My Red Cape

A Nest not so Neat

2012-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

Since my friends Helen and Elizabeth and teacher Evelyn Newton introduced me to rug hooking in 1978, I have loved it with a whole heart. I had always expected it to be my joy and comfort in case I should ever get old! (am 81 this month). '

Instead 7 years ago we move from our farm to town and in the process, I worked hard at putting in a new yard for the new house. The side and front were planted well, but the back yard was totally just weeds and grass burrs by the thousands. On one unhappy day I took in after the weeds with a hand pump of Round up, and within 30 to 45 minutes had a hammer thumb on my right hand, ruining the tendon. The company does not make that style of dispenser any more! I kept it wrapped for months and after 7 months it worked normally if not stressed. Writing long hand gripping a pen turns out to be something I cannot do much of. Sadly, Rug hooking is another and so is hand sewing. I once made bed hangings and they had a number of 90 inch french seams, all by hand. Such was my ferver to have everything as right as I could for our old red cape. I often urge my friends and my daughters to take care of their hands!

Since that happened I think I have done less than 4 square feet of hooked work, and once I could do a square foot in a day. I have decided to work on a few much wanted pieces again, just a few strands at a time, and so have made myself a winter nest on a couch with great natural light. The baskets in the photo were gifts from Barb Carroll.

The Bird is a start to replace my partridge pillow which was lost in our house fire. I love working with all the different shades a really great palette of wool allows. Variation is the key to a beautiful surface to me. The whaling rug is a copy of an old one, also printed by Barb at Woolley Fox. Two dear friends have hooked a little of it a while back and I have done some. I love this pattern and want it to lay on our long table. Maybe with the hooking moved into the living room I will remember to put in just my few strands each day or two. Taking care of my right hand has to be priority. Have a Great Day, Edyth

A Neat solution

2012-01-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

As part of my goal for the coming year, I am sorting books and magazines and am always short of space for these in our little library! Jack fixed us another book area in the back hall that leads to the laundry. As this shows from the breakfast room and even the living room, I am pleased that the shelves are pretty as well as serviceable. The open space in the center makes the hall less crowded than one unit all the way up. Dixie tells me she is rearranging and thinning books today too. So I guess there is a lot of that going around. edyth

Dolls who came to tea today.

2012-01-13T19:20:00.001-08:00

It is nice to get with a few friends and talk dolls. We are considering making some shoes. My big girl standing, has long curls in back and all nice old clothing, but no shoes. Click all pictures to make them larger. e

A special collection

2012-01-13T08:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our antique collectors group met in the home of an outstanding rug hooker and teacher. She chose mending old hooked rugs as a topic of focus for out meeting. She has many hooked rugs through out her lovely home as well as treasured Americana. (The pair of portraits I am proud to say was bought from Jack and me many years back when we had our shop.) e

Mending Old Hooked Rugs

2012-01-13T07:19:00.000-08:00

If you are not interested in old hooked rugs, skip this one!

Many of us collect lovely old hooked rugs, with time softened colors and charming designs. However they are often fragile or damaged. If you are handy with a needle and thread, as well as rug hooking, mending these old treasures is very possible. My ideas on this are just one way of doing it. There are several approaches to mending them. So I offer these ideas for your consideration.
First I think it is important to choose something that is possible to work with. I avoid really dirty ones. If the amount of soiling to an old rug is not acceptable to live with as is, I pass over that one, as I do not know how to do much cleaning of them. Barb Carroll tells me to lay a dirty hooked rug face down on dry snow out side for a day, then brush it off and much of the dirt will go with the snow. I have no snow so cannot say. I have used a rug cleaning product called Johnson’s glory, a foam spray which dries in a few minutes and can be vacuumed away taking some of the soil with it. But mostly I stay away from a dirty rug. Note, a rug hooked on monks cloth or modern rug linen can often be dry cleaned or washed by hand or gentle machine. The old ones on burlap will usually not survive this.
I am quite brave about attacking a rug with lots of tears or missing parts. Be sure your cost in any fragmentary ones is so low as to be negligible, then what can you loose by trying? Many truly antique rug fragments are worthy of considerable time and effort, and have a strong chance of being beautiful again. Judge your project on this matter and be sure the project is worthy.
One strong caution is this: Never use any adhesive of any kind on a hand hooked rug, not tape or glue or spray-on rubber backing.

Having decided you will mend it, determine the backing of the rug. Is it still pretty sturdy for the most part, or would the rug be better off faced completely with a new backing? If sewing or hooking through the old backing will cause it to break up, a whole new facing may be best.
If on the other hand the problems are just a few holes in the middle of the rug, those are easy to deal with. Just make a patch of new rug linen at least an inch and a half larger all around that the hole to be mended. Lay the new patch under the hole and using a large needle with strong thread, perhaps upholstery thread, sew the patch under the rug with a running stitch. I use a line of stitches about half an inch long close to the hole, and another line close to the edge of the patch. Think concentric circles here. When stitching, take care to stitch in between the loops of pile on the front of the rug, so the stitches do not show on the front side. You may want to widely whip around the edge of the hole on the top of the rug also before starting to re-hook. Hook material into the missing area, considering the height of the needed loops. Most old rugs were clipped on the surface, so match this as appropriate. This fill in material may be your familiar wool strips, or yarn (may be two strands at a time), or cotton strips cut from an old faded tee shirt. Many old rugs were made of cotton knit material. The tans are often cotton lisle stockings. Later rayon stockings and even silk ones were hooked into mats and rugs.
A different approach is needed when part of the edge of the rug is missing or much damaged. If a patch is needed for just a section of a straight edge, use a long narrow piece of new rug linen, and fold it longwise to make a patch larger than the missing section of border. Remove any old binding which is in your way. Sew the long folded patch under the missing or damaged area, with the folded edge out so it is a finished edge for the rug. Hook in the filling, then replace the binding or other edge finish.
Last we come to the rug which is just a fragment or is severely damaged or has a backing which is rotten and threatening to disintegrate! Form a new facing or backing for the rug using new rug linen. The size needed is about an inch and a half larger than the finished rug will be. With your fingers, lightly crease the linen where the finished edge of the rug will be. Do not get the backing too small or end up with the old rug bunched up and unable to lay flat. Using a long running stitch sew this hem in place.
Note: You might instead use a larger piece of new linen than will be needed, and turn in the hem only after you have secured the center and can closely judge the edge!
Place the old rug on it’s new backing with the raw edged hem hidden between them. Starting in the center, secure the two layers with pins or light basting here and there. Then making parallel lines of running stitches, secure the entire backing to the old rug, taking care to hide the sewing on the face of the rug, working down in the body of the hooking or in between the loops. Lay the work flat and check it often to keep it flat. Last sew around the rug half an inch or so from the edge all around. On the face of the rug, whip down the edges of any holes or missing areas. When you have re-backed the rug, you can fill in with hooking as needed. You will find that the sewn in threads will get in the way somewhat of your re-hooking. This is why we use a long running stitch not a shorter prettier one. If that is a major problem, use a large needle with yarn to make high loops and replace some missing material that way. As long as the color is very close and the height of the new hooking is correct, the fiber is not as important as you might think.
Now the rug is ready for new binding. Use cotton twill rug binding tape if you like, or use wool strips. Plaid is pretty. Keep the binding muted and do not attract attention to it at the expense of the older part of the rug. The binding may be planned to show on the front also, by having 5/8 of an inch or more of unhooked edge to the backing.
The mended old rugs are best used as a wall hanging mounted on covered stretchers, or perhaps displayed on a table top. Loving and collecting and restoring old textiles is a way of life for many of us. Enjoy! Edyth

Silver crosses

2012-01-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

This is some of my favorite cross jewelry. The double barred crosses reflect the northern fur trade crosses, while the simplest ones are designs from New Mexican pueblos. In spite of that, the double barred one with multiple small crosses is styled after necklaces from Isleta Pueblo. I did not make the chains or beads. The red beads look like pipestone but were sold to me as green heart Venician glass. I will restring them and add the cross shown by them. I enjoy a variety of trade beads to wear my crosses on, but am by no means convinced of any age or authenticity for them! The ones on chains are on really LONG chains. e

2011 out

2011-12-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Maine was a highlight of our year for me. I look back on hopes I had for the year at it's beginning, and foremost was Jack's health as he battles cancer. We are blessed with new medication and so can plan future time together. After that biggie, I promised myself I would concentrate on painting more, and have done that! It is a rich pleasure, a celebration of the beauty God has spread before us. (And a plea for it's preservation.) I also hoped I would at last work on my silver jewelry and mend some and make some to replace lost pieces. That happened too! What did not happen was the loss of at least 10 pounds. Sorry about that! So with these thoughts, I am planning to do more in the next year, about organizing and mending doll clothes and bodies, and of course still spend serious study time on art. I put dolls very much on a back burner in 2011, as I find it hard to ride more than one hobby horse at a time with concentration. I seem to do one thing at a time. I wish each of my friends good luck as we all try to balance our needs and interests. Consider how fortunate we are to have too many interests and never have to face being bored! With 3 great grandchildren now as well as lots of grands, Jack and I have full lives indeed. Happy New year everyone! E

Answering a question in comments, yes this photo was made at Ogunquit.

Aunt Beulah's chocolates recipe

2011-12-23T10:53:00.001-08:00

Within our family, called Aunt BuBu's choclolates. This is the easiest and best chocolate candy we know. Only four ingredients to gather:

2 boxes of Baker's semi sweet chocolate squares, one can of eagle brand sweetened condensed milk, almost 2 cups of pecons broken up, and a good dash of salt, not nearly as much as 1/8 teaspoon. A scant 16th if you can guess at that.

Cut the chocolate up fine so it will melt easily in a saucepan over on the stove. Add milk, and dash of salt. Stirring constantly with a plastic spatula or such that keeps it from sticking, melt the milk and salt and chocolate, stirring quickly till smooth. Then add pecons and very quickly dab it out on an aluminum foil covered surface like my big drawing board. It will start to set up immediately, so two pair of hands are good at this stage. Then we carry the board frull of candy to a cooler unused part of the house and leave it a couple of hours to finish setting up. Store in a covered glass jar or tin, and do not refrigerate. Will last weel up to 2 weeks so is a good mailer. Let me know how it comes out for you! Edyth

Papier mache dolls mostly

2011-12-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

These are not mine, but are from another doll family. Note the artist made Father Christmas figure. This woodland Santa is very gnome like. His head is formed of paper clay I believe. As always I hope you will click on each picture to see it larger. E

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

2011-12-18T17:46:00.000-08:00

The punch bowl has a favorite simple combination, of one part Asti Spumonti one part white grape juice, one part Canada Dry Gingerale. You can leave out the Asti for a nice family drink. I put the ice in a side bowl so as not to dilute the punch. Chill the rest before hand.

