in the blink of an eye

and just like that november is over.

I was trying to think of something different to do for the month of december here on the blog. so starting tomorrow I'm going to do a month of inspiring vintage craft magazine posts!

sadly, due to copyright laws I won't be able to provide instructions, but hope that nonetheless the images will be fun to look at :)

black friday

we had a lovely thanksgiving...hope you did too!

no plans here for being anywhere near a shopping center today...however, mom & I do have plans tomorrow to go to this very cool yearly sale:


if you're in the kansas city/liberty area I hope you'll stop by too & support some very lovely local artists.

on our agenda today...more sitting on the couch embroidering & knitting with some cookie making thrown in for good measure...perfect :)

{have a lovely weekend!}

thursday = embroidery {& thanksgiving!}

I hope everyone has a wonderful day full of food, friends & family! I won't be with all the people I wish I could be with today...the people I'm so thankful to have in my life, so to them I just want to say I love you & I miss you but I will see you soon :)


thanksgiving or not, thursday on this blog wouldn't be the same without the weekly vintage embroidery transfer:


happy stitching!

p.s. yeah, I'm incorporating paint by numbers with embroidery again :) and I'm working on a shop update - more to come on that next week

merry-go-round

copyright - 1960
publisher - charles e. merrill books, inc.

olly olly oxen free

whenever I go thrifting I always look for old quilts with condition issues. they tend to be priced much lower & are great for repurposing into new things. so at a recent sale I was happy to pay $4 for this quilt:


when I got it home I looked into that hole there & this is what I saw:


since I planned to cut it up sometime in the future anyhow, I decided to go ahead & take it apart right away so I could see what was inside:


after removing all the ties I separated everything & found this inside:


back in the day, old quilts that were beyond repair were often used as the filling for new quilts. in this case a very resourceful seamstress had taken an old quilt, basted on some fabric to the areas that were most worn then used it as the basis for her new quilt. a quilt sandwich with a quilt filling if you will...


as I was carefully folding all the pieces for that photo my mom said how happy she imagined whoever made each quilt would be to know that they were continuing to be loved & cared for...I hope that's true :)

I'm a little bit country

among other things this weekend, I tea dyed for the first time:


and I assembled the holiday mantel:


I hadn't intended for the mantel to get all christmas-y when I started by hanging the little $4 quilt I found at an estate sale recently...but it just sort of happened. I'm not sure I'm completely satisified with how it looks...but I'm too lazy to try anything else right now.

I also played hide & go seek with a thrifted quilt - more about that tomorrow.

counting the minutes

my mom arrives later this afternoon for her traditional thanksgiving visit...there is much eating, couch sitting, tv watching & crafting planned. I can't wait :)

{have a lovely weekend!}

thursday = embroidery

I found yet another way to combine my love of paint by numbers with another of my hobbies!



I thought I would keep the woodsey theme going with this week's vintage embroidery transfer & so have selected this cute shawl wearing, flower toting squirrel for you:


happy stitching!

the answer book: McCall's guide to carefree sewing

I can't find a copyright date, but I'm going to go out on a limb here & say its sometime in the 1970's:







{if this blog had smell 'o vision the scent of old spice would be wafting through the air right now}

out & about

the other morning I took the camera along with the dog & I on our morning walk...







sadly the pretty portion of fall seems to be over already. it is just raining, cold & dreary now...it even snowed a little yesterday. there is not enough hot tea in the world for me to comes to terms with that fact.

recently thrifted

I got this because it reminded me of my dad {he grew garlic in our backyard}:


a perfect purse for fall:


chair bottom says cosco household products, inc. columbus, indiana:


and this plate is marked made in italy - RAM 39/73 - Raymor - 5219 on the bottom {but I have no idea what that means...anyone out there know?}:

donut love

there is something about fall that makes me crave mini hostess powdered sugar donuts...


and it appears I'm not the only one who loves them. this is what I found when I came back after leaving the dog briefly alone in the same room with the donut:


{have a lovely weekend!}

thursday = embroidery

what I'm currently working on:


I got quite a few inquires about the rest of the alphabet after last week's vintage transfer post so I'm putting the rest of the letters up over on flickr - including this one:


happy stitching!

McCall's embroidery

copyright 1971







and last, but certainly not least...the back cover:

"I'm really loving purple for fall this year"*

that title has nothing to do with these images of the dec. issues of marie claire idees that came in the mail over the weekend other than I thought of it when I saw this wreath photo:







* I made that comment about purple while out shopping with my friend jill the other day...we both laughed at how ridiculous I sounded. but it's kind of true & it all started with this pair of shoes I bought at target recently:


although I guess they're technically cranberry according to the description. so it appears I'm actually loving cranberry for fall this year. sorry purple...I hope we can still be friends.