A Few Vintage Hankies

Scott and I went to a little flea market (okay, it was a big flea market) on Sunday.  It felt good to just walk around and look at all the wonderful junk!  Sometimes, I wonder who buys certain things and sometimes I wish I had more money!

I was however honestly happy to find a few $1.00 vintage hankies:

These are pure, concentrated treasure to me!  Most of them still have the little label on them!  I'll be using these in future crazy quilt pieces.  That blue rose is screaming at me so that one will probably get used first!

I finished up a project that I stitched last week:

Yes, a little Cat Door Hanger.  I love this one.  The purple flowers on the top left are tatted flowers that I made with beaded leaves.  In the bottom right, you can see the blackwork fill-in that I'm experimenting with more and more.

Finally for today, my current project is this green purse block:

I'm ready to start adding the glitter (beads and sequins) to this piece!  Again, in the top left, you can see more of my blackwork fill-in.  I think I'll be making some more of those purple tatted flowers!

Yellow Crazy Quilt Hankie Pillow

Just a quick update on my Yellow Crazy Quilt Hankie Pillow.  I have the seams embroidered and am ready to start with some beading and other embellishments:

Look closely at the seam embroidery to the right of the yellow flower.  That's a woven border that I worked with my waste canvas technique!

Crazy Quilting with Vintage Handkerchiefs

My crazy quilt block with the vintage handkerchief that I shared yesterday is complete:

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, this is a gift for a friend.  Her favorite color these days is green so I wanted lots of green.  Look closely at the bird.  It's a peacock.  A vintage brooch that I've been saving for something special.  If all goes as planned, I'll get this sewn up over the weekend.

My next project incorporates another vintage hankie:

If you look closely, you can see that I don't obsess over my curved seams.  I just top stitch them and then sew trim and lace on those seams.

I'll be starting on this block later today.  The floral in the center is from a vintage hankie that I found at a flea market.  I thought this would be pretty with blue stitching.  Yellow and blue always look nice together!

Crazy Quilt and Vintage Hankies

A really fun thing to use on a new Crazy Quilt piece is a Vintage Hankie.  I've been collecting them for years and many times, I find them for just a dollar or two at flea markets, resale shops and antique shops:

This one had a rounded edges on it and was hand crocheted so I cut it and centered it at the top of this block.  As you can see, I add some trim and my beloved sequins for sparkle.  This one is a gift for a friend.

Machine Embroidery Vintage Hankies

I've been collecting vintage hankies for quite a few years now and I love to use them on my crazy quilt projects.  My favorite hankies are the ones with machine embroidery flowers on them.  They're quite easy to find for a dollar or 2 at flea markets and antique shops.

The purple rose on this hanging pillow is from a vintage handkerchief:

I finished embellishing this door hanger yesterday and then last night, I started on one with a pink rose:

I spent all day yesterday sewing.  I put a good couple of miles on my sewing machine, piecing loads of new blocks.  I wish I could sew some more new blocks today but I have other things that need to be done.  I do plan on having a few hours of stitching time later today.

Door Pillows for St Patricks Day

Mom's latest creations!  Door Pillows for St Patricks Day.  Mom made these from vintage handkerchiefs:

This one was made from a vintage image that I printed on fabric:

Check out that vintage tatted doily behind the image!  I picked up a few of those at the last Flea Market I was at.  I gave them all to mom thinking they would be perfect for her door pillows.

These are in our boutique now!

Crazy Cat Lady

I can't help myself!  I'm one of those eccentric crazy cat ladies who dresses like a gypsy and has cat figurines all over my house!  I'm going to stitch 2 more crazy quilt cat dolls before I move on to something else.  The next 2 cat dolls will be gifts.  First a yellow cat doll:

After stitching this is shades of yellow, I'll add aqua blue flowers and embellishments.  I'll share the next one when I finish this doll.

I stopped at moms yesterday to have a cup of coffee with her and she surprised me with 2 more beautiful door pillows for the shop.  Both are made from vintage hankies:

You may remember seeing the vintage hankie with the red rose last week.  I bought it at the antique mall.  Mom really has a knack for turning vintage hankies into little works of decorative art!  These are both available in our Valentines Day Shop!

Treasures from the Flea Market in Grayslake Illinois

I had a lovely morning with my husband today.  We went to the Antique and Collectable Flea Market in Grayslake, Illinois.  One of my favorite Flea Markets in northern Illinois!  A perfect "something to do" the 2nd weekend of every month.  Especially in the cold months because it's all inside!

I found some nice treasure there today!  First, a couple of vintage rhinestone brooches.  Well, one is a brooch and the other little bee pin:

Next, I found some pretty vintage buttons in pink, green and purple:

Some of my prize flea market and antique shop finds are vintage handkerchiefs.  I found quite a few today.  First some Christmas ones:

And then some everyday hankies with pretty flowers:

Something I've been collecting for many years are little vintage cat figurines. Are you surprised?  LOL!!! I have quite a few but they have to have a certain look to them.  They don't have be really old but they have to have that old look.  I found this little one today:

 Last but not least, the piece de resistance.  I found this gorgeous old hat box:

And you'll never guess what it was filled with!!!!!

