Vintage Cut Velvet Fabrics and Pouches

As cooler weather approaches, I start thinking about "winter" textiles...Corduroy, wool, velvet, cable knit, even Tartan plaids. One of my favorites is a vintage upholstery type fabric referred to as cut velvet or voided velvet.
It has a fabulous texture. Definition from the Textile Glossary: "Velvet with a cutout pattern or pile effect. Often seen with brilliant designs and patterns. Made on a Jacquard loom from a variety of fibers."
I'm not sure of the fiber content of mine, but they all washed up beautifully.

The vintage stuff is quite elusive, becoming harder and harder to find. And the new cut velvet upholstery fabrics are very expensive.
However, this summer I was thrilled to find several pieces; one at a flea market (the burgundy piece) and two at auction (2-toned blues). The green leaf above is one that I found several years ago.
I love the look of this elegant fabric used in a casual everyday item, so I've decided to use some of it to make zip pouches.
And even though its not one of the velvets, I made this pouch below from a vintage 60's fabric and just love it!!!
These will be listed on etsy or the website.

My computer is giving me fits lately and its taking me forever to load and edit photos. The monitor went out on me last week, so I've replaced that, but I think I may need to get a new computer as well. On the bright side, though, since I haven't been able to do much on the computer, I've gotten a lot of sewing done. :-)

Treasures From Grandma's Attic ~ Vintage Pharmacy

Here's another installment in our "Treasure's From Grandma's Attic" series.

My grandma saved absolutely EVERYTHING! This made for quite a job when it was time to clean out and sell her house, but, we did find some wonderful treasures. :-)

Today I'm showing just a small collection of vintage drug store items.

Toothpick anyone?

hmmm...not sure what ailment sodium grain capsules were used for?

Have a great week, everyone!

Last Weekend's Flea Market Finds

Sorry for such a late post on these newest vintage fabric finds, but I was having a devil of a time with uploading pictures to blogger. I finally figured out the problem after a few days of searching help threads. :-)

Anyway...Last weekend Mom and I headed to Springfield, Ohio for the big Springfield Antique Show and FleaMarket Extravaganza. A big turn out of dealers and great weather for Friday and Saturday (Sunday was a bit rainy for them, I think). There were some great prices on furniture pieces, but sadly, my house is too full as it is, so I had to walk away from the lovely tables and cabinets.

I, of course, focused my attention on the fabrics. This cute 50's pink and grey leaf print was the first purchase of the day.Then, I spotted this awesome orange leaf feedsack. HAD to have this one!A couple of fun 35" width geo-floral prints from the 1950's...these always remind me of snowflakes.

I don't buy linens as often because I have so many already, but I couldn't pass up this pretty pink dogwood linen towel.A couple more 36" width fabrics; I think these both date to around the 1960-70's. One with with pink roses and the other shows off brown and tan leaves and apples. What a perfect fabric for fall projects!
And then this last piece was just too cute!Its a happy turtle border print and looks to be from the 1970's, but since one selvage is missing and there are so many retro prints in this same style, I can't say for sure.
Some of these are on the website and others may make their way on to Etsy in the coming week.

I hope everyone is enjoying the begining of fall!

Our New Hardwood Floors

Yea! The floors are finally finished! There's still a bit of caulking and painting of the trim to do, but the major back-breaking work is done.
We went with a 5/16 solid hardwood "Tiete Chestnut". With this type of flooring you can either glue it down or just glue the joints and make it a floating floor. We decided to glue it down. I'm really pleased with the color. Its a nice medium to dark wood, but there is a lot of variation of lights and darks throughout the planks, so I think that will help transition it between whatever furniture I decide to purchase in the future. We installed the hardwood throughout the entire first floor with the exception of the bathroom. That's my sewing room you see at the end of the hall. As soon as I get the walls painted in there, I'll take you on a little tour. :-)
I still need to decide on area rugs. I'm thinking of a room size, cream-colored berber for the bedroom and something a little smaller for the living room. Have you seen the new Amy Butler rugs? They are large renditions of many of her fabric motifs and simply GORGEOUS! I would love to get one of those. A little pricey for our budget, but definitely splurge-worthy.

This project is also part of the "Make Your Monday" link event on Kim's Twice Remembered blog. Click here for other Make Your Monday participants.

Why I Haven't Had Time to Sew...or Blog...or Cook...or

We're installing hardwood floors throughout the house. This could take a while. LOL
Shuffling furniture in a small space and stopping every ten minutes to remove splinters really slows down the process.
We're also installing new baseboards, door casings and vent covers as we go.

So far, we've got the living room, dining room, kitchen, and half of the hallway done. The two bedrooms are next and then its time to shop for area rugs. :)

I love the look, so far! I'll be back soon to share pictures of the end result.

Red and Pink Vintage Fabric Color Combo

Today, as a follow-up to the Pink and Orange post, I'm showing some of my vintage fabrics in one of my favorite color combos...Red and PINK.

Naturally with these colors, we're bound to see a lot of florals...and I have plenty of them! Let's start there with some large bouquets and columns of roses and hollyhocks.

The smaller prints are cute, too.
Next, on top we have a gorgeous 1930-40's fabric, predominantly red with pink roses. And on the bottom, a fun mod floral from a vintage 60's bedspread. You might recognize this one from the living room makeover photos. This next group shows the last of the florals along with a cute geometric print and two fruit related designs.
A funky midcentury modern barkcloth depicting trees and buildings is perfect in this red/pink colorway!

And now we come to the kitchen linens and prints. The first two are pairs of kitchen curtains from my grandma's house. They look homemade, but never used (yep, that was just like gram).

Check out the adorable diamond oven mit in the bottom fabric. :)

And these are kitchen towels. Perfect for a retro vintage-themed kitchen.

Well, I think that just about does it for the RED and PINK tour. Some of these are available on the website (click on the pics) or will be by the end of the weekend.

Oops, I just found one more. Here's a cute little border print...

Ok, now I think that's it. LOL Have a great weekend, everyone!

Yard and Getaway Photos

Another busy weekend around here. But I thought I would share some pictures of the patio flower baskets (click here to see how I made them) and a few from our getaway last weekend.
The flowers are doing surprisingly well for this late in the summer. Usually they start to get straggly and faded out from the summer heat, but thanks to the coolest July on record and a very comfortable start to August, they look pretty good. :-)


The peaches are almost ripe on our small tree.

And as I mentioned in the last post, hubby and I spent a couple of days at Salt Fork State Park.
Its the largest state park in Ohio and has a huge lake, a golf course, a couple marinas, a beautiful lodge with two pools, campgrounds, and cabins. Now normally, I'm a lodge girl all the way, but it was a very last minute trip and everything was booked except for one cabin. So, we took it. It was a very nice cabin right on the lake. We were even able to do some fishing. Although it was just the two of us, the cabin could have slept up to 6 people. There was a jacuzzi on the enclosed porch and a place to cook out and have a bonfire down by the lake.

Here we are in front of the lodge.

A very peaceful getaway.