My Favorite Thing

Cindy, who has the beautiful blog, My Romantic Home, has invited us to share our favorite thing. This sampler, which was stitched in 1840, is definitely it! I collect antique textiles, and especially samplers, and this is the oldest piece I have. Did you know these were stitched as part of a girl or young woman's education? There are certain things sampler collectors look for in a piece and this one has just about every one of them. There are trumpeting angels and a female figure, which are overshadowed by a huge butterfly. This lack of perspective in sampler art is common and gives them a folksy or whimsical feel. There are birds and trees and flowers. There's a verse--it's a version of one which was stitched frequently-- and the sampler is signed and dated by the stitcher. (You can click on the photos for more detail.) There is also a wonderful building with its name stitched underneath. It could be the girl's school, a prominent building in her hometown or possibly even her home. The sampler is probably English, but at this point in time I have been unable to document that. When I purchased this sampler about 10 years ago, I reframed it myself using museum-quality archival materials because I want it to last another 168 years. Thanks for letting me share something so precious to me with you, and I look forward to seeing your favorite thing!

My Imperfect (but mostly pleasant) Life

Getting the craft store ready for inventory had really been cutting into my fun time. I had to work a lot of extra hours, miss the bloggers' craft day at Karla's cottage and even work on my birthday. I did have one free day to drive out to Greenwood, Missouri with my daughter, however. This little town has a number of antique shops, and I especially love it in the fall when it's all decked out in pumpkins and corn stalks. There's a lot of focus on primitives here and those fall decorations really seem to complement them. Unfortunately, on this summer day, the tea room in the antique mall was closed for vacation. My daughter and I love eating there (great sweet potato fries) so that put a definite kink in our plans. It was also unusual to see a number of empty booths in the antique mall. I did find a couple of little things across the street at the Greenwood Mercantile. Here's a Rit dye rack I bought. This is just a piece of one (3 tiers, 6 colors to a tier) as I've seen a larger one in a local antique mall with the full range of colors. I always look at it longingly when I go to that mall, but it's too pricey and too big for the space I have, so I was happy to find this little piece. A few of the dividers were broken or missing, but I replaced them with bamboo skewers soaked in leftover wood stain and cut to length. I've had fun trying to match up items to the dye colors stamped on the rack and I think it will look good when I get it filled up with ribbons and such. I've also seen one filled with old millinery flowers in Kaari Meng's book The French-Inspired Home. I also picked up this vanilla box. I like old graphics and have been looking for some vintage blue and white packaging since I saw Debbie Dusenberry of Curious Sofa mix it in with her blue and white transferware in the January 2008 issue of Country Living. I also spent one evening at an auction that I've started to attend regularly since Beth introduced me to it. I got this Blue Willow condiment set for just $3 because the salt shaker is missing. There's a complete one on ebay for more than $230. That's one of the nice things about imperfection-- it's affordable. As Beth said, you never know when I might run across a match for the missing piece and I've actually had this kind of thing happen to me. Years after I purchased an empty Delft tool rack, I found matching tools minus their rack---in Greenwood! I also got this really tall jar (I seem to be into these lately) for $4 and there's not a thing wrong with it. The exact same thing sells for $24.99 where I work, so it was worth staying late at the auction to bid on it. Have you ever been to an auction? I was a bit wary of them because I thought I'd accidentally bid on something I didn't want or lose my common sense and pay way too much for something because I got into a bidding war, but those things haven't happened. The auctioneers and their spotters make eye contact with the bidders so it would be pretty tough to bid without meaning to. I find myself getting very relaxed by the auctioneer's patter (each one has his own style) until they hold up something I want to bid on and then I get a rush of adrenaline. The spotters at this auction are so friendly, bringing boxes and newspaper to you with your item if you didn't come prepared to wrap it and these guys are just plain comedic when they model the merchandise-- fur pieces and rhinestone necklaces never looked so good.

What's Under the Cloche? (3)

A while ago I picked up a couple of spool knitters at my favorite thrift store for a quarter each. They reminded me of the ones I had as a kid and I liked how they were such opposites --one tall, thin and black, the other short, plump and ivory. They sat on my craft table with no purpose, but caught my eye when I was creating a panel, all in blacks and creams, for the Birds and Bonnets Swap. I thought the three would look good together under my cloche. Last night I recreated the swap panel. I began putting together the vignette this morning, knowing I wanted the display to be strictly black and all shades of vintage white. Some dried twigs called wintercress, found on clearance at Michael's for $1, made a tree background for the the bird and filled out the top of the cloche. As usual, I used a vintage pin-style flower frog as a base, anchoring the twigs in it and propping up the panel on it. I draped yellowed lace, another thrift store find, from the black spool and pinned a leftover scrap of coffee-died polka dot ribbon to the white one. I cut a circle from black and ivory damask scrapbook paper to ground the display and scattered vintage buttons over it. So tell me, what's under your cloche?

