Lovely Lace!

I got some really lovely lace at this estate sale also. I was about 10 minutes late so wasn't expecting any to be left.

Part of a piece of tenerife lace

Petite Point in the center. Knit lace on the outside?

Sweet lace child's vest

So beautiful!

Collar

Matching Cuffs

Gorgeous insertion lace

1900 Sampler

This was another treasure I got at the estate sale this last week. It was made by a Mrs. Harvey Moore when she was a young girl in Holland and given as a gift to Mrs. Beachy in 1939. I bought it on 28 May 2015. So now it has a history. (-; The estate sale owners thought so little of it and sold it for only $1.00. I was glad to get such a good price, but I'm fairly sure it is worth a little more than that. To be fair, the people running the estate sale had much finer pieces to worry about than one piece of stitched linen. There was a full page spread on the estate sale in the paper and they said it took 1-1/2 weeks to catalogue and price everything and the list was 57 pages long!

It is a leftover piece of linen judging from the darned repairs in it. In it she has different kinds of pulled and drawn thread patterns, needle lace, and some embroidery stitches as well. I don't know if the pulled and drawn thread patterns have specific names so if anyone out there can tell me I'd be grateful. I see she has some kind of twisted feather stitch I don't remember seeing before, a buttonhole stitch, and a couple of herringbone stitches -- one which is very fine. There is also some kind of cross stitch. I don't know how old she was, but I think she did well. I wonder what else she made when she got older? I'm very happy to be the new owner. Maybe some day I can try some of these techniques.

I got really lucky - Estate Sale

I went to a really nice estate sale this week. The house went on and on and on with room after room filled with some very old and wonderful items. There was room after room of goodies upon goodies! Many of the wonderful items were WAY beyond my budget, but on other items they didn't seem to know what they had. One of my most exciting finds was a silkie of Betsy Ross making the first flag dated 1915. There is one selling on ebay now for $125, but this is going in my box of patriotic goodies destined for a patriotic crazy quilt one day. My price was $10. (-;

Then there was this helping hand or sewing bird which I've always admired when I saw them online, but didn't feel I could afford it. This was also $10. I found one almost like it online for $140 but it had a pin cushion. You pinch the tail and the mouth opens to grab onto something -- the third hand.

Another lovely item was this pin cushion. It was among a box of items that didn't have a price that he gave me for $30. I love the gold base.

Also among the un-priced items was this sweet half doll that is only 1-3/4 inch high! For those unfamiliar, a half doll is often made into a pin cushion. The pin cushion becomes the doll's skirt. The half dolls can be fairly expensive so finding this one just tossed in a box of doll accessories unnoticed among a rather large antique doll collection was really special.

To say I was a little excited about these lovelies is an understatement! I will put in a few more blogs on this estate sale. I spent more than I usually do -- just couldn't help myself. It is not every day that you find so many vintage sewing items at such a bargain. There were so many more dear items that commanded enormous prices that these beauties were practically overlooked as potential income -- at any other estate sale they would commanded a higher price.

My knitting is coming along

This is my first shawl. I'm pretty excited about it. It is made from Alpaca wool and is so soft! It's nice and big too. The yarn is green but has bits of orange and teal in it.

CQI Retreat Ornament Exchange

Carol K. and I exchanged handmade Christmas ornaments this year. The one I made for her is on the right and the one on the left is the one she made for me. I love it Carol!

Dyeing with Avocados!

A neighbor and friend once told me that you could dye things with Avocados. I had heard of it before and so I started collecting pits and skins. I made a lot of guacamole and it was good. Then I put the pits and skins in a baggie in the freezer until I had many many small sandwich bags stuffed. What prompted me to get them out and finally use them was a bush in my backyard. I was out in the yard where my husband was trimming some bushes and noticed one of the bushes had some berries in it and so I decided to see if the berries would dye anything. I have a large plastic bin full of dye-ables that I have collected over the years -- some vintage crocheted pieces, silk ribbons, various threads, rayon ribbons, fabrics, etc. So out it came. These are all natural fibers (cotton, wool, silk) or a rayon mix. I searched online about dyeing with Avocados and got some great ideas from this website: http://hookedanddyed.com/2014/05/28/natural-dye-avocado/

I have a fair amount of dyeing experience and dyeing supplies myself, so I added some steps. First I cleaned anything that I was worried about taking the dye. Some fabrics have chemicals on them that prevent the dye from taking to the object you're dyeing. To clean these items I used a few tablespoons of soda ash in some water in a pan on the stove. I let the water get nice and hot but never boiled it. I stirred my fabrics and fibers in this concoction for several minutes. After the wash I put all the fibers and fabrics in a large bucket filled with a gallon of water and 1/2 cup of soda ash and soaked it for 30 minutes. Soda ash acts as a mordant and makes the dye somewhat permanent. I say somewhat permanent because some of the dye always washes out. It will look like it is going to be much darker than it will actually end up.

