Grand Opening of Vintage Threads Inc.

Vintage Threads Inc. is open for business. There are lots of items there, and I will try to update at least ever two weeks. I am also waiting on more inventory from other artists to place in the store.

Currently there are head wraps as seen in Mary Jane Butters book "Stitching Room". You can order the book here. The head wrap she is wearing on the acknowledgements page is one I made; it is Style D in the long length if you are interested in ordering one like hers. Plus a few other items are in the store: doll/wall yo yo quilts, baby items, silhouettes, hand made buttons, bookmarks, etc....

Soon there will be hand-made lotions, soaps and other potions like that. I really like this lotion; I purchased some from the maker about 1 year ago for my daughter. I was having a hard time finding a lotion I could use on my kids because they all have very bad eczema. I know it did wonders for my oldest on helping her skin not to have ruff scaly patches, and it kept it from cracking. The one we purchased was the chamomile and lavender bar of lotion. So, I wanted to carry this in the store because it is handmade and helps my daughters a lot. That should be in the store in the next two weeks .

There are other items I am expecting, too. I will let those be a surprise to you until I post them in the store.

When it asks for a coupon type in Sunshine; this is only good for today, Tuesday and Wednesday. It will give you 5% off purchase your total purchase, before tax and shipping.

RAZR Flower Cozy

RAZR Flower Cozy, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

I was thinking of something to do for whiplash and I was inspired by a blanket I was making with Irish roses. I thought the roses might give the phone a buffer from getting scratched and dropped.

I have a habit of wearing pajama pants with shallow pockets. My phone is always falling out and hitting the ground; not good. Also, girls tend to wear clothes that don't seem to have any pockets so this corrects that problem, too.

The flowers add a little bit of thickness, so if the necklace swings forward, it doesn't damage the crystal face by bumping into things. Sort of a flower granny square item, made from vintage thread I found at thrift stores and left overs from other projects.

I could have just made it with six flowers (and probably should have) with about 5 rows at the top of single crochet. But NO! I wanted to make sure the item had enough clearance at the top to stay in the cozy. So I used nine, three up and three around; not bad, just a little far to reach down from the top. Still, better that than trying to get into my back pocket while seat belted into a car.

Here is the pattern for the flowers if you want to make one, too. (I recommend six flowers, not nine.)

Round 1: (right side) ch5 ( this equals 1 dc plus ch2), (dc in ring, ch 2)5x, j with slst to first dc: 6 ch2 sp

Round 2: sl st in first ch 2 sp, ch1, work ( sc, hdc,5dc, hdc,sc) in same sp and in each sp around; j with sl st to first sc. ( 6 petals)

Round3:ch1, sc in same st, ch3, keep chain 3 behind the petals, ( sci n first sc on nt petal, ch3) around; j with sl st to first sc ( 6 ch 3 spaces)

Round4: Sl st in first ch3 sp, ch 1, make ( sc, hdc, 7dc, hdc, sc ) in same sp and in each space around;j with sl st to first sc; (6 petals)

Round 5: Ch1, sc in same st, ch 5, keep chain 5 behind petals, ( sc in first sc in nt petal, ch5) around, j with sl st to first sc. ( 6 loops

Round 6: Sl St in fist lp, ch 1, ( sc in same lp, ch 5)2x, (sc in nt lp, ch 5)2x,(sc,ch5) 2x in nt lp, (sc in nt lp,ch5)2x; j with sl st to first sc. ( 8 loops)

round7: Sl st in first loop, ch3 ( counts as 1st dc) (dc,ch3,2dc)(shell) in same lp, ch3, (sc,ch3)2x in nt loop,(picot) * (2dc, ch3)2x (shell)in nt lp, (sc, ch3)2x in nt lp; repeat from * 2x more; j with sl st to first dc, finish off threads.

Other flowers are done the same except on the last row shells are (2dc,ch1 sl shell on other flower, ch1 2dc) and picots that join other picots are (first flower)sc ch1 sc (second flower) ch1 sc in same space on first flower.

I used Romanian lace cord for the cord to hold the cozy (update on cord video tutorial). The cord was stitched to the top of the cozy between two flowers and into the middle picot of the opposite flower. If you have questions, please ask.

Update: I forgot to say it is a size 6 or 7 hook you use, whichever you prefer, and you can use knit cro sheen or size 10 bedspread weight thread.

whipup

DO NOT USE THIS PATTERN TO MAKE THINGS TO SELL FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!!!!