My French Dress Form

Madame arrived a few days ago, rather unceremoniously, in a cardboard box by way of New Jersey. Like so many bloggers before me I set out to antique her French form, using the instructions from Heather Bullard published in the April 2008 issue of Romantic Homes. Here she is in her natural state in the back yard. I thought it would be easiest to paint the form upright, so I left it on the wood base, but because I'm a sloppy painter, I put the base inside of a garbage bag and secured it to the metal pole with masking tape. The form was first sprayed with Kilz white primer and then painted with Valspar interior flat finish paint in the color Churchill Hotel Wheat using a foam brush. Then Valspar's antiquing glaze in a color called Asphaltum was watered down and ragged on. (The paint and glaze were purchased at Lowe's.) To me, this glaze appeared very grey in the bottle and I was a bit worried, but the company website described it as a deep brown and I was happy with the way it looked over the paint. Like Heather, I ordered the dress form with a black base. (I picked an ebay "buy it now" seller after searching with the words "dress forms". There were a number of form sizes and styles, base finishes and price points to choose from.) I sanded the base and neck cap to age them a little and then rubbed them with a less watered-down solution of the antiquing glaze. I had the most trouble with the neck stamp. I stamped, painted over the stamp, and then re-stamped it several times because the image was blurry. I finally realized I was using a dye-based stamp pad and that the dye was, to borrow a term from the textile world, fugitive--it was running. I used my handy Michael's online coupon, purchased a pigment-based ink pad and was happy with the result. The stamp I used is from a collection called French Mail by Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps and was also purchased "buy it now" from an ebay seller. (Yes, I'm an impatient crafter!) Since my studio has a lot of sewing collectibles, I began Madame's decoration with a needlecase necklace I've had for years. Now on I'm on the lookout for more thrift and antique store necklaces, pearls, chains, pins and who knows what else to adorn her.

What's Under the Cloche? (2)

Now that June is racing toward July, I decided it was time to get a summer vignette under the cloche. I based this display around a little souvenir booklet I purchased on our recent trip to Minnesota. I am always drawn to personal papers that have fallen out of the family line, but I think this one really struck a chord with me because my oldest son had just graduated from high school the week before and were were traveling to register him for college. This little booklet celebrates the end of the school year with a number of poems with one comparing education to a ship and another that's just plain honest: "My pupils 'tis the close of school, Vacation days have come. And you're released from task and rule, And lessons' weary hum." The inner pages are all professionally printed, with one reading "with best wishes from your teacher 1908". Another lists the location as Elm Dale Township, Morrison County, Minnesota; the teacher as Nellie Sullivan (is that her picture pasted to the cover?); and a listing of students including five Nelsons, five Johnsons and eight Andersons--fifty-three students in all. To back the souvenir booklet, a 25 cent thrift store flag took a quick tea bath to knock down the new look a bit and then was anchored in a vintage pin frog. Some antique store stars cluster around it, repeating the stars and stripes theme and perhaps suggesting star pupils. A swirl of vintage rick rack adds a festive touch. To make the bottom of the cloche more interesting, I photocopied and cut a circle from a page in a beautiful old book I own that was copyrighted in the late 1800's and is titled Real Penwork Self Instructor in Penmanship. So, what's under your cloche this summer?

Tea and Creativity

On Monday, I visited my retirement home thrift store and found these two apothecary jars for $2.25 for the pair. (The tall one holds little bits of shell that I thought might be interesting for mosaic. I know--they're tiny and I'm crazy!) On Tuesday, I attended a blogger tea party at Karla's and met Shawn and Marilyn who live nearby and Becca from Ohio who was passing through on a trip to Colorado. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a good time chatting out on the patio and touring Karla's studio. (I think it's fascinating to get a peek into another person's creative space.) The sweet little bottle in the middle of the photo was a party favor Karla made for all of us. The colored pearls I bought in Des Moines immediately found a home there. On Wednesday, I met up with Beth at an auction. Although I didn't come home with anything this time it was fun to peek over Beth's shoulder and see what her box lots contained. You don't have to live around here to have the same experience--she has a very entertaining two-part box lot "reveal" on her blog, so head on over there next. I did play around with the colored pearls and the pincushion. Originally, I thought I'd do a variety of flower designs using all of the colors but I ended up with a swag and just the blue and creamy white pearls (my colorways are so predictable). I'm not sure this design will be the end result and I can't decide if I should keep the stained, vintage fabric, or if I should cover it over with something cleaner. For the time being, it does look pretty on the old Singer.

Bliss at Blake Antiques

I found my bliss behind these green doors at Blake Antiques in Hopkins, Minnesota. This is a unique and wonderful antique store. The selection of merchandise was outstanding, and all of the booths and cases were beautifully arranged. There wasn't a Beanie Baby in sight and there was smooth jazz playing instead of that oldies soundtrack that so many antique malls seem compelled to play. In a lower area, there was a large inventory of vintage wedding dresses and accessories and a library of reference books. There were at least a dozen things I wanted, including a beautiful old chatelaine that was over $1,000, but this pretty blue sewing basket won my heart and was affordable. There were some very nice vintage sewing tools that came with it, too. I also couldn't walk away without this paper doll who is lovely in soft green. Just look at all of the beautiful ribbonwork in her basket of posies. And her blonde waves and rosebud red lips are too cute! I found this celluloid pincushion basket and the pearls in a Des Moines antique mall. I plan to make an arrangement of pearl flowers on top of the pincushion. I'll show you the results if it works out. The rusty miniature tools-- not old, just charming-- were $1.99 at a Goodwill in Minnesota and I thought they'd be fun for a Spring vignette. I also purchased the orphaned blue lustreware teapcup for 49 cents. I'll pass along a few bargain finds, too. If you have a Big Lots in your area, they are getting some nice things in their scrapbooking aisle. I love the vintage letter shapes of K & Company's Twinkle Type and at $4 it's cheaper there than where I work using my employee discount. The Inkadinkado Stamps were another find there at $4. I've noticed their selection does vary by store, but isn't that always the way with bargain shopping? And finally, if you're a fan of cloches or Anna Griffin stamps and punches, a number of them have been put on clearance at Michael's. Happy summer shopping--wherever it takes you!