Ag. Fair 2014, pt2

My hands are pretty cold. So, these might be short descriptions…
This is mom’s soap. It is a lavender.

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This is mom’s butter. Plain. Hand-churned in one of the churns.

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This is Mom’s pickled beets.

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Um, I know this I mom’s. But, I’m not sure what other than sweet pickles.

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Mom’s corn bread. There were several entries.

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Here are Lily’s entries. I’m pretty sure I missed 2 photos.
This was a favorite. The cows really stand out in person. Nice!

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Here is Lily’s pocket, like mine.

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Lily’s apple and cranberry pie with crumb topping.

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Lily’s white bread.

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Here are two of her other photos. I need to get her out for the blooming spring colors.

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Published in: on October 5, 2014 at 7:05 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Ag. Fair 2014, pt 1

“Brrrrrr…….”
That is me as I sit here bundled up, trying to warm up and sharing the entries from this year’s.
This as a light entry year for myself, and it appeared in general. One of my goals is to get someone new to enter each year. This year, my friend Sheryl entered some tasty goodies. She won a blue and a red ribbon. Yeah, Sheryl!
My first entry is an embroidered pocket. I realized Lily & I both need new pockets. Her’s needs to be bigger. I need to not ruin the one made for me. So, embroidered pockets. (Her’s is in the other post.) The needlework categories are all 21st century. I still stuck to pulling the design from an original.

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For the sewing non-corded garment category, I entered my sheer soft crown straw bonnet with the scallop edge. I would have actually given the blue ribbon to Melanie’s beautifully done, hand-sewn Regency dress.

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This photo didn’t come out well. This is a work pocket based on an original in the Winterthur Museum. When I first saw it, I thought it would be silk. But, it was a cotton print. The front center lifts up to show needle pages. The fullness is gauged onto covered pasteboard. (I’ll likely do a post just on this piece. Hopefully soon.)

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Remember how I said one goal of mine is to find new entrants? The other is to enter a new category. This was quite the new category for me – A wood project. I made a ribbon spool holder. This will help me display my faux ribbon rolls when doing demonstrations. The faux rolls look like full spools of ribbon, but are just a few inches. I had no idea how bad my arm was going to hurt after several hours of sanding by hand without a sanding block. I was so unsure of how it looked, I almost chickened out of entering it. I was floored to find out I got a ribbon. Granted, I was the only one who entered.

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Then there is the problem child…. shrub. Last place again. This was the shrub I made at the begining of the summer, a Cherry & Mint. It was very tasty & refreshing at the summer events. Ya, well….. I was able to taste the winning Black Raspberry Shrub. A-Mazing! It was so good. I could smell the vinegar but could not taste it. When I got home, I popped the cork off mine. Um, ugh, ack!!! The vinegar took over. It was knock you on the floor strong. I am so embarrassed I didn’t double check it. It was awful. Lesson learned.

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There was one more, last minute entry. I had not planned to enter my Worden Grape Jam. But, when I mentioned (okay, ecstatically exclaimed) I tried my hand at jam, Marie said to bring it in. There were so many jam/preserve entries, I didn’t expect to place. But, now I can say I entered.

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Published in: on October 5, 2014 at 6:56 pm  Comments (1)  
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“All Lined Up in a Row” FanU Swap – Sign-up Day

Today is the day to sign-up for the FanU “All Lined Up in a Row” Swap!

For the “All Lined Up in a Row”  Swap, Swappers will exchange early to mid nineteenth century appropriate cotton fabrics with motifs lined up in a row, just like a garden. We will mail our fabrics on October 10th.

Please read all the details below. 

To Sign-up, simply comment below with your email and mailing address. (I’ll erase those before approving your comment, so the whole world doesn’t have that info.)

What is a Swap?

This is a chance for to exchange fabric with a small group of people. Each group will have 8 people exchanging pieces of fabric. All you need is a half yard of fabric and envelopes along with your copy of Fanciful Utility.

To Participate:

1: Sign Up Day!
On sign-up day, groups will be assigned on a first-in basis; the first eight will be the first swap group, second eight in the second group, etc. **Please be certain you will be able to fully participate by mailing your fabrics on the Mail-Out Date.**

“Fallen Leaves” Swap Sign-Up Day: September 1st
“All Lined Up in a Row” Swap Sign-Up Day: October 1st
“I Couldn’t Live Without It!” Sign-Up Day: November 1st

Bonus The Greene Swap Sign-Up Day: November 15th

 

2: Mail-Out Day:
Place a 9×9″ piece of fabric suited to the mid-19th century in envelopes for each of the 7 other people in your swap group, stamp them (be sure to double check at the post office, but the small 9×9″ pieces should mail in a regular envelope with a normal stamp), and send them off no later than the Mail-Out Day.

