Good Guy Prizes

When my son was little, I used to give him "Good Guy" prizes when he did something really nice or when he showed patience or was helpful to someone else--you get the idea.  Positive reinforcement.

It wasn't all the time, only for special occasions and when I knew the thing he did came from within.

I had a stash of little toys or novelties I would award. Sometimes by giving him a big, loud citation. Like:  "James Harris, for showing exceptional patience and self-control while waiting for a really long time at the doctor's office." Or "Being nice to your little sister by playing a game with her and saying funny things to make her laugh", you are hereby awarded this exceptional Good Guy Prize!"
Followed by a military salute and a presentation.

So one day I decided to take a pocket off one of his shirts, sew this Good Guy Metal in shish embroidery  and re-attach it to the shirt. He loved to wear that shirt!

And when it wore out, I took the pocket off and kept it.

Loom for Sale

This is an antique Rocker-Beater loom.

It dates from around 1850--maybe even earlier.

The wood is hand hewn yellow pine and probably came from the southern areas of the east coast.

I found it in Missouri in the late 1960's. It had been in an old mill before that.

I wove many a rag rug on this beautiful thing. And made a few tapestries as well.

You can seed why it is called a Rocker/Beater loom. The beater bar swings on this rocking chair type arm. The bottom is attached to the frame of the loom by way of a thin-cut flexible piece of wood which is attached to the frame on one end and to the rocker at the other end.

The dog is all hand-cut from wood and works well.

The only metal on this loom is a late-applied ring someone added at a later date to stabilize another dog.





All the heddles were hand-tied cotton string. There are small holes on the large side pieces where nail can be inserted as a guide to tiring new heddles. There are no heddles on the loom at the present, but they are easy to make and attach.

Also, the pegging in the warp beam have been removed.

This loom is for sale. If you are interested in buying it, please contact me via the comments section of this blog.

For a detailed story of how I found the loom, go to the index at the side of the blog and select "Looms".



I live in western Washington state in the U.S. Shipping would have to be arranged and paid for by the buyer.

For more information about historic looms, go to http://www.ohio.edu/people/deanr/rockerbeater/loomalbum.html.

TV and Web Discovery

I stumbled upon a program on cable about a business in Los Angeles called, The Way We Wore.

What a treasure for the fabric addicted!

The collection is amazing.

The website is
just as fascinating as is the blog:

http://thewaywewore.com/blogs/blog.




Think I'll go rifle through my stash and see what they might buy.  The buy too!

1960 Sari Fashions

Whenever I move, I always find some old file or thing that brings back memories. This is a pamphlet I picked up in India. It was an old printing then, but I thought it was interesting.

Formal clothes don't really change, do they? With a little tweeking of the style, these dresses might work even today.

I had a sari converted into a 3 piece outfit: A jacket, a pencil skirted dress with spaghetti straps and a floor-length gathered overskirt that opened in the front. If I could get into it now, it would still look stylish. (And I still have it packed away.)

I have a real soft spot for saris; they are such beautiful things. And I have 3 more stored in the original yardage, un altered.



Here's some suggestions from the 1960's of how a traditional sari can be transformed into the current fashions.

They must have been quite dramatic.  (Click on the picture to get the full page.)

Long time, no posts

Sorry I have let this blog coast for so long.

I have moved and unfortunately, my needlework has gone on the back burner. Hopefully, I will be able to get sorted soon. I do have a good working space that will be available once we are settled in and I hope to pick up my work once again.

In the meantime, I have discovered a very talented artist named Dan Moyer who creates whimsey.  He is currently doing a spin-off on the Blue Willow porcelain we all grew up with. He is producing versions of these plates called Calamity Wear with hidden disasters worked into the design.

Here's an example plate from the run.

And as if this is not enough, he has also been in the process of redesigning the traditional bandana.

Just for fun, I sent him this graphic of how the Japanese used a square of cloth to create shopping bags and other handy things.

Click on the images for more detail.

Going North

Time to pack up the car and head North. See you soon.

