Monthly Archives: September 2021

A Trip to the Country

Once again David and I got into our Jeep and headed out to the country. This time we had a purpose. A bunch of ladies who call themselves the Country Friends, who do live out in the country have a sale every Autumn, Winter and Spring at their various homes or little stores on their properties.    It’s in the middle southern part of our state which means we drive hills , past lots of farms and through woods to get to every store.  One of the ladies even has a whole pioneer village built in her back yard!

Much of the items for sale are made by these ladies and there is even an artist who has her paintings for sale.   The last time we did this I purchased a mustard seed necklace one of them had made and I wear it all the time.  I also found an old wooden table with red legs that we have out on our back porch now.

I got a few treasures along the way this time, also.

I collect egg scales and I found this simply wonderful one that lights up so you can see inside the egg.  I weighed one of my eggs on this and it flew past the extra large.  I know my hens lay really nice eggs so I was glad to see just how big and good their eggs are.

I found this cute little lighted tree.  When I  brought it up to purchase another lady cried, “I wish I had seen that!  I would have bought it!”  It pays to be quick and decisive at these sales because once something is gone, it’s gone.

The tree has tiny baskets on it that I will put tiny pumpkins in for Fall and birds on the limbs.

It’s just magical lit up.  I have a bunny tree kind of like this one I put out at Easter time.

I’m not even going to tell you what I paid for this lamp, but it was so cheap, I grabbed it immediately.   I think the lady thought maybe she priced it a little low.  Let’s just say, I would have probably paid her twice what she was asking.  But don’t anyone tell her!  One thing David and I learned when we had a business. Don’t under price your merchandise or people will think it’s not worth it.  Sometimes we’d price something so high, especially if we didn’t want to sell it, and by George, there was always that one customer who just had to have it and we’d sell it.  David sold an old treadle sewing machine right out from under me once and I told him he would have to  find me another one, and he did and it now sits proudly in our front hallway.

The lamp  has these wonderful deer at its base.

And once again I think this looks magical, too.   It’s just perfect for this time of year. And right on to Christmas.

One of the ladies’ husband made this barn.  He wanted to make it a birdhouse, but she told David she wouldn’t allow him to cut a hole in it. Well, guess what?  David is going to cut a hole in it to make it a birdhouse.  It will make a wonderful birdhouse. Speaking of birdhouses. We have a little blue wren house in my kitchen garden and yesterday David and I watched several fat sparrows trying to get into it, but they couldn’t.  They just wouldn’t give up!   Several years ago we had a wren house and a sparrow tried getting into it, got its head stuck and David and I had to work to get that sparrow out of that tiny hole in the birdhouse.  Finally we managed it and it flew away, probably to tell its family of the adventure he had had.

These darling little jack-o-lanterns on a spring were for sale at one shop.  I bought two and put them on a picket fence David had made. He’s been making picket fences out of some old dog ear fencing we’ve had laying around for a while. I told him he could sell them they are so nice.  I will have to show you what these look like on one of them.

These are so cute and a nifty idea.

We got a new liner in our pool the other day and David had to swim even though the water was only 72 degrees.  Brrrr, Not me. My next post will show how it all was done from emptying the pool to filling it back up again.

Here’s to country friends and shops and may they live forever! Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Color, Texture and Pattern

From as long as I can remember, I have been interested in fabric and sewing and in recent years, knitting socks, also.  My earliest remembrance of trying to design something was when I was three years old.  My mother was outside hanging up clothes to dry and I was outside with her, when suddenly she noticed I was missing.  She began a frantic search all around the outside of our house and barnyard and up to our neighbor’s looking for me.  I can imagine how terrified she was that she could not find me.  She went into the house to call the town sheriff and there I was, sitting in my little chair behind the stove carefully drawing on the face of my favorite rag doll with lipstick. She had no idea I could reach the handle on the door to get into the house.  I don’t remember if she was angry or just happy to find me, but I remember that doll, how it was dressed in a pink dress with brown braided  yarn hair and to my mind, now looked even better with lipstick.  My mother gave me an old sock and told me to make a sock doll and I did, painstakingly sewing its arms and legs and drawing a face on it. I still have that doll and if I can find it in the bowels of this house, I will show you.  I have so many things tucked away that I have no idea where they are. My love of sewing and fabric had begun.

