Hankies

What a relaxing weekend! the weather here was perfect. It was so cool, most of the bad mosquitoes were scarce.

Since I'm not crafting too much lately, here is a visit with one of my collections. I've been collecting vintage handkerchiefs for years. My mom gives me a little stack at almost every gifting opportunity. We find them at antique malls and they used to be had for about a dollar, but now they are more expensive.

My mom favors the ones with highly detailed thread crochet or tatted edgings.


I love those, but I have a soft spot for the printed ones. Particularly if they have unusual colors. Mostly I have florals or nature motifs and not so much of the ones that are tourist souvenirs, although those are great too.



Occasionally, Mom finds printed ones that have beautiful handstitched edges:


Once Mom hosted a bridal brunch for a close family on the bride's wedding day and we gave several beautiful hankies from my collection as favors for the bridal party and the groom's family who had traveled all the way to Chicago from Brazil for the event. The bride used a beautiful elaborate white one at the altar and has saved it as a pretty keepsake.

Here's the pile of scraps from some of the hankies I used in a quilt as a gift for my mom. It was very difficult to get up the courage to cut into them, but I managed and the quilt turned out cute.


I've clipped a lot of patterns and ideas for ways to use vintage hankies, but I hate to cut them up! This is only a small sample of my collection. I switch a few of them in and out of a couple of decorative places in the house, but mostly, they go into a beloved drawer that I browse through fairly regularly.

More of Mom's Hankies

A little hankie that was my mom's when she was a girl.

This is the last week of school for my kids. It's pretty crazy! First graders had field day today and I was in charge of parachute games. Friday is field day for the 4th grade and I don't know what I'm in charge of for that, but something.

Next week we'll be up in Northern Wisconsin at Lake Superior at a cabin we rented with Nana. Normally we don't vacation until August, but this was the only time we could get a place. It'll be chilly, but I prefer chilly to hot weather and the north woods are our absolute favorite.

Here's another little cute hankie that was my mom's. She went to a one room schoolhouse when she was a little girl before they moved into town:




I know lots of people don't like clowns, but they were popular once upon a time!


This will be my last blog post for a couple of weeks. Happy Summer!

Pinup Hankie

Pinup Hankie, originally uploaded by IamSusie.

Isn't she cute? My mom has had this darling embroidered pinup in her downstairs bathroom for years. She found this at an antique mall, and later found one in pink that she gave to me.

She's embroidered under her clothes too... It's a little bit naughty, so click here only if you aren't offended easily.

Isn't that hilarious? I didn't photograph it, but she's not wearing panties either. Mom has always wondered if guests take a peek, but no one in probably 20 years has ever told her they looked.

Quilts and Photos at Mom's

I went to the Chicago International Quilt Festival this Saturday with my Mom. It is so fantastic! Everyone should go! I took pictures, but I'll have to share them later.

First is a bit of a photo tour of crafty stuff at my Mom's house.

I made this quilt years ago, right after I first learned how to quilt. This was the first quilt that I used machine strip piecing instead of hand piecing. I think it was in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. We were newly married and I was between teaching jobs, so we were really broke at the time. I think I Xeroxed the pattern out of the magazine at the local Library. The block was called "Trip to Chicago" and at the time we were traveling to Chicago a lot to see my family and our old friends.
Another time, Mom and I were on a weekend in the Indiana Amish country. The fabric stores there are unbelieveable. Mom indulges me a bit when we go shopping, so I promised to make her this quilt from a pattern she found at an Amish General Store.
Those are cut up hankies as the baskets. I had great fun picking out all the fabrics, but cutting into those magnificent hankies was really torture. This is a great use for them though. We can really enjoy them now instead of pulling them out of the hankie drawer. Again, It isn't really wonky, It's just my unprofessional photography....
Another stumbling block for me was quilting this one. Even though I embroider, I detest doing hand quilting, so I wanted to do it on the machine. I drew the design 3 times in those disappearing pens on the top, and 3 times the design faded before I got to it.... I think I eventually practiced it on muslin and finally did it freehand without any markings. It's not perfect, but the flaws that I see magnified, no one else notices...

Mom likes the hankies with the thread crochet edges best and she has pretty ones put out all over upstairs. Here's a pretty stack with some old photos. That's my Mom and Dad right after they moved to Chicago from Iowa. I'm the little girl with the dolly and the baby is my brother.

Maybe these old photos are only a kick for me, but here's my brother and I just before we left with our dates to the prom in 1985. Mom did that cute little crosstitch when we were kids. I think she did a good job of capturing my brother's untameable cowlick.


It so happens that this was over 20 years ago, but I am still good friends with my date to the prom. Another couple we went with got married to each other about 3 years ago and my prom date and I were Best Man and Matron of Honor.

I took more photos of Mom's collections.... I'll have to revisit them later!

How does this blogging thing work.....

So this is my first attempt at a blog post.. it's sort of a test. This is the duckie mascot we made at my MeetUp group last night. I'm thinking of selling him as a little kit... stay tuned! (Although I doubt anyone is reading this....) My MeetUp is the Chicagoland Craft Collective and it is really great. I always get fired up about crafting when I get home. Sarah Moore is our fearless leader and a super crafter.

Lets see... on my blog I plan to share my crafty obsessions with like-minded people. It's also my dream to photograph all the vintage linens and hankies in my collections. Here's one that was my Mom's when she was a girl.


It's by artist Carl Tait and I remember peeking in her keepsake drawer when I was a kid and playing with it. I'd practice chanting the rhyme and wonder what it would be like to have those different jobs.

Here's another super cute one by that same artist:
I adore hankies and have been collecting them for quite some time. Most of my collection features florals and beautifully detailed crochet. My mom knows just what I like and always finds great ones for my collection at antique malls during her travels. Thanks, Mom! Someday I'll photograph the basket quilt I made for her from some of our hankie stash.

So I guess I finally made the leap into starting a blog.... now if I can just remember to use my punctuation and grammar like I should, I think it'll be okay.