crochet — Page 13

Topping it Off & Etsy

September 24, 2012 at 10:19 am by Claudia

This is the top of the white hutch in my kitchen. (Gosh, it’s hard to take good photos of the tops of cabinets and hutches! It seems to be so dark up there – at least in my house.) I used to have a rather large Fiesta collection and on the left are 3 of the pieces that I saved when I sold it. The heart is from Monica. The sheep are salt and pepper shakers that my sister gave me. I have a vintage pitcher under that wire cloche. The little guy is a fishmonger from the days when we collected the Dickens Village pieces from Department 56. Don added him to the display because he thinks the fishmonger looks like him. And on the right is an old ice cream bucket filled with dried hydrangeas.

Once I had taken that photo, I started looking at the tops of my other cabinets.

This is my hutch in the den. The birdcage on the left is vintage Hendryx. I bought it at Vignettes in San Diego. And you can see some of my pieces of Roseville pottery. I love Roseville. Hidden behind the pottery are some vintage books, including my dad’s schoolbooks.

Then I traveled on to the top of my big old white cabinet in the living room:

The ceiling in the living room is low. More pottery, mostly McCoy – the piece on the left doesn’t have a maker’s mark.

What about the kitchen cabinets?

Fortunately, our kitchen ceiling is high and I can display my pottery. On the left are two Fiesta coffee pots. The other four pieces are McCoy. That chartreuse vase is one of my favorites – very clean lines and sort of Art Deco/Moderne handles. On the other side of the kitchen you can see these:

More McCoy.

I like using the tops of hutches and cupboards and cabinets for display space. And, frankly, I need it. I have so much pottery around here that if I limited my displays to shelves and the inside of hutches, I’d be in a sorry state. Do you use that space to display things in your home?

Shop Update:

There are 2 more Obsession Scarves in the Etsy Shop – I just added them.

Update: Sold out. Thank you!

Another former student of mine won an Emmy last night – Abraham Higginbotham (Writer and Executive Producer on Modern Family.) Yay, Abe!

Happy Monday.

Etsy & Getting to Know Mabel

September 18, 2012 at 8:54 am by Claudia

I had planned to write about the newest addition to the Etsy shop,

but almost as soon as it was listed, it was sold. No complaints here! I’m crocheting more of these scarves, of course. I’ve just started one in autumnal colors.

Sorry, this is a little dark – it’s raining today. It will be much prettier than this photo indicates. I think we’re in for a dark and dreary day here at the cottage.

I dreamed I heard a dog barking this morning. This has happened to me a few times since Riley died. I hear a single bark and I struggle to wake up. For a moment I can’t figure out if it is real or not. Riley used to bark in the early morning hours if he needed to go outside and I would jump out of bed and run downstairs to let him out. These dreams I have are unsettling and leave me feeling sad and empty. The dream, coupled with the rain, has made for a bittersweet morning.

Thank you for all the wonderful names you suggested for my new Featherweight. I love them all, but I have to say that the one that really makes me smile is Debby Messner’s suggestion: Mabel. There’s something old-fashioned and sassy about it. Mabel it is!

So, I took Mabel for a spin yesterday. I have a wonderful book that I bought when I was using my friend’s Featherweight, Featherweight 221 – The Perfect Portable. Besides being full of information, it also has a reprint of the original manual. I needed a refresher on how to wind the bobbin and thread the machine. Then I found a piece of fabric and started Mabel up.

She purrs like a kitten.

Beautiful, even stitches. Perfect tension.

But, a funny thing happened. I plugged in the footpedal and it didn’t reach the ground. I thought: How strange! I don’t remember this being a problem with my friend’s machine. I examined the plug, I moved the machine closer to the edge of the table. Still a problem. This is what I had to do to work the pedal:

Yes, that’s a piece of McCoy Pottery I’m using. And that, of course, is Scout on the right.

One of the comments yesterday was from Pam and she sent me a link to a wonderful site, Nova Montgomery. Nova knows about all there is to know about Featherweights. I wrote her and asked her what the length of the cord should be from the machine to the foot pedal. She said about 47 – 50 inches. I measured mine: 28 inches. Yikes. Nova thinks that the cord most likely got damaged and was shortened and repaired. How anyone used it, I’ll never know. So I’m going to send the foot pedal and cords to Nova and she’s going to replace the cord.

Other than that, Mabel is perfect. She’s probably been yearning for a longer cord. Now she’ll get one.

By the way, here’s a post I wrote back in San Diego when I was using my friend’s Featherweight – sort of an ode to the Featherweight.

Happy Tuesday.

Grandma’s Quilt

September 16, 2012 at 9:31 am by Claudia

This basket in our den holds various throws and shawls. I ignore it most of the summer. But the mornings are much cooler now and I find myself throwing on the shawl or grabbing a throw when I want to take a nap on the sofa. In that basket, you can see one of the quilts my grandmother made me.

Grandma grew up on a farm in Canada. She knew how to sew, to embroider, to tat, to crochet and to quilt. She carried those skills with her as she made a home in Michigan. Every winter, she made one quilt. Maybe two. I had a Sunbonnet Sue quilt when I was very young and I have no idea where that one ended up. I suspect it was passed on to one of my sisters and where it went from there…I have no idea. This particular quilt covered my twin sized bed.

Hand appliqued, hand quilted and made from her fabric scraps. Those same scraps were used to make clothes for my dolls. Don’t you love these fabrics? I wish I had her scrap bag. I used to spend hours sorting through the material, loving all the various patterns.

Grandma’s quilts were heavy, much heavier than any of the quilts I’ve made. I think she used heavy cotton blankets as the center of the quilt sandwich. Whatever she used, the weight is substantial – perfect for Michigan winters and, now, for New York winters.

It needs some repair. I wonder if those green flowers were once much brighter? Take a peek at the backing fabric:

It’s a fairly bright green. And oh, those perfect, even stitches.

I vaguely remember Grandma sitting in a chair, quilting. But only vaguely. Certainly I had no interest in it myself until much later in my life, long after Grandma had left us. I often think she would have been so happy to see me quilting. She would have loved the fact that Meredith knits, crochets and weaves. And that I knit, crochet, embroider and quilt.

It’s so important to pass these skills on to the next generation. Meredith taught my niece Elizabeth how to knit. Perhaps Elizabeth will teach her daughters to wield a knitting needle. I remember Grandma trying to teach me how to crochet with white thread, the kind she used in her pillowcase edgings. My mom taught me how to knit – a skill I promptly forgot until Meredith reintroduced it to me in 2001. (We had moved to a town on the Hudson River, just north of Manhattan, two months before 9-11. I needed the comfort that knitting can give.)

I love this generational sharing. My grandmother, my mother, my sister, my niece, me.

Did someone in your life pass a creative art on to you?

Linking to Elaine’s Sunny Simple Sundays.

Happy Sunday.

Topping it Off & Etsy

Etsy & Getting to Know Mabel

Grandma’s Quilt

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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