Valerean

Every morning and evening I take a walk with each of our pups, which adds up to about two miles every day. I always walk the same path from our house to our front entrance turn and back because it has a slight incline (good for my legs) and there are usually no people around, which makes my dogs happy. I clean up after my pups, but I also pick up any trash I see. It's something I can do to help keep our neighborhood clean, and it's easy enough. On this particular morning last month I found six different drink containers littering the road, which sadly is not unusual. Some were covered in ants, which I shook off before I put them in my bag. One of the containers I picked up was a heavy duty aluminum cup with the words "Infinitely Recyclable" on it, which I thought was pretty ironic. Too many people who drive along my walking route just drop whatever trash they have instead of properly disposing of it. I washed it out and tried to bend it back into ...

Last week we made a couple of trips to see our brother-in-law after he was moved to hospice. He never gained consciousness while we were there; they were keeping him heavily sedated as he went through the final process. We visited with his daughters and granddaughter and just kept them company, which is all you can really do. The last time we saw him he passsed away later that night, so I'm really glad we made those trips and also took the time to see him at Christmas. It's never easy to lose a parent, but seeing my brother-in-law surrounded by his loving family was good for me (I did not have the same experience when my parents died, and it was nice to see how it should have gone.) I really don't care for the grotesque rituals people insist on after someone dies; my guy's family insists on doing the whole open-casket service, which I find particularly repulsive. Remember people as they were when they were alive; that's my belief. That said, he was very clo...

I can never resist a good mystery, especially at thrift prices. I bid on a lot of five women's tops, new with tags, all in my size. The listing only showed the five Noracora shipping bags they were in, but I liked the colors and decided to roll the dice. I won the lot with no challengers. All of the tops are brand new and were probably never removed from their shipping bags (they still had tissue paper inserts.) They're all a cotton jersey blend, all with neat prints and styling. This is the problem with fast fashion -- women are ordering clothes but never wearing them. At least the original owner donated them, but more often than not these are the clothes that end up in landfills. All of them fit me perfectly, although I may alter the white floral here on the right to be a bit more modest, and the blue/striped/animal print on the left will likely become a pajama top. Noracora's tops run from $15 to $40, and since these are brand new the lot is probably ...

I needed some bits and pieces of embroidered cloth for my mini quilt calendar project this year, and I wanted another creativity challenge, so I went back to the seller who picked out the fabrics for my one pound challenge quilt last year. Let's see what I got. For my estate sale in a box I got all this, which included a gorgeous silk scarf. I'm thinking crazy quilt, aren't you? Here are the vintage embroidered pieces for my calendar project. I got these because I wanted to reserve the other vintage linens I have for that quilt idea I mentioned last year. Also, I only need bits, and it doesn't matter if they're cut up, so this is perfect. Old embroidery can be really adorable. I really like this seller; they always surprise me.

After successfully washing this vintage cross stitch sampler I noticed something I hadn't before: it's not finished. One wheel is missing from the pull-toy lamb on the right. Two wheels and the pull string handle and cord are also missing from the bunny on the right. I haven't done cross stitch in years, but it's pretty simple and all I had to do was match the color of the embroidery thread in those areas. Once I fund the right floss, I went ahead and finished stitching the sampler. My stitching isn't as perfect as the original maker's, but it blends in okay. Here's the end result. I think the original maker would be pleased.

The second cross stitch sampler that I thrifted is this lovely sampler with lambs and bunnies. It is slightly soiled and stained, so I think it needs a soak. Please note I am not an expert in cleaning vintage needlework, and for any valuable pieces you should consult a professional cleaner or conservator. For soaking purposes I'll use my handwashing bin, cold tap water and a little mild detergent. I did a thread test first, and the embroidery thread did not bleed. I then treated the perimeter of the cross stitch fabic where it had the worst foxing with stain remover. You can also rub in a little baking soda and water to remove stains (I use an old soft toothbrush to apply it,) but that can also bleach out very old embroidery cloth, so do a patch test first where it won't be noticeable. Lettin the piece soak for six hours was the next step. I then rinsed it out and hung it to air dry. After pressing it the same way I did the Santa sampler, this is how it turn...

Last month I got a lovely little collection of cross stitch pieces in my lot of fabric for my friend's quilting class. She kindly allowed me to keep them, so first I decided to clean and frame the two samplers that came in the collection. Cleaning cross stitch can be tricky, but there is a process -- and please note, this is my own process. I am not an expert, and for any valuable vintage needlework you should consult a professional cleaner or conservator. This particular piece has a lot of red embroidery thread. I will guess it's DMC brand, which tends to be colorfast. However, in my experience red almost always bleeds, and I'm not positive about the brand of thread, so it would be risky to water-wash it (to test the thread, snip a tiny piece from the tails on the back side, weet the snippet, and place it on a white paper towel to dry. If it bleeds, it will leave a color mark on the towel.) Luckily this piece also has no patchy stains or foxing. I first t...