Doll / Wall quilts

Two doll/wall quilts I have made for the store.

Explore on Flickr

I have wondered for awhile how people get pictures on explore. Today I noticed I had two. "Cool," I thought, "but how do I figure out which ones they are?" So I set out searching; with over 500 photos, I wasn't sure where to begin so I started by checking my most popular photos. I figured out that it goes by the date you uploaded the photo. So I checked a few of those, but that was way to much work to look at over 500 photos for each day to see if I had one in there. After about two hours I figured, "Well, fd's Flickr Toys that I used to make the profile widget flickr bar above of my photos knows how to find it or it wouldn't be on my bar." So I went to their site and looked around; sure enough, they have a tool called scout which finds them for you. Boy, that was much easier; it was not hard to find them, then.

So, if you are like me and wanted to know which ones, also if you didn't know how to find out if you had some and which they where, I hope this helps you.

I have posted them here for you to see, too. I actually guessed the orange one and I figured it was a felt ornament for the other; I was just not sure if it was the heart, dove1 , dove2 or snowman, at first. I know why they interest me, but I have no idea why this was interesting to people on flickr. I have a tutorial on how to make the orange daisies and how to make a felt ornament if you want to make some, too.

The funny thing about explore is that it changes from day to day so one day you may have 4 and the next none. As other people who uploaded on that day may have more views and such all of a sudden and bump you off the list.

A Book to View/Waiting

One of those things you are waiting for months to see but don't have it yet and others do. Not a problem I am good with that; it is just I thought my deadline was May 1st and it happened 2 days ago. Of course, May 1 didn't happen two days ago, but the arrival of the first books in homes; the publisher was early. Time flies when you are busy.

I am supposed to have a small write up in this book about my head wraps. I would really love to see it, but my copies have yet to arrive. Oh, well, I can wait; I have plenty to do, like work on the store and items for it.

If you didn't notice, the blog site address has changes from blogspot to vintagethreads, which just happens to match my store name. My husband did that for me last night. So there was an hour last night that you could not find my blog; that would be why it was dancing in cyber space somewhere for an hour without a real home. Meaning he linked to a spot before he finished making the spot, so the link went to nowhere. He is so cool! He realized this mistake right away and fixed it. I think it is just so neat to have it say vintage threads. OK! I know it is weird, but it just seems more mine and not so much blogspots.

A few bonnets

I made a few bonnets for the store. My husband tells me it will be functioning in just a few days. Boy, can we say I have store on the brain! It is all I can think about lately. I wanted it done already, and so did he, but with the kid sick so much lately thing got a little behind.

So you can see a few things that will be in the store, here are two bonnets that will be there. I really like the white one; it is for a baby from 9-12 months. I liked using bonnets on my kids, especially when they are a little older; it just gives a finished look to a nice holiday-type outfit.

1. Handmade crochet bonnet White
2. Organza ribbon ties
3. Organza ribbon roses with double sided satin leaves
4. Size 9 - 12 months
   

The mauve is made out of 30%linen and 70% viscose (rayon). This makes for a real soft and fuzzy bonnet that's very nice to touch.

1. Handmade crochet bonnet
2. Color: Mauve
3. Double-sided satin mauve ribbon ties
4. Double-sided satin dark mauve flowers with double-sided satin green bows
5. Yarn is 70%viscose and 30 % Linen
6. Size 3 - 6 mos
   

Getting a few things finished

My daughter finished her needle punch today. I thought she would have had it finished yesterday, but she burned out a little. Not bad for three days' work.

I also finished a repair project I had been putting off due to time and sick kids. I repaired seven alter clothes this morning for my church. Then I drove 20 miles to return them and discovered I had two more to repair, so as soon as I got home I repaired the other two. This time I don't want to be behind. I will deliver them this week. Two things we are ahead of right now. Trust me, that is amazing because I feel behind on everything at the moment.

WIP: Flag in Russian Needle punch

My oldest daughter has a take-home assignment from her art class at school. During the semester she is supposed to make an item that shows at least one hour of work. She is up to eight hours of work on this so far and I think she will finish it today. This is how she wanted to spend Spring Break. Learning a new skill. She was upset when it was her younger sister learning how for a take-home assignment and not her. So when it came time for her do her take-home, she asked to learn what her sister had learned. I think children as young as five can learn how to do this if you thread the needle for them. Older children can thread the needle themselves.

