Redwork-block 2, bunnies

This is my second block in my redwork project, again another simple choice. I'm not real sure where this project is going or what it will all be but I'm having fun doing it.

Redwork was used mostly for splashers, antimacassars, tea towels, dresser scarfs, chair cushions and sofa pillows. It wasn't until the turn of the century that bedcovers and quilts peaked.

How cute is mom with a young'un?

C&G Design

Raggedy Ann Rescues Fido

It was almost midnight and the dolls were asleep in their beds; all except Raggedy Ann.


Raggedy lay there, her shoe button eyes staring straight up at the ceiling. Every once in a while Raggedy Ann ran her rag hand up through her yarn hair. She was thinking.


When she had thought for a long, long time, Raggedy Ann raised herself on her wobbly elbows and said, "I've thought it all out."


At this the other dolls shook each other and raised up saying, "Listen, Raggedy has thought it out!"


"Tell us what you have been thinking, dear Raggedy,'' said the tin soldier. "We hope they were pleasant thoughts." "Not very pleasant thoughts!" said Raggedy, as she brushed a tear from her shoe-button eyes. "You haven't seen Fido all day have you?"


"Not since early this morning," the French dolly said.


"It has troubled me," said Raggedy, "and if my head was not stuffed with lovely new white cotton, I'm sure it would have ached with worry! When Mistress took me into the livingroom this afternoon she was crying, and I heard her mamma say,'We will find him! He's sure to come home soon!' and I knew they were talking of Fido! He must be lost!"


The tin soldier jumped out of bed and ran over to Fido's basket, his tin feet clicking on the floor as he went. "He is not here," he said.


"When I was sitting in the window about noon-time," said the Indian doll, "I saw Fido and a yellow scraggly dog playing out on the lawn and they ran through the hole in the fence!"


"That was Priscilla's dog, Peterkins!" said the French doll.


"I know poor Mistress is very sad on account of Fido," said the Dutch doll, "Because I was in the diningroom at supper time and I heard Daddy tell her to eat her supper and he would go out to find Fido; but I had forgotton all about it until now."


"That's the trouble with all of us except Raggedy Ann!" cried the little penny doll, in a squeaky voice, "She has to think for all of us!"


"I think it would be a good plan for us to show our love for Mistress and try and find Fido!" exclaimed Raggedy.


"It's a good plan, Raggedy Ann!" cried all the dolls.


"The let us waste no more time in talking!" said Raggedy Ann, as she jumped from the bed, followed by the rest.


The nursery window was open, so the dolls helped each other up on the sill and then jumped on the soft grass below. They fell in all sorts of queer attitudes, but of course the fall did not hurt them.




At the hole in the fence the Indian doll picked up the trail of the two dogs, and the dolls, stringing out behind, followed him until they can to Peterkin's house. Peterkins was surprised to see the strange little figures in white nighties come stringing up the path to the dog house.


Peterkins was to large to sleep in the nursery, so he had a nice cozy dog house under the grape arbor.


"Come in," Peterkins said when he saw and recognized the dolls, so all the dollies went into Peterkin's and sat about while Raggedy told him why they had come.


"It has worried me, too!" said Peterkins, "but I had no way of telling your Mistress where Fido was, for she can not understand dog language! For you see,'' Peterkins continued, "Fido and I were having the grandest romp over in the park when a great big man with a funny thing on the end of a stick came running towards us. We barked at him and Fido thought he was trying to play with us and went up to close and do you know, that wicked man caught Fido in the thing at the end of the stick and carried him to a wagon and dumped him in with lot of other dogs!"


"The dog catcher!" cried Raggedy Ann.


"Yes!" said Peterkins, as he wiped his eyes with his paws. "It was the dog catcher! For I followed the wagon at a distance and saw him put all the dogs in a big wire pen, so that none could get out!"


"Then you know the way there, Peterkins?" asked Raggedy Ann.


"Then show us the way!" Raggedy Ann cried, "for we must try to reach Fido."



So Peterkins led the way up alleys and across streets, the dolls are all pattering along behind him. It was a strange procession. Once a strange dog ran out at them, but Peterkins told him to mind his own business and the strange dog returned to his own yard.