Thank you for the nice comments several of you have left. The blue transfer print Staffordshire and the large Staffordshire cows were part of Jack's Mother's collection. The blue and white Delft in the red corner cupboard is something Jack and I have collected over time.

The fireplace is covered by our wide screen TV. The fire here is a DVD of a flickering fire, It was almost too much for our camera, I won't picture this again.

Fall Color in December

2011-12-18T17:42:00.000-08:00

It is fall in my back yard finally in mid December. Inside it is nearly Christmas, with the proper cooking and decorating going on and music playing to help all that! E

Note cards from my art work

2011-12-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

Among the projects I am in the middle of, are a half drawn apron pattern for dolls, and a pile of note cards I am printing and cutting and packaging to sell. This year I have some from my fraktur drawings, some from my Pemaquid Light house painting, as well as the the set of little 18th century wooden dolls. To see about purchasing these and more, go to http://oneillsantiques.blogspot.com/ our selling blog.

I can't believe how the dining room table looks! We are in the midst of Christmas decorating, with all the beautiful fruit and greenery bought some years back from County Gatherings in San Antonio. We put this up everywhere and then closer to Christmas I add in gorgeous magnolia leaves from the yard, Magnolia Grandiflora and Little Gem Magnolias. We brought them through the hottest driest summer in my life time, by carrying bath water and kitchen rinse water in buckets ouside to the thirsty trees. We are grateful for an inch and a tenth of rain this last week end. It was general and much of Texas got it, some more some less. Hope those friends nearby all got part of this Blessing! Edyth

Doll quilts from Marian

2011-11-23T07:21:00.000-08:00

Fine small quilts like these are every bit as much art as a painting to hang on the wall. Beautiful, thank you for sharing. The Bears paw is a favorite for me.

The first quit I ever made was a full size bear's paw in red calico. This was in 1952. I underestimated the amount I woud need and by the time I was done piecing several months later, the fabric was all sold from the retailer in the rural West Texas town of Comanche. I went to the store and asked the proprietor about getting more. She contacted others who she rememberd very well having bought that fabric, and two brought in their scraps for me!!! Try that now!! I did not feel I could quilt my first top, lacking space, ability etc, so I took it to a woman in Pottsville who was recomended in my church, and she did a nice job of quilting it by the piece, for an incredble $9. I had to furnish the thread. Then I got it back and bound it myself. My daughter Beth has the quilt now, not a machine stitch in it. E

Australian book request

2011-11-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Hello Marian in Australia! Thank you for writing about the Pockets and Rollups book. I am sorry I cannot manage the extra forms and hassle of mailing outside continental USA. I am almost 81 and am taking some things easier in order to do other things still. I will have to add that to the blog note about the book. My error, I apologize.

Perhaps I can scan the Pockets book to pdf and make it available that way also. It has many antique doll quilts, just your thing! We lost all of the dolls but one pictured in that book when our beloved red Cape burned down in 2005. All of the antique textiles in the book were lost without exception. The photo and text pages will be great on pdf files. It is the pattern sheets that I am concerned to get just right

About Rugs for my Red Cape, I have only a few Rug books left in hard copy, like 20 or fewer, and my daughter has some in her closet too so in case of fire they would not all be gone. I have many grandchildren and already 3 great grands, and am keeping these last books for future needs, so the book is out of print and no more are to be had except the pdf’s. The pictures on a good computer screen are so much more vivid than on a printed page.

I’ll bet your doll quilts are beautiful. Send Dixie and me both a few photos. And you will love one of her dolls! Congratulations on that choice.
Have a Great Day. Edyth

Post Script, Now an answer from Marian in Australia!

Dear Edyth,
I would like to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving..it’s a very special time to be surrounded by those you love.
I also wanted to let you know that I purchased your Rug book pdf last night and it’s a delight to behold, a real treasure..thank you!!
Warm Regards...Marian xo

Lovely Doll Quilts: Antique and New

2011-11-19T15:36:00.001-08:00

Charming small antique quilts made just for dolls are treasured collectibles in their own right. Old ones are quite pricey, but some lovely ones are made today. Here is a group of doll quilts from Three Texas Collections. Many were made by friend Martha. The large wax doll is quilting on a precious top from tiny old civil war age squares. At her feet are little rugs made by Martha.

To see more articles on making antique doll quilts, visit Maida .http://www.maidatoday.com/

A glorious link for more doll size quilts! These are true art. http://collectorwithaneedle.blogspot.com/

Pockets and Rollups For My Red Cape book

2011-11-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

The original soft cover book with full size patterns is available in limited quantities for $15, including priority mailing. Send a check to Edyth O'Neill 2155 Lightstone Fredericksburg TX 78624 Sorry, Continental USA only Thank you.

Sample page and cover shown here

Rugs for My Red Cape pdf download offered

2011-11-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

Thank those of you wanting a copy of the book Rugs for my Red Cape. I have now recovered a good set of images from the original printing, to offer in pdf form as a down load for your computer. They are truly beautiful high resolution pictures and text. Download and store the book in your computer. Read it and refer to it and print from it. For $15.00 anyone who wants one can have it that way, and if they want to print it from their computer that is possible too. Ink and printing would be a concern to print the entire book at home, but if a few favorite rug pages were wanted to work from, that would work exceedingly well! I ask you please to respect copyright for me, I have set the price to a modest sum so friends can order their own copies. This down loadable book can only be purchased through paypal. Some e readers support Adobe Pdf files, but not I Pad as of this writing. This is a 98 page file in stunning color.
It is also hoped that I can soon offer the book as a cd. A notice will be posted on this blog when that option is available.
I appreciate the many people who have enjoyed the book, Best Wishes, Edyth

November starts the Holidays for us

2011-11-07T04:28:00.000-08:00

Hello to the many friends who are readers here. Thank you for the emails and comments you share with me. Jack and I will be part of a large family group at Granddaughter Sarah's house for the Thanksgiving meal, but Pumpkins and wreaths are in place in our own home also. We have already made pumpkin pies and nut bread several times, as well as having laid in a supply of pecans from the new crop. We live fully in today, but I cannot help remembering Thanksgiving in our beloved Red Cape at the farm a few years ago. Look back with me in these pictures.

These are images from my book "Rugs for my Red Cape" which I am working with to create a down loadable e book. Wish me luck on that! Warmly, Edyth

A Day for making Art in Fredericksburg TX

2011-11-04T14:20:00.001-07:00

Artists are Brian Grimm ~ Jerry Ricketson ~ Sara Winters in the courtyard at Whistle Pik Gallery. A gorgeous day! E

Rachael Carson's Salt Pond

2011-10-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

Near New Harbor Maine on the Pemaquid penninsula is a small area with a marker dedicated to Rachael Carson. The marker and the few parking spaces along a narrow way are unremarkable, but the curious traveler and many local drivers pause there to enjoy the special beauty of this spot.

When the tide is out, a natural hollow along the shore line is left filled with the sea water. Small creatures of the sea are trapped there for a few hours waiting for the tide to return. Small creatures of the land, our human children, wade out to chase small fish and hunt the sea glass or other bits of treasure deposited by the tide. Then our children must come ashore, as the sea reclaims Rachael's Pond, and the waves breaking across the rocks dance to a pounding rhythm that never fails to hold me. Soon no outline of the pond can be seen and the story begins again. Jack asks me if I am ready to drive on, and I answer that I will never be ready, so we had as well go. E

Maine Paintings.

2011-10-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

My friend Dixie shared a quote with me.... "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary " ~ Picasso. So true as I look back at the paintings I started in Maine. I have them spread about me, some plein air efforts and some done entirely from photos here at home after our trip. I expect to do quite a few more from pics. We took over 280 shots while there. I am learning that to be usable, the shots need to be carefully thought out, with attention to shadows and reflections and composition, if they are to be much help for my painting. Edyth

Still adding things to posts below. remember to click on any pictures to see them larger.

Weaving in Vermont

2011-10-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.marshfieldschoolofweaving.com/AboutUs.htm is a link to Marshfield School of Weaving in Vermont. My friend Penny was there for her second weaving adventure in September of this year, while Jack and I were in Maine.

Last year Penny wove two precious tea towels during her first stay at the school. I know I am an honored friend because she GAVE one to Jack and me for Christmas! I treasure it as you might imagine. If you go to the link you will see the amazing barn loft where the weaving is done. All the great looms are in an area where the barn siding has been removed and glass walls look out at the Vermont woods. Penny plans another trip in 2012, perhaps two. If you have always wanted to do this, here is a real opportunity to have this joy.

Penny chose rich amber colors. I put a couple of pieces of Redware on it just to see how pretty it all looks.

Antiques in Maine and New Hampshire

2011-09-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

We always begin a Maine vacation with a thrilling tour of York Antique gallery. It is one of our favorite places to view some of the very best of Antique American Folk art that is for sale. (Antiques at West Townsend Mass. is another!) We were not disapointed, there were many wonders to enjoy. Alas our cupboards are full and our pockets are not, but we had a great hour there anyway, and thought of things purchased there in the past years. We did pick up a nice book on Black rag dolls for friend Dixie. I confess I have read it before I have mailed it on to her. Now Debbie of Woolen Sails has found a pdf version of the book on line, so every one can have a look. Thank you Debbie. http://www.blackclothdolls.com/web.pdf

Pictured with the book are two early dresses for my doll family and tw o star quilt squares just because. The brown print dress needs mending, I will place another piece of similar old fabric underneath the hole and darn it down. Patches hardly show when you put them underneath instead of on top.

Another favorite place to shop is Rt 4 out of Concord NH, we enjoyed Austin's and Fern's and Parker French. E

foggy coast

2011-09-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

Our 7th day in the cabin has come too soon. This is our last evening here and I think I would never be ready to leave. Out of seven days, four have been gray and foggy and rainy, a disapointment for me, although on each of these we did drive and find things to do and see, and we took more pictures along the way. e

East Booth Bay Painting day

2011-09-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

There is a nice group of over 200 painters loosely organised as Plein Air Painters of Maine. A wonderful woman named Corinne McIntyre is a gentle low key organizer who posts the activities on the web and informs readers of places and times to paint together. I was thrilled to paint with a group of about 20 yesterday, and afterwards went home with Corinne to her lovely gallery next to the home she shares with her talented husband. The house itself is a heart stopping beauty, a large 2 story post and beam. Corinne is a noted artist with a lifetime of achievments in the field.

