sewing with vintage linens

A few days after we came home from California, Adam was gone for a week on a 50 mile backpack trip with the scouts. It was raining for some of that time** and I decided to take the week off from painting shiplap and use my personal time at night to sew and eat chocolate. I like the two items I made: linen zipper bag and linen tote. How do you like my shiplap wall? I love it :)

I have a collection of embroidered vintage linens, which I added to this summer from my favorite antique store in Ithaca (next to Moosewood Cafe). Here are some of the recent spoils:

I will use the "knives" and "forks" rolls to store my extra silverware. The embroidered runners will be project bags (to protect current knitting projects) for me a la Dottie Angel. I have been inspired by her beautiful project bags.

shell/ivory? belt buckles. I see these on a sweet, belted blouse for me....

Detail of the white and blue embroidery; it has a Japanese feel. I thought it could be nice to use the embroidered part as a collar on a girl's dress or a pocket detail on something for me....or both, I have 6 crescents. 

White handiwork looks stunning with natural linen backing. I could frame this.

 Elliott helped me put the "fences" back on the toddler bed to make it a crib for Arlin. Right off, Elliott showed Arlin how to use his new crib: throw out all the blankets, jump and shout. Arlin took careful notes.

I mentioned Dottie Angel...another fun personal treat was to visit her at TOLT, the new-ish yarn store in Carnation. I bought a few prizes for me which hurt Elliott's feelings. The black yarn is for my skotthufa!  

**The first night on the 50 miler, it rained. Second day, huge thunderstorm terrorized the scouts and some ill prepared leaders. Third day, all but 2 scouts and 4 leaders went home early. Sixth day, the rest of the crew came home and I heard many colorful stories. Here is a photo of the food I lovingly packed as per Adam's precise directions. 

Friends and Antiques

Friends and Antiques always go well together :)

Today, i spent time in the cute town of Snohomish with some childhood family friends. We browsed the many vintage and antique stores including the Star Center Antique Mall. Marisa and Chanel were hunting for blue glass Mason jars and silver candle sticks - which they found. I am always hunting for cheap and cool furniture, but didn't find any.

I did find this beautiful green floral print linen table cloth ($20).

Today, my favorite things were these old steamer chests with drawers and hangers! Then you can pack all your clothes and have a mini closet when you arrive. These chests bring a new, positive meaning to the phrase "living out of a suitcase."

.....I don't think you can fly with them, unfortunately.

I also had my eye on this lobster pull along toy for Elliott, but didn't get it ($35).

I fell in love with this beautiful, silk chiffon Edwardian/Titanic Era style dress ($225). I love the emerald color and attached capelet!

I did not buy, but took some photos to remember :)

I should have bought these 6 cups with saucers (only $6!)

I like the colors of this wool embroidered bedspread:

Here is a pretty fern gate - I would love to have something like this someday.

treasure

Upon moving in to this house, I have unpacked many treasures I had squirreled away in storage awaiting the day I'd have more space or more time to enjoy them. Those days have come!

One exciting box I recently unpacked contained all the antique plates I received from my bridal shower. Wasn't that a cute gift idea?: all the guests were asked to bring an antique plate they thought I would like; combined together, I now have a large, eclectic collection!

I enjoyed unpacking each plate and remembering who gave it. Some people had put their name tags from the shower on their plate so I would know who it was from. As I was going through the box, I saw one plate I didn't remember (it has been 3 years!) and then I saw the name tag:

Thanks Briana, I love you and I love your plate. You always had great taste. I miss you and cherish your gift and memory every day.

black and white quilt

I've been planning how to best use my new black and white quilt squares I bought at an antique store in Orange, Ca.

Here is my plan:

Using the 8 antique squares and 4 new squares I will make, I'm going to make a queen size quilt for our bed.

There will be 12 b&w quilt squares with a 3" white border between each square, 12" white overhanging panels on all 4 sides, and white backing.

Here are the additional black prints I found at ReproductionFabrics.com I'll use for the 4 new squares. It's going to be hard to find the right white fabric since the antique one is aged and tinted.

I'm going to use a bright yellow binding to add some pop to this almost Amish looking black and white quilt. I might use the yellow flower print (below).

These three prints I fell in love with while looking for the right black prints. The green one in the middle was on sale (yay!) and I think it would make a beautiful blouse or dress for me...or a cute baby bib and baby pants for Pea!

Well, I guess I have another quilt project to keep me busy...

California Visit

I just got back from a quick visit to my family in Southern California. It was wonderful; the weather was nice and sunny, we went walking everyday, and we did some garden and attic organizing projects.

Here are some photos:

sunny weather

going for walks by the beach

Tess and Briana

my mom

A wonderful, all produce grocery store called Growers Direct!

