acorn day

I came home from a bit of thrifting yesterday to find these young men on my lawn! They are from Urban Forest Associates and were collecting acorns from our prime specimens of 100 year old oak trees. They are going to cold store them over the winter, plant them in pots in the spring, then transplant them in Toronto in spaces where oaks naturally grow. I support this!

I ran upstairs to check my email and found I lovely quilt of mine, embroidered with acorns had been featured in a treasury...acorns were the theme. But now I find that treasury has been removed....no idea why, it was cute.

R gave me 'The Blanket' book a few weeks ago and I have been looking for an old Hudson's Bay label, never thought one would tip up so soon. The blanket needs some attention, I am removing the dirty satin binding, most likely put on in the 50s 60s, then I will wash it and see what happens. The book tells me this label is from around 1930 and was used for a brief period.

Two pretty treasuries this week. Destination....anywhere, everywhere, put together by annalynne who hails from Cleveland....she has a nifty shop.

Apparently its freezing in Europe and anacdesigns was moved to curate this treasury ' The world is freezing over' and added my little mink collar. Ana has some lovely jewelry in her shop, I covet some of her casual bracelets as well as some more traditional but original pieces.

garage sale

Today was our neighborhood yard sale (15 houses) The weather was fine, not too hot.

Quilts and other stuff waiting in the hall.

A customer having a good rummage. The ladder was left by the house painter (have not seen him for nearly a week and the job is not finished) could have sold it at least 8 times.

I sold most of the stuff really cheap...the Queen of fifty cents would have been proud of me.

Another customer loading an old shop dress rack I sold him.

Not a bad day but I sure worked hard and am exhausted. I have a couple of shelves free now, but knowing me it will not take too long to fill them up.

Special brickworks market

A very good morning at the Brickworks market. It was a grand opening of the entire site. Somehow a pile of old railway ties were stacked at the back of my pitch, so I just hung some quilts over top (necessity is the mother of invention)

As usual Chezvous delivered my breakfast right to me.

a couple of quilts that did not sell, next time, perhaps.

Allanah, a music student brings her fiddle and busks most Saturdays. She plays such lively music its puts most people in a good (spending?) mood and cheers up the greyest day.

Vintage sweaters,Aran, Cowichan and Saskatchewan Smoking jackets are selling well, here are a couple of contented customers.

Nicky from Cookstown Greens, a neighboring booth, has been eying the Cowichans all season, today she found one that was just right.

At the end of the market, it runs 8am - 1pm, a New Orleans type Mardi Gras troop, with drummers , sax and fantastic stilt walkers paraded about. They were so invigorating and joyful they made the worst part of the day, packing up, much easier to bear.

treasuries and Hermes and knitting

Here is a little sweater I am knitting from left over 3 ply vintage wool from the 40s - 50s. It was going to be an early Chanel matelot number in black and shell pink stripes, but I could see I would not have enough so I added blue....now I realize even that won't make it, so am adding lilac and yellow (same vintage baby wool) so it will end up being more like a jester or parrot sweater. I like the old labels as much as the yarn.

End of the week must be Hermes day...from my collection.

I'm included in lots of wonderful treasuries this week. The expat team are doing a Herculean job. Living in more than one country and culture gives us all a certain empathy with each other...certainly we seem to share each others humor.

Hopelessy Devoted, an unusual and thoughtful treasury featured my 40s printed cotton. It was put together by LKAdesign, who now lives in Greece. She makes a variety of OOAK objects, often from found objects...really original and fun.

From juanitatortilla comes Home away from Home, nostalgic and charming and showing a soft printed sari from my shop. Juanita now lives in Switzerland, do look at her pretty shop.

Just when you think you've seen it all along comes a treasury that blows you away. Do look at El Dorado, a rich collection that showed another old sari of mine., curated by anacdesigns from the UK. Her wonderful 'eye' is also captured in the delightful jewelry she makes.

lastly, this week one of my vintage wedding dresses made it to You may kiss the bride, an expat challenge treasury that was put together by Anakit, who lives in Germany, but traveles all over Europe...and those influences show in her imaginative jewelry shop.

