New doilies and my first TAST sampler.

This lovely set was reasonably priced on eBay, so I decided to bid, seeing I have in my stash an unworked tablecloth with this design stamped on it, but no instructions. Now I'll have the originals to follow!
This is my first sample of stitches for the TAST group on Stitchin Fingers. I'm quite proud of myself! We were given the task of stitching Herringbone stitch in any form we like, and as I am not very imaginative, I started off with one row of plain Herringbone. Then I started looking at what others have done, and then I started looking at all my embroidery books...and came up with some ideas of my own! Well, sort of. Adapted from others, shall we say.

All this for $8!!

There are op shops that are true thrift stores. Then there are opshops that pretend to be antique stores...at least the people working in them like to think they are, and price their stock accordingly. Our local Brotherhood of St.Lawrence op-shop is run by dear old ladies who are happy to get a few dollars for their charity, and don't haggle over prices if a customer thinks it is too high. I usually 'tip' them an extra dollar or two because their prices are ridiculously low! They don't get much in the way of vintage linen in there, but last week somebody must have dropped this lot in and I came at the right time! This is a "carver cloth" - something that was common pre-WW2, I believe. This is an excellent example on ecru linen. The next two photos are close ups of the exquisite stitching on the cloth.
Centrepiece on cotton. Closeup of centrepiece detail. This is one of a pair. And so is this, one of a pair.
Again, there are two of these napkins, probably made in China or the Phillipines, where a lot of this style of embroidery came from (and still does). I don't collect it usually, but this design is not as common as some of the others around, and I think it is lovely.

New doilies!!

I received these lovely doilies in the mail today, from Robyn, whose new blog I added to my sidebar just a few weeks ago. She had the cottage doilies on her blog for sale, and when I offered to buy them, she mentioned the crinoline lady doiley that her Mum wanted to sell, and asked if I wanted it. She didn't have to ask twice! Thank you Robyn - love all three of them!
This blog has been very quiet lately, as I have deliberately NOT been checking eBay for linens, and no op-shops these days seem to have anything worth buying. But I made a fatal mistake tonight...I looked at eBay. Only for a minute, mind you! An hour later, I'd put about 20 items on my Watch list. Really shouldn't have done that; I might be tempted to buy something/all of them. Oh well, I feel like indulging myself a little. Now that I'm 60, I am able to access my superannuation, and have arranged to have a monthly payment into our bank account, to 'top up' my wage, which is meagre because I only work part time. So, a small spend-up now and then on my collection (which is really an investment after all, don't you think?) can be tolerated.

Three new doilies.

LeeAnn presented me with these three beautiful doilies on Good Friday when she and her BetterHalf visited us. I consider myself very fortunate to have friends like LeeAnn who think of me when they find vintage linens in their travels.
I just love these old English Cottage designs! And have a look at the close up pic below - the stitching is simply perfect. It must have been done with a single strand of cotton, and a very fine needle. Sweet Butterfly doiley. There must have been a fad for these back in the mid 20th century, as I've seen many along the same lines, but this one has the added extra of a hand crocheted edge. My collection of this Assisi style of stitched linens is growing rapidly! But I can't help myself adding to it, there are so many variations.