Ooops - Drapes

See the previous post - I just realized that I didn't post the finished project.

This is how the room looks now.

Drapes

I usually don't like curtains.  As soon as we moved into this house, I immediately yanked down all the curtains. Windows are never big enough for me.

But

I need to cover the windows in my family room, both for privacy at times and for inside climate control.

My family room and kitchen are connected. The family room windows are around two sides of the large room with a tall glass door giving access to the back yard. The back yard is shallow with access to a golf cart route. Golfers usually whizz by too fast to see in. But not always.

I like to get up and cruise around my kitchen in my nightgown. I don't enjoy eating with people looking into my kitchen. So, drapes and blinds are needed.

I'm not a fan of Venetian blinds either. But sometimes when the sun is blazing in and you don't want it, blinds are good. And at least, you can run them all the way up to the top of the window and get an expansive view.

So here's what happened.

I was flipping through a House Beautiful magazine the other day and saw these great drapes pictured in a room. They looked like something that would just melt into my buff yellow walls; the color appeared to be close to the paint and the design was subtle.   My family room colors are warm light brown woods, white door trim, white floor, yellow-tan walls and light brown leather furniture. Glass-topped, tan base metal side tables with a basket lamp, cork lamp and  a wooden based lamp in light maple-y wood.













So, I searched the 'resources' listing at the back of the magazine to see where they had come from.


No luck. The designer only said they had come from a good discount design firm.

I thought, "Well, I'll try to find something similar." So I Googled 'yellow curtains' and 'gold drapes' and 'tattersal drapes' etc.

Lo and behold, I FOUND them in a photograph that gave the company name. I checked out the sizes and found I could match two long narrow windows, a 4 ft. x 4 ft. window and two very tall glassed doors. And the whole thing was very reasonable. I wouldn't have to hock my car to buy them.

They are very good quality curtains. Beautiful fabric and well made.

They just came yesterday and they are nearly a perfect match for my wall color. Hooray!

The company is Light in the Box.

Sometimes, It is good to be a hoarder

Necklace componants:

Mother of pearl antique belt buckle.

Mother of pearl beads, buttons.

Agate beads.

Faux pearls

Real pearls

Glass beads

Seed pods

Wooden beads

Coconut shell beads and buttons

Shell beads

Brass beads and tiny brass bell

Moon stone beads

And for spice: Black onyx and glass beads

What to do, What to do?

The antique kimono material on my sofa pillow is falling to pieces.    

That is to say, the Mon or Japanese family crest symbol, is deteriorating.

And I'm in a quandary as to what to do.  Do I sew a backing onto the underside to stabilize it and let it continue to deteriorate? Or do I put a backing on and embroider the surrounding fabric? Maybe I should put a contrasting color behind the Mon and let it lose threads creating a whole new process and design?

Or maybe I should locate some other fabric or motif and applique it over the Mon, creating an entirely new design?

The whole pillow is black and white.

I really don't want to trash it; I love the feel of ancient silk.

P.S.  I forgot to mention, the bottom of the Mon is down to horizontal threads in the lower 1/3; the top of the circle is totally coming unfastened and can be lifted up.

Any ideas?

More Eye Candy from the Files

I'm always grabbing images off the web to keep for reference.

Now my computer is complaining. So I'll have to print them off onto paper in order to uncrowd my image memory. So, here's a few goodies:

Certainly worth saving choicey bits of fabric, cording, beads, buttons, and frill-frall. Don't you think?

Eye Candy for those who Sew

Well, it's been a while since I posted on this blog.....life seems to intrude and other demands take the time from these things.....

I have been working on a project relating to my clay work (http://www.jeanetteharrisblog.blogspot.com).

I did run across a couple of photos from the web showing a beautiful coat made of denim. It reminded me of a Bog Coat with a modified front placket. I've made a few Bog Coats. They never go out of style and the pattern is so versatile.

They are a wonderful design if you have a very choicey piece of fabric, but not much of it. In a future post, I will publish some material on making Bog Coats, but for now, back to work.

