More sweet gifts

A few days ago I posted about the sweet strawberry mug set from my mother-in-law.  I didn't mention that this was actually a birthday gift, but it was.  And now I must share just a few more, these from my daughter Carrie.  Carrie is one of the world's most thoughtful gift-givers, as is her sister Joanna.

She gave me these lovely reversible place mats from the Pioneer Woman line,  a set of six.

Aren't they pretty?  I can see myself using the yellow side most, but both sides will look nice in our dining room.

There was also an Amazon gift card to buy myself a book or whatever I might like.

And then!  Well, I've already given it away at the top of the post, but as I unwrapped the box, I guessed that it might contain an electric wax warmer.  I never guessed how special it would be, however.

Back at Christmas, Carrie had given me two of these gorgeous plates which she actually had found at Walmart.  (I never saw them, but then I barely, if at all, went into the Christmas department there prior to Christmas.)

She had also given me several more fun gifts in the tree-on-a-vehicle theme.  You can see them all and read about them here: Oh, what fun.

Anyway, now I'm opening a birthday present, guessing it may be a wax warmer, and oh joy, it matches those adorable plates!

Isn't it so much fun?  Know how wax warmers have holes in them where the light shines through?  On this one, the light shines through the station wagon's headlights.  Can't wait to use it next year!

Vintage strawberries

It's been awhile since I shared any photos of my strawberry collection, which seems to just grow and grow.  People very frequently give me strawberry items as gifts.  A few things in my collection could be classified as vintage (and one or two are antiques) so I thought I would share some of those today.  (I'm realizing there are yet more I haven't taken pictures of yet!)  To simplify my post and save time, I will just post pictures and captions.  These are all older photos.

Little vintage dish given me by a friend; vintage doily.

I use this mug, probably from the 1970s or early 1980s, to hold pens and pencils.

There are a few items in this photo, but the antique bowl is what I wish to show you.

Years ago a friend gave me this antique cookie plate that belonged to her mother.

This pretty strawberry crock holds utensils.

This tray is from the 1960s or 1970s

Little vintage sugar bowl with the same red doily

I think this ceramic cookie jar is vintage too.

My sister-in-law found these McCoy items in cleaning out a house.  They match a crock that I already owned!

The back of a hot pad made by my friend J. using a vintage pattern and vintage feedsack fabric.

Front of the same hotpad

This hot pad is not vintage, but the embroidered design may be.  My friend Ruth found the partially stitched design and used it to create a gift for me!

I have several of these linen towels from the 1950s

Hope you've enjoyed these vintage strawberry things as much as I do.  Linking up today with Share Your Cup Thursday andVintage Charm.

Embroidered tablecloth for spring

This is pretty much a repost of something I shared back in 2011.  I recently saw a tablecloth of similar design and vintage on someone else's blog, and was reminded of this pretty one that I had made.  I thought I would share this again for those who may have missed it.  This project was a long time in the making, but the results were worth it!

Many, many years ago, when an elderly lady in our church passed away, her husband gave me many of her sewing and embroidery things. Among them was an unfinished project in a grocery bag -- a gorgeous tablecloth stamped for embroidery.  The stitching for one corner had been barely started; the rest still had to be embroidered. I admired the tablecloth, put the bag in my craft closet and forgot about it.  Although I had done a lot of embroidery when I first got into needlework, it had been years since I'd done much of it -- and I'd never tackled a project as big as a tablecloth!

One day a few years back, I took up embroidery again and began thinking about how I'd like to take on a challenging embroidery project. I was sorting through my craft closet in the same time frame and came upon this grocery bag. I had found my project!  It took me years to complete it and I felt like giving up more than once.  But I plugged away at it as time allowed.

As I worked on the tablecloth, I decided it would be for my daughter Carrie. She often uses tablecloths and I didn't think she had one specifically for spring, a season she loves. For a couple of years, I set a goal to give this to Carrie at Christmas -- then, when it didn't get finished, I would aim for her birthday in April. Finally, in March 2011,  I finished it!!! I love the flowers and the clear vintage-y colors.

Here's the center of the tablecloth. This took the most time, as you might guess.

Here's a close-up of the center.

This is what the corners look like.

A small motif like this is in the center of each side.

 And this is how the tablecloth looked on Carrie's lovely Easter table in 2011.  It's such fun to see her using it for spring occasions each year.

A very satisfying project completed at last!

I am sharing today with Sandi's No Place Like Home and Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party.  Also linking with Vintage Charm and Share Your Cup Thursday.

