All my Christmases came at once today!!

Well, that's what it felt like! An ENORMOUS package from Barb (Woof Nanny) in California, and a smaller one also from the USA (eBay auction win). The eBay parcel is a pair of pillowcases with peacocks, so you can go here and see them.
Barb does clever things with men's ties, so I rounded up a dozen or so Aussie ties from local opshops and sent them off for her to play with. In exchange, she scoured her opshops, and this is what she found: Completed cushion cover worked in wool. Printed on the side it says Avon Products. Did Avon sell stitching kits at some time? Completed tapestry square, probably meant for a footstool or chair. Jacobean-style crewel embroidered cushion cover.
Two table runners, appliqued guest towel, several doilies, set of six napkins, a handkerchief, two pack of Aunt Martha iron on transfers (Southern Belles!) and a magazine article about collecting vintage linen.
I happened to have all this with me when I popped in to visit Ken's Mum this afternoon. When I explained that this was in exchange for men's old ties, she said "I have Ken's father's ties still here. Do you think Barb would like them?" Barb, they will be on their way to you next week!

Plans for a Vintage Linen Exhibition.

People often tell me I should mount an exhibition of my linen collection, and my response has been "I'd love to, but I don't know where to start!". This weekend in Eltham, two ladies put on a display of quilts and cross stitch in a local community hall. I heard about it on a community radio announcement on Saturday morning, while Ken and I were driving to the shopping centre. I pricked up my ears as soon as I heard the words quilting and cross stitch display, and when they gave the address, I couldn't wait to get back home and go there! It was only about a mile from our place.
There was a $3 entry fee, and the girl at the front desk invited me to buy raffle tickets for $1, and as I had a $5 bill in my purse, I bought two. Signs around the entrance stated the proceeds from the show were being donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association. On the front desk were brochures about the Association, and a sheet of paper with information about the exhibition. The two women (Jenny and Rosalee) who put it together, did it to raise funds because their mother died of the disease.
Their exhibition was well worth the $3 entry fee. There were about 20 quilts, all of which had been made by Rosalee for friends and relations. Interspersed with the quilts were about the same number of framed cross stitched pictures, which had been stitched by Jenny. Jenny told me later it had taken months to round up all their work from the people it had been given to, but once they knew why they were being asked to part temporarily with their gifts, they didn't hesitate to hand over!
Now you've read the explanation, you will understand what I am about to propose. This little local exhibition attracted a large number of people on both Saturday and Sunday. I didn't ask how much money was taken, but I suspect it would have been more than enough to pay for the hire of the hall for the weekend, insurance, cartage of display frames etc. and plenty left over for the Motor Neurone Association. I spoke to Jenny at length, telling her about my collection and how I'd often thought about displaying it. She was very encouraging, and gave me lots of hints on how to go about it. One aspect I had not thought of was doing a show to raise funds for a charity. She said as well as benefitting the charity, councils tended to be in favour of renting their halls at a more reasonable rate, and advertising was often free.
So! All my blogging friends around Melbourne who have been urging me to do something about an exhibition - here is our chance! Some of you have offered to help out if I got around to doing something, so if you are reading this and still wish to be involved, I would love to have all hands on deck. I'm not going to name people here - that is unnecessary - you will know who you are, and if you have changed your mind since then, that is perfectly okay. But if you are interested, just post a comment here, or email me direct - whatever suits you.

Peacocks and Indians.

In today's mail I received another eBay win from the U.S. - a tea/hand towel with a stunning peacock embroidered on it. Go here for a look if you are interested.
I've had a lovely day today. I had one job this morning, after which I did my weekly fresh food shopping, and came home to enjoy a brief lunch. I spent the afternoon stitching on my Indian Chief, while listening to some of my rarely played classical music CDs and tapes: Strauss, Chopin, Beethoven, Bach...all that lovely stuff. I say rarely played not because I don't want to listen to it - I just never seem to get the house to myself to play what I like for four hours! Chief UFO got a fair work-out, not that you can see much from this photo unless you want to jump back a month and compare it to the one I took on June 30th.
Late this afternoon, Helen rang the doorbell to announce her arrival with the new Harry Potter book. She had promised to lend it to several other people, but knowing how fast I read, she generously gave me first go. Thank you, dear friend - I've read about 60 pages tonight, and it will be back in your hands by Sunday night!

In the words of Bloggers - EYE CANDY!

I was just about to post pix of my latest eBay acquisition of a pair of pillowcases, but they have peacocks on them, so they belong over here. So you will have to be satisfied with photos of my kitchen and dining room tables this week...hey, that's an idea - I should do this every week! Goodness only knows I have enough cloths to show for another ten years! Here is the dining room, with a close-up pic. following: And here is the cloth on the kitchen table, again followed by a closeup:

Craft & Quilt Fair 2007, Melbourne.

