Oodles and oodles

Finally settled in

 

The last time you saw the Hoosier, it was parked outside the side door of our house, awaiting a scrubbing and de-Contact-papering. Here it is in its new home in the dining room. I ended up not repainting it, but I stripped off several layers of paint that had been applied to the black edge of the enamel top. In the course of that job I could see that the Hoosier had been painted aqua, then yellow, then mustard gold. I think its current color is pretty close to the original.

 

This was a pretty good summer for finding Jadite. I found enough mixing bowls I thought at one point I'd sell a few. Now I see how perfectly they fit across the top. I don't think they'll be going anywhere else anytime soon.

 

 Plenty of room underneath for the tablecloth collection. LiLi asked whether it was impossible to remove Contact paper (or what passes for it, the sticky-backed plastic they use in the Netherlands.) It is pretty much impossible. In our kitchen I had to scrape it off with a razor blade, sand, prime and paint. I didn't want to repeat that experience, so I covered the areas that had been covered in Contact with fabric.

 

I've used fabric to line drawers on a couple of projects, and I really like it. It's easy. Just cut a piece of posterboard to fit the drawer, then cut a piece of fabric a little bigger than the paper on all sides. Center the paper on the back side of the fabric, fold the excess fabric around to the back and glue it in place. (I think I used a heavy-duty glue stick.) Then just stick it in the drawer. The posterboard backing keeps the fabric from wrinkling every time you put something in or take something out of the drawer. Use a fabric you like a lot, because you'll see it often.

 

The tulip planters fit just right on that little shelf. When I was driving this home, all I could think about was that shelf, and what I'd put there for Halloween, and then for Christmas. I thought about every holiday with that little shelf. It's not like I don't have other things to think about, honest. I'd rather think about the shelf, though.

 

I think I mentioned before that moving the Hoosier in meant cleaning up and rearranging a lot of other stuff, most of which you wouldn't want to see. This is how the rest of the Jadite got rearranged. Anyway, this won't last long because it is almost time to get out the Halloween decorations, and there's nothing I like more, except, of course, Christmas decorations.

This photo was my husband's idea. I got this nifty tiered shelf at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago. Today I cleaned up my craft table and arranged all the crepe paper and such on it. "You better take a picture of that," he said, and I suspect he was hinting that he didn't think my neatness would last. By the way, please note that the most important object shown here is the jar of candy corn.
 
By the way: the comment feature is still proving very, very troublesome. If you ask a question, I'll just reply with a comment below. I've been trying to cut-and-paste e-mail addresses, but it's not only time-consuming, half of the e-mails are bouncing back.

If you're a Typepad subscriber and you haven't yet complained, please do. If you've already complained, it's time to complain again.   

Christmas favorites

Not these. But I love that box as much as the angels themselves.

 Not these Santa lights. Even though my Christmas guidebook hints they might be worth something.

Not good old Rudolph, either.

Not the classic elves either - even though you've got to admit that gingham is a really good look on these guys. Nope, it was something else that made my heart beat faster at the auction last Saturday. That made me think the worst thing you can think at an auction: "I don't care how high I have to bid. I have to have them!"

These. Old spun cotton and chenille and cardboard ornaments. Sometimes I find them one or two at a time in a box, and that makes me happy. I was overjoyed at the prospect of getting these. And happily nobody else at the auction seemed much interested in them.

A sparkling Santa.

A girl who literally has stars in her eyes.

 A pinecone ornament. In all of my Christmas collecting, I've only ever acquired one of these.

 An accordion-playing elf. Can you see the little mushrooms at his feet, on the left?

 And these two guys. I don't think they're Santas. I think they're elderly elves.

Notions and Housewares Dept.

I often end up at an auction with things I didn't intend to buy. I bought a box lot of sewing stuff that looked like mostly junk because I really wanted one of these decal jars. Turns out there were two of the jars in the box, so I was twice as happy.