I remember clothes and textures from long ago. I always noticed what people wore.  Years later when my mother and I would go to the JC Penney store in the city and we would go to the fabric department, I remember loving walking through the rows of fabric, feeling each one and thinking about things to sew.  I couldn’t sew then, but my mother could and she made my clothes for years.  I remember in particular a white dotted swiss dress with red polka dots and  with a full skirt and a red velvet sash. I felt so pretty in that dress.  I wore it to the Ruth Lyons’ 50-50 club, a tv show out of Cincinnati. It was one of the first colorized tv shows in the area and my mother wanted my dress to show up well on camera.  The audience would be filmed waving and I’m sure I was on tv that day.

When I took Home Ec. in junior high, I made a suit from kelly green cotton. A short jacket and a straight skirt with a matching green and white print blouse.  I modeled it in the Home Ec. style show that was held every year.  I was a good seamstress by that time.

In the sixties and seventies, polyester knits were in vogue. I was married  at the time and I made David a polyester suit, jacket, pants and all.  When we look at pictures of him in that suit now, we laugh because I had placed the belt loops on the jacket too high and the jacket was belted almost up around David’s chest. But he wore that suit proudly.  I have a picture of him in it that is precious to me.

Many clothes passed through my sewing machine while my children were young. I made all three clothes. One of my sons told me his teacher didn’t believe I had made a shirt and pants he wore to school, but I had.  We went to a wedding in Detroit, Michigan when our boys were young and I made theirs and my outfits we wore to the wedding.  I use to sew clothes for display at JoAnn’s fabrics when a friend of mine worked there.

Fast forward years later and we had a quilt fabric store and my love of making quilts took hold and I’ve been making quilts ever since. I still love fabrics, but now I look at them online in most cases and order them sent to my home which I think is pretty wonderful.

This past Spring I backordered some Autumn and Halloween fabrics and I just got them in the last couple of weeks. It was like Christmas.  Let me show you some of the fabrics.

These cat eyes look like they glow, but they really don’t. Just how they turned out in the picture. Kind of spooky.

All the things of Autumn I love on one quilt panel.

\

I love harlequin fabric.  A little of it in a quilt really looks nice.

Makes me want to make Halloween sugar cookies.

 

I am going to make a skirt out of this fabric.  It looks like just about any top would go with it.

I finished a quilt I started years ago. That is what I do. Start one quilt, put it aside, start another and then years later finish the first one. This one had been in a box for a long time until I found it again and finally finished it.

Not sure what this pattern is called.  I do remember it was fun to make and I found the perfect backing for it.

An old quilt I either bought at an auction or at an antique store. The colors on this old quilt went perfectly with the quilt on the front.

And I loved the fabrics the quilt maker used in her quilt top. I hope she would be glad her quilt is finished, even if it is the backing of another one.

She had a wonderful eye for fabric placement.

I love the old fabrics. Many look like they could have been aprons at one time.

She wasn’t afraid to use plaids.

Or indigos.

She must have had a large stash of fabric because there are so many different ones in this quilt. Not sure what year she may have made this, but I would say some of the fabrics are from the forties and fifties.   This quilt could be reversible as I think the back is just a as pretty as the front.

I’m in love with the textures and colors of yarn too.  Almost as much as I love fabric.

One company had yarn named after national parks. This one is called Zion National Park. I have already knit the socks from this and they are beautiful.

This is Grand Canyon.  Having been to the Grand Canyon twice, I can see the colors of the cliffs and the river below.

Just loved all these colors.

I don’t think I will ever tire of fabrics and yarn.  I’m hoping textures, colors and patterns will be a part of my life until I die.   I found my love very early in life and am so glad I did.

Here’s to the joy of doing something you love. Bye.