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.

Vintage Baby Clothes

While unpacking from our move, I found:

...the suitcase filled with cute baby clothes I thrifted during college!

Some of the clothes are already too small for Elliott, but there are shoes and wool suspender shorts he can still wear.

The real prize, however, is this darling vintage child's smock:

I love the colors this seamstress chose to make a simple, blue checked cotton look feminine with the dainty ric-rac embellishment and red bias tape tie at the back.

The construction of this smock dress is also compelling. It is made from a 15.5" strip of fabric 36" wide (back then, cotton yardage was all 36" wide as opposed to our modern 45" or 60" wide yardage). Since the back edges were on the selvedge, they aren't hemmed. The top has a small channel for the bias tape tie, and the bottom has a tiny rolled hem with ric-rac on top.

The sleeves are U-shaped cuts with tiny rolled hems with ric-rac.

When the smock is gathered and tied, the U-shaped cuts stick out like little angel sleeves -adorable.

I want to make a collection of these all in different colors and trimmings.

If Elliott were a girl, you can guess what he would be wearing! He loves his lentil frog.

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.

breakfast!

smoothie breakfast!

pink - banana, mango juice, apple, kiwi, raspberries

light green - banana, mango juice, apple, kiwi

yellow - banana, mango juice, apple

dark green - 2 leaves kale, 1/2 apple, 1 kiwi (so good!)

I didn't make them all separately...I made the kale one then made the "yellow" one, added kiwi to make "light green" and then added raspberries to make "pink."

I received these vintage juice glasses at my bridal shower from a friend in California. I love them - they are one of my favorite gifts (and they are one of the only gifts we have in our apartment, everything else went into storage until we have a house better suited for displaying cute things).