I got several plastic containers for the large pieces of fabrics and used mason jars for the smaller fibers. I decided to do 3 batches so I had 3 pans of water on the stove -- one with pits only (cut in half), one with skins only and one with pits and skins. I also had a 4th with the berries. At first I put the pits and skins in with the materials, but I noticed they were staining the fabric darker in places; some looked great and some not so great. This would be a great experiment later to purposefully make a batik type fabric and some of my fabrics did turn out like this. Eventually I removed all the pits, skins, and berries. I let them soak in the sun (or a warm place) for about 24 hours. I brought them in at night. The sun was too hot and evaporated some of the dye. It also burnt the fabrics on top where the fabrics were exposed to the light. If you don't live in Colorado and the sun isn't too bright you could probably get away with this. I ended up putting paper towels on top of the fabric to protect it, but I'll probably keep them inside next time.

After soaking for a day I took all the fabrics and fibers out of the dye and rinsed them in cold water. I let them sit in the cold water for a couple of hours and then rinsed them again. I did this over an over again until the water ran clear.

The berries turned out a nice grey-blue, the pits a pale pink, and the other two I am confused about. I'm very good about performing my experiments scientifically, but not so good about writing them down! One was slightly darker than the pale pink and another slightly darker than that one. I think the skins were the darkest. For some reason some pieces in each batch turned out pale peach. Also, some items really took the dye and were comparably really dark. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. So many people are surprised that avocado dye things pink and such a nice victorian pink at that! I did not test the pH as it suggested on the link I referred you to.

I saved the dyes and added more fabrics to them and let them sit for another 24 hours. I added more soda ash to see what would happen. The fabrics-fibers turned much more peachy. I don't think I quite got the right colors in these photos, but they're somewhere in the neighborhood. (-; The first one is really more pink than that, a little more like the last one, but brighter. Maybe I should take pictures during daylight hours!

I liked how they turned out pretty well so I decided to put some together for a gift exchange we did at the Crazy Quilting International (CQI) Retreat.

Finally finished my "Angelina" Italian Drawn Thread Work Piece!

I have been working on Barbara Kershaw's Italian Drawn Thread design called Angelina. It is a fingertip towel that I turned into a placemat by working the design at both ends. I worked it as part of an EGA (Embroidery Guild of America) group correspondence course. Happiness is a completed project.

Schwalm Class Completed!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay! I took a couple of EGA courses by Barbara Kershaw. This one was to learn Schwalm whitework embroidery. The finished piece is a cover that fits over a pillow. The class was understandable and fun. I'm just very glad I'm done because I've taken on a bit too much and don't like projects hanging over my head. Here's the finished product, one a picture of the cover on a pillow and the second is a closeup of the stitching. You can click on the photos for a closer look.

Is this cool or what?

My friend Maggie and I went to estate sales yesterday and we accidentally stumbled across one that was phenomenal. This gal must have sold antiques in her day because her house was full of wonderful things right up my alley and probably many of yours as well. Right now I'm just going to post about one thing that I was looking at and put down. My friend Maggie saw my interest and bought it for me. I thought she was interested in it too, but then she gave it to me - what a sweetie! I had no idea what to do with it and now I have some ideas. I did some research online and it turns out it is a wall hanger for an oil lamp. It has a patent date on it of June 1881 - I thought that was pretty cool.

I think it could be useful for a number of things if I can find a wall bracket for it. 1) I could actually use it for an oil lamp. 2) I could use it for a candle, 3) I could put a plant in it, or 4) I could put a pin cushion in it (my answer for nearly everything's use). I hope you will share any ideas you have. It clearly needs some cleaning up or I could leave it all antiqued like it is complete with spider webs. (-;

Yummy Stash

I got these wonderful items at the last estate sale I went to. Do you not love them? I especially am fond of the velvet leaves. The sheer pink with gold edges do it for me also though. (-; This person had 4 rooms of fabric. It was so much stash that I became overwhelmed. It was like a store full of quilting supplies. It was one of the first estate sales that I've been through that I couldn't look through all the stash. Just overwhelming.

Romanian Point Lace

When ever there is a lot of driving to be done on a long trip I always bring something to work on. On our last vacation I decided to try Romanian Point Lace. It was really fun and surprisingly easy. I got this pattern off of a tutorial online: http://joanne-threadhead.blogspot.com/2010/08/romanian-point-lace-tutorial.html
If you've ever wanted to try some lace, this is not a bad place to start. It doesn't require a lot of materials to do and isn't too difficult.