Amidst the junk I found two needle books with roses on the cover, a spool of wide, pink, satin ribbon and some pink buttons. As an aside: I'm pretty sure every box of sewing junk I've ever bought has included a package of iron-on patches and replacement garters. In case you were wondering, I do not collect those. I throw them out. If there are societies of people who collect iron-on patches and replacement garters, I do not wish to know about them.

There were some fancy old buttons, too, and a couple of tatting shuttles.

Also these buttons, which are more my style. The doilies in all of these pictures came in another box. I really didn't want to purchase any doilies, but they came in the box with the quilt top.

These also came in the box with the doilies and the quilt top. The embroidered piece on the left is a tablecloth that has sort of a sweet, peasant look to it. There's also a tablecloth with embroidered fish. Not wild about the fish, but that's what happens when you buy a box lot. All of these pieces just came out of the washer and dryer, and anything I find that's tattered or damaged or stained is going out, along with the iron-on patches and replacement garters. The days of trying to rescue and repair every piece of vintage linen are over.



I'm granting an exception for this piece, which does have some damage, but is worth repairing. At first I thought it was a tablecloth, but it turns out to be an embroidered bedspread. There's a huge basket of flowers in the middle (that's what you see here), and a floral motif on the top, where the pillows would go. I've never seen one quite like it. It will never be as good as new, but with a little TLC, I think it could be pretty nice.

 

Still life with suitcase

Suitcase with silverware drawers and kitchen utensils.

Suitcase with hats.

Suitcase with quilt top.
 

Suitcase with Christmas decorations. I'm still sorting out from an auction Saturday. Lots to show you soon - linens, notions, and some of my most favorite Christmas things ever.

More finds from last week

 

Everything in these pictures is from a yard sale last week. It is most certainly not from the auction I went to (very briefly) yesterday, which featured a bust of Elvis and a smoldering bonfire. They put out the bonfire way too early, in my opinion. They had plenty more fuel available for that fire. I love this old seam binding, and I'll never have to worry about running out of eyelets again, since it appears I have a lifetime supply.

 

A box of little cottony birds and some fresh millinery leaves.

 

And some Christmas this-and-that. As far as I know, there are no sales I'm interested in attending Friday morning.

 

Here's an actual ad from a sale earlier this month. Either the people didn't notice the little typo, or the sale really was a snooze, and there was a rare bit of truth in advertising.

 

However, I'm even more fond of this ad, which ran the same day. Do you think maybe they meant to say "revered" instead of "reviled"?

Work, work, work

 

The new Hoosier is turning out to be quite a bit of work. Actually, it cleaned up beautifully, and the job was easier than I thought it would be.

 

But to make room for it, I had to move a pie safe. To move the pie safe, I had to move a cabinet that desperately needed to be organized. To organize that, I needed to clean out the sewing cabinet ... and on it went. Finally all of the areas were cleaned out, leaving a big pile of stuff to sort out. Today I'm finally seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.

  

I got all of my papers and prints sorted out and separated into pretty folders. The folders are from Staples, and I thought they were kind of overpriced until I realized how heavy-duty they are. I like them. Locker baskets make such good file drawers. It's like they were made to hold files. Why I have any of this stuff is a bit of a mystery, since I don't scrapbook, and I make something out of paper about once every four months.
 
 

But in all of this moving, I finally found a permanent spot for two of the wooden bird shelves. Hmmm. By checking my blog, I see I've had these birds 13 months. Also, it appears they ended up in the same room where I hung them in the first place just to take their picture.

 

I'm really hoping it doesn't take that long to get the Hoosier situated.

A book for fabric lovers

 

One thing I almost never regret buying is a good reference book.

 

Any time I come across a nice old quilt, I'm glad I invested in one particular book a few years ago.

 

It's the book "Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1800 - 1960" by Eileen Jahnke Trestain. Nope, there's not much of a plot, but if you love fabric, it's a page turner.