We had a golden day of sunshine on the rocks and breakers as we painted on private property along the shore near Ocean Point. Leaving, we drove along Ocean Point and stopped to hike the short public walkway there. I am daily amazed at the wild flowers! The Rugosa Roses are everywhere, now past their blooming season, they are filled with great rose hips. Only an occasional bloom reminds passersby what a glory these roses have been all summer. Wild asters and Goldenrod and so many more I do not know by name astound this west Texas girl with their profussion. All plants seem to grow so easily! In the part of Texas where I live, plant life has a hard time of it.

There are miles and miles of these wild gardens along the edges of the land, "Sea Roses" is another name for the Rugosa roses.

We drove around in the village of Booth Bay, but found that area too crowded to invite a stop. it was a short drive up to Wiscasset where we stopped in one great gallery and two antique shops. Back "home" to New Harbor to a fish dinner at Shaw's maybe the best in Maine! We finished the full day with taking a few photos in Round Pond Village, love that place! Edyth

Round Pond Day

2011-09-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

Today is a quiet gray day on coastal Maine, I am glad I painted a bit yesterday and the day before, because today is not a good painting day for me. I know some will find a sheltered spot and revel in a muted foggy tonal effect.

Jack and I drove a different road this morning and discovered a charming village, Round Pond, a working fisherman's cove with interesting boats and gear for that. The village surrounding the cove is full of sweet properties, for we who love rural New England architecture. There was a sign in front of one house that said "rug hooking classes". It would have been fun to stop in and visit! I kept seeing little capes, some with a for sale sign, and confess to a great longing for one as a part time home. These are well loved and dearly priced. Texas has given us such a hard hot dry year that I think I could be somewhere else for a while. One pretty blue and white house in Round Pond had a neat little sail boat on the mail box.

And next we had a luncheon date, a special meal out for Jack to enjoy a lobster at Shaw's Wharf. I ate Haddock and salad and then we finished with blue berry pie. On the way back to our cabin, we parked beside Rachael Carson's Salt Pond nature area, so I could watch the breakers come in as the sea and the little pond merge, as they do twice each day at high tide. Moving and beautiful. There is a marker there. I look at the sea birds and remember how much we owe the writer of "Silent Spring". Edyth

Monhegan sunset

2011-09-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

Monhegan has always been a magic place in my imagination, I was first aware if it some 40 years ago from paintings by Stephen Maniaty, a great landscape painter in Mass. I went on to notice that place name in other great paintings.

This afternoon I painted the lighthouse on Pemaquid point. The first
one, a small 6 x 8 inch done plein air in the front seat of the car. For the photo that the second one came from, I coaxed Jack to climb down the hill on the sea side of the lighthouse, and aim the camera up at it.

Tonight at sunset as I looked across the water from Pemaquid peninsula toward Monhegan, it has turned a pink gold against an almost purple sea. Incredibly beautiful sight. I had to think it is a memorial for a man swept off Monhegan's rocky shore earlier this week by a huge wave associated with the Katia storm. The rogue wave took him away along with several others, but one did not make it back out of the sea. The young man lost was part of a wedding party.

We really never know! Every day is meaningful or should be so.

Added here later... a letter from a friend...

Hi Edyth:
Just a short note to say I'm sorry your stay in Maine was a little on thedamp side. Regardless, Maine is still a wonderful place to visit. We just returned from Monhegan, our annual visit, as my husband is an avid birder. We go out every Sept for the fall migration. However, this year was a rather sad visit due to the tragic accident involving the drowning of that young man. After talking with the locals, they said the people involved were in a dangerous spot and with the sea as rough as it was, they shouldn't have been there at all. I believe the young man was from Ireland. His girl friend was one of the bridesmaids in the wedding. They did, however decide to go through with the wedding which took place the following day. Such a tragic accident.

The weather was quite nice for our stay. It rained one night and had cleared by morning. We do love Monhegan and so look to our visit every year. You are so right, the sunsets are just beautiful. And each night, I couldn't help but think of that young man and felt that he too, was enjoying them. Glad you had a successful antiquing venture here in New Hampshire. You were so close to me. You mentioned Rt 4 in Concord. Love reading of all your goings on!Sincerely, Elizabeth B.

September in a lovely setting

2011-09-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends. we still suffer in central Texas from drought and fires, but the heat is under 100 mostly these afternoons, and I have put fall wreaths in the dining room. I visited with a group of friends this last Thursday for lunch and a discussion of early treenware. It managed to be a good party, even though one of the fires jumped across a barrier and into the very subdivision where we were! And again that evening after guests were gone! It is a large development on a former ranch of considerable size, so my friend's home was not in the action.

I made the penny wool coaster for Phyllis more than 20 years ago, I love to see that she still uses them. The softly faded colors looked much this same way then I think. She has laid this one near an exquisite little papered box and a nice early Rush light.

Note the stunning hooked rug of a stag over the bed. My husband made the poster bed years ago.

Ann took some great photos for her blog, (A few of Ann's own interior are mixed in ) go see them here: http://hillcountryhouse.blogspot.com/

Izannah Walker Dolls Article

2011-09-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last January my friend Dixie Redmond and I started writing an article about Izannah Walker dolls for Early American Life magazine.

To get a copy of the Christmas issue,

subscribe to Early American Life here.

Paint question, not much help

2011-08-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

In answer to an email requesting the name and brand of paint if Jack ever painted some of his furniture in an "Old red".

Hi Lois, Yes many times, however he just mixes a mess up in an aluminum pie pan and paints out of that. He uses latex paints, several reds and a black or brown, and mixes what he wants, trying them out on a scrap of wood. Sorry About that! Exception, for a very light red he uses a color called mayflower red from Benjamin Moore. We keep reds in cans from Old Village paint company, but also from others he buys locally at different times. So hard to be any help! Good Luck, Edyth

Pie in the Turkey pan!

2011-08-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a big one, double the recipe given a few days back. Jack peeled peaches nearly 2 hours for it. The end of the local peach crop is just about here, this may be our last peach cobbler for the year. The pan is about 11 by 17.
Before it went in the oven, you can see how the top is covered with 4 bought pie crusts cut up and layered slightly as needed to cover completely. Some years back I stopped making home made pie crust, but still miss it a bit. With sugar and butter and cinnamon added, this one is pretty good! Serve warm with ice cream.

The next pies we will make are likely pumpkin ones. I am ready for a turn towards fall. The weatherman said yesterday we will have 6 more weeks of this extreme heat and drought! But what does he know anyway? e

We are Incurable collectors and happy that way.

2011-08-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

A happy morning at the local yard sales! so many times we buy little or nothing, perhaps some small tool or a few old copies of Southwest Art Magzine, or sometimes do not spend even a dime for an hour and half of driving, having risen and dressed and left home at 7 am or before. Weeks go by in futility and then oh wonder of wonders, we find some treasure...a small oriental rug, or a cache of art supplies including many fine brushes, or a piece of Texas stoneware...and this morning look what Jack found!

It has been years and years since we have bought any of the humble little iron snow eagles, which once sat in rows on the roofs or northern houses above the entrance to hold the snow from sliding down on the unwary. Sometimes on old homes, we have seen ranks of them all the way across a roof, several feet from the edge, in a fashion to keep the whole snow pack on the roof longer. Was this for insulation? I am unclear why they were so widely used, particularly in Pennsylvania, but they once abounded there on the old homes, and then in the antique shops. There were even some later reproduction ones to avoid.

It is fun to find something old mixed in with all the sad and dicarded Beanie babies.

The little iron eagles are in as found condition right now, meaning some aluminum paint and a bit of rust. Jack will work his magic on them and the pretty snow birds will sit among his collection of early stoneware, above our kitchen cabinets. It is Jack's collection of early American pottery than makes our modern kitchen more bearable to us. It numbers over 60 pieces of stoneware, and we never counted the redware. Heaven save us if we ever have to down size seriously! Edyth

My Peach pies, Lots of them lately!

2011-07-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

I really never make true cobbler which has cream in with the peaches and is so good and rich. Rather I make a deep dish pie with a lot of peaches in it and a top crust only, and put chunks of butter on the top and sprinkled sugar generously and cinnamon lightly on the crust.

Here is what I do for the peach filling. Peel and slice a nice sauce pan full, about 5 or 6 cups, with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the pan, which keeps the peaches from turning brown.

In a small bowl combine flour and a little more sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and a dash of salt. Anounts below.

Heat the peaches pretty hot, stir in this little flour mixture, add about 2 pats of butter and pour in a deep pan like a 9 x 14 cake pan. Top with crust. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and finished off with small chunks of more butter here and there.

By having the peaches hot when the pie goes in the oven, much baking time is saved, and crust is not burned. Important: make plenty of holes in the top crust with a knife or a fork. Bake at 400 or till crust is done AND pie juice is boiling showing slow bubbles in the exact center of the pie when you punch a hole in it to test. Keep watching this hole, it is not done till it boils. These tend to boil over badly in the oven, messy! I use wide aluminum foil under each pie, cupped up on the edges so the juice is caught.

Fresh peaches or sliced apples or blueberries or apricots all use this same recipe. A general fruit pie recipe. Adjust your sugar amounts by how sour the fruit is. Better not too sweet. Always put in the lemon juice. On peaches only, use one or 2 drops of almond extract if you have it, that makes the peaches peachier. not more almond than this or will ruin it.

Amounts: Sugar in peaches, try about 6 cups peaches with 1/2 or 2 cups sugar. The lemon juice and almond extract are very bitter and must have enough sugar. You can taste the whole filling when it is warm in the sauce pan before you bake it. add sugar then if needed. When I bake pie in our turkey pan, I use 8 cups peaches, 3 of sugar plus two tablespoons lemon juice. This makes an enormous pie. And takes a double batch of crust to cover it.

Flour mixture: double these for a larger or for 2 pies. stir till mixed well so no lumps will be in the pie.
2 Tbs flour
2 Tbs sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon

have a Great Day! E

2011-07-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

Our back yard is in what should be it’s glory time, the great Natches crape myrtles have quit trying to bloom for the most part, they would in a normal year be in full white crowned show off mode. But their smaller cousins near our deck are still beautiful. We were up to the minute on watering almost every thing when the newly implemented once a week watering was imposed.
That would still be ok, but the water pressure is very low in our subdivision now, and when everyone in the town must use water on the same Sat or Sun, we are out of luck up on this high ridge overlooking town proper. I fear for the 4 young magnolia trees. Two are standards, the Magnolia Grandiflora, and two are “Little Gem”.

