Isn't She Lovely?

For the past few months, I've been admiring the antique fashion plates featured in various magazine articles. When I ran across this 1842 hand-colored plate from a publication called The Artist on a recent trip to Minnesota I couldn't resist starting my own collection. Her wistful expression, pearl-draped hair and pretty pink dress were all wonderful, but the blue paisley shawl draped over the railing was the detail I couldn't resist. (Click on any of my photos to see more detail.) I found my fashion plate at Auntie M's (how perfect for a Kansas girl!) in Hopkins, Minnesota. In a previous blog I raved about another shop in Hopkins called Blake Antiques, and this town has definitely become a destination for me as we go back and forth to my son's college town. Hopkins' main street has some great old architecture and wonderful antique stores. If you have the chance to visit Auntie M's don't miss the lower lever. The basement booth where I bought this image (and several other items) was wonderful--full of vintage items perfect for collage, crafting and collecting. Here are the covers of a little French fashion book I'm working on. I was inspired to start it after reading Sandra Evertson's article Album d' enchantillon in the Summer 2008 issue of Somerset Life. I don't have an extensive collection of vintage textiles, but I was intrigued by the idea of playing with vintage fashion images, snips of old trim and lace and bits of ephemera. I have a few pages started, but as I'm new to collage, I'm in a "hunting and gathering" mode for this project so I can layer each page with as many pretty things as possible. While I was working in my studio this afternoon, I had the pleasure of listening online to a live radio broadcast of my son doing color commentary for his university's women's soccer game. This was a wonderful broadcasting opportunity for a freshman, and that kind of opportunity is why he's attending a school so far away from home. We miss him a lot, but we're so proud he has the courage to follow his dreams.

Scarlet Letters

This is the latest addition to my small sampler collection. I usually don't even look at samplers on ebay because my budget is pretty small and I hate being outbid! This one had a very low starting bid and no one else even bid against me. What luck! The really old samplers are silk on linen. After 1840, the number of samplers being stitched and their quality declined. Later samplers were more likely to be stitched like this one, with wool on a coarse open weave canvas. Many wool samplers fell victim to moths, but this one seems to have fared well. My new sampler, with its ornate letters, is similar to one in the book that got me interested in collecting samplers. It's called a Sampler of Alphabets and I just happened across it on a remainder table one day years ago. I found the samplers so breathtaking that I bought the book and began my study of this form of needlework. At one time, I maintained a website about samplers and co-founded a sampler guild here in Kansas City. I have also been lucky enough to study samplers in the archives of several museums and to attend a sampler symposium in Colonial Williamsburg. I'm not as active with them now, but I still love samplers. Here's a French sampler I own. The red and white combination was quite popular in that country. Unfortunately, someone washed this and the red binding bled, causing the linen to be stained. It's always ill-advised to wash old needlework because the dyes were not colorfast. Here's the sampler with a similar one in the book. And here's a different kind of red and white sampler--a knitting sampler. M really put herself through the paces practicing all kinds of techniques. (You can click on any photo to see more detail.) In a previous post, I showed you my favorite sampler which I thought had been stitched by a girl named Martha Lord. Now I know much more about it thanks to Susan at Miss Maddie's. Susan is a vintage textile appraiser in Canada. She did some research and was so kind to share it with me. A twelve-year old Martha Rod appears in the 1841 census of Raleigh Parish, Essex , England. This is exactly the right age for a samplermaker-- so her name was probably Martha Elen Rod and the word Lord was a religious reference which was very common in samplers. Susan also found a listing for a Hanker's Hall that was a branch of the Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire Banking Company listed in 1852. So now I know more about the stitcher and the building she chose to memorialize. Thanks, Susan!

These are the days...

I'm a Saturday's child and, as predicted by the old rhyme, you'll find me working hard for a living many days of the week, but recently Wednesdays became a set day off for me. I couldn't be happier, because Wednesday also happens to be one of the days the retirement home thrift store is open. Unfortunately, it's a popular day with the antique dealers, too. Don't get me wrong, I really like antique dealers. I sold vintage wares once and I'd love to again. It's just that, unlike the residents who are looking for a nice blouse or the employees who seem to favor kitchen items, the dealers are like me--they're looking for the old stuff. I have realized, though, that now that I'm not buying for resale, we aren't really competing that much. Now, I mostly buy for my little vignettes and for collage, and I'm sure the nice volunteer ladies who bag my purchases find some of my choices curious. These are some of my recent finds. Even at $2.75, it's a pretty ugly pile isn't it? But look closer. Oh sure, the button jar had lots of big, brown and boring and a good number of gold and gaudies, but all of these beauties were in there too. I waited until I got home to sort through them, but while I was waiting in the drive-thru at Starbuck's I amused myself just turning the jar round and round to try to see what was inside. Those mother of pearl buttons are so tiny they must be baby buttons and those funky green ones remind me of Tic-Tacs (Go ahead and tease me, Cami--I know colored buttons always seen to remind me of candy). The pages of the old watercolor paper pad were very yellowed-- just perfect for me! Look how beautifully these images from Sandra Evertson's Les Mode Francaises tag and sachet project printed up (Somerset Life, Spring 2008, pages 96 and 97). Sandra also used brads as an embellishment and gave a recipe for tarnishing them. For a quarter, I got a box of brads already darkened with age and perfect for the project. Now I just need the right fabric to make the sachet bags. (For now, you'll just have to trust me that the green file box will look better when I get done with it. ) I do buy some things that are pretty from the start. You can see I already turned the little gold and white tiered stand into a ribbon holder. This grouping (without the ribbon) was just $5.50 (and there's a second set of the blue and white dishes not shown.) According to the old rhyme, Wednesday's child is full of woe--maybe she should come shopping with me!

Show Me Your Form Party

Tiffany at Shabby Scraps came up with the wonderful idea of a party to show off our dress forms. I love the button she designed for the event, too. You can see it on my sidebar, but be sure to stop by her blog to see the original as well as the list of the 50 or so bloggers participating. Wonder who's under the lovely lace in my photo? She'll remove her wrap and join the party when you click {here}.

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?