The surprises kept coming out of the box of fabric I thrifted for my friend's quilting class. This pile of dark blue velveteen scraps equals about a yard, and as she only needs quilting cottons gave it to me for my art quilting. I'm also keeping all the cross stitch pieces we found mixed in with the fabric. The needlework is fabulous, and I really can't believe someone donated such pretty pieces. A sampler with lambs, bunnies and beautiful colors. There was even a Santa sampler. I'm going to frame and hang the samplers, and incorporate the smaller pieces in my calendar quilting project for next year. Finally we hauled out four yards of 90" wide cram colored canvas, which I will also be keeping as it's too heavy for my friend's needs. To make up the different I let her raid my yardage stash, and she now has enough fabric to supply two classes. I'm not going to try to put a value on this lot, as the hand stitched pieces to me are p...

The fabric that I got for a minimum bid for my friend's quilting class arrived, and what a box of surprises this turned out to be. There were four yards of 108" wide muslin, a yard of white gauzy fabric, and a fat quarter of quilting cotton. My friend is taking the muslin and the quilting cotton, but the gauze is too thin for her purposes, so I get that (which is perfect; I love to slow stitch with this type of thin cotton.) She also gave me this five yard length of black twill tape, which always comes in handy for small bag handles and drawstrings. There were ten yards of Spoonflower printed canvas and denim in marvelous robot and 60's atomic prints. These are too heavy for her needs, so I get to keep them. She was really happy about this five yards of flannel emblazoned with the Pittsburgh Steelers helmets and emblems, which she's going to teach her class to use as hidden foundation material during the "what to do with really ugly/unwante...

Good things do come to those who wait, at least once in a while. You may recall this wannabut lot of seven vintage spools that I lost because it went for more than my minimum bid of $10.00. I didn't give up on the search for spools, and kept watching the listings. That's how I got this lot of six vintage spools and spindles for $9.99. It actually works better for me than the first lot because the spools are all tall. Once they arrived I noted they were a bit dusty, but so delightfully vintage, with traces of old paint still on the ends, and some of the yarn they held still wrapped around them. These go for $15 to $20 each in the antique stores, so I'm super happy to have them all for less than ten bucks -- and I will put them to good use this year. The first two images in this post are from the original auction listings on ShopGoodwill.com.

Last month I got an order of mendables from Fabscrap. which included this seemingly flawless sample shirt. Ah, I spoke too soon. There's a four-inch cut on the back of the shirt near the hem. That's why they're called mendables. Here's the sample label. Sample garments are often one of a kind, which makes them valuable. This repair also looked pretty easy. While it's a man's shirt, it fits me and it quite comfortable. I like Calvin Klein garments, too, as they're generally very well made. Let's repair the tear so I can wear it. The shirt is made from jacquard, which is a machine woven fabric that can be tricky to mend. I considered covering the tear with a Calvin Klein patch I got in a previous Fabscrap order, but the tear is so small that seemed like a waste of fabric. It would also be very noticeable. Simply mending the tear would be, too, but not as much. So instead I sewed the tear back together and added a couple of...

Choosing fabrics for my fish poem project sent me first to my silk stash. This hand-dyed piece is one I've saved for years for the right project, and has bands of color like a koi, but I think it might be too dark (to read the words they'd have to be in white thread or something.) This is a scarf I thrifted a while back that is gorgeous, and more like the colors of a koi. That said, it's partly transparent and very thin, which would make it challenging to cut and embroider. This is the strongest possibility -- another length of ice-dyed silk in very pretty colors. I still have one fabric in mind that I'd like to compare, however, so I'm going to keep rummaging through the stash.

In an effort to help me lower my blood sugar during a weird spike, my guy suggested I buy some zero sugar gelatin as a snack. I was in a hurry and didn't look at the label, so I didn't realize it was artificially sweetened with aspartame, which I try to avoid. Also, it's Jell-O, which still brings back unhappy childhood memories. Mom made Jell-O because it was cheap and she was probably trying to give us a treat (we didn't get many of those in our house.) She made cakes with it, partfaits, and that molded ring with canned fruit in it, too. Unfortunately my mother expected me to eat it every time she served it for dessert (along with all the other food she piled on my plate. She constantly overfed me because I was small.) I could never refuse, even when her Jell-O concoctions made me sick enough to throw up. Then Mom would get mad and yell at me for that, which she believed I did deliberately like I did with milk (I was severely lactose intolerant, too.) S...

As I mentioned last week, a friend asked me to source fifteen yards of thrifted fabric for a beginner textile art class she's teaching at her community center. Any type of fabric will do, she said, if I can stay within her tiny budget, which resulted in a new round of wannabuts (thrifts I want but only at the minimum price.) Whatever is left over will be gifted to the students. Here's the first fabric lot, which includes what looks like some vintage embroidered pieces. It's 11 lbs., which is roughly 33 yards, so there should be plenty for her to work with in the class. Did I win it for the minimum bid? I sure did! The second lot is more quilting cottons, with obviously new pieces judging by the tags. This lot is 6 lbs., or approximately 18 yards. The result for bidding minimum on this lot was: nope, I was outbid. It went for $17.56. I guessed that I probably wouldn't get this 12 lbs. box of quilting cottons -- and I was right. The winning bid ...