The problem with the treasuries is that I want to buy so much....so much original talent!!.

Thank you one and all for using vintage items from my etsy shop.

markets and more

Finally got around to posting about the Sunday Market at St Lawrence. I had a fairly good day, the best in a few months at that location; sold the pretty 30's star quilt (above) amongst others.

Jeanette does cornflower blue this week. I love that pale blue coffee set (back right).....but alas I cannot buy any more china.

Delighted to be featured in two lovely treasuries this week. Jacqueline has featured an item of mine before, so a big thank you. She is an expat (like myself) with a very confident sense of style, both in her treasuries and in her shop, Tangentine.

a very personal and affectionate treasury from SimieClothing.. she makes adorable ooak children's clothes ..grandmas house is the nostalgic list.

The colors are beginning to change, even the water lilies. I like the more subtle colors of early fall., not so much the later garish tones like a a bad postcard. more on that at another date.

bang,bang, bang.

Bang,bang, bang, crash,crash, crash...its been going on for a month now! Its the acorns!!! big and sharp as bullets this year. Above shows them at about 1 1/2" - 2". We live in an area that once was an oak forest (the local high school is Oakwood Collegiate) and the remaining trees are about 80 feet high. The acorns are raining down with such force I think the squirrels are up there with catapults or mini cannons.

I was selling at the Brickworks market this morning.... a rather modest day for me....alas I did not sell a single vintage blanket or antique quilt.

but here is a farmer in the rather bashed up Cowichan jacket he bought from me, 'just a poor farmer boy' is how he described himself

Scotch Mountain Meats gets ready for the day.

lovely organic mini squash in the morning sunlight

Today we were entertained by this classical trio.

As usual my breakfast was delivered right to my booth by Chezvous....scrambled, very fresh eggs.

Another market tomorrow...I'm a glutton for punishment.

Tafa news and How can I get all this in there.?

Rachel Biel has done a terrific job setting up the Tafa team blog, do take a peek http://tafateam.blogspot.com/ . Its going to be so informative, fun, intelligent and thoughtful. I am not the most techno savvy person but am going to give it my best shot. Tafa is an amazing site, with a very wide selection of people involved in textile arts of all kinds.....the only problem is you can spend hours and hours browsing the lists.

my son will need the family bassinet by Christmas (yippee!!) so I have to find a new home for some of my yarn stash.......about 1/3 of the stash lives in this cradle. Two likely candidates are a wicker laundry basket I found in the trash about a week ago .....I made my neighbor carry my bowl of salad as we were on our way to a party. And a pretty old sewing basket that I used to use, but is now painted shut as it was in one of the kid's rooms. They both need a bit if work.

some pretty linens I picked up in a thrift shop on the way home from the cabin. All need a bit of work....so I shall add them to my ever growing pile marked 'to be seen to'

its Thursday so it must be Hermes day.....from my collection

Quince Jelly

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My friend Sandy had a terrific crop of quince this year, and here are the results! Quince jelly, made at the cabin this week. I must say I am quite proud of myself, nice color, firm jell (I do not use commercial pectin) and the lids all popped down....music to my ears. No wonder I did not mend a quilt this week.

the nights are drawing in and we are lighting the fire. This was a 3 blanket night. Our cabin is not heated or insulated.
Although I generally am not a landscape artist, I could not resist these stormy scenes.

one of my vintage wedding dresses was featured in an Etsy treasury this week....Moonlight....not an easy theme to get right, but allisb, a talented photographer got it right.

some of my pretty fabric made it to this enchanting treasury... English Country Garden....who could resist.....Dolly Mixture Crafts put this one together

And a lovely 30s quilt featured in a 30s themed treasury, the golden age of quilts in my opinion. Nice selection from SalvationScraps who sells intersesting vintage and upcycled clothing on etsy. All shops are worth taking a peek.