although I have to say, Margaret, your chance to win was pretty good since there were only two entries.

Yours and Newfie Princess'.  I was going to have my husband pick one of the papers from the bowl, but when I was ready, he was napping.  Cricket was nearby, so I set the bowl down in front of him.  I decided that whichever paper he made leave the bowl would be the winner.  He just looked at it for a minute, then took a swat at one and sent it across the room.  It was the one with Margaret's name on it.  But since there were only two entries, I would also like to send a little something to Newfie Princess.  I see from your blog, Newfie, that you like Prairie Schooler.  I have some tiny little charts from them, if you would like to have them you can send me your address and I will send them on their way.  Margaret, I still have your address from before and I will get the Jenny Bean chart out to you right away.  Thank you both for entering my {tiny!} contest. 

Cricket, taking a well deserved rest after the difficult chore of choosing a winner.
Now, I have a new bag to show you:

I used an embroidery that I made some time ago from a vintage pattern.

A large pocket on the back and some vintage buttons from my button box.

Inside.

The nerd-like ink pen pocket, I should probably see if I can find one of those plastic pocket protectors for it!  Now, I'm off to the sewing room to make yet another bag if you can believe it!

Here's Sarah Bean and her little one--we've been calling her Butter Bean--out in the cat house today.  Our other kitties have been gradually getting used to them, there have been lots of hisses and growls, but so far no carnage, so I'm grateful!  Thank you for visiting again!

Embroidery, Stash and New Cat Tattoo

Hello, everyone!  I don't have any cross stitch to show you, I'm still working on my Jenny Bean's Creation Sampler, but I have done a few pieces of embroidery.

These designs are all from the Vintage Garden book that I told you about on my last post.  These things go a lot faster than cross stitch and I really enjoy doing them.  I also made a new stitching bag using an Aunt Martha's transfer of morning glories.

Please excuse the less than pristine condition of the bag since I have been using it the last couple of weeks. 

I've also had a chance to add to my stash; during spring break my hubby offered to take me to a nearby town where they have a wonderful Ben Franklin Crafts and a Hobby Lobby.  At Ben Franklin's I found this wonderful selection of co-ordinating fabrics. 

And from my favorite stash source, Anita, I was sent these two JBW Designs charts that I can't wait to start!

And here are some pearl cottons for emroidery and some of the newest DMC Color Variations threads.  The flowered fabric peaking out from under the doily is another pretty one from our trip to Ben Franklin's, I love the colors on it!
And now, my newest tattoo, I think it's my favorite one yet!

It was done by Erik, who did my other tattoos and I think he outdid himself with this one, I absolutely love it!  I found the image of the kitty which is an old Victorian picture and asked if he could put some pink roses under it.  The kitty was pictured with a sort of tasselly bow around her neck, which looked ok, but I really wanted some roses instead.  I think that the pink in the roses looks nice with the blue of the kitty's eyes.  I now have a cat on each arm!  Now I'm going to end this post with another kitty picture.  If you have a cat, have you noticed how they are always sitting or laying on whatever little object that you happen to throw down?  I had left my stitching hoop on the couch and then later on I looked and there was Trixie all curled up within the circle, I thought it was such a typically cat like thing to do!

Thank you for visiting this blog again, and for leaving such thoughtful comments on the last one, I appreciate it so much!

New Bag with Vintage Embroidery

I've made a new purse to add to my collection, maybe I should start calling this blog the Bag Blog!  But I love having lots of purses and bags to use.  The pattern for this pot of flowers design is from a new book I got recently and I love, love, love this book!

It's by Nori Koenig and you can find it at Amazon.  It's full of beautiful old floral designs with a pattern for each one of them.  The book shows a photograph of each original antique piece so you can see the colors that were used to embroider them.  Then in the back of the book there are black line patterns for you to trace and transfer to your fabric.  I counted 53 of them!  If you have any interest in doing vintage embroidery I believe you would love this book, too.  I'm sorry if I sound like a commercial, but when I find something that I really love, I just have to tell you about it!  Here's a closer picture of the one I chose for my bag.

I used all DMC floss, plain black and DMC variegated colors for the rest of it.  I wanted to use thread colors that would have been available at the time these were first embroidered.  It was such fun to stitch!  Here's the back of the bag:

This is a double pocket panel with patches of rose fabric for decoration.  There are also small side panel pockets of the same rose fabric for cell phone, etc.  I got this fabric and the wooden rose buttons on the front from Anita.  I've got another order coming from her soon with new stuff from Nashville and I can hardly wait!  I've also been working on some cross stitch, a Shakespeare's Peddler design called Jenny Bean's Creation Sampler.

It's charted for Gentle Art threads but I was in the mood for silk so I changed it over to Belle Soie and Gloriana silk floss.   It's only about halfway done, I'm anxious to get down towards the bottom where there is a nice Adam and Eve scene.  I just love Theresa's designs, don't you?  And now I have a question for all of you nice blogging people;  have you been having any difficulty with leaving comments on other people's blogs lately?  On just a few blogs, when I try to leave a comment, the comment box will come up, but for just a second and then it disappears.  No matter how many times I click on it to bring it back, it just goes away again before I have time to add a comment.  Sometimes the blog itself will only show up briefly and then it goes blank and stays that way.  It's very frustrating, and I've been wondering if it's happening to anyone else?  So, if I had been in the habit of commenting on your blog, but haven't recently, please know that this is why and not that I don't find your posts just as lovely and interesting as always!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog again and thank you for each wonderful and thoughtful comment that you left for my last post!  I'm going to leave you with a picture of my latest tattoo, just a small one this time.

 This bee represents my husband, Tom.  I wanted to get it because we have always been in the habit of calling each other "Bee", you know, like in "honeybee."  So now I think of him whenever I see the bee on my arm. 
Thanks again for visiting!