A Make Do Pincushion and Other Goodies

Tonight, as the temperature falls and I await Downton Abbey,

it seems like a good time for a post.

Here is a make-do pincushion made from a piece of my great grandmother's silver plate

tea set.  It is badly tarnished, but that is the look I like.  The bottom fell out, so instead

of trashing it, I turned it into this pincushion.  Excuse dust and hair :)

Here is a little huswife I made, just playing around with Civil War repro fabrics.

I've been taking a short break from stitching on my new designs from Merry Wind Farm.

I needed to take some time to work on things for ME. :)  I had this wonderful frame, I think

it is a piece left over from the side of a grandfather clock, and this neat coverlet design

from Cross-Eyed Cricket is almost perfect.  I will just need to add some more stitching 

at the bottom.  I have a perfect place for this, and since I can't have antique coverlets (cats

would ruin them) this is the next best thing.

This is a really neat apothecary piece that I purchased from a resale shop in

Tipp City.  Although not old, it is made by a very talented local master craftsman.  Notice the 

detail and dove-tailed drawers.  Right now it is upstairs in the bedroom,  but I think it

needs to move downstairs for display.

This adorable little girl in Merry (as in Christmas) and she joined our flock right before 

 Christmas.  I went out to the barn at midnight on a rainy night, and heard a kitty crying.

Our barn cats do not cry, so I went out and called and she came running to me, soaking wet.

I picked her up and deposited her in the barn right in front of the food dish, and she was so hungry.  

I proceeded to worry all night, and she was still there the next morning.  Then she came up to

the porch and just cried and cried to get it and scratched at the door.  We took pity on her, and off to the vet she went for spay and shots.  I think she was actually born here.  Last summer

there was a litter of four, three black and one gray (from a distance, they were quite

wild,)  The gray one disappeared, and I think this is her!  What happened, I don't know,

but the vet said she has had kittens.  Only 8 months old, a baby having babies!  Plus, she was wounded, can you see it over her eye?  Well, all is well now and she is in kitty nirvana.

I so hope that everyone spays and neuters their pets.  

"A cat can have up to five liters in 1 year. They can have 6 or more kittens each time. They can reach sexual maturity as early as 4 months of age. And most cats live at least 10 years, some over 20 years.....you do the math Basically that works out at 300 kittens if a cat was sexually productive for 10 years. However it is more likely that a cat would have about 4 kittens on average, 2.5 times a year, so say 10 per year, for maybe 5 years, 50 kittens. This is a very conservative estimate, however if this was true then it would only take 9 generations (if all of those cats were to have 50 kittens) to cover the whole world in cats! The surface area of the world being 510 million km2 and assuming you could fit a cat in an area of 0.03m2. 
So watch out kids, neuter your cats!"

This is the antique of Mary Inglis, a Scottish sampler that I will be releasing soon.  I love the manor with the blue roof.  I should be getting it back from the framer this week.

In December I shared some pictures of smalls that I have made.  I missed a few.  The  first is

a small button roll.

A little carry case for a thread sorter.

I have saved the best for last.  This was a class piece with Merry Cox.  The stitching was to be done ahead of time, and I was whining about all the over one.  My dear friend Pattianne volunteered to stitch it, then I went to the class and put it together.  It is a wonderful treasure!

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with pictures.  Stay warm

xxx