Oodles and oodles

Quick trip

 
I'll be out of town for a few days, visiting my dad, who is recovering from surgery.

Looking forward to catching up with all of you soon.

 

This just in!

This is so important I am posting without a photo.

Have you seen this? http://www.cathkidstonusa.com/

Yes, that's a US web address!

This could be great. Or very bad. Depending on my level of self restraint.

On a smaller scale

 
I bought some furniture at an estate sale Saturday.

 
If you're 5 inches tall or so, you're welcome to sit down.

 
I've always had kind of a soft spot for doll-sized things. The teapot and the milk bottle were my mom's when she was little. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I'm not quite sure where I'll put these or how I'll arrange them. But I do know one thing.

 
It will have to be in place by the holidays, so I can decorate this tiny pink fireplace for Christmas.

Didn't, couldn't, shouldn't

 
Didn't need more pinecone elves.

 
Didn't notice this one was missing his nose - too busy admiring his spun-cotton hat, I guess.

 
Shouldn't have paid first-day-of-estate-sale markup price.

 
Couldn't help myself. There were so many of them.

 
And three of them were carrying little spun-cotton lanterns. To light their way in the dark forest. Which is thick, one assumes, with bottle brush trees.

Didn't, couldn't, shouldn't. Can't do anything about it. When it comes to pinecone elves, I'm helpless.

 

A new venture

 
I've got the flowers.

 
The edging.

 
Yards of trim.

 
The inspiration.

 
And a book with patterns and detailed instructions.

At last I think I'm able to pursue the career I've long dreamed of: professional milliner.

p.s. All of these items came from an estate sale today. And I suspect that like so many other of my career ideas, this one will remain largely a fantasy!

 

Judging books by their cover

 
I have no idea if there are good recipes in this 1927 cookbook. Who cares? It's got a gingham-check cover and is hands-down the cutest cookbook I've ever seen. (Even the spine of the book is checked.)

 
This cookbook, on the other hand, is a little scary. And I think the twin cooks have electric range accessories on their wrists and waistbands.

 
The cover of the milk cookbook deserves to be framed. The other cookbook is all about the care and feeding of The Child. It appears to have been fairly labor-intensive to feed a Child back then.

 
Not even in my most devoted English-major phase did I seriously consider reading "Pilgrim's Progress." I just thought the spine was pretty. I'm wondering how it would look at Thanksgiving. Maybe as a base for Gurley pilgrim candles? (If you hear rumbling, it's my Brit Lit professor rolling in his grave.) "The Wedding Ring" is not only pretty, it looks mildly entertaining - a series of self-important sermons on marriage and women's role in the home. The others, I have no idea. Once I bought books for their contents, and now I'm just happy with a cute cover.

 
My other purchases today included felt pennants,

 
an array of HRM cookie cutters, some of which were new to me,

 
a Ransburg wrap holder in orange,

 
and the obligatory touch of Christmas. The background trees are tabletop fringed aluminum affairs, which need a little foofing before their closeup.

Oh, so all of this is stuff I bought at a sale today. (In case you didn't figure that out.) I left out that critical piece of information at the beginning, and now my writing professor probably is rolling in his grave, too.

Fruits and nuts

 
Here's a pretty picture for the first full day of fall. In this picture we see a boy standing around doing nothing and a girl industriously working on a garland of leaves.

 
Maybe we shouldn't be too hard on "John," because, after all, he is holding leaves in case the girl needs them, and he's making a lovely observation, looking at a squirrel in the tree. "Everything is making ready for winter," he says.

 
The squirrels in our yard have been making ready, too. For the second year that I've noticed, they busily collect all of the black walnuts on one side of the yard, then run them across to a maple tree on the other side of the yard. This seems to give them some peculiar sense of accomplishment. Some times, of course, they get irrationally exuberant and add one too many walnuts, so they all come tumbling down. If I could speak to the squirrels, I would ask them, if they're not burying the walnuts, why they don't just run them back up the walnut tree and save themselves a trip across the yard. Of course, maybe the squirrels watch me and wonder if I'm as efficient as I could be.

 
They have made excellent use of the old basketball hoop and have absolutely packed the area behind the backboard.

 
Apart from freezing a few berries and some tomato sauce, about all I've been able to put away for the winter is a gallon of millinery fruit, which I found at a thrift store the last time I was in Pennsylvania. (Now that I think of it, perhaps all the chattering I hear amongst the squirrels is them wondering why I would spend time canning fruit that cannot be eaten.)

 
I would like to make a purse just so I could embellish it with these grape clusters.

 
Inside the jar is quite a tasty assortment of cherries and strawberries.

 
As well as blueberries and bananas.

 
Not to mention pears and citrus fruits.

 
And the squirrels can have all of the black walnuts they want, because I have pink acorns with velvet leaves.






 

 

Quilt love, part 2

 
On the very same day I found the appliqued tulip quilt, I found these appliqued quilt squares. (That's probably my share of appliqued quilt items for the next decade.) These lovely butterfly squares came from Betsy's shop.

Betsy, by the way, is doing very well with the dolls she makes. She's sold a ton of them at Brimfield and Bouckville this year. She had some very funny stories to tell about people's reactions to them, including the person who called her a psychopath. I think that's a little harsh.

 
I could content myself all day taking pictures of these. I won't, but I could. Every square is beautiful.

 
I briefly flirted with the notion that I would stitch these together and make a child-sized quilt. (There are 12 squares in all.) But I regained sanity and decided to put them on Etsy. I think someday if I were going to make a quilt all on my own, I'd certainly consider the butterfly applique. It seems do-able, and fun.

 
 
This fabric is my favorite. In my fantasy fabric shop, there will be an entire bolt of it. It will also be available in red, pink and blue.

Quilt love, part 1

 
I don't know how it is where you live, but around here, appliqued quilts seem pretty scarce. Other than the occasional Dresden plate quilt, it's pretty much all patchwork, all the time. So when this quilt appeared on a yard sale table a week ago, I snatched it up and, after giving it a cursory look, declared it mine.

 
It had issues, for sure - I don't know where it had been stored, but it had lots of what appeared to be water stains. It's a little hard to see the extent of them here, but it was a mess.

 
Anyway, a week later, with a lot of soaking in between, and this quilt is on the road to recovery. It's spread out here just for display - it still needs some work, mainly a binding and some re-quilting along the top edge. (This work comes under the heading of "retirement project" or "hire someone who knows what she's doing.")

 
I don't think I could have dreamed of a pattern I'd love more - and those colors! Even if it's just folded with the pretty part out on top of the armoire for a few years, I'll enjoy it.

 
In the meantime, here's what's on the bed - same quilted bedspread, a crocheted coverlet and a recently lengthened dust ruffle. Dust ruffles never seem quite long enough, so this one became a few inches longer courtesy of some non-vintage fabric I've had forever. Much easier than making a new one.

 
This coverlet is one of the very first vintage things I ever bought, at least 20 years ago. It's filet crochet, made up of blocks of all kinds of animals.

 
The very first antique I bought was a Hall teapot, which I still have. My tastes haven't changed all that much, I guess. Do you remember the first antique you bought?


 
 

A few things

 
A few kitchen things.

 
Some things made of wood.

 
Things with an abundance of spaghetti trim.

 
A thing that winds up and moves and clangs and makes the dog bark like crazy.

 
Things painted by number.

 
Things with pages.

 
And chapters.

 
And poems.

 
And lovely drawings.

These are the things I found this weekend.