 

There are pages and pages of fabric swatch photos, arranged by era. It's really remarkable how, after paging through the book enough, you really start to get a sense of the style and colors of an era. The big paisley swatch is really similar to the paisley strips on the back of the quilt.

 

I wish I'd taken an overall picture of the back, which is gorgeous all on its own. It has long, narrow strips of the paisley, with wider strips of print and ticking stripes in between.

 

Another quilt, with different pages.

 

And the pink quilt, with examples of double-pink fabrics. If you think these are pretty, you should see the swatches from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Such wonderful prints, such great colors - it's quite a display. 

Time traveling

 

Saturday's sales offered a little bit from every era. In addition to those 19th century quilts, I picked up a pile of nice old grain sacks and a stack of wooden berry baskets. (Perhaps I should take up large-scale farming.)

 

Wooden dominoes, all nice and chippy.

 

A pink wood and wicker tray that has a hundred and one uses. It's about three jam jars wide - good for jars of buttons, or toiletries, or baby things. Or three jars of jam.

 

My new living room table (I'm not painting it - I like it just the way it is), a length of fabric and a red ball pitcher.

 

The fabric has its original sticker on it. It says there are 30 yards. Oh, if only! The pitcher is a real oddity - it's made of hard plastic. It might have been a toy.
 
 

Another fabric photo.

 

A little toy teapot and a pair of crocheted rose potholders on a bib apron that I bought because I really liked the fabric.
 
 

A big plastic Christmas tablecloth - the old-fashioned plastic kind, if that doesn't sound too crazy, that's on the heavy side. It was still in its original package.

 

But wait! There's more!

 

I didn't realize until I took it out of the package that it's a birthday tablecloth on the reverse side.

 

And finally: a salute to the 1960s. (Or maybe the 1970s, since I'm not quite sure when the burlap cups were in vogue.)

Saturday's find

 

You know you're going to have a good day when after one stop, you have too many quilts to carry in one trip to the car.
 
 

These aren't my style or colors at all (which lessens the temptation to keep them), but they're really lovely. Most of the fabrics are from the late 1800s - homespuns and calicos and double pinks.

 

Flying geese. Some of the rectangles (like the black one in the center, and the gray one above it) are torn, but repairing them would be an easy fix. I went to a quilt restoration workshop a few years ago, and the woman had tons of good advice. One of her suggestions was to never do anything to repair a quilt that you can't undo. The binding on this one is in great shape, and the back, a yellow stripe, is sweet all on its own.

 

This one (feel free to shout out the name of the pattern, which I need to look up) has really wonderful fall colors. The back is made of two different pieces of brown homespun.

 

I'm keeping this one.
 
 

This one is my favorite - the fabrics are really wonderful.

 

Here's just one of the squares. This quilt tempts me to give up vintage and go for a primitive look. That happened to a friend of mine. One day she woke up and decided to go in a new direction, and she sold all of her vintage stuff and never looked back. I left another one of the quilts (it's not in these pictures) on her porch as a surprise. Sneaking away without her seeing me was really as much fun as finding the quilts in the first place.

Key discovery

 

I don't think I've ever bought keys before. I see them on a lot of blogs and in a lot of projects, but I had no idea how fun they were.

 

They're so graphic and interesting, and they've got all that great rust and patina.

 

They feel good, and I bet they sound good, too, jingling in a pocket.

 

I even like the box they came in.

 

It would make a good base for something.

If I were to grade the last three days of sale activity, I'd give Thursday a B+. Friday would get a D, and the only reason it wouldn't get an F is because the sales found new and different ways to be awful and annoying.
 
Today, though, was an A. The keys were just the start. I have a car to unpack and a Hoosier to scrub, and then I hope the light is good so I can take pictures.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

(p.s. I have several e-mails to answer, and the awful Typepad comment change is giving me fits, so don't get mad at me ifI've been out of touch - hoping to catch up soon.)