How to Wear a Sari

This is from an old brochure I've had in my files since the 1960's. It came from a business in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

The instructions say:

1.  Standing with a blouse and a slip, hold the unborder end of the saree in your left hand and take it round the waist as shown.

2.  Tuck it around into the slip.

3.  Next, gather together between 1 1/2 yd and two:

4.  Tuck the gathers in  your front like this.

5.  Next, carry the balance around your waist, pass below the left arm like this.

6.  Then pass below the right arm.

7.  Next, after just a little pull for smartness, hold the balance in the left hand as shown.

8.  And finally throw over the left shoulder.

AND THERE YOU ARE.

Charming.

What it doesn't tell you is how to make the neat pleats in the front before tucking it into the front layer.
You do this by making a pincher movement between your first and second fingers and a second pincher between your thumb and the 3rd and little finger. You layer back and forth making a pleat about 3 inches wide.

Then you turn it so the pleats show in front, fan-like and tuck it into the waist.

Antique Embroidery Hoop

This is a lovely thing.

So very simple. A well-made hoop, heavy enough in construction to not need fabric binding or alteration to make it fit snugly.

It's amazing that, at it's age, it is still kept it's 'round'.

Because wood shrinks at different rates horizontally and vertically, i.e. with and across the grain, whoever made this understood their material well. It is probably made of "Box" or Linden wood, possibly Scandinavian in origin.

There is absolutely no metal involved. A handmade wood screw still holds the hoop securely to the table top.

The attaching piece allows the hoop to rotate out from the clamp for ease of use.

An absolute pleasure to use.

Addendum

Yee Gods!

I was looking up something else, as always on the computer, and ran across a listing for a clamp pin cushion very like the little one I mentioned in the previous post.

It was for sale at nearly $500.00!

I guess I had better lock it in the safe.  heh

Who would believe such a little tool some husband/father probably made would be worth so much?

Clamp Pincushion

Isn't this the neatest thing?

I picked this little pincushion/clamp up at an antique store somewhere in Missouri.

It may have been made by the Amish, but it may be something brought from the East Coast and much older. It looks very New England. Maybe dating from the late 1700's - early 1800's?

Somebody made this little jewel. The whole thing is such a pleasing thing to have around.

The wooden clamp was probably turned on a lathe.

The screw is wooden too. I think there was a tool with a small metal bit in it to cut wooden screw threads. I believe I've seen one somewhere. Maybe even in my father's wood shop years and years ago.


What a nice little tweeky knob at the end. Exactly right for finger-tightening.

I keep the wood screw working smoothly with a little beeswax now and then. It seems to be the right thing to use on it.


And it is such a lovely, burnished black finish that only comes from being touched many times by hands.



The fabric on the top is woven; maybe handwoven by some woman. Simple white and blue plad with an overshot zig-zaggy variation pattern....The threads are even but course. I haven't disturbed it and probably never will. There might be other fabric below the top cover. It is sewn on tightly with two kinds of coarse thread.


The stuffing is coarse and springy black and white horsehair. The plow horse's mane? The favorite riding horse's tail strands? A forelock clipped and wound around a finger?

Beneath the stuffing is a small mushroom-shaped, slightly domed small knob.


The clamp has a firm bite to any table edge.

Sewing table?

Quilt frame?



If only it could talk.


Click the photos for a more detailed view.

A Gift

One year my quilt guild exchanged Christmas gifts. The gift I received was this pincushion made by one of my friends who was a member.




















She took a small basket, filled it with a styrofoam ball and added batting scraps to cushion it all the way around, then covered it with the cloth piece that looked old-fashioned.

She trimmed it with a heavy gold cord to finish the join between the fabric and the basket edge,

Then she trimmed the rim of the basket with a heavy braid to pick up the gold and repeat it.

The bow mirrors the cream of the trim and makes the whole thing look like an antique.

I would never dream of taking all these elements and putting them together.

Such a simple little thing, but the combination all together looks like a sweet heirloom.

Every time I use it, I think of her.