Today was the opening day of the annual Craft & Quilt Fair at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. I haven't been for a couple of years, but when my friend Cheryl invited me to go with her, I was pleased to say yes. I am glad I did, because it was one of the best of these Fairs I have been to. No photos were allowed in the Hall where all the exhibitors' stands were, but the people in charge of the Quilt Show didn't mind people taking pictures, so I made the most of them.
One small section of the queue for tickets! As those who read this blog will know, I do not dabble in quilting and patchwork, but that doesn't stop me admiring it, and let me tell you, Cheryl and I were both absolutely 'blown away' by the quilts on show today. There was a fantastic array of designs and styles. There was even one dedicated to Elvis: Fabulous colours! One of many quilts with an Aussie theme, this one featuring Lorikeets. Beautiful design in shades of pink. Stunning Stained Glass design. Asian design themes were very popular:

Craft & Quilt Fair.

Apart from admiring the Quilt Show, Cheryl and I spent time on every stall at the Fair, even those that featured crafts that neither of us do, such as scrapbooking and other paper crafts, knitting, quilting, egg decorating, calligraphy (one of my hobbies, but very rarely have time to do much), etc. Today we were focussing on embroidery and cross stitch and this year there was a lot more stalls featuring them than the last time I'd been. There were a few stalls selling craft books and magazines and I lashed out with the faithful Mastercard and bought two cross stitch books...as if I need any more! A lady standing next to me had just bought some books, and I wondered out loud just how much of the material that was sold at these exhibitions is ever made up. I guessed about 30% would actually be used. She turned to me and said "It doesn't matter about doing. It's HAVING the stuff that is important." I agreed!
Here is today's stash (mine that is - Cheryl had much more control than me!)
The two Cross Stitch Books: A cross stitch pattern for a Peacock. The kit included red floss, but I would rather use a peacock blue/green colour, so I just purchased the pattern. Fat Quarter with aboriginal art design. Pam, if you're reading this, I bought this for you. Thought you might like to play with a completely different design!
Three nifty little jiggers to keep the floss sorted when working on one project. I know a lot of girls already have this kind of thing, but I haven't seen them in shops before, so I snapped them up. The yellow bag underneath was a freebie that everyone received with their entrance ticket. All the more incentive to buy stuff, when you're given a bag to carry it in! At the same stand, I bought two glass coasters (not in the photo) - the kind that come apart so you can insert a piece of stitching to show. Cheryl snapped me in the cafe, one leg up on a chair, flaked out after 3 hours walking around!

A weekend of windfalls.

Why do they call it a windfall if you receive an unexpected gift of some kind? I must look that term up in a book that I have, which explains the origin of unusual words and phrases. OK, down to business.
My 'windfalls' this weekend were several bundles of old embroidered articles. We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night, and one of them was an old friend of Ken's. He lives on his own in the family house, and is cleaning out the place in preparation to selling it. He found a pile of linens in a drawer, and remembering what Ken had told him about me collecting them, he put his pile aside for me. Here they are. Once I've washed and pressed them all, I'll scan them for better pictures to put on here. The item on the left is a teacosy which hasn't been made up, and the others are doilies/centrepieces. The next lot came from Ken's Mum on Sunday afternoon. She had a stack of old aprons for me (see Patra's Aprons blog if you want to check them out), and in a plastic bag among the aprons were these little treasures. Again, once they are washed and ironed, I'll put better pictures of each item on here.

All the way from England.

I found this on eBay in the U.K. It was advertised as a sampler, and the auction picture displayed it in a frame. I emailed the seller and asked if she would send it to me minus the frame if I bid and won the auction. She agreed to do so, so I put my bid in, and won it for about A$12 because nobody else bid for it. The seller emailed me to say she had taken it out of its frame to post, but as it was very fragile, she'd had to pack it in cardboard and bubblewrap. The total including postage came to just over A$20, so it was fine with me, although I couldn't understand why she couldn't roll up a piece of linen, even if it was fragile.
When it arrived on Friday, at first I didn't realised what it was, and it took about ten minutes to unwrap! When I saw it, I knew why she had warned me. It isn't linen, it is perforated paper - something that was used in Victorian times instead of fabrics. I am very grateful this eBay seller was so careful - it is started to break on some edges, and it is watermarked in some places, but my God, when I think how old it is, and how beautiful the stitching is....I'll be taking it to the Guild to ask the Collections manager if she can tell me more about it.

In today's mail.

This was going to be an apron, but decided it would stay a UFO. I buy these unfinished item with great intentions, but once I see how expertly the original stitching has been done, I just leave it as it is for posterity! No way I could match this! I had a little battle with myself about where I was going to post these photos - should they have been on my Embroidered Aprons blog? No, that is for finished aprons. One day I'll pull all my apron UFOs out of the cupboard and photograph them to put on the blog. Close up of the kookaburra.