At last they came to the dog catcher's place. Some of the dogs in the pen were barking at the moon and others were whining and crying.


There was Fido, all covered with mud, and his pretty red ribbon dragging on the ground. My, but he was glad to see the dolls and Peterkins! All the dogs came to the side of the pen and twisted their heads from side to side, gazing in wonder at the queer figures of the dolls.


"We will try and let you out," said Raggedy Ann.


At this all the dogs barked joyfully.


Then Raggedy Ann, the other dolls and Peterkins went to the gate.


The catch was too high for Raggedy Ann to reach, but Peterkins held Raggedy Ann in his mouth and stood up on his hind legs so that she could raise the catch.


When the catch was rasised, the dogs were so anxious to get out they pushed and jumped against the gate so hard it flew open, knocking Peterkins and Raggedy Ann into the mud. Such a yapping and barking was never heard in theneighborhood as when to dogs swarmed out of the enclosure, jumping over one another and scrambling about in the mad rush out of the gate.



Fido picked himself up from where he had been rolled by the large dogs and helped Raggedy Ann to her feet. He, Peterkins, and all the dolls ran after the pack of dogs, turning the corner just as the dog catcher came running out of the house in his nightgown to see what was causing the trouble.


He stopped in astonishment when he saw the string of dolls in white nighties pattering down the alley, for he could not imagine what they were.


Well, you may be sure the dolls thanked Peterkins for his kind assistance and they and Fido ran on home, for a faint light was beginning to show in the east where the sun was getting ready to come up.


When they got to their own home they found a old chair out in the yard and after a great deal of work they finally dragged it to the window and thus managed to get into the nursery again.


Fido was very grateful to Raggedy Ann and the other dolls and before he went to his basket he gave them each a lick on the cheek.


The dolls lost no time in scrambling into bed and pulling up the covers, for they were very sleepy, but just as they were dozing off, Raggedy Ann raised herself and said, "If my legs and arms were not stuffed with nice clean cotton I feel sure they would ache and I could not feel happier if my body were stuffed with sunshine, for I know how pleased and happy Mistress will be in the morning when she discovers Fido asleep in his own little basket, safe and sound at home.





And as the dollies by this time were all asleep, Raggedy Ann pulled the sheet up to her chin and smiled so hard she ripped two stitches out of the back of her rag head.

Special thanks to the Gutenberg project. C&G Design

A Lovely Blog Award

Hi all! This post is about a award given to me by Debbie from Blueberry Plains. Debbie is a very sweet lady who writes about her discoveries, journey's and memories in her life, she is also full of antics, wonderment and energy! Pay her a visit, I'm sure she won't mind.


The rules are as follows:

1. Link back to the person who gave you the award.

Debbie at Blueberry Plains

2. Pass it along to 15 bloggers that are new to you.

Well, some are new, some aren't, they are as follows:

1.The Vintage Protector

2.The Dutchlady

3.Cinj Chat Room

4.Lace 'n' Ribbon Roses

5.Black Eyed Suzie

6.Home of the Faeries

7.Versana

8.House of Houben

9.Painting my Way

10.See Sue Stitch

11.Wool + Water

12.Julie Dolls

13.Apple hill dolls

14.Garrison Garret Fiber Arts

15.Karen's Dolls and Stuff

As with all memes or tags, no one really has to accept their award. I do it as a fun way to meet people. Thank-you, Debbie! C&G Design

The Adams Family Dollhouse

Here is the last of my friend's dollhouses and this is my favorite one! The Aadam's Fammily, snap! snap! Specialized dollhouses are not as common as dollhouse families.

I think this one is beautiful, the outside is captured to a "T".

Truly wonderful. Residing at 0001 Cemetery lane, and later at 1313 Cemetery Lane, next to a swamp.

Gomez, remember he use to kiss up Morticia's arm when she spoke french?

A wall portrait of Uncle Fester, Hey, That plant looks to be from Nintendo's, Mario, only green instead of polka dotted.

