Swap A Card With Me--Still Open

If you'd like to exchange a Valentine's Card with me there's still time. Just click HERE to read all about it.

Vintage Valentines

I was looking through my Valentines decorations and found my collection of little paper heart valentines from the 1920's, so I scanned them in and thought I would share them with you all. Just right click and save them to your hard drive and feel free to use them as you wish. Also make sure to visit my Flickr album to see even more. Enjoy!

Swap A Handmade Valentine Card With Me

Valentine's Day is one of my very favorite holidays! It's also the day after my birthday! So I thought I'd like to do a special Handmade Valentine Day Card one on one swap with my blogger friends.

Here's what we'll do------- Get out your pretty papers, scissors, glue, glitters etc and you and I will make each other a Handmade Valentine Card to swap.

Keep your style to something that is Vintage or Altered Art or Victorian or Antiquety or Shabby/Cottage/Chic--anything along these lines that is handmade.

Sound fun!

Please mail your card to me no later than February 5. I will save my cards--unopened--that's the tough part!--until Valentine's Day and then I'll open them up and share them all here at a Virtual Valentine's Day Party with all of you!

Email me at hazelruthe@yahoo.com with your Name, Mailing Addy and a link to your blog--(that way I can post a link back to your blog along with a the picture of your beautiful card on Valentine's Day). I will send you my mailing address in my reply email back to you, so you know that I received your info. I will also have my cards mailed to you by or before February 5. Right now I'm figuring I can handle swapping with about 30 people, so don't wait!

Yesterdays Quilt Show

It is cold, cold, cold here in Idaho Falls, so what a perfect day to attend a quilt show, which is exactly what I did. My friend Carlene and I went to a wonderful little quilt show in a little town next to us called Shelley. The quilt show was held in their library and let me tell you I've never seen a library with so many quilt books and new quilting books at that. This was their 9th year to host this little show and we enjoyed not only the quilts, but a few classes as well and I even won 2 pattern books in the drawings they held, it was a great day!

This first quilt was my favorite! It's a folded Dresden Star quilt designed by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts . You can purchase the pattern and templates through her site--it's definitely on my list of needs! I love everything about this quilt--the design, colors, fabrics and the technique for the star which was demonstrated in one of the classes looked like a lot of fun! I believe this quilt was made by Kaylene Christensen.



Here's a close up of the Dresden Star. It has a 3-D affect that the picture doesn't pick up.

Here is a beautiful butterfly quilt. I love butterfly quilts.


A close up of the butterfly quilt.


I just love this rag bullseye quilt--another quilt on my list of want to makes.


Not a very good picture, but a really great, fun quilt from jeans and they used the pockets on it as well. Very cute!


A wonderful primitive folkart style applique quilt.



Another rag quilt that I thought was neat. I got my pictures in the wrong order, so you get to see the close up first. This one has small rag squares sewn onto a one piece background.

Now we can see the whole quilt. Isn't it adorable!


This picture just doesn't show how pretty this Christmas quilt really is. I love the appliqued snowflake over the block and the center pieces with the 3-D folded points.

Another favorite is this antique--100 years old I believe--quilt of dainty blue baskets. It's note said that it was found at a garage sale. Lucky for it, it found a loving home to go to!


A wonderful 100 year old doll quilt! It was in great condition for it's age and if I recall the story it was handed down within the family. Oh and there's Carlene in the background--she's even color coordinated with the quilt.


A little house quilt. I love house quilts!


And last, but not least is this dainty and beautiful little basket quilt. Look at the quilting on this one. I would love to learn how to quilt like that.


I also discovered some really cool products while at the classes yesterday. One was the Martelli Rotary Cutter It is an ergonomically correct rotary cutter and everyone who had used it swore by it. They said that it doesn't make your shoulder hurt like a standard rotary cutter does after doing a lot of cutting. Definitely on my list of needs.

A new to me fabric is called Minky. Oh it is soooo soft! It can be used in a quilt or as the backing for a quilt and they said it quilts beautifully and a few traditional cotton quilts had it as their backing. Very soft and cozy--better than flannel or fleece!

