A Visit to Vintage City

A couple months ago (yes, I'm that far behind on blogging) the folks and I visited our favorite little antique shop, Vintage City.  They bought an antique wardrobe for mother's room.  I bought some of my favorite things.

 

A new, blue table cloth with cherries on it, for my vintage table.  It's not too bright, worn just enough to be the perfect brightness.

 

 

And this beautiful set of 4 bowls. 

 They are in amazingly good condition, therefore, I won't be using them.  No pancake mix for these beauties!

The little graphic on the bowls is adorable and very 1930s or early 40's.

Also, a red and white compact which totally matches my RW&B purse!  LOVE it!

It is quite possible that I bought this beautiful, embroidered chair cover that day as well.

Now I think I have a collection!

 

 Well, that's all for today.  Until another time, have a happy, vintage day!

 

Home Arts Magazines

This past weekend's flea turned out to be a fun one!  This is one of my finds, a stack of Home Arts Magazines (Needle Arts).

I apologize for the photo quality.  My scanner is on the frizz again!  This is the second printer-scanner-copier I've owned that goes bonkers when I try to scan!  I'm ready to buy a plain old scanner.

This is probably my favorite one of the three I bought over the weekend. It's from January of 1940!

 

These magazines are full of beautiful embroidered tablecloths, pillow cases, and crochet patterns.  One thing that surprised me about these Home Arts magazines is that they are not JUST about needlepoint, crocheting and other needle arts.  There are small tid-bits about beauty and full articles on making ones home a cheerful place to be.  Especially the kitchen.  Putting three meals on the table everyday could be hard, busy work, why not have a cheerful kitchen in which to work?  

The article below is titled, "Your Kitchen...Make it Compact, Convenient, Colorful"

 

 

And what a cute little kitchen this one is!

 

 

The article goes on to say...

"Even if you can't start from scratch and install that perfect kitchen you want, do something now about the one you have."

"You may assemble canister sets, coffee-makers, cutlery, mixing bowls, and dish towels in fun colors, or black and white, to give zest to your color scheme."

 

Ummm, was this article written for me?  This is exactly what I did three summers ago.  I hated the "vineyard" look of our kitchen decor, we had had for ages.  So I took it all down and replaced it the dusty olive oil bottles and fake grapes with wonderful vintage bowls, tins and goodies I'd collected through the years, including vintage linens.  I love my cozy "vintage" kitchen now!  It's my favorite part of the house!

 

And then there is this fun page...

 

 

"Hello, and Happy New Year again!  Do take down your receivers, everybody, and let's chat, for there are parties afoot, and plans to be making;  and I wonder if you wouldn't like, this year, to help me solve some special party problems."

 

Apparently January and February were the "party" months of the year.  I suppose it makes sense with the cold weather keeping everyone from enjoying the outdoors.

 

 

Finally, the back inside cover is illustrated with 7 or 8 dress patterns.  A gal could choose a pattern, write to the Home Arts Company and buy the patterns.  The patterns were 15 cents back in 1940.  I found this one to be my favorite. 

 

 

What a fun little glance back into time this was for me.  I imagine the woman who received this magazine (she lived on a farm) studied it and read it cover to cover...there are so many interesting articles! 

 

That's all for tonight!  Until another time, have a happy vintage day!

 

 

 

 





Needlepoint Christmas Trees

Now that Christmas is over, I can post some of the gifts I worked on in November and December.  One of the gifts I gave to a few special friends was this needlepoint tree. 

 

The pattern for this tree can be found in the November/December Stitch-it Today magazine on pages 44 and 45.
I hadn't tried needlepoint before I found this project, but my daughter had done a little bit.  She showed me how to start and stitched a few pieces herself.  It was so easy to do, and now I love needlepoint!

 

The easiest way to transfer the pattern onto the plastic canvas, was to use a permanent marker, then cut out the pieces.

 



These are the little yarns I chose to create the ornament French knots.

After the pieces are finished I traced the pieces onto felt and trimmed the felt to fit the back of each piece (mostly to hid all of the stitching mess).  I hot glued the felt onto the back of each piece.  For a moment, I thought of gluing sheet magnet onto the backs of each piece, so that they could be put on a refrigerator, but didn't do it.  Maybe next year.

It was a fun project!
Until another day, have a happy stitching day!