Grand mama, brewing a witches potion.

I never understood why this family had a nursery, too funny!

Cousin IT and Lurch! Oh, this brings back floods of memories, Lurch's harpsichord organ must be in the basement!

Morticia in the bedroom, wonder if this family has nightwear similar to day wear. Seem their attire never changes.

Wednesday and Pugsly. Wednesday was always trying to do in Pugsly, but he didn't seem to notice. Poor Wednesday, full of woe.

Uncle Fester with a pumpkin.

Did you know this family was invented by a cartoonist and first ran in the new york Sunday paper? Cartoonist Charles Adams who collaborated with his friend Ray Bradbury? What? A classic sci-fi writer, Fahrenheit 451, etc., that we all were made to read in school! How come they never told us?

Well, I feel gypped. C&G Design

Redwork-Block 1, Pig

Redwork has been making a comeback lately, I was surprised to see so much of it at the fair last year but there it was, machine embroidered. I don't have anything against the new machines that can do everything except kiss your husband, but I was a little deflated to read they are machine embroidered.

Redwork is a kind of embroidery picked up in the 1880' to the 1920's, it replaced the Victorian era of crazy quilts which had faded out. Woman were willing to pay extra money for what was called "Turkey Red" floss because it was the only color that was colorfast, thus redwork was born. Blue colorfast came along in 1910-1930, blue embroidery with blue is called bluework, green floss is greenwork. The only exception is black and that is work done with a single black strand, stitched one way (horizontal or vertical), the rest of the pattern is done in red. This work is called blackwork. By far though, redwork is the oldest.

I'll have more history on redwork as we go along because I want to talk about my project. I started with this cute little pig pattern figuring it was easy and it was....., I tranfered it the way I usually do, trace the outline with pencil then after facing down on fabric, scribble with hard pressure on the back of the pattern. This method has been effective for me since I was in high school.

The first step to redwork is the running stitch, it takes most of the time in a redwork project but still, quite easy.

You'll notice masking tape on my fabric, it's meant to prevent fraying but I ditched it after this block. Sometimes peeling the tape off can cause unraveling itself and since these are simple projects, they will be handled far less than others and really don't need the temporary binding.

After the running stitch, you'll need to weave in and out of each top stitch in a spiral manner. This is the outline stitch. Sometimes redwork includes the satin stitch and the backstitch. You'll see the satin later on down the road but I almost never use the backstitch.

Isn't my pig cute? They all are cute, it's hard to pick a favorite. C&G Design

Butterflies

Pink Saturday is here again! I can't wait for the spring blooms to start because then I'll have a abundant amount of subjects for this day.
I'd like to thank Beverly for being our wonderful hostess, Pink Saturday has grown to about 150 participants and she does a marvelous job handling all of it. Jump on over and see for yourselves, click here.
I'm portraying some decor from my daughter's room for today's Pink Saturday, she likes butterflies, frilly, sheer, butterflies. Here are the lights that are on her bed. And here is the montage on the wall over her bed. The orange and black one is from the Halloween costume I made for her when she was two, she wore them again about 5 years later when she (7 years old) was a wooded fairy in a very big production play of Snow White. She also had the two small ones (clipped in the middle of the big butterflies) holding both sides of her tiara , clipped to her hair. She was sooo cute! And in the front line of the act!

She was on stage long enough for tears to well up in my eyes, then, poof! done. C&G Design.

Shakepeare Block

I didn't quite stick to the pattern of 'vintage block', I used regular varnish for my final coats. The pattern calls for Craquelure varnish, I've never used this product but apparently it cracks and if you rub artist oil paints with a cloth, you'll get a aged look. The link to the vintage block also has a recipe for craquelure varnish. I figured that by using wall paper paste to decoupage my photos, it would create a uneven look, making the eye of the beholder wonder about the age. Also, craft paints applied to wallpaper paste (even while sanded), will cause the paint to crack. You have to be careful with amounts of decoupaging though because it will rub ink from the print.

It did change the color of the engravings from off white to pink! Let's hope the English teacher has a girl!

