Latest ebay win.

One of my favourite eBay sellers is in NSW; her linens are consistently of the highest quality - no 'cutters' from this lady! Most of her auctions go for high prices because she is known for her good taste. I was lucky enough to win this supper cloth and matching napkins, stitched in the Assisi style, which I just adore. I have other similar cloths, but can't help adding to my collection, especially when they are in such excellent condition. Close up. Matching napkins

Op shop bargains.

There is a little opshop I visit occasionally. It is tucked out of site behind a church hall, and I only discovered it last year because they had a sandwich board outside on the street. Everything is very cheap; the people that run it for the church are happy to get a few dollars in a day, I think! This is what I found yesterday:
These three doilies were pinned together, with a price tag of 50 cents for all three. This is a closer shot of the best of the three - lovely stitching! This one was on its own with a price tag of 20 cents.... Can you believe it - 20c for such exquisite stitching, not to mention that stunning crochet edge! The lady behind the counter frowned when she saw the price tag. "Is this all they're asking for these?" she said to another worker. I handed her a $2 coin and said "Is that better?" She smiled and thanked me, but I still felt guilty. I would have paid $10 for these if that had been the price - aren't they lovely!

Eye candy comin' up, thank you Pam K!

Everyone I have met in cyberspace on blogs and off them, have been friendly, interesting people. But there is one person in particular who I have forged a friendship with, and I feel very privileged that she continues to keep in touch with me, despite being busy with her work as a well known cross stitch designer and crazy quilter extraordinaire - Pam Kellogg. I hunt for laces and Aussie craft magazines in thrift shops to send to Pam, and in return she sends me the latest issues of two beautiful stitching magazines as they are released in the States.
Pam has an Etsy shop (I believe most crafters here would know about Etsy), where she sells some of her CQ creations. I've long hankered after just one of them, just so I can say I own one of Pam Kellogg's pieces, and now I have one! Pam had a sale on her Etsy site, and I discovered she was selling one of her stunning Peacock cushions at a very reasonable price. So I 'lashed out' with the old credit card, and here is what arrived today: ....a closer look. And here are the magazines that came with it:

My response to your comments on previous post.

This is a new post in response to the comments on the previous one, as there are a number of issues I want to address. Thank you everyone who left a comment - always happy to see you!
Sue: Welcome on your first visit here. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I'll certainly be back to visit you and probably buy some gorgeous item...as if I haven't got enough already!
Diane and Jeanette: yes, those buds on the hand towel are exquisitely stitched.
Judy: What you find on my blogs is a fraction of what I have in my collection overall. It is a long-held ambition of mine to have a book of some kind published about the collection, but I would not have a clue where to start looking for someone who would be interested in doing it! I have several books about similar collections around the world, and I guess one about mine would sell equally as well, but... Huckabuck is the type of material commonly used for hand towels in early and mid 20th century. It is soft and absorbent, so ideally suited to drying of hands. Also great to stitch on!

Huckabuck hand towel.

I won an apron on eBay last week, and it arrived today, along with this little 'extra' gift from the eBay Seller. If you're reading this - thank you Robyn - I love it!! By the way, the apron can be seen here.

Remainder of goodies from LeeAnn.

This is the final lot of photos depicting the bundle of vintage linens etc. that LeeAnn gave me a month ago when she and Rob visited us. You can understand why I was so excited, and I'm now planning what I can do for them for Christmas to say thank you!
This item is very old, and quite unusual, although at its time of production, I'm sure there were many ladies industriously stitching tapestry covers for chairs and sofas! That is what this appears to be, and it is incredible to find the instruction paper with it!
Three nice little doilies all stitched, just needing crocheted edges.
Unworked Semco traycloth featuring a Blue Wren on Australian native plant.
This matching pair of doilies is much prettier than it looks here - the colour is all wrong. The material is more of a tan colour, and the stitching is in bright colours.

Tablecloths from LeeAnn.

This cloth is a Semco one with a Mexican theme design embroidered in each corner. This table cloth is a standard size cloth, with hand crocheted edge, embroidered only where you can see in this photo. The centre of the cloth, and all around the remaining edge has the design stamped on it ready to be done. This is as close as I could get, to show the detail of the beautiful stitching. Here is a very old supper cloth - beautiful quality linen, with two corners not stitched... and the other two corners nearly finished. This is a closer view of one of the corners - exquisite stitching.

Lee Ann's contribution to my linen collection.

I finally started photographing all my goodies today, but some of the photos aren't as clear as I'd like. I haven't got time to do them all again, so I apologise for the lack of clarity, but you'll get the picture generally (excuse the pun...) Starting with some single doilies:
Sandwich doiley with budgie.

Unfinished objects and other unusual items.

I just love these bags that women made up years ago, to hold dusters, shaving gear, pegs, etc. This one is obviously meant to hold socks and possibly hosiery which needed mending! Can you imagine anyone under 50 doing that now? I still darn Ken's socks, but as I'm nearly 60, I do actually remember how to from when I was a small girl and had to do my own school socks!
The unusual figures on this Huckabuck hand towel are cute!
The embroidery has been completed on this cute Semco "Maids Apron" but it still needs to be cut out and made up. Won't take me long! This set has been stitched but not made up. As the embroiderer has sewn a border neatly around each doiley, I am wondering what she intended to do next, as there is no room for a crocheted edge, and if she cut the linen around the edges as they are, it would fray. Maybe that's why it was never completed!
This set is the same, except there is still a small area to finish embroidering.

Centrepiece doilies.

To be strictly accurate in my descriptions, this first one is a tray cloth of course, but as it is the only one of the lot, I decided to pop it in with the centrepieces.
Definitely worth a closer look! I was so pleased to find this with LeeAnn's linens. I already have the same doiley in my collection, but it is not in good condition like this one, so it can be sold on eBay as a cutter.

I really like this doiley. I've not seen stitching like this used to fill in large areas. Closer up, this shows how running stitch is used effectively to fill in the larger areas.
Ugh..this pic does not do the doiley justice - the colours of the pansies are much prettier. I think they were stitched in silk, not stranded cotton. It is a very old piece.
Closeup of these gorgeous variegated cotton flowers.
And here is a closeup:

More photos soon!

That's enough for tonight. Some of you are on dial-up, not Broadband, so all these pictures will take ages for you to download! In the next day or so, I will be photographing the tablecloths and a few more doilies that I didn't get around to today. So you can look forward to some more eye candy! Oh - one more - This one arrived in the mail today from N.S.W. - an eBay win. I have a simply stunning apron on the way too, but that will be on the aprons blog. I'll put a reminder on here when I've posted it there.