It was a great time and I learned a lot and added many new things to my "needfuls" list and I can't wait til the next quilting event--whenever that may be! Happy Stitching!

Vintage Sewing Notions Find & Fun Sites

It all started when I got a newsletter yesterday in my email from Stacy Nash . She has a butterfly thread winder on her site that I admired and then didn't think much about it until later when I was searching for something and stumbled across some other thread winders. Then it hit me! That's that odd thing in my button jar that wasn't really a button.

See it there--the flower shaped thing in the middle. It's made of mother of pearl and the indentions are where the thread is wrapped around. Many years ago the women would buy their threads and then wrap them onto a thread winder like this. What a fun discovery!


The other things in the photo above I'm still trying to find out about. The small square (mop) thing to the left looks like a belt buckle, but is way to small, so I think it may be a square thread ring that would have been sewn into a sewing roll. The 2 round one holed looking buttons are made of bone. I have a bunch of these and still have no clue what they are, but they came to me through a few jars of buttons that I've run across through the years. The key looking thing is a button hole sizer and I only know that, because it says that right on it. I've searched and searched Google, but with no luck at all. Not sure why one would need to size a buttons holes.

I also found some really great sites as I was doing my research and I thought I'd add a few fun sewing images. Feel free to save them to your computer--just please don't copy/paste them from here.

Penelope Primm Antiques &Particulars this site has some really neat scissors and other repros--I must have a black pair of the Wee Bit or Putford scissors! She also has some thread winders, rings, linens and so much more. Be sure to check out her Folkart page and bring your drool rag. It's full of wonderfuls by the Schneemans.


Then I discovered Acme Notions Oh my! I found tons of neat little things I have to have from this site! Make sure to check out each category. While most of this stuff is new there are some really cool things and very inexpensive.


A wonderful English site-- TSG Emporium She has lots of fun stuff--and this is only on one page. I haven't even looked through the rest of the site yet, however I really, really need a pair of those heart handled scissors!
And lastly, but not least is Wm Booth Draper Lots of cool things there as well--some more unique thread winders and bone lucets and all manner of must haves. I still have to search that site over as well.

I hope you'll enjoy these sites as much as I have. I'm off to look through them some more. No sewie shall be left unturned! Happy Stitching!

You Make My Day Award

Wow! How wonderful is this! Terri my friend and Whatever Fairy of Primtiques is so sweet! She has bestowed the You Make My Day Award to me. Thank you Terri! I echo Terri that it is something special when someone finds you worthy of such a thing. I will now gladly pass along this same award to other special and well deserving bloggers........(and yes! I love Blogland!)

I am hereby passing the You Make My Day award to..... (please post your award on your blog and don't forget to pass it along)......

Kelli of There is no place like home

Diane of Tomato Soup Cake

Susan of Penless Writer

Show & Tell Friday--Raggedy Ann Colorforms

Do you remember Colorforms? If you were kid of the 60's or 70's you do I'm sure. This set is from 1967--I was 6 yrs old and I do remember having a set of these as well as a few others.
A few months ago my husband and I were in a thrift store when he found these and I got so excited! They were $5 and I told him--no that was too much. Hey I was in a thrift store and in cheap mode, so they should have been a buck! When we got in line I noticed he had them tucked in with his stack of stuff. Wasn't that sweet! I have now come to m senses and realized that $5 wasn't so bad after all. LOL!


I scanned in Annie and her clothes, so if you click on their pictures they'll come up bigger and you can print them out and have a cute little set of annie paper dolls. Raggedy Ann does have some tape on her to reinforce a couple of areas, but she's so cute you won't even notice after a minute.



Click on the Show & Tell banner at the top and it will take you right to Kellis place where you can enjoy many more Show & Tell Friday blogs.

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by Deena at Altered Stuff , so now I'm to name 5 random things about myself and then tag 5 other people.

5 Random things about me.....

1. I always thought that I would grow up and live in a house just like the Vanderbuilt Mansion--I'm still waiting. (although I really like the house I live in now)

2. Even though I thought I'd live in a Vanderbilt Style Mansion I really have no need to be rich--just to have enough to make me happy.

