Looking for some help...

Well it has been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog.  You see after my mom passed away in August I had a difficult time coping.  I let a lot of things slide this blog being one of them.  I am happy to say that I am coping better now and hope to revive this blog.  For now I would like some help dating a piece of furniture.  Over the last few months my sisters and I have been sorting out my Mom and Dad's belongings.  (My Dad passed away in 1996). My parents lived in my father's family home which he inherited when his parents passed.  There are generations of belongings to sort through.  This buffet is a piece of furniture that had sat in my parents living room for as long as any of my sisters and I can remember.  I have a vague memory of my parents saying that it had belonged to my grandparents on my fathers side.  I have looked over the piece and I can't find a manufacturer's mark or anything that could help date it.  A friend at the library where I work suggested I do a google image search but it didn't help.  Does anyone have any ideas how I could find out how old it could be?

A finish! *Updated*

Remember the wall hanging I have been working on for a co-worker

I finished it on the weekend!

I hand quilted some sea gulls in the sky portion and in the background just above the water line I hand stitched a couple of dolphins jumping out of the water. I delivered the finished wall hanging to my co-worker this past Thursday and she was thrilled with it. She kindly let me share her photos of it hanging on her wall.

A Precious Treasure

For a quilter/sewer there is always treasure in the form of thread, pins, buttons etc. in the drawers of a  sewing machine cabinet.  As I sorted through the drawers of my new/old treadle machine they proved to have much of these items in them except one of the drawers held more. A different kind of treasure that I wasn't expecting. This is what I found tangled amongst the thread.

In the bottom left of this photo you can see a locket with no chain. It has some decorative scroll work and my Mom's name engraved on the front.  I believe this is the same locket that my mom is wearing in this photo.  She would have been in her mid teens in this photo.  Mom was 85 years old at the time of her passing. 

I cleaned it up using toothpaste, added a chain from one of my old necklaces and found the perfect frame from a thrift store and now the locket sits on the fireplace mantel.  It has no monetary value but it is priceless to me.

My New-Old Machine

It has been awhile since I have posted anything to my blog.  With the busyness of summer, time got away from me.  In some of my previous posts I have mentioned my mother and her battle with dementia.  The Lord called her home in August and now she is at peace.  I miss her everyday. 

On this past Saturday I met with my sisters to start the task of sorting through our Mom's belonging's.  She was the type of person who very rarely got rid of anything.  (I think it is a habit she has passed onto me.) One of the things that I brought home with me was her treadle sewing machine. Over the past years the machine has been stored in an unheated covered porch.  My sisters are not big sewers so  the machine hasn't been used in many years. 

As you can see from the photo the top of the cabinet isn't in very good shape. The veneer is cracking and chipping and it is in need of refinishing.  

The machine itself needs refurbishing and the cables need replacing. 

 The center medallion.

I have looked up the serial number from the machine and discovered that it was manufactured in April of 1914.  I would like to restore this machine to working condition in the future.  I have never used a treadle sewing machine but I am looking forward to learning especially since this was something that had belonged to my mom.  

A Flimsy Finish

     Have I ever mentioned that I work in a library?  Well a couple of months ago one of the librarians put together a display of quilts and books that had quilts featured in them.  She asked me if I could bring in some of my smaller quilted items and some of the items used in quilting to use for her display.  I took in some of the smaller projects I have and I included a wall hanging of a paper pieced farm house that I made several years ago. 
     One of the other librarians saw that wall hanging and asked if I could make a wall hanging for her if she gave me the dimensions  and a sketch of the picture she wanted.  I told her I would try.  I have never sewn curves before and have done very little applique but with the help of several YouTube videos and websites I think it has turned out well.  I am not happy with the sun so I may try making it smaller and in a lighter shade of yellow.  I had thought of using white but that may make it look like a moon.
     What do you think?


  

Current Work in Progress

It has been quite a while since my last post so I thought I would share a picture of my current work in progress.

I will share more details in a later post.

A Special Finish

Sometimes when I am asked to make something for someone I like to make it special by putting something personal in the project.  That is what I did for my mother-in-law, Connie, when she asked me to make a decorative pillow for her. 

Connie is a war bride and was in London, England during the war.  She is 93 years old and still is active in her community and still travels, mostly on her own, to see her children that live out of the area. Her oldest daughter found this pillow top in an antique shop in the city where she lives.  The shop owner told her that during the Second World War that wounded soldiers would paint these as therapy while they recuperated from their injuries.  She purchased it for her mother. 

 

 

 

My mother-in-law has been cleaning out some of her closets and things and she found this dress that her mother, Lucy,  had worn in 1968 for their 60th wedding anniversary celebration.

 

Lucy and Charles King--60th Wedding Anniversary Celebration



Connie didn't think anyone would want the dress since it was so old so I asked if I could bring it home and did she mind if I cut into it.  She said I could take it.  I thought it would make the perfect backing for the pillow especially since the poem on the front was about mothers. I purposely didn't tell her what I wanted to do with the dress.  I used some iron on interfacing to make the fabric stronger and easier to work with. 

 

 

 

I was able to surprise her with the finished pillow last Saturday when we when to visit with her.  She was pleased to have a piece of her family history on display in her living room.