Springtime Embroidered Napkin

Today I'm going to talk a bit about how I make some of my own cloth napkins for the dinner table (known also as a serviette in Canada and the UK).  I'm not a big believer in paper towels.  I can't really explain why, they just seem wasteful to me, I don't like the "throw-away" aspect of them. 
Therefore, when we eat our meals, we use cloth napkins instead of paper towels. 

One of the drawbacks to cloth napkins is that over time they tend to deteriorate.  That's because I wash them in hot water, sometimes with a tiny bit of bleach added (to kill any germs).  Because of this deterioration, I'm always making replacements.  (I use the old ones for dusting, dirty jobs and whatnot).

The whole thing sounds tedious, but I actually enjoy it very much!  I love to embroider on things that are useful and cloth napkins for the dinner table are useful, and easy to stitch-up in a day or two. 

This is a little blue bird vase napkin I started last night.

Call me cheap, but cloth napkins found in the stores can be kinda pricey, and sometimes fade over time.  So, I'm going to try a new plan.  I simply cut a new, inexpensive, regular sized dish towel into four sections, hem up the sides on my machine, and presto! there are four blank napkins to embroider.

He's a work in progress.

Sometimes I draw or trace a small pattern, but iron-on transfers are an easy option as well.  Usually, an Aunt Martha iron-on pattern will have a small "test" pattern included in the set, and those tiny test patterns are perfect for a small napkin corner. 

No, no, not THAT kind of test pattern (although my TV loving husband might like that one).
I'm talking about these little test patterns.

When I get this little Blue Bird Vase napkin done I will share it with you!
Until then, 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!

 

 

 

 





Embroidered Felt Eggs

A few years ago, I found this great little Easter egg craft on the Making Ends Meet blog.  I've made a few eggs throughout the years and am back at it again this year.  It's a fun little project!  My chicks never turn out as cute as hers do, but that's okay. 

These are the supplies I use to created the eggs.  You can find the "how-to" directions on the Making Ends Meet blog.  They are fairly simple to make.  You will need two whole felt egg cutouts, cut one of the felt eggs across the middle.  You can use a decorative cut or a straight cut (the decorative cuts are "cuter").  Embroider designs such as vines and flowers on the two halves that were cut.  Then attach them to the back (whole) egg by stitching around the outsides.  Sometimes I use a blanket stitch, sometimes just a simple running stitch.  Do not stitch the middle, instead the middle becomes a pocket opening where a little chick will live.

 

 

To make the baby chick, I used yellow flannel (which I'm finding frays a bit too much along the cut edges.  Cotton might actually work better).  I used a circle template to draw the chick's front and back.  I satin stitched eyes and a beak (I might do a felt beak on my next chick), then added some cotton scrap wings.  I put a smaller piece of white felt in between the yellow circles, to give the chick some bulk and used a running stitch to sew the front and back together. 

 

 

So, that's what I've been up to in the evenings lately.  It is nice to work on something that I can give away, not just sit in a drawer for years on end and never be seen!  Plus, they are so nice and cheerful!  I hear this little chick saying, "Spring will soon be here!".

Until next time, have a happy, stitching day!



Blackwork Prayer Pocket

This was one of my black work projects for the month of February.

February and March have been challenging months for me.  Most of my good friends have moved on to different states and I reminded all too often that I am living in my own state of....well, loneliness.  The winter has been long and cold, and the sight of the four walls that surround me is getting old.  But on the bright side, (there is always a bright side, right?) I have had the opportunity to carve out more time for reading, studying, praying, and stitching.  This was a project that could combine them all.

This little prayer pocket started out as a bookmark but ended up being something that I keep in my purse.  The pattern reminds me that everything in my life comes from Christ.  I am the butterfly in the middle.  The cross (which represents Christ) is connected to the boarder that surrounds everything (God).  The cross (Christ) is also between me and everything else...the dark woods where the wolves are lurking (trees, peaks and valleys in the lower left corner), the beauty I see in the world (flowers in the upper left corner), my family and marriage (lower right corner), and the light of good and the dark of evil (upper right corner).  Christ comes first.  This idea (or journey) has not always been an easy one for me, and maybe it's not suppose to be.  The more I struggle with it, the more I learn.  It hasn't always been easy to let things go, and to give everything to Christ, and there are certainly times when I'd rather keep things under my own control.  But He knows best. 

I added the letters VDMA inside the cross because they are for the Latin phrase Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum, which means, "The word of the Lord endures forever".  And it really does....and that is something special.

I started with a free pattern I found on pinterest.  It looks like this.  Thank you to whoever created it.  It's a cute little pattern!  I hope it's okay that I tweaked it a little bit.