“Fallen Leaves” Swap Sign-Up Day: September 10th
“All Lined Up in a Row” Swap Sign-Up Day: October 10th
“I Couldn’t Live Without It!” Sign-Up Day: November 10th

Bonus The Greene Swap Sign-Up Day: December 1st

 

3: Get Fanciful!
Use your Fanciful Utility templates and techniques to make a project from the book, or copy your own from 19th century sources. We’ll all look forward to seeing your projects! You don’t have to sew right away, but don’t keep us waiting forever to see all the fun things!

(If you need a copy of Fanciful Utility, you can purchase them from the publisher at www.thesewingacademy.com

Fabric Guidelines:

  1. For the cotton and silk categories, your fabric should be early to mid-nineteenth century appropriate. (If there is a want for an earlier or later group, we can do that.) Prints and motifs should reflect those available in the 1840s, 50s and 60s. Cotton should be 100% cotton. Silk should be 100% silk.
  2. To keep the swap and sewing possibilities interesting, please avoid solids as best we can.
  3. Fabrics that do not work well for sewing cases should not be swapped. These include sheers, gauzes, heavy, thick, easy-to-fray, slippery and stretch fabrics.
  4. For the “crazy swap” category, think crazy quilt in a sewing case. This could include satins, velvets, textured fabrics. Quality synthetic fabrics are invited.

Swapper Guidelines:

  1. Please be certain you can fully participate in the swap before you sign-up.
  2. If something arises after you sign-up that will effect the date you are mailing your fabrics, please email your group so everyone is aware.
  3. If you fail to fully participate in a swap, you will not be able to sign-up for future swaps. (We do understand medical and family emergencies. I need to be able to ensure swappers will receive fabrics when they send fabrics out.)

Q&A

Yes, you can participate in 1, 2 or 3 of the swaps.

Yes, if we end up with multiple groups, you can participate in more than one group to swap more fabric. If you participate in 2 groups, you should swap 2 fabrics.

Yes, you can swap large and small scale prints.

Yes, you can swap now and sew later.

Yes, we would love to see what you’ve made with the swapped fabric.

Yes, you can use your own fabric in your swapped project.

Published in: on October 1, 2014 at 6:00 am  Comments (9)  
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Learning & Living History at The Genesee Country Village & Museum

Check out the Genesee Country Village & Museum’s new video showing how they help children learn about history.

(The link does go to the video on Facebook.)

GCV Educ promo video screen shot

Published in: on September 29, 2014 at 3:05 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Comparing the Crossing

crossing

Published in: on September 20, 2014 at 9:20 am  Comments (1)  

Still Life with Bonnets, caps actually

Still Life with Bottles and Breton Bonnets is a slightly different still life than the usually pretty arrangement of dishes and fruit or pretty flowers. How lucky are we that Pierre Roy decided to paint it?!

Published in: on September 19, 2014 at 4:40 pm  Leave a Comment  

FanU “Fallen Leaves” Swap

Wow, this first swap of the fall went fast! It may have just been me. But, I received 1 envelop. Then, I received All the envelops.
It was so much fun opening that stack and seeing all the pretty fabrics. It seemed quite suitable that the fallen leaves arrived as the air turned such a chill. Let me tell you, boy do we have a lot of fallen leaves here.
As most of you know, I get migraines. So, this round I didn’t do well at all sorting the fabrics into group 1 and 2. So, we have 1 big photo. Well, 1 collection with 2 photos, a non-flash and a flash.

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In this grouping we have so many pretty prints spanning a few decades. (We’ll get to talk more about techniques when we get to the ‘Greene’ swap later.) Though, I will say I can se some that were roller prints and at least one I suspect was a bloc print. One is called “Dancing in the Rain”. Another called “TossedLeaves”. We have pieces that come from Old Sturbridge Village and the Victoria & Albert Museum. One is a DAR fabric. There are fabrics from the Civil War Melodies collection, the Windham Winter Carnival collection and the Dargate Botanicals.
Something that I enjoy personally is seeing which fabrics Grandma had or that she likely would have picked. This groups was strong in those respects.
Thank you to all my FanU swappers for participating. I look forward to the next swap!

Published in: on September 16, 2014 at 4:05 pm  Leave a Comment  

Worth Reading: Berlin Woolwork

This is an inspiring survey of Berlin Woolwork. There are a few pieces that would work for the memorial project. At the same time, the cats are so cute. (Which reminds me of an embroidery piece that really aught to be on the wall.)
http://victorianneedle.blogspot.com/2014/09/kristen-berlin-woolwork.html?m=1

Published in: on September 15, 2014 at 6:58 pm  Comments (1)  

FanU Fallen Leaves Fabric Swap!!

Today is the day to sign-up for the FanU Fallen Leaves Swap!

For the Fallen Leaves Swap, Swappers will exchange early to mid nineteenth century appropriate cotton fabrics with leaf motifs. These can include organized leaves, leaves used in a stripe motif and others reproduced from the century. We will mail our fabrics on September 10th.

Please read all the details below. 

To Sign-up, simply comment below with your email and mailing address. (I’ll erase those before approving your comment, so the whole world doesn’t have that info.)

What is a Swap?

