Gathering Dust

Sixty Years, Sixty Buttons

I don't have any sisters, but I'm lucky enough to have four great sisters in law who I'd be happy to be friends with even if we weren't related.

One of them, Jan, turns 60 next week.  Our niece, Melissa came up the idea that everyone should give her 60 of something- sixty phrases, sixty memories, sixty diamond rings. 

No, not really about the rings- the idea was that the gifts didn't have to cost much or anything at all.

One thing I have no trouble coming up with is 60 buttons, so I made her this little art quilt with exactly 60 buttons. 

I think there are 60 buttons, I've counted and recounted- you can count and see what you come up with.

Jan likes hearts, so I scattered some throughout the sampler- and squeezed her name into the heart at the top. 

I used some of the pretty rhinestone chain that Karla gave me for my birthday, and some of the new embroidery stitches that I learned from TAST- Take A Stitch Tuesday.  If you look really closely at just about the middle of the picture, to the left of the rhinestones, you can see a green and peach "60".

Happy 60th Birthday Janie Sue!

Yeah for the Red White and Blue -Antique Show Style

One of my favorite things about the summer Old Summit Antique Show is I stray away from my usual "low colors" and bring on the red white and blue.

I brought my usual sewing stuff...

...and books.  Both are good sellers for me.

These pictures were close-ups from my booth, but of course I had to make the rounds with my camera and take some pictures of other things that caught my eye.

It seems like we'll never lose our fascination for pieces with lots of drawers.

...or little shoes.

I loved this display of old cast iron banks- like a mini metal city.

From my friend Melinda's (Tres Melinda) booth- feathers and a whole set of optical lenses- wow!

Peanuts and apples fill a HUGE copper kettle.

One of my favorite low color booths- this time a combination of greens and grays.

Love these old locker pins and holders from Chris and Diane Ripper's booth.

And how did the show go?  Great! Just like this display of Melinda's- I was BLESSED with great customers.

New Kitchen Curtains- Sure, Just Hand Me That Scissor

I've seen several pictures on Pinterest of lace curtains made by sewing doilies together.  I love the look, and decided to try it.

It's easy to sew the doilies together, but hard to get them hang straight.  I really didn't like this asymetrical look- especially since the doily on right side look out of kittywumpus.  I even tried sewing another squarish doily to the middle, but it still just wasn't what I was looking for.

Today, I decided to give it another try- using a tablecloth- a VINYL tablecloth- no hemming, no fraying. 

At first I just cut off the lace edges - the long sides went to the biggest windows- middle window and the window over the sink. and the short sides went on the smaller side windows.

I was left with the center of the tablecloth- which had a really nice pattern.  I stitched a quick rod pocket and hung it in the center window.  It's sheer enough that plenty of light comes in, but it hids the cobwebs between the windows.

This might not have been my first choice for curtains, but it was cheap, and will certainly work until I figure out how to sew those doilies together.

An Invaluable Necklace

A couple of weeks ago Karla stopped by and was digging through a box of "treasures" I had packed and priced to take to my booth at the antique mall.  She picked out a few things to buy- she's a very good customer; but she was especially excited about these clear beads with wire. 

I thought they were marbles that someone had wire wrapped.  Karla said they were something her Sissy collects and she thought they were called pools of light.  I knew if Sissy collected them, they must be something special, because she has very good taste, but they still just looked like wire wrapped marbles to me.  Karla bought a small bag of them from me for about three dollars.

Last week, Karla told me she had checked with Sissy, and the "marbles" were Victorian rock quartz, also known as pools of light, and jewelry made with them could sell for $50- $400.

What could I say?  If I'm going to give a good deal to someone, it might as well be a friend!

Karla made this necklace for me with one of the stones, and some other beautiful gems and added a numbered luggage tag from the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. 

I LOVE the necklace- perfect combination of sparkle and steampunk for me.  I think I got the best end of the deal.

(AKWARD TRANSITION)

I've added some new "handmades" to my Etsy Shop.

A little secret keeper pouch with an watercolor image that Karla painted and I printed on canvas, and then decorated with vintage lace.

A tattered baby dress that I "saved" with patches and lace.

A handmade book featuring my favorite kind of images- vintage fashion.