The 14 large pots on the deck want a drink each day in this hot time, so the rinse water from the kitchen is caught in a pan and carried out to them through out the day. We have fresh peaches, tomatoes, lettuce, cantaloupe, watermelon and more to wash off before using all day long, so this water is poured on the pot plants. 4 pots are white geraniums, some are white periwinkles, some all green herbs, and a smattering of blue salvia for a dash of color. I step out to enjoy the deck many times a day, and these nights too, the full moon is awesome.

I am glad our yard is small, the back is just what you see in the photos. Garage and parking apron take up a lot of the space beyond the arbor. In this time of drought for our southwest, it is hard to imagine the floods in so many other states! We topped out here this afternoon at 103 in the shade, on the north side of the house. E

Lovely little clothing for my big papier mache dolls.

2011-07-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

The heat and drought have been oppressive. So what a happy boost it gave me when my friend Jan emailed about some tiny old clothing in a local antique shop. I rushed right out to see them. Aren't these dear? The fabrics are old and nice and the stitching that I have examined yet is by hand and the condition is wonderful! Regular readers here know how I love browns. I am showing several shots so you can see the construction. The apron/bib on the infant's dress is a near square, with arm holes cut one half way down and little straight strips added. The apron is finished with a tiny rolled hem. Tags on the little dresses said from Maine.

A high waisted infant's dress like this looks like an empire style on a lady doll. Very nice! Of course a lady doll would not wear this type of apron. I do not know the age of the socks, they are like some I have found on very nice early dolls before, so they must be all right to go with. Any input? Edyth

Paradise is parched!

2011-06-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

As people move into the wild, the wild things adapt to live among us. Towns are spreading into the countryside here as in other places. We have deer for neighbors and other wild creatures. The most stirring sighting was a fully grown mountain lion seen by neighbors in their yard across the street from us three years ago. A state game man confirmed that the tracks left were indeed just that.

I have been afraid the wild boars will show up in our neighborhood here, drawn by our irrigated lawns. So far so good. They are in our county but not in our town. Last week my friend Ruby Lee showed me the tusks of a terrible wild boar she and her husband had shot on their ranch. Herds of these hogs are tearing up areas of the rural south.

Eden was not without its serpent to represent the forces of evil. Lucifer these days for the wild turkey population in our Texas Hill Country comes in the form of these feral hogs.
Turkeys roost in trees at night as soon as they have a bit of size and enough feathers! But wild turkey eggs and hatchlings are prime food for the terrible pigs. And then there are fire ants that have greatly reduced all ground nesting birds here in central Texas. Three days ago on Loudon road four miles from here, Jack and his friend Bob saw a wild turkey hen with just one chick.

With this as background, mine and Jack’s happy excitement yesterday evening is understandable. In our own subdivision we saw a small family of Rio Grande turkeys.. the tall stately mother and her five tiny chicks were near the entrance from the highway. The chicks are so small as to be hard to see in very short grass, and will have a difficult time surviving the next few weeks. The drought leaves almost no wild grass seeds and no bugs for the little things to discover and eat. The hen likely began with a clutch of ten or more eggs. Now she has these five fragile hatchlings. As I write these words Jack is gone on his bicycle with some of the wild bird seed which we feed in our back yard. He will broadcast a little where we saw the turkey family walk last evening. I wonder where they can find water! I hope they do not try to cross the highway yet! We will be watching for another sighting. Jack will quietly put out another sprinkling of food for some days. e

Woven treasures

2011-05-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

When we lived in the red cape, we had a nice collection of early textiles, some important ones even, like a rare 18th century set of bed hangings! All those were lost, and I resisted gathering any more for a long long time. But one we use over the back of a settle in the breakfast room at the new house, is a woven coverlet with a border of birds like I used in my rug design "Ohio Coverlet". I could not help but purchase that one even though it has a lot of lost edges. The colors are bright and lovely. Then a few years later I saw a large blue and white one which I just NEEDED to hang over the stair rail in our entry way. This was followed last year by a simple indigo and white geometric Jack found at a local tag sale.

So we were collecting coverlets again after all! Five more have found their way to us. The red and white one with the center medallion is a small charmer, I wonder if it was made for a trundle or a child's bed. I date it about 1850, our latest perhaps. I welcome input and comments on all of these, I am not expert though I have bought and sold at least 50 over time.

The deep dramatic colors of the Pennsylvania type Brown and orange shot through with almost electric blue are gorgeous. It does have damage. Most of the rest are in nice condition with the exception of fringe loss. The Overshot in ochre and indigo and natural cream, is one of the nicest, and has a special fringe, I have seen this fringe before and do not know it's name.

A prize is the flower patterned one with folky birds in the border on all 4 sides, woven of deep indigo and natural. It was given to us by a friend of about 40 years. How can that be!! Surely we are not that old!

The red, green, and natural one will be fun to show off at Christmas, and I think could be used near pots of red geraniums for a spring arrangement.

Handwoven textiles have always been loved here. Last Christmas, our friend Penny gifted us with a precious tea towel she wove herself. I think she has not made many and I feel greatly honored! I want her to embroider her initials on it.

Great Granddaughter Elizabeth wove a wonderful red shawl in our living room for six weeks one winter. I count that one of the peaks of my life experiences. Later she won a blue ribbon at the county fair with that entry. From her early years she would stroke handwoven swatches used in our living room on tables as beverage coasters, she was drawn to these and seemed to know they are special. In the busy teen years she is far from these things, but there may yet come a time many years in the future when she will return to this joy of feeling the fibers in her hands as a new textile takes form. A young woman of 13 is so full of wonderful possibilities! She comes along behind me with so many of the same songs in her heart. Edyth

I like small antiques related to sewing

2011-05-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a pleasant morning at yard sales. Jack bought a dear little Shaker sewing box with some interesting pieces inside. I want someone to tell me what these pieces were for. The three sticks are a bit like lace bobbins? If you know what the little winder is for please comment here and I will post it for others. The box is complete except for the pin cushion. That will be replaced with a poof of early fabric. E

Fraktur drawings

2011-05-15T16:46:00.000-07:00

Our Antique study club had a great day Thursday, at a winery owned by friends in New Braunfels Tx. The food and beverages would have suited Martha Stewart.

For a program our hostess had the supplies for each of us to complete and paint a bird like the fraktur found in Virginia and Pennsylvania. We worked on water color paper which had been aged with a wash of walnut ink, which comes as crystals.

Jack drove bravely through a driving rain storm to take Penny and me to the meeting. It brought us an inch of precious rain. The weather did keep a lot of San Antonio members from the meeting. One who did make it through said her son texted her not to go! She texted him back that obedient women never make history! It was a special day to savor and remember. E

2011-05-10T01:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Dixie, How is the studio cleaning going for you? Hope you will enjoy the new machine!!?? My friend Eula used to say she had rather break in a new husband (she had 3) than break in a new sewing machine. Studio cleaning going on here also. I have managed to give a way a nice number of books, sorted them out 2 weeks back and have found homes for many with 2 friends. Can give some to the library for next year’s book sale.
I am deep in my paint these days. E

Passionate Peafowl!

2011-05-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Good morning Gail! A gorgeous morning here, we have enough water to keep our yard, but around us the area is dry dry. We will be up to 95 today. Flowers and phone calls and cards and a dinner at a daughter’s tonight. Yes we left Ruby Lane, it is a good place to sell, we just never put enough time into keeping more listings going. I have tons I need to let go, much of it quite nice, but I no longer focus a lot of my time that way on selling and packing. Dixie Redmond has made us a nice blog we can sell on, when I get some listings there I will link here from our Red cape blog.

Glad you approve of the dear little table! It is beside my bed and is precious there! This am I topped it off with an orange red doll buggy from the Merritt museum auction, pretty paint and shapes. The bed hangings are Brunschwig and fils La Portuguese, a wild print containing peacock blue and strong rust reds. See this fabric pictured in an earlier post, March 12, showing doll quilts by the bed. As an example of how one can change a commercial fabric to suit your own eye, This fabric originally had a very prominent wide stripe of purple recurring all across it. Yard by yard, hour by hour, I seamed and trimmed and pressed that purple stipe out of it! And then sewed the hangings and window treatments.

Here is the paint can formula: Our peacock blue

neutral flat base 1 qt latex
blu 1 y 12.5
mag 19.5
wht 13.5
yel 18.5

Jack began with a flat coat of soft red latex. Then a coat of the above. Next a very thin black wash (flat black latex watered way down.) Then dabbed over it again with the peacock shade. Various rubbing and scraping to let the red show through a little on the edges as wear. Do all of this on sample boards to see what you do like and don’t.
As a variation of the above, one can use a milk chocolate very light brown latex as the base coat instead of red. Some painters might like crackle finish on the first coat of peacock color. Jack does not use those products, but it makes a pretty effect with the red showing under the crackle. Good luck with your project. Best, Edyth

What is so fair as a day in May...

2011-05-06T02:28:00.000-07:00

May 8th marks six years since our farm home burned and our lives were changed so abruptly. So much I could say about that, but really I do not replay it again and again in my mind the way I did for the first few years. Over five years in our present house and yard have given me roots again. My favorite plants grow in this yard now and pleasant living grows nice memories in this house as we enjoy our family and our pass times. We think of the thousands of other victims of fires and floods and storms and know we are so lucky!

Jack has spent an unbelievable amount of time in his garage/work area, restoring so many things which firemen saved for us. Among the very last to be worked on is a rare and dear little table which stood in his bedroom at the farm house, and had the finish completely charred. This small 18th century New England piece was one of his pets, a graceful and unusual form with cabriole legs and a nice overhang and a small drawer. The blackened little table has been in his bedroom here these 5 1/2 years, waiting while we thought about what on earth to do to help it. Now the black surface has been painstakingly scraped away. Putting a coat of paint on something like this takes huge courage. Nothing can restore the old finish, it is gone forever, but the little table deserves to have another 250 years of existence.

We have chosen a strong turquoise blue, the blue green we remember on a spectacular small table once in the possession of our collector friends Austin and Virginia Smith of Kentucky. That one was a fabulous example of great original paint, in a day and time when so much furniture was being stripped by ignorant collectors. Virginia recounted how she asked a friend if she should strip off the paint and he replied with emphatic horror "my Gawd, I wouldn't even DUST it!" E

issues about posting here!

2011-04-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hi, please forgive the long time away, I have had computer issues! Maybe the computer is fine and the issues are my own, I am having to learn new ways of handling photos and mail. I am such a visual person, it is a strong part of my emailing and blogging to include pictures of everything we do. I am beginning to learn where some of the functions are again, right clicking and experimenting. I shall overcome!!!