Front

The design she came up with herself. We discussed a few things then I handed her a post-it note tablet and let her draw her design. If you do this, remember on the fabric the image is drawn on the back of the work and has to be a mirror image or something like a flag will be backward and so will words if you don't plan ahead.

Back

To see all the Russian needle punch that both daughters and myself have posted thus far, go here.

If you want to view just the photos and not the stories that go with them, go here on flickr.

I also started a group today if you do this type of needle work I would love to see it join the group and add your photos.

Yards and yards and yards

Of hair wraps. Lots of colors and sizes too. All are ready to put in the store. I am still making more in different colors and patterns; there will be three lengths and four different patterns to choose from. All these are made with vintage to antique crochet thread. Meaning on the labels that came with the threads it read boil fast not color fast. Because people used to boil their clothes to get them clean, you didn't want the dyes coming out in the boiling water so they were called boil fast. Some of the threads are over 100 years old. They are still strong and sturdy for use.

The lengths are 40 inches, 60 inches and 80 inches. The way the length was determined for each head wrap was by how much vintage thread I had. If I had a complete ball, I would make a long one; if I had partial balls of thread, then it would end up as a medium or short length. Since these threads come from estate sales, thrift stores and antique stores, once I use a color to make a head wrap I won't be able to get it again because most are not even companies that exist anymore. So to me, each is a one-of-a-kind made with vintage thread on vintage hooks. When the store opens all of these plus more will be available. There will also be items from other artisans -- all handmade.

One month after St. Patricks Day

Today in the mail I got a gift from Sid. After St. Patrick's Day I saw some pins on flickr that she made for her co-workers. I commented on them, that I liked them. She was so sweet and sent me one. Funny, it arrived on the 17th of April -- one month to the day after St. Patrick's Day; how's that for timing. She made the tag and card herself, too.

Trying to get caught up on a few things

Penny over at Penny Sanford Porcelains sent me the loveliest brooch/charm I have seen made out of Porcelain. She makes these herself. She gave this to me as an award titled "The Happy Penny Award". I think it is very sweet. I love that she is doing hand work because I do tons of that. Penny does sell these; if you are interested, follow links to her site.When we went to my in-laws for a late Easter egg hunt, my mother-in-law gave me a birthday present. I think it is so cool; I just wish I had a little bit of time to sit down and play with it. Life is so busy at the current time. I really love this item; I discovered the other day that in Japan they sell a larger and smaller version of this and also heart and flower ones, too. I just can't figure out how to order them yet.I was in a fat-quarter swap at MJF forum with nine other women. The fat quarter I sent in is the third from left; it is a vintage fabric my Vavo purchased. It's always fun to see the variety you get in a swap -- thanks, ladies!Suzy homemaker who is also at MJF sent me this lovely Easter card with a fat quarter of fabric. I am going to have so much fun with fabric in the near future. I love this fabric; it is so soft and delicate looking. Would be lovely as a Mother's Day item. Hmm... I might think on that one a little.I have a few more items to show and say thank you for; I just didn't have time to photograph them all, so you will probably see them later. A box and envelope of fabric from levisgrammy at MJF. Also a box from This Vintage Chica with real cute items in it.

Updated 12:33 p.m.

This is the box and envelope of fabric from levisgrammy at MJF.This stuff below are the items from "This Vintage Chica" and an apron from her, too. I still need to send her fabric and yarn for the exchange; sorry I'm so long in doing this. I just love roosters; aren't those just the cutest plates. The white sheer item is a curtain that I may make into an apron later after I get a chance to try and remove the stain. I knew about the stain before she sent it. I think it will still work out lovely.This is one of those times when I wish I had a mannequin or dress form or something to drape clothes on; this is real cute and the lighting didn't do it justice nor did laying it on the floor. It is a vintage apron, but the colors are still popular today. I would love to make a quilt someday in this color scheme. This is about three shades of pink and three shades of chocolate; it's hard to see in this photo -- bad lighting. But super super cute!!

Did you know the Easter bunny can fly?!

We just finished Easter today! We did Easter in California where I grew up on Easter Sunday. We did Easter in Utah today where my husband grew up. In California it is more of an egg roll and kids nine and under hunt.

In Utah it is everyone hunting and I think the Easter bunny has wings and a very weird sense of humor. My husband tells stories of the Easter bunny hiding eggs at the bottom of the flour bucket in the kitchen when he was a kid so you had to empty the entire bucket to find your egg.