3. I always wanted to an Ice Dancer.

4. I'm still waiting on my husband to propose to me--even though we've been married for 26 years.

5. I love brussel sprouts!

Exciting stuff huh. LOL!

Ok the 5 people that I am tagging are......... (now they get to list 5 random things about themselves and choose 5 people to tag and feel free to save the I've Been Tagged Tag to use on your blog).

1. Carol of Boxwood Cottage
2. Marion of Crazyhaberdasher
3. Scottie of The Urban Cottage Designs
4. Frannie of Freedom Valley Farm
5. Terri of Prim Creek

And speaking of tags, I thought I'd share a few fun sites where you can find tags to use..........................

This one is really neat, because you can download their Free Ware and print all kinds of tag templates......

Red Castle Inc

Printable Primitive Tags with sayings

Vintage Child tag

Olde Thyme Prim

Seneca Pond Crafts Click on the Surprise tab

Ewe N Me Printables

Mary Engelbreit Paper Doll Calendars

I had a few people ask about the Mary Engelbreit paper doll calendars, so here are a few pictures........... I just love this animated picture of ME's girls playing paper dolls. (If it's not moving left click on it and it'll come up by itself and it's animation should work then).



The ME paper doll calendar is the hardest for me to find and I'm not sure if she puts one out every year. I Googled for a 2008 paper doll calendar and only found one for 2006. The one here is from 2002 and I bought it--unused at a thrift store for $1 . Anyway this is what they look like---they come with a set of paper dolls (next picture down) and each month has 2 flaps that fold out with doll clothes to cut out for your little paper dolls.


These are the paper dolls & dog--that came with this calendar. They're on a nice heavy cardstock.

And this is what the little flaps look like with their clothes. Aren't they just the cutest!


I've never taken mine apart, because I haven't figured out just what to do with them. I think if they were laminated--but still bendable would be nice and I'd like to figure out a way to display them without any permanent damage.

For more ME paper dolls check out this awesome album I found on Flickr--too cute!
Click HERE to go to album.

Show & Tell Friday--Mary Engelbreit Collection

Kelli our wonderful hostess of Show & Tell Friday has a beautiful new banner for us to use. I love it! Thank you Kelli!

So what do you suppose is in this big ol' basket that sits under an old treadle table in my dining room???................


....My collection of Mary Engelbreit calendars does! I have about 10 years of ME calendars of all sorts--wall calendars, desk calendars, planner type calendars and paper doll calendars! Her paper doll calendars are the hardest for me to find, so I only have about 3 of them--and 2 of those I found in a thrift store, but that's ok, because I want them for the paper dolls--not to use as a calendar.


I absolutely love all things Mary Engelbreit and every year my family buys me her calendars for Christmas and then on New Year's day I have my own little tradition of sitting down and putting stickers on all the holidays and family birthdays. Her calendars have such awesome artwork in them and I will quite often pull out pages of the old calendars and hang my favorite pictures in my sewing room, so I can enjoy them every day. I've also used the artwork from the small daily desk calendars to decopauge onto file boxes to make them pretty. I get a lot of practical use and even more enjoyment out of my ME calendar collection and I plan to collect them as long as she makes them and I hope to find more of her darling paper doll calendars. I'm off to a thrift store later maybe I'll get lucky and find a poor cast off ME calendar to take home and claim as my own!

Don't forget to visit Kellis' place and enjoy all of the other Show & Tell Fridays. Just click on the new banner and you'll be right there. Happy Friday!

Happy New Year Everyone! May it be one of the very best yet!

This is one of my favorite quotes by Sarah Ban Breathnach and my wish for every one of us.

"..time is the New Year's bountiful blessing: three hundred sixty-five bright mornings and starlit evenings; fifty-two promising weeks; twelve transformative months full of beautiful possibilities; and four splendid seasons. A simply abundant year to be savored."

I look forward to a new year of blogging, meeting new friends and enjoying old friends, to more decorating, creating and discovering new things. I also plan to do more tutorials and to have some give aways and to host a few swaps. Thank you for a wonderful 2007 and now onto a even more wonderful 2008!