I am painting a lot lately, and have finally gone back to one I started a while back of Hailey our 16 year old Granddaughter, at the age of 2 1/2. I cropped a tiny picture of her from a group shot and love her expression for my painting.

All well here but the lack of rain, there is hope for some soon. When many parts of the country have had unbeliveable weather problems, I hate to complain above a whisper! The dreadful fires here is Texas are scarey. e

Company here from Colorado

2011-04-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

My daughter Cheryl and her husband Glen live near Vail. He is a real mountain man and they both enjoy camping and riding their horses and photographing the wildlife there and also in the great natiional parks of the Western states. They feed numerous birds and small creatures in their yard all year round, and have hundreds of photographs of these. Cheryl is an artist and always brings some of her latest work to share with me here on their visit, as I cannot go or even breathe at over 9000 feet altitude where they live! She took many close photos of the bison in Yellowstone last year and has done some very good pastel and oil paintings from those.

Hear Hear!

2011-03-16T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled to have a new hearing aid! Walmart has them in the pharmacy department, just under 400 with the tax, made in USA, guaranteed. So now I can hear instructions better in an art workshop or other group setting. One I priced last month is doubtless very fine, but 7000$. This one has 4 settings and is totaly comfortable. Love it! At present I am wearing it full time, except at a music event last night which was way too loud even without the extra boost. Share this with friends and relatives who may need this to stay connected with life. I believe there are many like myself who would benifit from one. This is the case where a general level of sound needs to be amplified, not for specific ranges or special needs. Have a Great Day! Edyth

2011-03-12T00:22:00.000-08:00

A friend once told me "We are happiest when we are creating, because we are made in the image of the creator." Ladies from Baton Rouge LA came to visit this week, here in Fredericksburg for a quilter's retreat. We talked quilting and rug hooking and knitting and they enjoyed seeing doll quilts, many made by my friend Martha. I have several small cradles and beds to show them on. We had a great time gallery hopping and enjoying our lively little tourist town.

A homes tour.. Come along! click pics to see larger

2011-03-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

I had over 80 photos of this property, sorry I cannot share them all! I have been asked where these homes are, for safety, I only say they are in Texas.

Do see that of all the guys there, mine was the best looking!! Maybe He is just my favorite person to be with, we do have a good time together!

a few shots from two more lovely homes

2011-03-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

Many of these friends I have known for over 35 years, we go back over a long span of time, sharing and telling many antiqueing stories of great times and great finds, and like fishermen who remember the ones that got away, the antiques we saw and did not get home with.

more homes tour

2011-03-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

More than half of the women wore collections of southwestern jewelry in LAYERS. Don't miss the lovely winter garden. Even the baths and laundry rooms were well decorated. Remember to click on the photos to see them larger. E Look at "older posts" down near the bottom of this page to keep reading these.

Click each to enlarge

2011-03-05T03:53:00.000-08:00

Fun to see a painting of a cat and a child I had done 30 years ago, hanging with such a lovely collection of true antiques.

Book, Rugs for My Red Cape

2011-03-05T02:40:00.000-08:00

It has been a heartwarming experience to connect with so many people and make many new friends by self publishing my rug book. It was with fear and trepidation and many thousands of dollars that Jack and I had 4000 copies printed and set out to sell and distribute them ourselves. It worked beyond what one might have expected. We did not start off smart enough to print labels on our computer and did not figure out how to have the post office pick up the packages, we trudged off with a dolly loaded with home wrapped packages and made a many a trip those first years! The books are now out of print, which just means we will not reprint them in hard copy and mail them to people. Our remaining last last box full is held for growing grand children or other needs here.

I am humbly pleased to say that there are still inquiries for copies of "Rugs for My Red Cape" so I am excited about the idea of publishing it in a new form... Some services offer the customer either downloads to a reader like Kindle or ipad or print on demand. That would be nice for my rug hookers. This is something whose time has come now. I have been watching it out of the corners of my eyes for a while, now it is feasible I believe. So sometime over the coming summer I hope to post the link here for a new edition of the book, in a very inexpensive and widely accessible form. The photographs are even prettier on an electronic screen than in the hard copy book. Wish me luck in this new venture! Edyth

musings

2011-02-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

I need a hearing aid, I really really do NEED a hearing aid, and I know this. So resolutely I went to a nearby hearing center to learn about them. After a few minutes I dared to ask how much? $7000 was the unblinking answer. I looked at the woman and wanted to say, do I look crazy enough to spend that on a hearing aid? $7000 would on a good day, buy an izannah Walker doll! ( $7000 will not buy a very good one.) On the other hand the lady facing me would have thought me crazy indeed to spend that on a worn out rag doll!

Thank all of you for your comments on this!! (added March 5th) Edyth

Recent aquisitions

2011-02-22T09:06:00.000-08:00

Our friend Eula has moved again and downsized, Here is the pewter we purchased from her, we will have some of it for sale here later and on ebay or Ruby Lane I expect. I kept that hen although she has had a hard life! Eula had had it a very long time and loved it dearly. The clay the hen is made of is a red clay. the piece is English. There is plenty of English red ware to be found in collections, and some spaniels are red clay, but I have not had another hen of it. A bright pretty day here, but we are dry, dry. E

2011-02-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Martha, look where the dolls are using the precious rug you made for them! Thank you and Lanie for all the ways you have added to my doll family and their accessories. Isn't this just a smashing little stove! It is a Buck's Junior number 2, and is a big thing, weighing about 40 lbs! The fabulous little copper pans are by Marklin, about 1900. Hope you can come visit soon, lets try for March. Warmly, E

Sometimes I walk there...

2011-02-05T21:35:00.000-08:00

We thank Rosie for most of the pictures posted today...Remember to always click the photos on this blog to enlarge them.

The old Kitchen became our dining room...

2011-02-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

Our new kitchen was beautiful..

2011-02-05T20:28:00.000-08:00

Jack spent months on the woodwork hand planeing and fiting each board one at a time.

The dolls had a room at the top of the stairs...

2011-02-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

The little Connecticut pencil post bed was period, as were the spectacular bed hangings. The hangings were from the collection of the noted Ohio dealer/collector Clark Garrett.

My Mothers doll house,

2011-02-05T19:41:00.000-08:00

on the back porch of our old house one Christmas. Take note of the circa 1680 table it is placed on! Mercy I am glad that was passed on to a friend before the house fire in 2005. Jack loved it and always kept it in his bedroom, upstairs where those things got the worst of it. Mama took a first place ribbon many years before at the state fair of Texas with the little red house. She made the building before components for such were available to all. The shingles were cut out of cork, She made much of the furniture and quilted the tiny quilts and so on. I come by my love of New England red houses quite naturally. The apple does not fall far from the tree.

2011-01-25T04:42:00.000-08:00

Good morning! Thank all of you who have expressed good birthday wishes, I am 80 and thrilled and grateful to get to this in happy shape! I look forward to a nice day, the second of 4 painting workshop days this week taught by friend Chuc Mauldin.

Jack made us a private cake last night, just a regular round one from Duncan Hines. We will make the big sheath cake for the family next weekend. Jack and I have four grown children and their spouses plus all their kids and a two great grands. Almost all live here in Fredericksburg. Only my oldest daughter Cheryl and her husband Glen live away from us, at the edge of a national forest on the outskirts of Redcliff Colorado, higher than Vail pass! Cheryl worked in Vail for over 20 years, with a difficult and dangerous daily drive to get there.

I speak with Cheryl often on the phone, several times a week now. As Glen has retired, so has she and is painting almost full time. It is bitterly cold, often below zero. The weather has eased now a bit and a trip for supplies and a meal out is again possible. Wed Thurs and Fri, the temps will rise almost to freezing in the afternoons. Clearing snow and ice is a constant requirement.

It is harsh living in that cabin on the mountain side, where a puma might leave tracks over night, or an elk or a bear wander through, and a whole family of wild fox know them as neighbors and a few will eat from Glen's hand. He can step outside in the morning and call down a mountain Jay they call just "Bird" and Bird will come and take food from Glen's hand. A family of raccoons visits all summer long, they sleep in the winter. There is a small squirrel called "Brave heart" who delights them by begging nuts and daring to run right under their old pet cat's nose to grab cat kibbles. For 18 years they have lived in a wonderland of sheer wild beauty, their photos to me show this. All of these creatures and more are the subjects of her paintings. I love best her paintings of the foxes.

In summers they travel to the national parks with a camera, she tells interesting stories of walking quickly backward down a road shooting pictures of a great buffalo moving toward her. Her photos of wildlife are gorgeous subjects for her paintings.

All over the US this is starting off to be an epic winter! My friends in Maine send emails and pictures of it all. I am going to go enjoy a piece of chocolate cake on my birthday morning! Warmly, Edyth

PS I have finally added some pictures of Christmas decorating to an older post in December, to see them look below the Blond Greiner doll post to the December 14th post.

Is it old Staffordshire?

2011-01-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

A Friend wrote today asking how to tell the old Staffordshire dogs from newer ones. There are a lot of the spaniels around these days. Here is some of my answer to her. and I would welcome comments from others here and will add any of them to this discussion which I think will aid us here.
..... the spaniels and other figures have been heavily reproduced since at least the 1950's. There are some I am not sure of even in my hands. This makes it hard for most people to be sure what they are buying, and affects the pricing among casual buyers. The hordes of new Chinese ones in the last 20 years has made this even far harder. I had a number of the dogs in the 1960's probably over 10. I felt and feel now that they were fine old ones. I lived in Dallas and then Fort Worth, large cities with a lot of antiquers interested in Staffordshire, and much of it in the shops, Vacations in New Orleans, when I was a working single woman, were filled with trips up and down the streets of the quarter looking in antique shops and book shops.
It is easier to say what is not old enough and dismiss those right away. First the modern Chinese ones I have encountered are made of hard porcelain, not pottery which is softer in the hands. The porcelain ones are always wrong, period. There was certainly porcelain in England long before the hey day of the dogs, about 1850, and the porcelain was used by a few of the "potters" in the Staffordshire district, but the things we collect and call "Staffordshire" today are the earthenware output of this region, that is, pottery. Feel of the early transferware, feel of the early figures, and feel of dogs every chance you get. One must develop a set of hands. You like I, probably have a lot of each in your own kitchen cupboards. Pottery will craze from age and temperature shocks, Porcelain like the German doll heads does not craze. The sometimes poor replacement limbs of ceramic (earthenware, pottery) do craze, you know this right?
Next without touching them, the modern Chinese pieces often have an off color, a grey cast in an effort to look old or dusty? This was true of dogs made a few years ago, but more recently made ones have a better color. The eyes are not painted right. You know how fast you spot the wrong painting on a reproduction china head doll? So can one who has looked at the eyes on a lot of the dogs spot this.
Glass eyes on vintage lions and dogs mean late undesirable about 1890 animals, Many of these were spray painted, or air brush painted so the glaze is fuzzy not like the colors applied with a brush.
The way the spots and features are painted on new ones differs from the way they were done on old ones 1850 to 1870. These are just some of the things that come to my mind. Like old dolls, English ceramics is a field needing and worthy of study and thought. A great field to enjoy! Pictured here is a small part of Jack's mother's collection, much of which we enjoy in our cupboards.
I am not an expert on English ceramics by a far stretch,I have handled literaly thousands of pieces as a dealer and collector, but not with the focus I have given old dolls and Jack has given American pottery and American furniture. So this letter is a very cursory attempt to comment on a huge subject! Good luck with all this! Warmly, Edyth

Too soon old, too late smart.....