Me and my Dad filling up the IKEA bag with fruits and veggies :)

My mom, Briana, and I went exploring in the old town area of Orange. We oohed and ahhed over items in antique stores and ate Belgian waffle sandwiches at Bruxie's (but ate them before we could take a photo).

If I lived nearer, I would have wanted to buy this dresser chest. It was beautiful and in excellent condition, and way less expensive than I've seen in other stores. It would have been perfect for clothes, diapers, and blankies in a baby room :)

pretty idea for folk painting

pretty idea for old-timey lettering

An old dye cabinet!

with packets of dye still inside!

And a list of recipes to obtain various colors:

My purchases: set of 8 black and white quilt squares, two bobbins of handspun wool (I've started a collection), cute apron.

At the outdoor Bruxie's Belgian Waffle joint:

Then we made some fruit crepes at home (bad photo, but delicious!)

Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of Thom! He came down with the flu the day I arrived; so sad. He has grown up to be very tall and handsome and will be the best uncle!

I miss everyone alredy! It was wonderful to be with family for no specific reason - no holiday or family event, just regular everyday life.

blue wool baby dress

I made a baby dress!

The fabric is a tiny floral printed wool gabardine from my mother-in-law's fabric collection. She used to sew clothes and make porcelin dolls, and I've been lucky enough to inherit some of her treasures.

The crochet trim might be from her, too - but I can't remember if I had if before.

The buttons are from a garage sale, I'm pretty sure.

I got the pattern for 50 cents at the DI on the same visit when I found that great woven trim.

Now, I need to find a cute baby hanger...

Once Wed

Hello!
Here is another website that has posted Rachel Thurston's photos of our wedding!

The site is called Once Wed and they have a section called Real Weddings.

It's fun to see what other people planned for their weddings. So many different ideas, they are all great.

It's funny that it's not until after we got married that I realized there were this many different wedding websites!

Bridal Shower

Well, some friends in my home area planned a wonderful bridal shower for me on March 28th. I know that was a while ago, but I wanted to share some of the photos since it was so nice and they planned some great surprises.

They wanted to plan all the food and gifts to celebrate what they loved about me. It was great! At first I was hesitant to even have a bridal shower, but...I'm glad I got to have one :)

It was really fun to see what they remembered and loved about me and to feel so supported and loved by all the women in my life.

So...

First, they invited all the women in my life
Then, they decorated the house with bark and lichens and moss. (I guess everyone knows I love "woodland")
Then, they made delicious food like mushroom tarts and french madeleines! (I used to love french things and was the french club president in high school!)
Then, they served everything on pretty antique plates with family heirloom silverware and linen napkins. (I love antique items, especially ones from your own family heritage)
Then, they got me the best group gift: a huge Excalibur dehydrator! (Adam and I have already been busy making yogurt, dehydrating mushrooms, herbs, strawberries and more!)
Then, they planned another surprise group gift: they told each lady to bring an antique plate so I could start my own mismatched collection of antique plates from the women I love!

It was so fun to see each plate and hear the story of how they picked it out. "I call this one 'The Three Sisters' and thought of you, Briana, and Candice." "This one has a barn and donkey and I thought of the farm you and Adam want to someday live on." etc.)
There was another beautiful group gift and I truly was showered with gifts, advice, well wishes, and love.
And finally...There was homemade kumquat marmalade. A few years ago, I babysat for a week in the house where they threw the shower. They had a kumquat tree and I made marmalade while they were gone. It was so good. The really funny part is that when I realized I was going to be in California in May for our wedding, I immediately remembered that May was kumquat time and told my mom I was going to ask her if I could pick them again. She said, well, we'll see when you get here if you have time!

Thanks LeAnne, Pam, Chris, Shirley, Nancy, Cathy...and everyone for a great shower!
It was so thoughtful, I loved it!

Barn Raising

We wanted our wedding to have a sense of community



Ideally it would have been a barn raising.
Everyone in our community would come help us build a barn for our new life together. And there would be potluck pie and dancing all night long!

In reality we planned a celebration with family style dinner, dancing to a live bluegrass band, and plenty of old-fashioned wedding symbols.
We were inspired by this idea: The ritual of guests sharing a meal together underscores the sense of community a wedding is meant to celebrate.


I would describe our wedding as having antique and old-fashioned aspects as well as woodland and family tree elements.

Some of my favorite details from our wedding are:

-The family history photos. From both Adam's and my family, going back four generations.


-Everyone pitching in their talents to make our wedding special. Many people donated services as wedding gifts to us!

-Antique wedding dress from late Edwardian Era (1905-1910) with silver locket, old-fashioned brown shoes, and handsome groom.


-Hyacinth flower wreaths as the corsages and boutonnières for our family. A wreath is the perfect wedding symbol. I love how they turned out!



Though Adam and I would actually LOVE to have a barn on a few acres of land...we will have to wait a few more years.

***Photos are from Rachel Thurston, rachelthurston.blogspot.com, our fantastic photographer***