And can you believe, I only paid $15.00 for the box and all the old lace?  Talk about a Crazy Quilter's dream day!!!!

Christmas Door Pillows from Vintage Hankies

Mom has quite a knack with door pillows!  Her latest creations are made with vintage handkerchiefs:

I'm looking forward to seeing what else mom comes up with.  I've recently given her a whole pile of vintage handkerchiefs from my collection so I'm sure they'll be more of these little Christmas Door Pillow Ornaments to come!

In other news, I'm still working on my custom order.  I'm almost done and then I can do some sewing.  I want to sew up some Christmas Cat Dolls and I'm planning on some Snowman Dolls!  Stay tuned!

Old Lace and Vintage Hankies

We had a awesome time at the Flea Market in Elkhorn, Wisconsin yesterday!  It's a huge market and takes hours and hours to walk through. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Sunny and about 80 degrees.

I found treasure!  Lots of treasure!  Old lace, vintage hankies, sweet little buttons and more!  This was a bag of appliques, pretty little crocheted pieces and trim.  Perfect for crazy quilting!

Next, I found yards and yards of narrow lace in different colors:

Then, some little bags of lace for $1.00 each:

Next, I found some sweet little buttons and check out that bunch of vintage millinery grapes!  Can't wait to use that on a crazy quilt piece!

I also found some pretty vintage hankies.  The small one are for mom for her door pillows.  The pink one and the one with the roses are for my crazy quilting:

Last but not least, I found a few interesting pieces.  The needlepoint piece is for mom to make something out of.  The baby applique is for mom as well.  I thought she could make a pretty little baby pillow out of it.  Last, I found that lace table runner.  I'll share with mom.  There's a lot we can do with that!

It was a really fun and nice day of treasure hunting!  Click on the pictures to enlarge them and see things up close!

Vintage Handkerchief Door Pillows

Mom has come up with such a unique little door pillow using vintage handkerchiefs! 

I just love the shape of these!  I let mom raid my vintage hankie stash so I know there are more to come.  These are now in the Boutique as well as Etsy.

For a 15% discount on all orders, be sure to sign up for our Kitty & Me Designs newsletter!

Sunday Flea Market Treasures

Despite being hotter than Billy Blue Blazes on Sunday, I just can't pass up a Flea Market!  I hadn't really planned on going anywhere this past weekend.  I wanted to hang out at home and get some stuff done around here, but when my sister sent me a text message saying that there was a Flea Market at the McHenry County Fair grounds in Woodstock, Illinois (a hop, skip & a jump from where we are), I just couldn't skip it!

All in all, it was a little disappointing.  Not many dealers for the $5.00 admission fee and of the dealers that were there, they all thought they had gold!  I'm a Flea Market Queen so I know my prices! 

I did manage to find a few treasures though and all for only $10.00!

A couple of pretty hankies, a gorgeous piece of crocheted lace and some fun trim with sequins!  Not bad!  But I really do need to stop buying it and start using it!  My stash runneth over!  'Course, that won't stop me!

Sunday Treasures from the Flea Market

Sunday was such a beautiful day here in Northern Illinois!  Sunny and warm. The perfect day for a flea market!

Scott and I picked mom up and drove out to Grayslake Fair Grounds in Lake County for the monthly Flea Market & Antique Show.  Wow!  The theme for this show was "vintage" which is right up my alley!

Mom & I found all sorts of neat little goodies!  These are the "treasures" that I found:

These old hats are covered with vintage millinery flowers!  I love to pick them up and take the flowers off for my crazy quilts and other crafts.  I sat here last night while watching Dancing With The Stars and took them apart.  The cranberry colored hat was commercially made but the pink one and the lavender one were handmade.  You can tell the difference with how the flowers are attached.  With commercial hats, the flowers are glued on.  With handmade hats, the flowers are hand sewn on.  The lavender hat took quite awhile to take apart.  But it was so worth it as all of the little flowers are velvet!

My next treasures are these beautiful vintage lace collars:

 

I don't see pink vintage collars too often.  I only paid $2.00 for each of these!  I love old lace and will cut these up for my crazy quilts.

I also found a couple of beautiful vintage hankies with gorgeous lace on them:

It a little challenging to get a decent photo of these but the lace is gorgeous!  I like these because the lace is on all 4 corners so I get a lot for my money.  I paid only $2 each for these!

My next treasures are some lace pieces:

 

Again, it was a little hard to get a good photo of these but the laces are gorgeous!  And a little goes a long way with crazy quilting!

Finally, I found a couple pieces of pretty vintage jewelry:

To use the rose earrings, I will cut the clips off the back with wire cutters and then glue a pre-threaded button to the back with E6000 Jewelry Glue. Then they can easily be sewn onto my project.

So those are my treasures from this past weekend!  I love Flea Market season!  I love the thrill of the hunt!

Be sure to see my article on How To Take Apart An Old Hat!  You can find them at flea markets and antique shops for just a few dollars and you'll get loads of vintage millinery flowers off them!