Peacocks!

I am flabbergasted at the response to my scan of the peacock doiley! I have put a lot of embroidered peacocks on my blog in the past, but this one has attracted so much more attention than the others. Perhaps because the design is more simplistic, and easier to reproduce. Pam K has sketched a design based on my doiley, for stitchers to download and use in their own work. She also made a lovely sketch from the peacock WW1 postcard I featured here a little while ago. I'm toying with the idea of creating a new blog and calling it Patra's Peacocks or something similar. I could transfer all my embroidered peacock scans from here to the new blog, and Pam and her friends could potter among them for ages!
So many ladies have left messages to thank me for "allowing" Pam to use my blog photos, and I have tried to visit as many as possible, but some of them don't actually have their own blogs, so I just want to say here "Hi" to 'Magpie's Mumblings' and 'Patternuts'. I left a comment on Pam's blog, which is relevant here too, and that is, while I appreciate the gratitude you all have toward me for sharing this doiley, I neither designed or stitched it. I think it might be an old Semco (Australian brand) 'novelty' design from the 1950s or 60s. Hopefully we are not infringing any copyrights doing what we have done - is there a time limit or something on these kind of things? I know not to reproduce actual patterns from charts and books on here, but as for old traced linen....

And finally for tonight, these are the three kits Lee-ann included in her swap package. Love these 'fast' kits - make great presents.
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The packet of transfers, also in my swap bag of goodies.
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The vintage magazine in my Goddess Swap - there is some very useful information inside this old magazine!
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The other item Lee-ann had listed on eBay that I just had to have. I have several of these old school samplers, and hope to stitch at least one of them some day.
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This centrepiece might look unremarkable, but you should have seen it before I soaked it! Lee-ann said it was one in a bundle of doilies in the op-shop that were going to be thrown out because they were old and stained. This one had that horrid brown 'age' mottled effect all over it, but after 24 hours in Napisan - voila! Good as new.
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The other Huckabuck guest towel. Not often an embroidery features a man's shaving brush... At least that's what Lee-ann and I think it is!
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Huckabuck towel. Sorry if this looks stained - it isn't - I played with the color exposure on the scanner and it makes the background look different.
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This shows one end of the large doiley (at the top) in a 3 piece duchess set, with one of the small doilies beneath it. The yellow cross stitch is a bit ordinary, but the rest is lovely stitching.
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I think this cute doiley was probably part of a duchess set originally. Sadly, the person who made it machined a lace edge to it so tightly that it has puckered the linen, so I may have to unpick that one day and redo it.
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This centrepiece with the lady at both ends needs a bit of finishing off where the cotton has either worn away or never been stitched in the first place. Won't take me long to do that....ha - famous last words!
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This is the box of embroidered napkins Lee-ann gave me. Pure Irish Linen, the label states. I can't bear to take them from box - the way they are folded makes a perfect display, even though the cellophane packaging has come away.
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The other antimacassar, which I like best. the irises are just gorgeous; all that chain stitch just blows my mind!
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I'm sure this is an antimacassar, not a tray cloth. It is bigger than a normal tray cloth, and has the design stitched at one end, which is the way antimacassars are usually done, as the embroidered edge hangs over the front of the couch.
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At last! Some eye candy.

What better way to spend a cold grey Sunday afternoon, than scanning some linen and loading it on to a blog? Ken and I have spent most of this afternoon on our computers - he has been burning DVDs for friends and struggling with his scanner/printer to print the labels and covers. Nice to see I'm not the only one who is challenged by technology! Isabelle said in a comment below that she assumed I was comfortable with technology, going by my scanned pictures on the blogs. Believe me, I can only do these things when some kind person sits next to me and shows me step by step! Ken being a typical bloke does NOT like to think I know better, so I have had to button my lips in order to prevent several arguments today!
There is washing on the line to bring in and put in the dryer (it won't get dry outside today), and ironing to be done. I still have to decide what to have for tea (probably open a can of soup), and I was going to bake a cake. Well at 4 pm I still have time to do those things, and I have already scanned my latest linen finds. The teatowels were $1 each, and I also bought another one (unstitched) for $1 - what a bargain! Irish linen teatowels - if you can find them - are usually about $12 or more. The cloth and teacosies were from England.

Look what I found in a Salvation Army op-shop last week! A pair of Irish linen tea towels, embroidered with the cutest Scottie dogs! They had never been used - the linen was still stiff, and the fold creases told their own story.
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The second tea towel.
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Tea cosy, stitched on one side only. A slightly different kind of crinoline lady.
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Tea cosy embroidered on both sides, with the same design in different colours.
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The reverse side of the tea cosy.
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This suppercloth has a crinoline lady in each corner - two in pink, and two in blue (below). The cloth has been edged in filet crochet about 3" wide - lovely! From England of course..
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Lady in blue, supper cloth.
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No more pictures at the moment.

It has been ten days since my last post here, so I do hope my regular readers haven't given up on me! I have added quite a few items to my collection, but most of them are too big to scan for photos, so they will have to wait until I get the digital camera working. I actually retrieved it from the back of a cupboard last month, recharged the batteries, and re-read the instruction book. But I am such a sook when it comes to technology. If I can't get the hang of something quickly, I just get frustrated with it and toss it away. I just need someone to sit down with me and go through the workings, then I need to practice. I did use it a couple of times when I first got it, but I found it so complex that a lot of the photos badly out of focus, and instead of persevering, I spat the dummy. Some people never grow up...

Have you ever seen more perfect stitching? Done with one strand of floss, this actually measures 4.5 x 2 inches (12 x 5 cm approx). One of a pair of linen placemats I have just received from the U.K.
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