2010-12-21T09:31:00.000-08:00

I sat with Jack one evening lately and remarked on the swift pasage of time.. it is amazing how fast the time seems to stream by. He looked thoughtful for a moment and said "It works like a fishing reel, as you get nearer to the end of the line, the reel has to turn faster and faster to put out the same amount of string." I live with a most interesting man. E

Have wings, will fly

2010-12-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

"The larger feather tree in my bed room will stay up long after Christmas. The three little angels here are new this year, Jack is really good at estate sales and tag sales. He got these three little delights in a $2 box. We did not know we had them till we got home and opened it all. They were without hair, so I gave two of them wisps of blond mohair for top knots, and we made the third one auburn haired. I am most fond of that little red head.

"The cloth Santa doll sits under our living room tree, He is 36 inches tall including his hoodie, and is one of 36 I made in the 1980's. His quilted ears and quilted beard are applied. He is a fully dressed doll under his Santa coat, with shirt and suspenders. They had 3 different beard shapes and several colors of coats and other clothing, bags etc, so were not alike. He is my original.
The dolls have a small feather tree in one of the glass cases. It is the first Christmas the linen head doll has been part of our doll family. Before I bought her at Withington's doll auction in October, I understand she had been packed in a drawer for years and years.

We are making pumpkin bread and chocolates and refreshing our green decorations today. I love the look of lots of magnolia leaves on cupboards and on the mantel. They hold for about 9 or 10 days at most in a heated house. We usually cut three times for a Christmas season.

Christmas for me has to include the music.. yesterday listening to "Christmas with Pavarotti" the tears rolled down my cheeks. I feel so grateful that my life overlapped the time of this artist and that technology enables me to hear him and sad that this great man is gone, all at the same time. Blessings to each of you,

And All Through the House...click to view larger

2010-12-18T14:01:00.000-08:00

Doll Shower Continues

2010-12-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

Friend Jan in Fredericsburg brought two little vintage dolls, a boy and a girl, they have been together for many years and bring joy where ever they travel. The third little doll in the white apron came from unknown angels. They are off now on a ride in a priority box, and should reach their destination by Friday Dec 17th. E

Christmas party, lovely

2010-12-10T17:16:00.000-08:00

Being with the antique collector's group I have been part of for so many years is a recurring joy. So true that we can make new friends, but we cannot make old friends! A Christmas party with 18 of us in attendance at Barbara's home helped get the season really under way. The first thing we were treated to was a stunning punch bowl arrangement, with a ring of gorgeous stone fruit around a bowl full of bourbon slush. This icy delight was like a slurpy for grown ups, or a soft bourbon snow cone. May Santa bring something so nice to you too! Lunch was a green salad and a large mug of hot bean and cheese and celery soup, and a pretty helping of bread pudding to follow. Barbara's Christmas collection is awesome, and her lovely old naive paintings are every where. The deer painting is an almost life size head.

After the luncheon, two friends stopped by our house to see how Jack and I have decorated so far. We do not have a large number of Christmas collectibles, so we go in for more wreaths and greenery, and of course our trees.
Here are some photos to share from the party yesterday. Warmly, Edyth

Another package to go today!

2010-12-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

Today I am packing a vintage doll from Helen in Weatherford, another vintage doll, a boy, from Ann in Fredericksburg, the doll I finished over the weekend, And another marvelous doll quilt, this one from Lori in MI. Lori that is the best looking pink on the back, is it still available so that I may purchase some of it for doll clothing? I would love it in pink, or brown.. if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, my mama always said.

A doll shower is beginning.

2010-12-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

Thank all of you who have responded with a doll and in other ways. The group photo represents a package sent to our honoree on Friday. They are even more wonderful in person! The little doll size Log Cabin Quilt is the work of talented quilter friend Martha. Awesome! One of these dolls came all the way from Nebraska. Be sure to click on the photos to see them larger. I made a simple dress for my little cloth girl today, the doll just loves the color! I hope to mail a second package of a few dolls early in the week. Warmly, Edyth

Women power! An opportunity to help our sister!

2010-11-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends, This email below is from a quilting friend who is no longer able to get out and about much. Is there any way we can give her a shower of black rag dolls, a beautiful Christmas project? She has always been a textile person with good taste and tiny stitches and a good woman who once helped many others. For privacy you may ship them to me and I will forward them? I can stitch up something and send! Will picture that! If more come I will picture them here on this blog. Edyth Email follows:

I was goingn to call you, but it's very dark up here i North Texas, and I don,t want to get youout of bed. 'm about ready for a nice,l hot
bath, but don't want to waste that effort til I am reasonably sur \e that I can get to sleep.

I think that I reaally need a confession time. Throwing rocks over the fence would be more satisfying, but might get cajught, evem if we do bvaaaack up to a vacant lot!! That is a real p;lus.

I have been yearning for a black rag doll. Since I can't drive anywhere, and even though I watch the sky in case one should happen
to falll in my yard , but no luck so far. f my nerves weren 't so frazzled I could make one as a last resort. There's no need to blow my
blood pressure our the roof over it. At least that is what I keep telling myself, and there certainly isn't anyone around here that cares.

I'm fast getting bey;ond beyond being able to think or see what 'm doling (I yhinkF) so I might as well go on to bed. I still want a black
rag doll, period. I'm getting old, fast and I don't need any more reason!!!!!!11So there.

Do you think should get a hot bath and call it quits! I thought it was 9i.30, but it is onlyh 7:30. I know how to fix that ___don't
look at my watch anymore.. I'm still okay, because no one from from South Presa has tried to pick me up yet!!! OOps, I think
that someon mayh be pulling into my drivesway. I'm sure it will all get better her. Go aheaad - reassure me!!!!!!! ove, (name)

Lillian's lovely blue staffordshire

2010-11-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Lillian's lovely blue staffordshire glows a rich saphire color in our dining room. Almost forty years ago I met Lillian O'Neill in Ft Worth where we were both living in the same neighborhood, and both collected Blue Staffordshire. She was a collector, an artist and a lovely woman, I could not have guessed that in time she would become my mother in law. She had such an eye for beauty! One of the jewels we have now from her collection is this tiny child's tea cup and saucer. The scene is that of cows and a milk maid. It is thin and delicate and early, perhaps 1825 or 30.

2010-11-19T12:08:00.001-08:00

Dear Rose Ellen, Thank you for a beautiful picture of Panther pond woods
dusted lightly with snow this morning. I can see it in my mind's eye. We
had our first real frost last night, Jack covered the tomatoes lightly with
a blanket, will have to see if they made it. There are still a lot of green
tomatoes not large enough to pick.

Fall is bright and pretty for us this year. Part of our family will have
Thanksgiving lunch with Granddaughter Sarah and her family. My Jack will
cook the Turkey here and carry it with us. We will take 4 pies and my
brother in Austin will come with Hyde Park fudge cake, a famous treat from
an Austin bakery. We will also have friends and family in and out here at
home with plenty of pies and tea. Jack's Pecan pie is much celebrated!

A Connecticut friend sent a box of bittersweet branches last month, they are
decorating our breakfast room. I have faux berries in wreaths and
candle wreaths for the dining room and more on the front porch with a
pumpkin. We have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.

Christmas decorating will replace it all this next Friday! Already I am
enjoying the CD's of Christmas music. And the dolls have put their
Christmas tree up this week, a precious old feather tree with ornaments
carefully collected back since we moved. Happy Thanksgiving to you and
yours. Warmly, Edyth
Please click on the photos to make them larger

I hear Christmas is coming

2010-11-15T21:18:00.000-08:00

Doll making friends Elaine and Martha came to Fredericksburg Sunday for a visit. While we had pumpkin nut bread and tea in the kitchen, the dolls had a party of their own in the dining room. Look how many dolls Elaine has made and finished since the last visit a few months back! The red bed is one I got at the Withington Auction in October, Martha made a precious quilt for it that just fits!

The Belsnickle in a blue coat is one I made in 1986, he lives with my daughter Beth. I enjoy him because he is a doll not just a figure. When it is not Christmas season, he can take off his coat and show off neat little every day clothes. His beard is quilted as are his applied ears. He is a cloth doll with oil painted face and hair.

At our house, I always get a feather tree up for the dolls before our main tree. I started that today, Monday. Old dolls look their best at Christmas around a tree, or at least nearby.

Maybe you know what Flash mobs are, here is a video of something wonderful created by a flash mob technique. My friend Virginia sent it to me, she is a bit my senior and is always on the cutting edge of technology, with what her husband described as the fastest double click in the West!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU&feature=player_embedded

A doll auction in New Hampshire

2010-10-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

Jack did not want to stay in New England for the doll auction, so I attended with my friend Dixie Redmond. It was a great time for renewed friendships with dealers Jack and I used to buy from, and also to meet new people. It was a wild full hard 4 days, to fly up and back and ship the dolls home and attend the three auctions! I had a smashingly good time!

Two of the dolls were bought from individuals selling in that hotel, part of a "Doll Show" sactioned by Withington's. The best doll, the pressed cloth head one was won at the auction, as were 2 lots of nice clothing for my largest dolls and a dear little red rope bed in doll size. I sat between 2 friends and we all 3 were bidding on the Izannah Walker dolls! I did not win one, but I did get to sit beside two of them and loved them! Those are molded cloth heads, cousins to the molded cloth head doll I did bring home, as well as to several others in the large offering.
The wax head child with the interesting body is a Motschmann type, from about 1865. The pressed cloth head may date about the same or a little earlier. The large glass eyed paper mache doll made by Andreas Voit is 36 inches tall and wears childrens clothing. She is much older than the other two. I bought the red print dress for her. She loves it! I have promised to restore her worn out leather arms as best I can.
Click all photos to see them larger.