This is a chance for to exchange fabric with a small group of people. Each group will have 8 people exchanging pieces of fabric. All you need is a half yard of fabric and envelopes along with your copy of Fanciful Utility.

To Participate:

1: Sign Up Day!
On sign-up day, groups will be assigned on a first-in basis; the first eight will be the first swap group, second eight in the second group, etc. **Please be certain you will be able to fully participate by mailing your fabrics on the Mail-Out Date.**

“Fallen Leaves” Swap Sign-Up Day: September 1st
“All Lined Up in a Row” Swap Sign-Up Day: October 1st
“I Couldn’t Live Without It!” Sign-Up Day: November 1st

Bonus The Greene Swap Sign-Up Day: November 15th

 

2: Mail-Out Day:
Place a 9×9″ piece of fabric suited to the mid-19th century in envelopes for each of the 7 other people in your swap group, stamp them (be sure to double check at the post office, but the small 9×9″ pieces should mail in a regular envelope with a normal stamp), and send them off no later than the Mail-Out Day.

“Fallen Leaves” Swap Sign-Up Day: September 10th
“All Lined Up in a Row” Swap Sign-Up Day: October 10th
“I Couldn’t Live Without It!” Sign-Up Day: November 10th

Bonus The Greene Swap Sign-Up Day: December 1st

 

3: Get Fanciful!
Use your Fanciful Utility templates and techniques to make a project from the book, or copy your own from 19th century sources. We’ll all look forward to seeing your projects! You don’t have to sew right away, but don’t keep us waiting forever to see all the fun things!

(If you need a copy of Fanciful Utility, you can purchase them from the publisher at www.thesewingacademy.com

Fabric Guidelines:

  1. For the cotton and silk categories, your fabric should be early to mid-nineteenth century appropriate. (If there is a want for an earlier or later group, we can do that.) Prints and motifs should reflect those available in the 1840s, 50s and 60s. Cotton should be 100% cotton. Silk should be 100% silk.
  2. To keep the swap and sewing possibilities interesting, please avoid solids as best we can.
  3. Fabrics that do not work well for sewing cases should not be swapped. These include sheers, gauzes, heavy, thick, easy-to-fray, slippery and stretch fabrics.
  4. For the “crazy swap” category, think crazy quilt in a sewing case. This could include satins, velvets, textured fabrics. Quality synthetic fabrics are invited.

Swapper Guidelines:

  1. Please be certain you can fully participate in the swap before you sign-up.
  2. If something arises after you sign-up that will effect the date you are mailing your fabrics, please email your group so everyone is aware.
  3. If you fail to fully participate in a swap, you will not be able to sign-up for future swaps. (We do understand medical and family emergencies. I need to be able to ensure swappers will receive fabrics when they send fabrics out.)

Q&A

Yes, you can participate in 1, 2 or 3 of the swaps.

Yes, if we end up with multiple groups, you can participate in more than one group to swap more fabric. If you participate in 2 groups, you should swap 2 fabrics.

Yes, you can swap large and small scale prints.

Yes, you can swap now and sew later.

Yes, we would love to see what you’ve made with the swapped fabric.

Yes, you can use your own fabric in your swapped project.

Published in: on September 1, 2014 at 6:00 am  Comments (11)  
Tags:

Fetch My Veil

“I will be in my chamber. Will you be kind enough to fetch my veil” (Madame Vastra, Doctor Who, Series 8, Episode 1.)

I rather liked the veil aspect of this Doctor Who episide. It made me giggle and reflect. Personally, I enjoy wearin veils with my bonnets. I did not think I would. I thought I would feel claustrophobic, as I do with other things, or have difficulty breathing. This is not the case with either of my silk gauze veils. Instead, I find them a comfortable relief from the brightness of the sun and irritation of dust. I also find people’s reactions to me or to the veil, I can not say for certain which it actually is, interesting. I find some people stear away from me, won’t talk to me or even won’t look at me as I walk by. This has its advantages and disadvantages in an interpretive setting. I get to the outhouse or office without delay. I also make people less comfortable, decreasing conversation. I need to initiate conversation.
Then came this excellent train of thought in the story-line. Happy me.
In the days following, I lost two online auctions for reseasrch items I Really wanted. Really, Really wanted in the very last seconds despite being the only watcher. Very unhappy me.
Sulking about, I stumbled across this piece being sold as antique lace yardage.
Now, I don’t know much about lace, but I know a veil when I see one. Mine. Happy me.
It arrived today. I am quiet pleased with my cheer-me-up purchase.

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This is the lower edge motif:

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The side photo didn’t come out as well:

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The center (I would call this a field on a shawl) has dots and flowers:

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The top is a tiny rolled hem:

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I had figured the veil was drawn up (gathered) through the loops. Nope. I was estatic to see the tiny cord runing through the rolled hem:

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As far as damage, these are the spots I found:

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Not so bad for a cheer-me-up.

“When did you stop wearing your veil?”
“When you stopped seeing it.”

Published in: on August 30, 2014 at 7:16 pm  Comments (1)