"Fine China" embroidered dish towels

Today I'm going to share some photos of embroidered dish towels which I made some time ago. These were a gift for my daughter Joanna. The transfers are from the "Fine China" designs by Aunt Martha.  These are some of the most fun designs I've ever stitched; a close second would be the coffee-themed ones which I made a couple of years ago for my daughter Carrie.

I'll just add in some pictures and captions.  I've shown some of these here and there on the blog before, back when I was working on them, but I believe this is the first time I've put them all into a post together.  Enjoy!

The Saturday towel in progress.  This features, as you can see, salt and pepper shakers.

Sunday and Wednesday towels; a little pitcher and a sugar bowl/creamer set.

Sunday again.  I think I'd like some real china like this!

Monday's towel -- guess it's the sugar bowl again.  I made this dishcloth to coordinate with these towels.

Saturday, Monday, Thursday -- and Friday is a teapot!

Tuesday's design features silverware

The creative way my daughter displayed her towels at the time.

I'm sharing this week with Sandi's No Place Like Home and Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party, and also with Vintage Charm,  Share Your Cup Thursday,
and Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration.

Table runners with a tea theme

This is pretty much a repost of a "teatime table runner" I made from vintage hankies a few years back.  I have quite a collection of vintage hankies, and had thought I might make a quilt with them.  I decided to scale back and make a table runner instead.  I used a white-on-white print for the backing, then cut the hankies in half and hand-sewed them on to look like a folded napkin or doily.  Then I found or tweaked applique patterns of tea-themed items and placed one or several items on each "napkin or doily".   For this prototype project (I intended to make two more for gifts) I chose to use some children's cartoon-type hankies that had been mine as a child.  This meant that my appliques had to be in rather bright, crayon-type colors to complement the hankies.

One half of the runner

The second half of the runner

A teapot and teacup motif on a 3 Little Kittens hankie ~ I found inspiration for this motif on a child's vintage metal tea set.

A simple cup and saucer motif on a Donald Duck hankie

A cupcake on a small plate motif atop the second half of the Donald Duck hankie.  The cherry on the cupcake is a button.

A stack-of-teacups motif on a Daisy Duck hankie ~ I found inspiration for this motif on a greeting card.

A steaming-teakettle motif  on a Daisy Duck hankie

A simple teapot motif on the 3 Little Kittens hankie ~ the knob on top is a  button!

Hope you have enjoyed this look at my teatime table runner!  It was encouraging to me that I could figure out a project on my own like this and have it come out quite nice.  I know some people would frown on cutting up vintage hankies, but I found this a nice way to display and use them, especially these with the juvenile motifs that are not quite as pretty as the usual vintage hankies one sees.

I did go on to make two more of these runners, using some of the prettier hankies in my collection.  I gave them to my daughters as gifts, and was thankful I had taken the time to learn how best to put the runners together, since I was sort of making this project up as I went along.  Maybe another time I can share photos of those runners.

I'm linking up today with Sandi's No Place Like Home and with Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party, along with Stephanie's Roses of Inspiration and A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson's Share Your Cup Thursday.  Also linking today with Vintage Charm.
Be sure and visit these lovely blogs and then visit some of the posts that have been linked up there.  You'll find much to inspire you!

A simple winter-themed table topper

This week I was looking in my fabric stash for something and came across some beautiful winter-themed fabric I had bought last summer.  At the time I had no idea what I would do with it for sure, but I just couldn't resist the print because it looked like Vermont to me.

When I found it again in my stash this week, I decided that the only really good use (for the amount of fabric I had) was a simple table runner or table topper.    After debating with myself for awhile as to which it should be, I decided to make it a table topper so I could use the whole piece of fabric without cutting it.    The print is a really busy one, but I thought it best to use the whole piece to get the perspective of the whole scene.  I would simply hem the edges.   So that is what I did!

on the table

It even has mailboxes!   (I love wintry mailboxes!)

With my little wintry cake dome and 30¢ Walmart plastic placemats

My wintery scene in the cake dome still works with this topper.

 A few minutes' work at the sewing machine and I have a new wintry table topper.  My creative side is very happy!

A finished vintage project

The cloth, folded.  The somewhat busy background is my little glass-topped crafting desk with some fall cards already in place under the glass.

 My crafting this summer has been sporadic and simple.  This little project is particularly simple, but I did enjoy working on it.