When I went to put the backing fabric on the piece, I decided to leave the top open so that I could slip a prayer inside and use it as a bookmark.  It just morphed from there. 

 

 

One prayer turned into a couple, plus some Bible verses and some sermon notes, etc, etc.  I switch them all out every once in a while.  

 

Later, I will show ya'll the felt Easter eggs that I've been embroidering.  They are happy, colorful and full of hope that Spring will soon be here!  That's all for today, until another day, have a happy Stitching day!

Happy Spring Dish Towel

This is just a little something I worked on during the last weeks in February. 
It has been such a LONG winter for our part of the country, I'm ready for some spring weather.  Unfortunately, the heavens above have sprinkled another couple of inches of white fluffy snow on us again.  I have the disheartening feeling that Spring is not EXACTLY right around the corner, but soon...Spring will come soon!  It must.



I finally used some variegated threads, on the "Happy Spring"--DMC 4110

This was a fun little towel to stitch with many bright and happy colors.

 

Until another time, have a happy day!

This Toy ROCKS!

One of the best $10.00 I've ever spent! 

I found the construction vehicles at my favorite discount store for around 5$, and the aquarium rocks at a local pet store for around 5$ as well.  The rocks are shiny and somewhat smooth so they are not "dusty" or create a dust at all...which is a good thing.
I was going to put play sand in the box, but then I saw the idea for "natural looking" aquarium rocks on Pinterest and used them instead.  The box we already had along with the handy-dandy wooden tray that we use for all kinds of things.

The kids LOVE this toy!  It's so popular, that I use it as a good behavior reward.  Towards the end of the day, if a child has been good, he/she gets 15-20 minutes with the diggers!  Woo-Hoo!

That's all for today!  Hope you all have a fun day!  God Bless!

New Vintage Linens

One of my favorite things to collect are vintage linens and tea towels.  If it is a kitchen towel, I try to imagine the kitchen that it came from and the people who used it.  If it is a fancy towel adorned with needlework, I think of the time someone spent working on it.  Did she find the time after all of the supper dishes were washed and put away.  Were the stitches stitched by the light of a kerosene lamp or electric?  Was she able to sit and stitch for a spell in the afternoons, while sitting on her front porch swing?  Maybe watching her children playing nearby. 
I love kitchen linens but most of all I love their untold stories.
Here are a few items I've been able to pick up recently.

These cuties are bright and colorful, but they aren't in the best of shape.  I am hoping to be able to save them....somehow.

This beauty above is so precious.  I'm not sure what it was used for, maybe a decorative bathroom towel...maybe a wedding gift from an Aunt who lives in Iowa.  We'll never know.  Below, is the flower detail.

My mom bought me the cheerful little blue and yellow serviettes below, and I think they go quite nicely with the my yellow tablecloth!  These make me long for an old farmhouse type of kitchen table, white with two folding leaves that can pop up or down.  I'd decorate the table with these bright linens, and set a bouquet of daisies in an old fashioned milk bottle right in the center.  Instead of wishing for something that I don't have...maybe I'll try it with my little card table someday!

And finally, my mom and I spotted these at our favorite little vintage shop, Vintage City, and I just love them.  Merry Christmas to me!  Again, they are hand stitched and I wonder, "By whom?"  And I didn't even ask if the seller knew their story!  Shame on me!

Well, that's all for today.  Daycare projects have been taking up a good majority of my time lately, and I'll try to share some of those ideas with you all soon.  It's just so hard to find an hour or two here and there to do some blogging!  So, until another time, have a happy vintage day, everyone!

Some Recent Finds and Goodies

The Flea market was back in town in mid-February.  I walked away with a couple of goodies including this sample size of Sal-Soda.  It has a tiny hole in the front of it, but is unopened!  Here, it is pictured with the regular sized box my Uncle Stan gave me for Christmas a couple years back.

And this past weekend I found (actually my daughter saw it first) this neat old iron from (I'm guessing) the early 1960's.  It will be a back up to the other beauty I have from the 1960's.  They are the BEST irons!  Nice and heavy-duty!

 

Soon I'll show you some linen finds from January and February!  I just love vintage linens and hope you do too!  Until then, have a happy vintage day!

This Dog Has Hands!!

This made me laugh so hard...and I am not a dog person.

Have a Happy Day everyone!

Love This Song

New Embroidery Floss!

The local craft store had a sale!  Around here, DMC thread only goes on sale once or twice a year, so this time I went prepared with a long list of DMC colors I've been needing.

Once each thread was properly wound onto two bobbins per color, the next chore was fitting them into the thread boxes in their correct DMC order.  That took a couple of evenings to do.

With the bobbins in their correct places, the boxes look so full and pretty.

 



 

That's all I have for you today!  Have a happy week everybody!