Thursday, 18 January 2018

Vintage Happiness!











Happiness is different things to different people.
My happiness involves vintage fabrics piled in 
their cosy cupboard and drawers and me having
an hour or two truffling around in them.  To touch 
and feel and take in their newly washed and pressed
status, ready to once more be used and loved.

S.J.H







On the occasions I talk myself into needing to start my morning by checking on and truffling through my vintage fabric cupboards and drawers it is a very happy and contented me that starts her day like this.  I do however have to be a little strict with myself because I could do it the full day through, honestly it is true!

The picture is inside my vintage cupboard early this morning so please excuse the shadow, it was still dark and the world was at slumber but after my husband left for work I just could not settle down for another hour or so.  I went down and made a coffee and sat in bed and drank it with the window open and the curtains pulled back to here the dawn chorus .. however I just had to go and sit on my little stall and look through some lovely vintage fabric and quilt pieces and for no particular reason than I felt like it!! 

I feel the same about my button boxes and thread box and some may shake their head in disbelief, others of you will totally understand my addiction...






It is a really lovely way to start to my day along with writing this blog for you all to read, then I know today I am off downstairs in my chair and the open fire a little later and hand slow stitching.  Happy me!

The quilt is ready for my knees and the little wire basket is full of beautiful vintage treasures for me to create and stitch with.  I enjoy each day and all the parts to my work and daily life and for that I am very grateful.

This quilt that you see on the chair I bought in the Canterbury Shaker village about 10 years ago and is not old but it was such a beautiful lap quilt and the provenience of it being from one of my most favourite places on this earth was far too tempting not to bring home with us.

When it is on my lap or waiting over the back of my chair it brings a smile to my face and a thousand happy memories come flooding back to me of one of the most beautiful and tranquil places here on earth. As I am stitching I think of sitting there in the old school room and watching the video of a lady who was brought up in the village and who left there when she was 18 years old.  She went back every year to visit her Shaker mother ( not her blood mother who died when she and her brothers and sisters were very young) and she would take her gifts.  She said she felt so loved by the shaker sister and she loved her back.  The story makes my cry every time I sit there and listen to it but its tears of pure happiness.

The shaker shop is where I bought the quilt and as I sit and stitch all these sorts or memories come back to me and if I close my eyes I can see the gorgeous coloured trees and the warm Fall breeze on my face.  The memories that fabrics evoke in me and live within their layers.

Today also I would like to to take some photo's but it really does depend on the light and if the sun comes out to play.  If it does it will be down tools and snap away so that I get some more done.  All these little things that go on behind the scenes of this blog ... I love doing it, do not get me wrong but they are things that take up time.  With the staging of it all and getting the light just so.  Gathering bits up and then putting it all back.

I can be sat stitching with candles going and it is very dull and misty and then a break in the cloud and I am up and off to get the camera and a armful of goodies to snap at.

My little wire basket is a favourite of mine and just the right size but things can fall through the wire mesh gaps .. so I have a little hand embroidered vintage linen mat at the bottom to keep things from dropping out all over the place. little glass bottle of needles, things like that.  We have antique parquet flooring and it can be slightly unforgiving if something delicate drops on to it.  Little shards of glass and thin embroidery needles can be hard to clean up.  I do have my pincushion to pop my working needles into as I go.... I have stopped sticking them in the chair after some horror stories I have heard.

I will also be stepping out to go sit with my Mum and help her drink a milky coffee with a sugar which she is very partial to, hoping she will be a bit more aware today but well if she is not I just have a little chat to her, rather like I do with you on here.  I will tell her all about the birds in the garden and about my stitching antics.  I am going to take along some hand stitching as if she is on a quiet sleepy day I can stay with her a while and still work and chat but she is not on her own.  Actually she is not on her own she has a one to one all day with her but they can go do other bits whilst I am there and gratefully they bring in trays of drinks.  I have been going just for an hour this
week  most days to give her a milky drink so I know fluids have gone in and even when she is unresponsive and looks like she is sleeping I can get her to eat a little too..... Mother and daughters bond I guess.

It has not been a bad start to this year Mum is being cared for in the most wonderful of Care Homes and I am feeling stronger daily after this bad virus/flu bug.  I still have a cough and a slight sore throat but I am not feeling like I can not do anything.  I am more tired but apparently that is all part of it and it will soon lift.  My design book is filling up and I am enjoying adding to it and also the diary is filling up with wonderful vintage fair dates and it is still only January! 

When I was a truffling this morning and carefully going through the little piles of fabric in the cupboard I found some stunning old eiderdown fabric that I had forgotten about and that was like finding buried treasure!  That has come out and I have it on my work table to study it and look at it and then look through my design journal and see what I can use some of it on because it is a stunner. Simple things really make me smile and it was a lovely surprise and reminded me of where I bought it and my joy then of finding it in a pile of fabrics for sale and thinking it had been hiding and waiting for me to come along to bring it home.

My husband has asked about me making some muffins too, I made up a recipe for a breakfast muffin which is relatively good for you ( as much as cake in the morning can be) but he can take one or two on the train in the morning with a banana to have with a warm drink going on in to London.  He makes me laugh because he calls that his first breakfast as when he gets there he goes and gets a large pot of porridge and fruit pot to have at his desk.  Honestly you would think he would be the size of a city but those of you reading this that have met him know he is not! .. where he puts it all I will never know.  Still I will be making a batch for him on Sunday so he can take start on Monday to take some with him.  That is if he does not eat them all on Sunday!!!

So that is it for me today and I must away to my hand sewing.  I think the sun is going to make an appearance today so it says on the radio so I look forward to that.

Have a good day and try and keep warm and as always Happy Stitching! XX


























2 comments:

  1. Sounds like the start of your morning was wonderful. I am under strict instructions NOT to stick needles into the arm of our new sofa (of two years) I have kept to my promise.
    Hope you husband enjoyed his muffins - I made pear and nuttella ones the other day

    Julie xxxxxxx

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    Replies
    1. Morning Julie

      Hope you are on the mend. The needles in chairs can be dangerous up and beyond not good for upholstery!
      Muffins to be made but he will love having them. It’s all change for him as he is now not traveling on trains to London but in another office and driving there.. so I am letting him settle in and then going for it.

      Will make a batch later today I think for tomorrow and weekend.. then more for Monday.
      Pear and Nutella sounds good.
      Enjoy creating.

      Sarah xxxxxx

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