This year the kids had to find 4 plastic eggs and two boiled ones and a basket. My husband and I had to find 1 boiled egg each and 1 basket between us. You would think this would be done in a matter of minutes; try 2 hours later we finally find all but one egg and we found one egg from the previous hunt a week ago when all the cousins did their hunt. Not to mention the week prior the cousins found an egg that was hidden the year before. That Easter bunny hides eggs way to well! There was one egg we couldn't find -- a plastic one. So if any cousins read this, there is still an egg hiding in grandma's yard. If you find it, you can have it.

As you can tell this one was hidden on the flag pole wrapped in a banner. You could only see it very well from one side when the light was shining through it. Try to figure out how the bunny got up and how the kid is supposed to get it down.

If you think being a little kid will make it easier to find your basket, you're wrong. You may find it, but getting it is not as easy as it may look. May have to hire help on this one. Call in Grandpa.

As you can tell, it is not an easy hunt if you are a kid. Now if you are a toddler or preschooler, not so bad to find the basket low to the ground, but the egg hunt -- that is the real hard part still because adults and kids are looking for the same eggs. Oh course, the littlest daughter thinks she is a real big girl because no one had to help her get her basket down. Unlike sisters and Mae (pronounced My means "Mom" in Portuguese).

Side note: mine was in the top of a bush about 4 feet above my reach. I just looked at my husband and said, "It is yours, too, so I will let you can get it down." We had a lot of fun and all got a little bit of a sun burn too. You wouldn't think that would happen at 9 a.m. Weird weather.

What temp do you have? or Worlds tallest thermometer.

We actually went to California for Easter. It wasn't something mentioned on the blog. We left on the 4th and came back on the 9th, a very quick trip to say the least. Took two days to get there, stopping to see my sister, and a 14-hour drive home, it is only supposed to be 11 hours (only, yikes)! Construction outside of Barstow -- yuck!!!!!!
We stopped in Baker on the way out and back to give the kids a rest. I always forget to take a picture of that town's major landmark, so this time I thought I would. As you can see, it is a very large thermometer. If you look at the upper right picture closely (click on it) it reads 81 degrees Fahrenheit; yep, definitely near Death Valley. It is hard to tell in these pictures how tall this item is; I hope the cars give you a reference.

Crochet group on flickr

If you love crochet -- making, using or just collecting -- there is a new group on flickr you want to check out. It is called Hooked on Crochet. Any crochet items from baby clothes, blankets, or purses, vintage, new, or still making, please add them all to this group. This is a family-friendly group, so anything that a child shouldn't see shouldn't be added to the group. Enjoy looking forward to all the wonderful creations out there in cyber-land.

http://flickr.com/groups/hookedoncrochet/

Straw colored Layette set

Last summer we had a few friends die in a plane crash. All three men left behind wives and children and unborn babies.
As each baby has been born, I have made a special one-of-a-kind item for that child. This is the last baby of those wonderful men. There have been two little girls and one little boy. This is for the second little girl; she is now 3 months old. This set fits 3 months to 6 months old.

The top picture is of the complete 4-piece set. The next three are of the jacket, close up of the jacket buttons and rose on sleeves. The last three are of the booties, bonnet, and a close up of bonnet detail. Click on pictures for bigger image.
The items below are what the other babies received as gifts as they arrived. I really enjoyed this labor of love making these items for our friends. I hope that they will in time be cherished items in these families and passed down for many generations to come. The blue items below and the blanket went to the only boy in the group.
This is the dress and bonnet that went to the other little baby girl in the group.

Part 2: Rock show eggs and other items

Since Easter just happened I thought this was fitting to show today. This is an egg display at the rock show.

I thought this was a lovely array of eggs. I especially like the lamp work ones and the snowflake obsidian.

There was another lovely display of carved stone. This other one was of carved elephants.

The glowing rocks were real neat; it took me awhile to figure out how to take good pictures in the dark that were not blurry since I didn't bring a tri-pod. So I held the camera up to the glass to steady it for the long exposure; I think they came out well. These are all under black light.
There were lots of other displays as well, like this miniature train display. To see how small this is, that is a 5 year old's finger in the bottom picture.Also, there were petrified wood and carved and polished metamorphic rocks, geodes, petrified turtles (fossil), and rocks carved into spheres.Lastly, the thing I don't think I will ever understand, and it is gross to me, is stones bladed into knives with animal jawbones for the handle. Impractical as you could never hold it comfortably and absolutely discusting to me.