And there's some "other stuff" too.

Great Images German Poetry and Spenserian Script

Yesterday as I was pricing for an upcoming antique show, I found some books with wonderful images.  I scanned some to use in future projects, and thought you might like to use some, too.

To get the best images, click on the picture to open it in a larger window and click "Save As".

Cover of German poetry book.

From the Spenserian script book.

This page was suggested as designs for embroidery.

Amazing work isn't it?

I Love Buying Antiques, I Love Selling Antiques

I love to buy antiques, vintage stuff, weird stuff, cool stuff and I love to sell it- but I don't like what happens in between the buying and selling; that is the cleaning, sorting, organizing and pricing.

I know, I've complained about this before, thanks for indulging me and listening to me say it again.  I've had a lot of things set aside for the Old Summit Antique Show and I spent today pricing and packing them.

To keep myself entertained, I watched reruns of Pawn Star, and took some pictures...like these  pictures of string- as you know, string makes me happy.

And how cute is this child's toy sewing maching ca 1900?  I'm tempted to see if it really works- I think all it needs is a needle.

Great graphics- another thing that makes me happy.

A picture of a tub packed about halfway.  You can see an ironstone platter that I've shown before, a tobacco tin lunch box and an old store display of manicure scissors.

Bits from the sewing basket...

a bridle rosette...

an English needlebook...

As I was packing and pricing I found some books with wonderful illustrations.

...a music book with great pages, a German poetry book with beautiful illustrations and a "how-to" book on Spenserian penwork.

I've scanned some images and I'll post them tomorrow.

And more simple things that make me happy- beat up leather coin purses.

And I'm pretty fond of the cloth version, too.

...and pocket watches; broken, beat-up, or without glass- because you really can never have enough time.

Thank you for not laughing at my attempt at making a dog bed that the dog won't use in my last post.  Tami said give it time, eventually he'll use it- and I did catch Button resting on his new pad- but only long enough to snap a quick picture.

Things I Have Been Doing

The title of my post is borrowed from my favorite blog My Life by Buster.  Buster is a dog who lives in New York City and he oftens uses blog titles like "My Weekend", "My Friends", "What I've Done", "A Post about Other People Not Me".  He has a way of getting to the heart of a post.

I have been stitching on this sampler- almost done, but I can still see some white space, so I have some work to do.

I find this kind of stitching so relaxing.

Have you ever started a project, and you knew when you went into it that it wasn't going to work, but you just couldn't help yourself? 

• I've done it with a blank wall, paint and newspaper.  Newspaper does not work to apply paint.
•  A tiny chip in your nailpolish that you just can't resist picking at and the next thing you know, you've picked polish off of ALL your nails.

Well that was how this project was.  I put a piece of wool fleece on the floor to cut it, and Button laid down on it. 

***Bright Idea****.  Make him a dog bed from the fleece.  I've seen a lot of machine embroidery- why not monogram it?

Well, it only took 15 minutes to make, and it looks like it- and neither of the dogs wants anything to do with it.

More crafting- vintage barkcloth and tapestry salvaged from a greasy quilt sewn into a bag big enough to work for overnight.

Don't look at the seams, don't look at the raw edges, don't look at where I sewed the straps on- just enjoy the fabric and lace.

Here's a crafting game for you.  Have you seen the feature in People Magazine where they show you two pictures and you're supposed to find the differences?

Can you see the difference?  Yep, I sewed a bit of toile fabric with a horse in the second picture.

Here's another:

The picture on the right has a little tintype tucked on the side.  This book is very much an ongoing project.

Buying- I've been buying for my booth and the upcoming Old Summit Antique Show on Jun 23.  I won't be selling just bottles, I've got lots of other stuff.

This is about half of the bottles I bought- these are the ones I still have left to clean. 

See the bowl of rice in the upper right corner?  I had heard that you could put rice and water in a dirty bottle, shake it and the rice would clean the inside of the bottle.  So far, it just makes the rice stick to the sides of the bottles.

I do like to buy in volume- aren't these woven wall baskets great?  They have a galvanized liner inside.  Any ideas on what I can fill them with beside this stray stem?

This isn't everything I've been doing, but it will give you an idea- and it's always nice to pop into blogland to say "Hi".