My latest eBay win.

There were two items in this auction, but one is a peacock, so I've posted that photo on my Peacocks blog, so go over there if you want to see it (and believe me, even if you don't like peacocks, this is a stunning piece of work). In the meantime, this runner is adorable. It's the first time I've ever seen bears stitched on something. This eBay seller in the USA had some very unusual designs, but even though they were very reasonably priced, I just couldn't afford to bid for more than these two.

Compare this to the centrepiece on the previous photo:

Ken's Mum has given me many of her own UFOs to finish off, some of them about 80 years old. This supper cloth was one such item. She had stitched one corner, but never got around to finishing it, so after a long hunt to try and match the original shades, I finally finished it a few years ago. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this centrepiece on eBay last month - with the same design, but different colours! I'm dying to show it to MIL!

New additions.

I have three additions to The Collection - an apron, which can be seen on my apron blog, a table centrepiece here: And a suppercloth stitched by the sister of a friend. She gave it to me last Sunday, under protest from me. I said she should hang on to it in case one of her kids said wanted it, but she said they wouldn't care about it, so..

Indian Chief, 30th June.

Changed my mind about waiting until next Tuesday. Here he is now.

The Indian is on the move again!

I have been participating in a Better Health Group every Tuesday for six weeks, and each week we create an 'action plan' - a goal to achieve within the coming week. It usually relates to our health goals, i.e. drink 1 litre of water a day, exercise twice daily, walk for 30 minutes daily, and so on. But last week our leader suggested we make our goal something related to a hobby or interest. My first thought was of course stitching, then I had to decide which project. There was nothing I could guarantee to finish within the week, so I chose to work one hour each day on my dear old Indian Chief.
On Tuesday, I worked on it for one hour. On Wednesday, one and a half hours. Thursday I didn't stitch at all, and today I've been stitching on and off all night, stopping for cups of tea, trips to the loo, checking emails, etc. So I guess I've done well over one hour. I can see what I've achieved in four days, but when I look at how much more has to be done to finish it...well, maybe in another year or so? I'll post a photo here next Tuesday to show where I'm at. The last time I posted a pic of him was on May 8th here

eBay and Golliwogs

eBay can be such a dangerous place on the internet, especially for people like me who should not be there at all. I've been pretty good lately, only have a quick look once or twice a month, and if I don't see anything worth bidding for, well it's a good day for my bank account. But now and then, something will catch my eye, one thing will lead to another and before I know it, I've bid on half a dozen auctions! In the past two weeks, I have won two peacock linens (still coming from USA), a 1930's apron, an unfinished apron, a table centrepiece, the tablecloth that is shown below, and earlier tonight, a tea cosy.
Now, I have hundreds of tea cosies in my collection, but this one is quite different. It isn't antique, it is hand knitted by a lady who makes dolls and teacosies using golliwog faces. They are so CUTE!!! Have a look at their website: www.gollydownunder

New tablecloth via eBay

This is a full size table cloth (I draped it over a small table for the photo), and the condition is superb. The stitching is lovely - see below. Closeup detail

Aprons have been updated.

Just to let you know that my Aprons blog has been updated. I've added two more categories to it - floral and Australiana. The link is on the side bar here.

Just a simple Thank You.

I have been doing a Better Health group course, organised by our local council. It runs for six weeks, and we have two facilitators, who are youngish (under 30?) girls, very serious about their role, and very patient with us 'oldies' when we waffle on about our problems! Next week is the final week, and I wanted to show the girls how much I have appreciated all their work, so I stitched this little thank you card.

Hidden talents of a friend.

One of my blogging friends in country Victoria, mostly posts jokes on her blog, along with anecdotes about her day to day life. She happened to mention to me that she used to do a bit of embroidery, and I asked her to show some of it on her blog. Well, talk about hidden talents! I think she should create a new blog just to showcase her stitching - it is stunning! Go take a look: Jen's Chronicles

Finished item!!

It seems ages since I posted a photo of a project that I've finished. I'm still working on the Indian Chief and kitten doiley, but there is no deadline on them as they are for me. But I have now completed this little apron for a lady in the USA who is also a collector of vintage textiles, aprons in particular. We started emailing each other last year and agreed to do an apron swap. I told her I would stitch something for her and she was delighted that it would be handmade just for her (although like me, she wouldn't have cared if it was a thrift shop buy!). So here it is: I had this plain white cotton half apron in my stash without any particular plans for it, and decided to use one of my many Aunt Martha transfers for the design. I think it looks rather cute!

New additions to the Collection.