Lake cottage where we stayed in Maine

2010-10-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

A friend provided a lovely spot for our second honeymoon! And there were even loons on the lake. Thank you!

my brother signs his emails with this...

2010-10-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

We have art in order that we may not perish from the truth. —Nietzsche [via Godfrey Reggio]

Where we love to be

2010-10-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

The coast of Maine was the center point of it all. Isn't my sweet guy good looking??!!

patching it together

2010-10-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Martha and Elaine, How are the two of you? Happy and Sewing away I hope! We were in New England for the last two weeks, so good to see so much we love there and visit friends as well.
I found several pieces of interesting patchwork on our trip and bought three. I hope they will make the start of some nice doll quilts. The log cabin fragment has paisley strips in it. A frame and a backing will make it a small quilt!
I also bought a little tightly braided rug that may interest Martha later, it is still in the mail home to us.
I visited several rug hookers on the trip too, including a nice yarn and rug hooking shop in Paris Maine. And the trip to The Rufus Porter museum with his painted walls and little portraits and also much school girl art like samplers and theorems was a thrill. So handwork was a big part of what we saw. I snapped a nice shot of a woman in colonial garb, I would like to have such an outfit. Friend Penny has several! At this point I just hope to get my dolls dressed someday, let alone me! Warmly, Edyth

home from a lovely New England vacation

2010-09-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

Remember to click these pictures to see them larger.

Dear Friends, Jack and I have just returned from a lovely two weeks in New England. I cannot tell you how sweet it was to see a few friends and revisit some of our favorite places, and just soak up the scenery and the architecture and the crisp air of the place that we so love. Jack said he really just did it for me because I wanted to go, but he said at the end that he too had relaxed and felt relieved of some of the cares we have had here. We have lots of photos to share on this site.

Right back into full action, this morning roofers arrived to do our house on Courtney, then tomorrow it will be Jack's father's house to re roof, and last our own home. Fredericksburg had a terrific hail storm earlier this summer. We have been on a waiting list for sometime to have them redone. We are repainting and refurbishing and cleaning up the two houses on Courtney, one to try to rent again and one to ready for sale. Much much to do there, Daughter and son in law Beth and Gary are taking the lion's share of the work load! Our own house is dirty and out of order and the yard looks like a wilderness, with every weed in full seed. It did not get this way in 2 weeks, but in months of neglect as we dealt with other issues. Now to quietly dig out and reclaim our lives.

A box of little things we bought on our trip has come in the mail. Nice little textiles, doll clothes and bits of patchwork to play with. A happy find for me was a wooden sewing clamp with a pin cushion on top. I have added a photo of a shelf full of sewing birds and other iron things, and in the top right corner is one of these blue and white wooden ones. Can anyone tell me what this is? County of origin and time frame? I have two pieces of this now, have seen little blue and white painted sewing tools of this genre at round top in years past, always expensive. Best, Edyth

2010-09-12T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is the doll head made by Marjorie Yost granddaughter of Mary Merritt. It is signed and dated (INSIDE) by her some 20 years ago. I knew her slightly when Jack and I used to visit the museum about twice each year. I never knew she had made dolls! I have since seen a Greiner reproduction on ebay made by her.
This head had a very yellow bad (to me) paint job , Sorry Marjorie! I have repainted her and will glaze her a bit. It was such good fortune to find a great photo on the doll magazine to work from!

I will glue strips of muslin inside the shoulders to make them stronger and thicker. They are very thin, as were the old ones of 1840 from which this mold was likely made. I often strengthen shoulder heads this way before placing them on a body. Mr Greiner had a good idea. This is a large head, about 8 or 9 inches tall and will make a 32 inch doll. I will post her again when she has a body. E

white crepe Myrtles

2010-09-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere that crepe myrtles are to Texas what lilacs are to softer parts of the country, just as Indian Hawthorn must substitute in our gardens for azaleas. Our back yard has enjoyed months of bloom from the great white crepe myrtles "Natches" which ring most of the back, and now they are quiet but a smaller variety is still splendid along the path. When we came to this house 5 years ago next month, the whole back yard was untouched by a gardener, having only rough wild grasses and a huge crop of grass burrs. Adding favorite plants has helped to make us more at home now.

Memorial

2010-09-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

Our family gathered to remember Jack's father yesterday. The old gentleman passed away at just a month shy of 99. He lived a glorious life!

He is shown here holding small Jackson, my great grandson.. Rest in Peace Grandpa

Hearth Cooking anyone?

2010-09-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

Go to our Ruby Lane shop to see Jack's latest offering:

http://www.rubylane.com/item/401593-Rx200124

Two fascinating 19th century brass fireplace clockwork jacks. The first marked Salter Warranted and the number 25. The second unmarked as far as I can determine. These clever devises will turn meat hung before a cooking fire, first one way then the other with an audible CLICK for up to an hour and a half on one winding. Open hearth cooking enthusiasts will entertain and amaze their friends while cooking their meal to perfection. When the food is removed from the device it automatically stops until weighted down with something else to cook. It will not turn without the weight pulling downward. One original heart shaped brass key is included that will wind them both
Condition; The first is in excellent condition with overall dull brass finish, should polish to bright brass easily if desired.
The second functions but needs some brazing on the brass shell and has heavy patina over the whole exterior. This will work without its brass shell and one can observer the clever mechanism as it operates.

Size; the first is 14 inches in length
The second is 13 inches long

Price: $125 for the two
Shipping: $20 USA I found only one more of these for sale on the web today, it is in England and is 300 British pounds.

Jack has been demonstrating these turning curiosities for me all day.

Our wonderful Renters are moving.

2010-08-31T15:47:00.000-07:00

Some of you know that Jack and I have a beautiful rent house in the center of town here in Fredericksburg. We have had the most wonderful renters living there this past year; now they are moving to another city so the 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with a small yard and full 2 car garage will be ready for a new person or couple on October 1st and after. Go look inside at this link. Thank you!
http://609courtney.blogspot.com/

Art is such an expressive language

2010-08-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

My beautiful little mother in law, Lillian O’Neill, was an artist all of her long life. She lived in beauty with every thing she chose to wear or furnish a home with or paint with her endlessly talented fingers. As a child she sketched a lot and her artwork was an integral part of her personality always.

As a bride, she went from Illinois to Houston Texas with the tall broad shouldered man she would be married to for 75 years. . A stay at home wife and mother in Houston and then in Chicago again, Lillian sought out classic early American antiques in second hand stores and estate auctions, drawn to the honesty and merit of these pieces. She always loved fine windsors, even had a writing arm one. Beautiful furniture could be purchased needing some repair or touch ups, which John, a craftstman all of his life, could restore to beauty and function. Early on, her own joy in creating art was expressed mostly in portraiture.

It was not long until the young O’Neills became part time dealers, befriending many collectors and small dealers where ever they moved. Later, during the 1950’s she was a fixture in the Louisville auctions, and recognized many treasures sneaking through. Lillian also began to paint things to add to their antique sales, and left a string of fans in each place they lived. The family moved a lot. Her work is collected mostly in clusters near Chicago, Ft Worth, Vicksburg, and Southern Indiana.

John was good at his trade, always connected with wood and cabinetmaking, He was foreman of A Brandt, maker of Ranch Oak furniture in FT Worth for a time, and of American Handicraft’s wood shop later. But John was and is a man of mercurial temperament, and would find the grass greener across the country.

Lillian’s bountiful painting made the O’Neill home a fairy land, which I first experienced nearly 40 years ago in east Ft Worth. I met my future parents-in-law by way of common interests in art and antiques. We lived in the same tree-shaded pleasant neighborhood and were surely destined to find each other.

When I was invited to visit I discovered a stairwell painted completely in blue delft designs on off white woodwork. The paneled doors and the door facings were covered in amazing complexity, little scenes with windmills and sail boats and barns and chickens and on and on, all blues and white.

Then I stepped into the living room itself, filled with John’s beautiful handmade furniture and a nice collection of old windsors, set off by a great collection of mostly antique English ceramics, but with some continental things too, like Meissen patterned pieces. One cupboard held only Quimper. Staffordshire figures of children and dogs and hens were everywhere. The blue transfer printed Staffordshire was Lillian’s joy. The windows showed off John’s wooden paneled shutters, painted by Lillian in her own amazing style, mostly birds and fruit in that room. Entering the Kitchen I found a wonderland of Pennsylvania Dutch tulips and distlefinks and hearts. The cabinets and other doors and facings were all painted a light mustard and covered in these designs. Meissen Onion pattern dishes and accessories were everywhere!

Only on a subsequent visit did I see her own bathroom, where it was painted from floor to ceiling with Quimper like designs on a light blue green back ground. A lovely blue room filled with little French boys and girls in the charming and innocent scenes of Quimper ware.

As I came to know Lillian and later became her daughter-in-law, I marveled at the way she painted: the endless variation, no two borders or motifs alike, just flowing free hand from her own mind. The charming little children, in settings with barns and farm houses and flowers and chickens, came from her brush in a never ending stream. Her Fruit designs were much sought after. She would paint a batch of things and John would drive to Vicksburg once a year to sell at a craft show where their offerings were eagerly purchased. Some of the items she decorated were antique tin or wooden pieces and some were small wooden things John made for her. He painted the background colors and antiqued the pieces and let her do the decoration. Then he sprayed them with a gloss finish.

What a wonderful team they were! Several magazine articles celebrated their work and one showed their Ft Worth house in detail. Hundreds and hundreds of examples of their work were sold, and our very large family has managed to retain a good many. I will show a few photos of some of these, and perhaps add a slide show of more of them to this site later. I am assembling a tribute to Lillian’s lovely art. Let me assure you she was even more loved and precious in person. She left us last year at 91 years of life still blowing us kisses off those wonderful little fingers almost to the last of her time with us. A card she sent me one birthday said “ I looked to find a friend, and found a daughter.”