The Cool Tool

I'm am a big fan of tools -- tools that make life easier. My favorite tools are sewing tools -- of course! When I was at an estate sale the other day I was leaving the house by way of the garage and checking out the garage merchandise on my way to the checkout, not really expecting to find much to interest me in said garage. I spied a little grungy corroded tarnished tool that caught my attention. I walked on by (just like the 60s song -- picture me breaking out into song here because we sang this song when I was in 7th grade music class). After making my way around the garage, picking up a plant hanger, putting it back down, I made my way to the cool tool table and picked up the cool tool.  $2. OK - I still have no idea why I think it is cool, but on pure intuition and a $2 gamble I picked it up and headed to checkout. While there a woman confidently told me it was a seam measuring tool.  heh heh.

I am home now and have cleaned up the cool brass tool with a little brasso. Here it is! This is 3 photos of the same tool at different positions. I would hope my crazy quilter friends might see the instant attraction that I had to it. Looks like I need to get the rest of the brasso off of it. lol. I might have blended the photo a bit too much too because I see a corner sort of just fades away. Ha ha.

Anyway, I looked up the tool on the internet to see what it was and lo and behold it is a Combination Paper-Cutting Tool, Rule, and Dafting and Measuring Tool that was patented in 1924 and granted in 1928. It was meant to be an advertising gimic for businesses - they would have this tool made up with their business name on it. Mine was from the Indianapolis Paint & Color Company.
Photo from http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?id=12995.

Further research found a site trying to sell it for $125.00. A bit more than I paid for it. Of course, that doesn't mean I could get that much for it if I tried to sell it, but it is hopeful. Apparently there is a market for antique tools. I will play with it for a while to see if it is useful and if it doesn't pan out -- to ebay it goes! I can buy a lot of stash for that kind of money! But, it could be wonderfully useful -- measures angles and lengths, has holes for even marking of seam treatments. Think of it's value in marking triangular CQ shapes ...

Button Nirvana!

This week I went to an estate sale. There was nothing particularly special about the sale and I wasn't thrilled while I was there, but when I got home... I bought a button jar that didn't look very exciting -- I rolled it around and looked inside and there was only a few that looked remotely interesting. I almost bypassed it, but instead of being the usual $8 or $10 for the jar it was only $2.00. I thought that even the few remotely interesting ones would be worth at least that so I bought it. When I got it home I pulled out a pan and dumped out the buttons. I could scarcely see a button I wasn't interested in! How did that happen? They are mostly very old -- some even in the victorian era. I am thrilled. I have to spend some time to clean them up because some are very dirty, but here is a preview of a little of what thrills me. Some yummy shell buttons. I love thes things.  Also think the buckles are pretty cool.

 This little guy is apparently a fable button and may be from the 1890s. It is a stork with its bill in a wolf's mouth. I saw similar items for sale for $10 online.

 I am not particularly intrigued by this one except it was on sale online for $9. Apparently it is a 10k Modern Woodmen of America 50 year lapel pin and is collectable.

If I can sell them I can go out and buy at least 9 more jars of buttons like this one. Ha ha -- if I could ever find one this cheap again.  (-; There are many more, but I have to clean them up and this requires research and care.

How excited can a girl get over a little lace anyway? Plenty!

I went to an estate sale in Denver recently because they had a big bin marked "Lace". When I went they had several $3 bags of which I picked up "several".  (-; But, my favorite bag was marked 50 cents. Here is the contents. Do you think they mispriced it? I LOVE the Irish crocheted lace, especially the narrow ones in the 2nd photo since I didn't have any before I picked up this baggie.

I am wondering about the top piece of lace above. Is it handmade? What kind of lace is it? The second piece is a nice filet lace. The third is hand crocheted. The 4th and 5th are both handmade Irish lace. I just love Irish lace. The bottom piece is attached to some hand embroidered netting lace. The photo doesn't show it, but these are healthy lengths of lace.

The first 3 on the left are machine made laces. My favorites here are the hand made Irish lace pieces, 5th and 6th from the left. The two hand crocheted pieces are very nice also (7th and 9th from the left). There are 4 laces that are on netting (4th, 8th, 10th and last). I'm fairly sure the last one is hand done and probably the one before it, but am not sure about the other two - they are possibly machine made. Whenever I see laces like these they are labeled french lace. A lovely group of laces to add to my collection to be sure. I am ecstatic! If you know something about the laces here, please leave a comment. I always like to know more about lace.

Fans DYB - My work on Lisa A's block

This is my work on Lisa A's block and the progress of her entire block with Gerry K's center work and Lisa B, Judy and my work on the seam treatments for the fans. I love how it is turning out!