Show and Tell from The Vintage Bazaar! ... My Treasures ..

Forget pieces of eight!

Vintage treasure is the best....

Well as you know I went to the Vintage Bazaar on Saturday 29th October in Frome and as reported it was one of the best I had been to with such a fabulous atmosphere and friendly with lots of laughter.   In addition there was treasure abound!!

There were goodies as far as the eye could see and in no particular order at at the first things to show you were from Donna Flower Vintage and I bought some most gorgeous fabrics and a stunner of a spool reel which moves full circle.  I loved the wood on it and will put a vintage reel of thread on

there every so often ... it is a keeper for me.

The fabrics are all about a fat quarter size and are really beautiful colours and with just the right size pattern for me to work with for my designs.  If a pattern is too big and bold it is lost when cut up for smaller appliqué work and just looks like a blur.

Then the other thing that I bought was a WWII silk escape map!  Oh it is lovely and it is something I believe my own Grandfather would have had on him as a paratrooper in WWII jumping from planes.  Not this one as he was not in Asia at all but in France mainly and at Arnhem ...which is where my very brave Grandad lost his leg and I was always curious as to why one of his legs sounded like tin when I was tiny ....

MI9 and Clayton Hutton and silk escape maps....

 The history of the production of cloth maps by the British during World War II begins with the story an British Army intelligence officer in 1939.

of Clayton Hutton, an Englishman who was a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War I.  He was not a career military man, but instead had lived a rather varied and colourful life with experience in journalism as an employee of the Daily Chronicle, followed by a stint as a publicity director in the film industry.  Upon the eve of Britain's entrance into World War II, Hutton was determined to serve in the uniform of his country again.  He applied for service in the Royal Air Force but was rejected.  He managed, however, with great persistence to land a job as

 Secrecy of Maps

        Hutton's memoirs reveal an impish decision by Hutton to classify the maps secret.  Although identical Bartholomew cycling maps were on sale in numerous stores throughout the United Kingdom, Hutton chose to mark his initial silk maps "Most Secret."  According to Hutton, one day two police detectives visited him investigating one of Hutton's silk maps of Germany marked Most Secret.  One of the detectives had confiscated a silk map from a young RAF pilot in a pub after the detective saw the man take the map out of his pocket and hand it to his girlfriend who used it as a headscarf as they departed the pub.  The detectives were rightfully concerned because of the Most Secret marking displayed on the map.  Hutton took one of the detectives to a Fleet Street stationer?s store in which identical Bartholomew cycling maps were openly on display.  Apparently, this cleared up the matter and the young flyer  was let off with a lecture regarding security mindfulness      Perhaps because of this incident, subsequent maps no longer carried such a legend although they were still considered restricted items.  Hutton also alleges that to maintain secrecy, he referred to his silk maps as "eggs and bacon" when he submitted his expense invoices to the Treasury for payment. 

        Even though the markings were changed and a large number of cloth maps were distributed during the war, MI 9 was quite possessive of  its maps as the following reveals.  In February 1945, the American Military Air Attach? in Madrid, Spain, requested that MIS-X send 50 copies of the British cloth map sheets K3 (Spain) and H2 (North Africa) for issue to the officers of the Spanish Air Force.  MI 9 denied the request stating that it was MI 9 policy to issue the cloth escape maps only to British and American forces.

That is just a little bit of what I found out about them on google because I wanted to learn more .... 

What am I going to do with my silk map? I am honestly not sure yet but one thing is for sure it is a lovely piece of history to treasure indeed.

Moving along I bought some beautiful ribbons from Hannah Whyman and have added them to my little collection of them that I have now.  I have used some of them but some I would like to do some little bits of hand embroidery on to embellish with as well on some of my future work ...

Then from Jane of Kiss the book who not only sells beautiful vintage books tied with vintage ribbons in stacks of colours, also does crafter packs as she calls them.  Bundles of vintage book plates and

book pages and delicious vintage ephemera and there was this stunning pack with hand drawn pictures on hand written menu cards and they are really beautiful ... I could not resist and they have come home with me to decide what to do with them to preserve them.  They are too wonderful to cut up and so my first thoughts for them is to be framed and hung in the dinning room because the art work and the penmanship in these are just outstanding and I hope if you are reading this Jane, you will agree and approve.  The silhouette type art work is really very beautiful with different poses and characters.





Run Rabbit Retro stall that I spoke about with lots of great vintage goodies on it had this little chap
that had a jumper on that had been felted from a vintage jumper and then put on him.  He was so charming and very happy looking that I really felt he needed a good home.  He is now in one of our guest bedrooms and happily looking out of of the window from where he is but not in full sunlight to fade his rather dapper attire! red bow tie and all ....






Now Clare of Daisy Darling had so many treasures on her beautiful stall that it was a little difficult to
choose but I settled for some great Christmas goodies mainly.  So I started with one of her Christmas candles for the kitchen with a most gorgeous smell in a rather beautiful small glass vintage jelly mould.  The smell is of Oranges and cloves basically and just what a Christmas/Winter kitchen should smell of.  That is when you are not cooking.  The other day I made two Christmas cakes, mincemeat and pear and ginger chutney with pears from our garden.  Also some Christmas fruits drenched in Brandy until they doubled in size in jars as a side to Christmas panacotta's ..... Then the kitchen, well the house smelt like it was that time of year.

 When you are not cooking it is lovely to have a rather wonderful smelling candle burning brightly on the dresser .... ( yes I can not help it I have turned all festive)
Then I could not resist these wonderful Christmas trees made from Vintage Christmas tree head decorations but given a little stitchery twist with vintage cotton reels as there stands and a vintage glass button stitched to the top which seems to twinkle in the light.  I bought, as you can see two small and one larger one.  I adore them and they will go somewhere on the mantelpiece in either room ( to be decided) but can you blame me for loving these ....

Then the final two purchases from Clare was a beautiful piece of vintage paisley fabric ( shocker!) and a lovely vintage eiderdown with a few flaws and I am deciding whether or not it is bad enough to unpick for fabric .. I have one already to do that is a mess with stitching coming undone and feathers leaking but this one is not quite as bad, that said if it can not be saved for purpose then the best thing is do exactly the same and salvage gorgeous fabric .... some for me and some to sell on ..   You can see the piece of paisley I bought in the top left picture and the other shots are of the vintage eiderdown and the fabric that could be harvested ....






My final purchase of the day was by no means the least two stunning vintage bottles from Emma of Little Wren Vintage and I thought they looked like ink bottles ( they are not but..) anyway that is now
what they will be used for.  Calligraphy bottles of ink when writing my Christmas cards probably.  Pictured with my dipping calligraphy feather pen they look most charming even before they are used for the purpose that I bought them for...... It looks like a scene from Dickens on my desk with sealing wax and stamps ready to start my Christmas card writing and letters that go with so many of these to friends abroad .....


Well that is it they are all my treasures from the Vintage Bazaar the other Saturday and I am thrilled with my purchases as you can see.  Off now to my stitching and I hope you all have a enjoyed a little peek at my purchases  I hope you all have a wonderful day and are keeping warm as it has turned so very cold now.  Open fire season has started in earnest here now.
I will see you all back here on Thursdays, until then Happy Stitching! XX