Happy Easter

Chocolate Cookie House

I was at a local grocery store, Smith's, a few days ago when I saw this. You can never make enough gingerbread houses or, in this case, chocolate cookie houses. This was our family fun for Monday night activities. The pictures to the right here are the ones from the packaging.

This is a pretty neat kit; it came with four types of candies, two colors of meringue frosting (just add water), and four cookie bunnies to live in the house, plus the house walls and roof, of course. It is amazing how much time this saves. I have made houses the old way; it is fun, but boy does it take a real long time. The interesting thing about this house that I didn't realize 'till after I bought it was that it has a plastic base so you can set the house up real easy. This is the house for the person who has no idea how to build a house or is just in a hurry. With three kids, I am the last.

If I was the Easter bunny I would want to live in a house like this. The only problem would be I would eat myself out of house and home, literally. Then boy, oh boy, would I have the dentist bills. You know, I don't know if I had ever seen an Easter house before. I have made haunted Halloween ones and the traditional Christmas ones but never an Easter one.

Funny thing about our kit is that the lavender frosting looked brown to us. That was fine it was just odd as the box looks lavender. The box read that you should have purple frosting and the package of frosting tells you it is mauve but it sure looks brown and nothing like any shade of purple.

Part 1: Dinosaurs of rock or Giant Child-Eating Dinosaur!

No, we did not go to a concert; just a gemological show. There is this guy that goes every year that has life size puppets of dinosaurs they are made out of foam. I am not sure if he makes them or if he purchases them either way the kids love it. The kids always have fun with that and chase him around. I thought this might be fun to post for all those kids out there who are in love with dinosaurs. When he is not using the puppets he has them on stands for you to see.

The white ones are more of a hand puppet although he does tie them to his legs and his hand goes inside of them.
The brown ones he has to be inside of. I know that sounds kind of weird. But there is a harness and he fits in the dinosaur between the back legs below the tummy.When he is inside them you almost don't notice him he wears all black so as to be more of a backdrop and not distract from the puppet.For some reason they all have these tags on their backsides. I have no idea why.You are not aloud to touch the dinosaurs unless the man is wearing it then it is ok the kids think this is fun they also like being eaten by the dinosaur.My daughters kept going back to take turns on being eaten. because they are made out of a real soft flexible foam this doesn't hurt a bit.These photos are of a display of real bones. I am glad nothing with teeth that big is alive today. I don't think it would be fun to be eaten in real life.

This first is a T-RexTusk of a Stegodon

Spring Swap

Items from spring swap at MJF that willow tree creek was in charge of.

1. willowtreecreek pin to wear
2. celebrate 2727 sun flower seeds in hand made bag
3. Tina Michelle decrative hangers for like a small easter tree
4. Sunshine I did a few different styles of pins this one was kind of fallish so I was glad it came back to me the rest are more spring like
5. mumof3 a very lovelyglitered box with a pin inside to wear with seed beads and a vintage mother of pearl button and looks like vintage ribbon too.
6. lambgirl seed dirt and pot and an easter egg full of candy
7. beckels a hanger for the wall for little trinkets and she also did a flower pot with seeds.
8. Nance in France a wash towel that you put your hand inside of and bath salts
9. ktknits a note book in a felted cover with yo yo and button and a bumble bee to go with my caterpillar from the last swap, Easter. I think most of the girls in the swap got pillows. But since I was in the last one
10. knewslady I think she actually took this photo of an old farm lady feeding her animals, pigs.

Waste Not Want Not

In a post dated July 26, 2006, over on Poppalina I found that she showed a wonderful little baby jacket she made from scraps: "Baby Wedding Jacket". I just loved it; it reminded me of a project I started a few years back using of scrapes of 6-stranded embroidery thread, knit cro-sheen, and size 10 crochet thread. I have no idea when this project will ever get finished, nor do I care. It is just fun every now and again to sit down and make some Irish roses and add a square or two or add a few shells to the boarder. It is one of those projects that, if it takes you a lifetime, you just don't care; the journey getting to the end is worth so much more than the end result. This has antique threads, new threads, you name it in it cotton, rayon, and metallic.

I can look at this and see parts of dresses I have made for my children and thread that was used on doilies and things like that. All are a piece of something else and a whole together. It is fun to see it grow I am purposely doing the edges first because, if I have a scrap of thread to small to make a rose, I can add it to the edge. The roses are easy to drop in anywhere, while the edges have to have something to go into first. So I guess after a while I will fill in the middle, but 'till then the edges grow slowly.

My Tutorial is in an E-zine