1980's children

2010-08-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

What a nice surprise to have a friend send me an email showing two of the primitive paintings I did in the early 1980's. I sold over 350 large paintings, about 250 of them children. (of small paintings, like 9 x 12, there were too many to number and keep track of.) Two of my favorites were portraits of blond twin girls in Connecticut, of actual contemporary children but painted in this style. This pair with the vivid coloring and stencilled floors was a great joy to do! I made so much of this art! It happened mostly between 1972 (first one) and 1984. And now it is gone from my hands, I cannot make them happen with the complete ease and elan of that time, I am attempting to recreate a lost one for my daughter Beth, of Granddaughter Sarah, and it is no wise the same! I would like to do several of them just to have about. A nice pastime for hot weather. Edyth

I never tire of Brown and Blue

2010-07-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

I used these favorite colors to tie together a small doll bed quilt and a little antique chest of drawers given to the doll family several years ago by Jack. He found it at the Boerne Antique show and surprised me with it. Friend Elaine made and dressed the small Izannah type doll, a precious gift to me, and her mother Martha made the small braided rug in the mix of browns and blues. Both of these women are superb fiber artists.

To make the little quilt, I sewed extra brown strips around an early Log Cabin square, added a frame of soft blue, and bound and backed it with a deeper blue green. Whether hooking, quilting or dressing a doll, the play of several fabrics well chosen is always greater than the sum of them individually. A quilter's play of fabric bit against bit is a never ending game, like endless hands of solitaire to a card player. The results are ever changing, ever intriguing. My friend for 40 some odd years, Linda B. and I used to sit on the floor and play with fabrics like two little girls playing a game of jacks. Edyth in Sunny Texas

Lion hooked with Brown and Blue

2010-07-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

Here is my pattern called Weaver's Lion, which I hooked for a pillow top a year or so back. A sweet friend Martha carried it home and added the braid she made, and then worked the whole thing into a great pillow. It does not really stay on the porch as shown in these pictures, it stays on a little sofa in my bed room, covered in a coverlet print of indigo and ecru. Thank you Martha! Edyth

Doll Party On Thursday the 8th

2010-07-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

I had some women friends in to play dolls and paint doll hair. Just a fabulous day I will never forget. We staged a doll show in the dining room with the two themes. One of the ladies, from our Maida group, Elaine has darling triplet youngsters which she home schools and is doing such a grand job with. They were here, but stayed put in the living room to let us old gals play. The subject of the painting was my rope like curls.

REMEMBER to click on all photos to make them a little larger.

Doll Quilts and Doll Making

2010-07-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

The stars of the show on one table were some thirty odd doll size quilts made by Elaine's mother and a few old ones Penny and I had, and on the other table a few examples of dolls from Penny and me, plus an amazing doll family made by Elaine!

Marcy's fox in NH

2010-06-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

Photos of the little fox thanks to Marcy G.

Hi Marcy, Chale forwarded the darling pictures of the little fox in your yard. Thank you for sharing them! My daughter Cheryl in Co has a fox family that frequents her yard , grown members and the year's babies each year. She says it is a poor idea to feed them as it makes them quite tame and therefore more vulnerable to harm. However she feeds them and the squirrels and the raccoons and birds and all comers. Your little fox would enjoy kitten, then cat food, dried purina or the like little shapes and pellets. His teeth are tiny and incredibly sharp!

I had a pair in the house for 3 months once when I lived in west Texas in the early 1960's. They were the only survivors from a den of 6 kits, dug out by a rancher loosing lambs. The little vixen would eat from my fingers, (oatmeal cookie dough) but the little dog fox her brother would bite the fire out of me! I caged them in the kitchen by day, lest a child inadvertently let them out a door, but I turned them loose at night to run and play in the house. I can still hear them in my mind's memory, yapping and churring and making a variety of calls to each other as they ran under the furniture and played. They smell quite gamey and bad confined unless the newspaper in the cage is changed several times a day. (Ours was!) The little vixen would let me cuddle her and I remember the sweet wild smell when I buried my face in her fur.

When they were old enough to turn loose in the wild, about 5 months old we judged, we took them to the edge of woods along a dirt road near Glenrose, and opened the cage door. the little dog fox shot away and I thought "Oh no he will leave her!!" The little female eased out and went a few steps then looked back at me, and then her brother peeked out from some brush and barked to her and she ran away with him to live her little fox life. I am sure they learned to hunt catching grasshoppers and small things in the woods that spring.

Cheryl is my daughter that paints, and here is a pastel she did of one of her yard fox. Best, Edyth

It's twins!

2010-05-25T16:25:00.000-07:00

At Round Top when I saw these adorable cotton wrappers or dressing gowns for infant twins, I was unsure just how to use them but I wanted them much!

A few months later the same dealer had them at a show in Boerne Texas. The price held me off. After leaving the show they were still on my mind and I asked Jack to turn around and let me go back and buy the treasures.

The dresses are both in splendid condition, fully lined in two different brown cotton prints. I date them about 1870, could be a bit later or earlier. At the time I had one 36 inch M and S superior doll, and began watching for another. By a marvelous stroke of luck, a second one arrived in the mail as a gift from a doll collecting friend! So now the two of them wear the wonderful dresses and sit side by side on top of a highboy in my bed room. The age of the dolls matches well with the garments.

Again the shoes tell a similar story, I bought one pair at the Comfort Antique show 2 weeks back and friend Jean saw what I was doing and mailed me a matching pair for the other twin! Little by little, with the help of an understanding and indulgent husband and the generosity of friends, a lovely family of dolls in appropriate clothing is coming to be mine again. Blessings.. Edyth

Hill country party Remember to click pictures to make big!

2010-05-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

I like the coverlet border used as a cornice board , and don't miss the great Shaker hat and cloak. The whole house is a lovely tribute to a life time collector.

Party some more.

2010-05-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

I will not leave all of these photos on the blog permanently, in the interest of space. Wish you all could have seen all of the magnificent south western jewelry worn by many of these women! In one photo, there is a wonderful Green Calabash bonnet!

A beautiful party in the Texas Hill country

2010-05-25T11:26:00.000-07:00

On this past Saturday Jack and I journeyed to the home of a friend, on the occasion of her restored property receiving a Texas Historical Marker. Sharing wild flowers, friends, and antiques by photos would take a lot of posts here! After culling I still have 60 photographs that are keepers. I will begin by showing some of them in groups. I know that many of you who read here share a love of early textiles and great furniture. So I will pick for those. Enjoy! Edyth

2010-04-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

My favorite doll museum, was always the Merritt museum in PA. From the dispersal auctions a little while back, I have 3 of my favorite dolls from that museum. I have seen several other large collections, including the Strong and Sturbridge and one long ago on Cape Cod, as well as one at the Wenham in MA. But Jack drove me to enjoy the Merritt over and over. There I met Marjorie Darrah and her daughter Marjorie Ann Yocum, Mary Merritt's Granddaughter. Marjorie Ann was the doll restorer for the museum, and often visited with me in the doll museum shop. So when Jack was able to read the signature on my newly acquired reproduction head, it was like she was coming home to me. The doll maker is Marjorie A Yocum, with a date of 1991. I do not buy reproduction dolls on purpose, but this one snuck in under the radar, the form was so great, I felt it might be a repainted old head, until I actually had it in my hands.
I am not sure just what I will do with her, but I will give her a different paint job. I'll bet she settles in somewhere. E

Greiner doll offered

2010-04-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sweet little greiner doll is going to a new home, thank you S.

Hope all of you had a sweet Easter

2010-04-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

For Easter we made a cake to share with family, wish it was the traditional big ham dinner we did years ago, but there are too many of the family now, and Jack and I have had too many birthdays so the big dark sheath cake is just right. A funny story, once I had a nice collection of old Staffordshire hens, sold all but one when I married Jackie. After a few years we opened a shop in Fredericksburg and I foolishly stuck the remaining and best of the chickens in there. A lady bought it almost immediately, at a strong price, and I instantly wished I had not sold it!! With great good luck she brought it back the next day with her nose a bit in the air, and said she did not know it was English, she only wanted to collect "American Staffordshire hens!" I was delighted to have back my hen, and set her out on the table with a bit of Easter grass for that time each year. The antique business was never dull. Have a Great day! Edyth

No not me on a Harley this time

2010-03-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

Spring has arrived and it is a beauty! Last year when we bought Jack a Harley, he said it made him feel 10 years younger just to climb on and ride it a little while. Well somehow buying tomato plants has the same effect on me!! Starting the year's kitchen garden brings on a surge of happy energy. I am thrilled to have them in our kitchen tonight, two kinds, and some lemon thyme and a packet of yellow squash seed, and a bit more to come in the next week when we can locate parsely and basil plants, and cucumber seed. We have cut down to just 2 narrow raised beds now, and hope we can keep up with the bugs better. Last year was a disaster for our veggies, as it was for many people here.

I have a sneaky plan... the pill bugs got almost all of the squash last year, I tried to raise the little things out of harm's way by shoving wads of hay under each one, but lost almost the whole crop. THIS year, we are going to stretch net wire across the bed, side to side, and coax the young squash plants up through the wire leaving all about 4 or 5 inches off the ground. The vines and fruit might bloom and grow safely up there away from contact with the bugs on the damp soil. We shall see! I have never heard of anyone trying that. If you see a strange figure in a straw hat and floppy clothes in our back yard, it is not a scarecrow really. E

Lost in La la land

2010-03-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, I am without my computer, dear Mouseburger the 3rd has died. I am waiting on Dell to send Mouseburger the 4th and then must try to get all the familiar programs back up on it, so I can work with our camera, and email contacts etc. I am normaly one who is up part of every night on the computer, and in touch with it many times throughout the days. Just before the hard drive died I was working on an article for Dixie Redmond's site, Maida Today www.maidatoday.com
I hope those of you who enjoy antique dolls will find and enjoy that new site, up less than a month and already having 1000's of hits, literaly! Because some spammers got on with their unpleasant ads, Dixie has had to make it a members only site, just Say Edyth sent you and she will approve you and that is all it takes to get on and enjoy this mixture of doll related content. If the partial address above does not get you on, google search the web for MAIDA Dixie Redmond.
Today Jack and I drove out to the Willow City loop to check for Bluebonnets. I want to do some paintings when they are out good! We are off to the start of a glorious spring, i wish all of you the same, Warmly, E

Early Rabbit sighting

2010-03-07T12:39:00.001-08:00

The Easter Bunny aka the mail man, brought this lovely papier mache shoulder head shown standing by a book to give scale. The head is 8 inches tall.. She was in a stash of parts awaiting restoration, owned by Richard Wright at the time of his death. The doll head dates from about 1840, and was made by Andreas Voit. This type dates about 8 to 10 years later than her Sister doll shown in brown dress, made without the open mouth and teeth. When new, both dolls would have had human hair wigs, which at that period were often very elaborately styled. Now I will enjoy making a body for the new one! She will be about a 32 inch doll. They will be so pretty together! Have a great day, Edyth