I've mentioned before how I've been cleaning out some of the storage areas at my dad's house.  Well, in the linen closet I came upon this homespun-type square cloth.  I think it was supposed to be a dishcloth -- I think I remember my mother possibly using something similar.  I did use it for a dishcloth for a few days before deciding it deserved a better fate than that.

It occurred to me that it might make a nice cloth to go under a centerpiece, sort of the way one would use a doily.  I decided to add a crocheted edging.  For a starting point on my edging, I used this tutorial: Sweet Crocheted Wash Cloth Edging from Linda at Prairie Flower Farm.  I used some lustrous ivory-colored perle cotton from a long-ago stash of my mother's.  (She didn't crochet, but years ago she had me make some crocheted trim for several dresses she sewed for herself.  I didn't realize just how much perle cotton she had stashed away until I found this!)  For a crochet hook, I needed something smallish but was in a huge hurry -- we were leaving for an overnight getaway -- and couldn't find my larger steel hooks.  So I used a hook of my great-grandmother's, which looks like ivory but I think is actually celluloid, so worn I can't read the size.  It worked fine with the perle cotton and made me feel very much as if I was carrying on a needleworking tradition.

Of course the cloth really looks nicer under a larger item.  But for a quick photo, I used this sweet green alabaster box that a dear friend gave me.

I was pleased with the finished project.  It goes well in my kitchen and dining area and I can see myself using it often -- even as part of Christmas decor.  It's currently on my kitchen island under a basket of apples!

Thrifty craftiness

Image from The Graphics Fairy

Like many of us, I enjoy visiting thrift stores.  When in Nevada, I always like to visit some of the local ones because they have great prices and the things I find are often quite different from my finds here in New England.  On this visit to Elko, my daughter and I took a few hours together to visit several of their local thrift stores.

Most of the buys she found involved children's clothes, books, games, and other kids' items.  Interestingly, most of mine involved crafting in some way or other.  I had taught Emily a couple of simple crochet stitches while we were out there, so when I found a bundle of crochet hooks in one store, it seemed meant to be.  In another store, I found a barely started plastic canvas kit with a horse design, so picked that up for one of the boys.

But I also found some fun things for myself.  This pretty pillowcase, adorned with hand-crocheted lace trim, was either 25¢ or 50¢, I forget which.

Pillowcase is folded in the photo.  It doesn't do justice to the beautiful lace.

 I noticed later that it must have had a hole or a small tear in the seam, because it has been carefully and beautifully darned in one tiny spot.  It was a toss-up whether I would decorate with this pillowcase or simply use it, but after washing and ironing it I noticed it was made from the tubular pillow case material that used to be so prevalent with home sewers.  This typically produced skinnier pillowcases that don't work so well with today's pillows.  It's so beautiful, though, that I will display it in some way.

In the same store, I found these pretty embroidered handkerchiefs.

I apologize for the wrinkles ... think these must be linen.  They were very hard to iron.

I think they aren't really all that old, but the embroidery reminds me of those gorgeously embroidered baby clothes that used to be imported from the Philippines and were almost too pretty to use.  I will use the handkerchiefs in some project eventually.  I paid only $1 for the two of them; I found them in the same bin as the crochet hooks.

And I saved the really fun buy for last -- a bag of sunbonnet girl quilt squares, hand-appliqued and embroidered.

I took the top square out of the bag to get a better picture.  The pattern was even included!

Just a few of the vintage fabrics contained within the bag.

When I picked up the bag (it was $3), my original interest was in the vintage fabrics it contained.  But I will definitely sew the completed squares together and use them for something, possibly a table runner.  I couldn't spread out all the squares (there are at least 20) to take a photo, because as I was looking them over after buying them, my daughter noticed a good bit of pet hair sandwiched in between some of the unfinished ones.   I don't want to get that all over my house.  I'm going to keep the squares contained in the bag and sew them together quite quickly, then wash them before proceeding.  I will throw the unfinished ones (complete with pet hair) away, and wash the print fabrics before storing them.  I'm hesitant to wash the squares before sewing, because they look as if they are made from flour sacks and seem rather fragile.  It will be a fun project to work on, though.

On another day, we also visited Jo-Ann Fabrics so Emily could help me spend part of a gift card I'd won in a giveaway.  She had fun buying beads, yarn, and a wonderful crochet book for kids.  And while we were in Ely, we happened upon a needlework shop that was going out of business and everything was 50% off.  There, I bought mostly yarn.  So there was lots of thrifty craftiness going on this vacation, for sure!