I received a parcel of goodies today from Susan at T-Cozy. She had shown this delightful teacloth set on her blog and I asked if it was for sale. She said yes, so I sent payment off immediately and here it is: This is one corner of the cloth, with one of the matching napkins (there are four the same) The next two photos are the design in opposite corners, and the last pic is of the whole cloth. Isn't it darling!

Finally! My new blog just for Aprons!

It has taken all week, but I finally got two of my friends to model all my aprons while I ironed each one and photographed it. Next I had to transfer all the photos from the digital camera to my computer, sort them all into categories and then label each pic. Finally I created the new blog, and you can see it here. (For future reference, I've put a link to it on the sidebar here, with my other blogs.) Do you know, I'm rather chuffed about all this. Fancy somebody my age being so clever with this technology...LAUGH OUT LOUD!!! What a hoot...I am not really so clever. Most of you who read my humble blogs have the most wonderful artistic blogs, everchanging templates and all the bells and whistles. I'm not even going to try to equal you - just happy to sit back and admire what you do! Hope you enjoy my new one!

A new addition to my Gallery.

My friend Sharon discovered this in one of her favourite opshops, and told me about it. I didn't get there until a few weeks later, and fortunately it was still there. I bought a few other things as well, and the shop assistant must have got a bit flustered, because she ended up charging me about $4 for this! I have done one of these Black Cat designs myself, and have two more charts waiting to be done. This is not one of them, but I just had to have it on my wall with mine, even though I haven't stitched it. The Embroiderer has worked it beautifully, but the frame has been knocked around, so I will probably have it reframed one day. This is the one I've done:

Kitten doiley incomplete.

I put this picture on to my other non-stitching blog in error yesterday but as there are comments on it already, I'll leave it there, and just reproduce it here, for those readers who just look at this blog for my linen. As this was given to me with no embroidery instructions, I'm taking the easy way and just using the basic stitches like lazy daisy and outline stitch. Poor kitty looks a bit cross-eyed because of the way the black stitching lies on the yellow of the right eye! I had to use my limited imagination with colours too...a red plush velvet couch sounded nice, and kitty is black because we have a black one of our own. I'm still not sure what colour to do the flowers. With the red couch, purple cushion, and green leaves, I'm reluctant to bring too much more colour into it. I thought a yellow/orange combination. Any suggestions?

What's new, pussycat?

Well, I've done a bit more on the Indian, but I won't photograph it again until it's worth looking at. You would have to look closely to see what I have done since the last picture I posted here a couple of weeks ago. I can't carry this project with me if I go somewhere like a doctor's waiting room - it is far too big. So I carry a smaller project in my handbag, and in the last six months that has been an old doiley someone gave me, with a cat on a couch, surrounded by flowers. I've done about half of it now, and I wasn't going to post a photo until it is finished, but this blog has been so dead lately as far as pictures go, I may as well scan the doiley and post it here, just to liven the blog up a bit!
Good news for you apron lovers! A while ago, I was thinking about splitting this blog into a number of blogs for different themes or articles. I got all my aprons out recently for a show, and haven't hung them up again yet. So I decided while they were still lying around, I may as well get on with photographing them all and putting them on an 'Apron Blog'. I would have started this last week, but couldn't find a model. All my friends who would have come around to do that, were all out! They have since said "Just ask!", so hopefully in the next week or so, I will get it organised.

Duchess Set.

I haven't won anything on eBay worth showing here for a while, until this pretty Duchess set arrived. This is the centrepiece, ...and the matching doilies.

Update on Indian Chief UFO/WISP Challenge

I said in the previous post that I wasn't going to bother photographing this, but I had the camera out tonight for something else, and as this blog has been so boring lately with no photos, I thought I may as well post a recent piccie of The Chief.

It's been so quiet here lately.

I was wondering the other day as I often do, where the hell does my time go? I work three days a week (and not all day) and the other two days are usually taken up running messages that can't be done on the weekends, catching up with friends, doing my volunteer visits, and so on. Stitching? Haven't done much for ages until today, and I spent a satisfactory hour on my Indian Chief. I didn't bother photographing it, as I doubt if anyone reading this blog would notice a difference from the last photo I posted here. The only other item I've been stitching occasionally is a black cat on a doiley. It was given to me with about one quarter worked, and it is so cute, I keep it on hand to take with me when I'm expecting to have some spare time, waiting for a doctor, etc. But again, not worth photographing until it is nearly finished, and that is a few months off at least.
Because we are trying to keep our spending under control, I haven't been bidding on eBay much lately. And if I do get sucked in, I don't get carried away in a bidding war any more. If an item goes beyond $20, I let it go, no matter how much I want it - can't have everything! I have a couple of nice old doilies coming in the mail shortly; they were both under $20! So once they arrive, I'll scan them and post them here.