A Very Cold Day in January!

Brrrr!

It was only 8 degrees here this morning, and it hasn't really warmed up much since!

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of January! It has been a very fast month.

I have gotten quite a bit of stitching done on Country Garden, though the project is so large that it doesn't seem like I have accomplished very much.

I managed to finish the center panel.

(click to enlarge)

It is really hard to photograph it with any detail. This is the biggest panel, but unfortunately there are 5 panels altogether in this King-sized quilt. At times it does get very monotonous working on this. I have started on one of the side panels, and I am a little over half way done.

I would like to work on another project, but I have never been much good at establishing a rotation. I may have to re-visit that, because this one is going to take a very long time!

Also, I have joined the Totally Useless SAL!

Here is January's contribution:

I would love to add some other colors to this jar!

Besides this, I have been spending my time painting my house. I am finally just about finished with my bedroom. That has taken over a month.

Before I go, I just wanted to show you one of my estate sale finds. For years I have been looking for a Slipper chair for my bedroom. I got this for $25!

It is covered with a very ugly green paisley vinyl or plastic fabric, really yucky, but the chair itself is in perfect condition. Actually I am not sure if this is a slipper chair. I am not sure if slipper chairs have to be armless or not. I do like it though. I love the heart-shaped back on it. I figure it is from the 50s. Eventually I will re-cover it, but for the time-being it will have to remain ugly!

Yucky Weather and some Progress

We have been putting up with this heat wave for about a week now!

With mid 90's and high humidity, Autumn cannot arrive too soon for me!

In spite of the weather, we tried to get out for a little bit on Saturday.

We went to Pomptom Lakes, NJ where they were having their annual town-wide yard sale.
Not too much success. I did pick up some cheap frames (of course none of them are the sizes that I currently need)! I also found an interesting antique mirror.

We must have gone to about 50 sales. Most of them were junky, but you never know when you will find something good. By the time we worked our way to the older section where most of the antiques were, the weather had done us in!

The heat was so oppressive that every movement was an effort!

Oh well! Hopefully next weekend will be better.

I did make more progress on 'Tis the Gift.

One of the things I changed was the pollen. (I think that is what the little gold specks are). Instead of individual cross stitches, I am making them French knots. It is slower because of that, but I think it gives it a dimensional effect.

Hopefully I will finish it up in a few days.

Quite a Find!

I meant to post this last week, but never got around to it.

The Saturday before last we went out wandering, looking for yard sales and other good stuff. As it turned out there was nothing really interesting near us, so we widened the circle a bit.

Somehow we wound up in the little village of Lafayette, NJ. There was a little merchants village there.

One of the shops was Village Antiques and Collectibles.

This is what I found there.

It turns out that it was a special edition kit by DMC.

It is hard to tell from the picture (fingerprints and smudges included), but it is a 4" deep cabinet.

The most amazing thing about it is the elaborate chimes! I thought it would just strike the hour, but it also has a different chime for the half hour, and yet a different chime for the quarter hour!

The case has a few scratches that need to be touched up, but other than that it is in excellent condition.

I do not know when it came out, but it was signed in 1963.

Very cool!

Weekend Yard Sales

This time last year we were making several trips to out of state flea markets. With the price of gas so high, we can long longer do this. In spite of this we still manage to put on quite a few miles going to local estate and yard sales.

Until this weekend I haven't really hadn't found any real treasures.

On Saturday, I found this wonderful little crib quilt at a local antique sale.

(Gracie must of course approve anything that comes into the house)!

I love the cranberry reds. The prints are actually all different, but so carefully selected that they match perfectly! It also has indigo prints, black mourning prints, beautiful old browns, and lovely shirting prints! The backing is a white and brown shirting print.

It dates from the 1890's to 1910's. What is really remarkable is that even the binding was made from one of the cranberry prints, and it is intact, in excellent condition! That almost never happens!

I also picked up two other quilts with lots of indigo and mourning cloth prints, but they are definitely "fixer-uppers". The real prize was the crib quilt!

The only bad part of the day was when I fell on a pile of plastic bags that someone left out. Kaboom! I went down hard! Landed on my wrist. Luckily nothing is broken but oh boy does it ache! Oh well, the quilt was worth it!

At another garage sale I found this little Victorian angel pin cushion.

And, at another sale, I picked up an antique tea cosy. There is a different cross stitch design on each side.
I love the little red squirrels!




All in all, not a bad week-end! I am so pleased! Normally all I ever see at these sales are those dreadful bright colored plastic toys that everyone is trying to get rid of!