Portia-wife of Brutus

I'm happy with the way my block turned out, you can slightly tell about the shortness of the top carton but it doesn't detract from it's vintage...ness.

Princess Katherine of France

I'll be doing another one of these although I'm not sure what theme yet. I found my Shakespeare pictures at The Graphics Fairy. Check her out, she has 587 followers! And a beautiful blog.

Constance

I must admit, I like this one. Katherine, Taming of the Shrew.

Not pictured is Titania-Queen of the Fairies. C&G Design

Vintage Block

I have a idea, it came from here. Sounds simple enough, make a vintage block (building block), out of a few items and use that block to display some of your favorite pictures.

The idea is to cut the bottom of a quart of milk, creamer, etc. Fill one bottom with plaster, in my case I used some rocks as a filler, then affix one cover over the other. Yep, that's my goal, but I ran out of plaster half way through and I had to get more out of storage. Drats!

The plaster hardened, grrrr. I could only force, force! The cover on to about halfway, tsk! Makes sense.

Well, I decided since it had layers of paper mache, I'd go ahead a try what I could.

Detouring a little off the subject, I have to mention what inspired my choice of pictures for my block. My son's English teacher, he is a sophomore and until this year he didn't care about doing any work for English. "It's boring." "A lot of paper writing." "I just don't like it." Ugh, we have struggled for no reason other than he didn't want to be there. Believe me. He knows the work. Anyway, this quarter he started coming home and talking about Julius Caesar, lightness and pleasantness in his tone. "What?" Talk about boring....I didn't say that though! He went from two C's up to a B+. Oh, so close to the A she told him he might be able to achieve. Sadly she left last Friday, she's gone on maternity leave with her first child, she also signs her email as Shakespeare Advisor, she made it fun. Shakespeare.

Anyway, here are 3 of the pictures I'm using, all from Shakespeare including the great man himself.

Luckily, my son has her husband for chemistry next year, luckily. Maybe I'll give my block to her. C&G Design.

Kathleen at Rural Maine Life is hosting a giveaway for her 100th post, and her birthday. Comment on her blog before 9:00 pm on Saturday the 25th (her birthday), and you'll be entered to win several items with a Fleur De Lis pattern including a sweet teapot. Click here.

The Forgotten Room

Oops, I forgot to add this room in Victorian House, posted yesterday. Not!

The dollhouse creator paid $35.00 for this little Raggedy Ann over seas, she is about 1 inch tall.

Geez, needed to come a see me.

Love, Raggedy Ann.

C&G Design

Victorian Dollhouse

This is the second post on my friend's dollhouses. This one is Victorian. The gazebo like corner opens up to expose a few rooms,

ONE of the maids in the dining room.

The mistress in the sitting room. All the wallpaper is period and very nice! I love they way all these houses look, but I have the best for last!

Who wouldn't want a balcony like this one?

The twins are on the downstairs porch while the grounds keeper is working hard. BTW, the lawn mower really works!

Ah, two friends and a dog.

All of the cedar shakes were hand cut by the creator.

If my dollhouse project would look so nice.

One of the attic bedrooms with a combo nursery, baby somewhere?

The master bedroom, it has a adjoining door that opens up to the sitting room. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Stairwell hallway, I love the rails!

A manly study, library or den.

Check out the cuckoo clock, it really works! Timex, takes a licking.

Long view of the living room,

more details, see the mail slot?

It's a perfect place that stays perfect, everything is thought of, and very beautiful.

My new camera captured some of the fine, small nuances, and did it very clear. *Sigh* I'll have to get use to another one after figuring out the one I have. (It took me a year)

The other maid preparing a dinner table. Even the ham looks yummy.

I can not even begin to put a value on this dollhouse, time could never be considered.

I can smell the bread and pies!

A sizable home, for a sizable family.

I believe that's a ashtray on the end of the table.

My gentleman customer even made the newspaper.

The elegant bathroom. Oh, so pretty.

Tea and croissants?

Well! All the bases are covered aren't they.

Who would of thought of this one?

Ah, that's what a gardener is for.

I hope you have enjoyed your visit as much as I have. C&G Design.