Chilling today after a busy two days at Penn Dry Goods Market

I attended and spoke at the Penn Dry Goods Market, the first annual textile event held at the Schwenkfelder Museum in Pennsburg, PA.  www.schwenkfelder.com Two days of speakers focused on both antique quilts and samplers.  In addition there was an antique show, featuring dealers who specialized in textiles.  Top it off with home soup, sandwiches and funny cake for lunch and what's not to like?  I certainly hope this becomes an annual event.

I spoke about Pennsylvania patchwork pillowcases (of course!).  I had a group of 10 textile enthusiasts and I think they enjoyed the presentation.  It is so fun and rewarding to interact with folks who share my passion. I attended a talk on PA German fraktur quilts, PA German weaving, and the showing of quilts from two private collections.  I know its not like running a marathon, but I was drained by the end!

I did not take any photos during the event, but I do have some photos to share of the treasures I found to bring home.  There was so much to look at in the antique show; many more textiles than you would usually find at a more general antique show.  I had to keep reminding myself about those TWO college tuition bills that will be coming soon!

This is a single pillowcase estimated date 1860-1880.  It is in pristine condition; I love the simplicity of the single star on the plain muslin background.

This photo shows one of a set of two cotton pillowcases and a bolster case, all inked with the name Ella Kulp, 1896, Deep Run.  Crocheted edging on all three pieces.  Deep Run is a

PA location, near Dublin, PA.  I know of Deep Run Road and Deep Run Mennonite Church.

 

 My new acquisition in these photos is the calico girls dress.  I am actually showing the back of it because I like the buttons.  I see this same fabric in lots of antique PA quilts.

Lastly, here is a bolster case--essentially a long pillowcase.  estimated date 1880-1900.  It looks like this could have been made with left over blocks.  I love the way the blocks are framed with a dark pink border.  This simple design would make a nice table runner; all blocks are nine-patch except for the center one.  Also note that one of the nice patches (third from the bottom) had a fabric strip added to make it fit.

 

 

 

Come out to the Penn Dry Goods Market! This week!!!

I will be speaking Saturday on antique Pennsylvania patchwork pillowcases.  Visit www.schwenkfelder.com for details.

Antique quilts on Etsy

Here is a sampling of the quilts I just put in my Etsy shop.  Thinning out the collection.  Take a look!  www.etsy.com/shop/annhermes1

 

Book Draft Complete...time for a little break

I am so happy to tell you that I have completed the first draft of my book!  Yay!!!

As each section was done, I printed it out and added it to my notebook.  It felt more "real" to have it on paper than just on a flash drive.  Now I will take a break from it for about two weeks, then it will be time to view it as a whole, add in needed transitions, edit and format the text.  The editors gave me pages of instructions on how they want the text to be presented to them---with code symbols and numbers and no hard returns and no indentations and all kinds of editor-speak stuff. Quite annoying stuff really!!

In the meantime I have to prepare for a presentation here:  www.schwenkfelder.com I am presenting a talk on PA pillowcases at the Penn Dry Goods Market and Antique Sale.  There will lots of interesting speakers talking about quilts, samplers and other antique textiles.

I listed a few items on Etsy tonight.  More will follow.  Here's one of them. www.etsy.com/shop/annhermes1

 

Another little painting project

before

Thought I would try another small milk paint project.  (see my last post for little project #1)  I had ordered a pretty blue color too, with the intention of using for the interior of my corner cupboard.  I have seen this done several times; blue is a great background for red ware and yelloware that I display in that cupboard.

I use this old wooden tote to show vintage kitchen items.  It is not a fine, valuable antique, so I decided I would paint it.  I was never that crazy about the color or the black streak running down the side.  The wooden pieces don't contrast very well against the box.  Enter milk paint...In this case I painted one coat of blue on the outside and one coat of yellow on the inside.  One coat allowed some of the wood character to show through.  I haven't done any distressing but I might do a little something to the blue.

after

 

For my cupboard interior I am going to tone the blue by mixing it with white.  OK, now back to the book--this time for sure!

UPDATE:  just did a little sand papering and a coat of antiquing wax.  I like it better now.

 

 

A little side project-milk paint experiments

I finished up another book chapter; the last chapter is underway.  I took a little break over the weekend to try a little painting project.  The ultimate goal is to repaint a built in corner cupboard in the quilt lab (former dining room).  I want to use milk paint, but thought I would try it out on a small project before tackling a large one.

I follow Miss Mustard Seed's blog and always find inspiration there.  She does a lot of furniture painting and has her own line of milk paints.  www.missmustardseed.com I purchased "mustard seed yellow," bonding agent, and got started.  The paint is in powder form and you need to mix it with water.  The bonding agent is added to the wet paint to give it better adhesion.  This is not far off from what I do at work everyday--mxing stuff up in the lab.  The bonding agent is a latex polymer, which is exactly what I have worked on for 25 years.  Not for milk paint but for many other types of latex paint.

The small test project is a spice box that started out looking like this.  It is about 24 inches tall.  I store little sewing notions in the drawers.

 Here it is with one coat of paint (except one drawer has two coats of paint).

 Following a second coat, I distressed it a little by sanding on edges and the knobs.  I then waxed it with two coats of antiquing wax.  So easy, rub it on, then buff it off.  It is a lightly pigmented wax to give an antique look.

I love the finished project.  I am trying to lighten/brighten up my decorating a little bit.

 

I love how the spice box came out but as for the built in cabinet, I painted a small section with this same color and decided it was actually a little too bright and maybe too close to the original color.  I  mixed mustard seed yellow with white milk paint powder (1:1 ratio) and like that much better.  You can see the magazine photo that was my inspiration in the first place. 

My reward for finishing the last chapter of my  book will be painting the cupboard.  Yes, it is so much fun to do home decorating projects that I consider it a reward!

 

 

California dreaming on such a winter's day

Actually, spring appears to have finally come to Ambler.  The sun is shining and my star magnolia is just starting to bloom.  We spent the week before Easter in California, our usual spring break get away.  With the boys going off to different colleges next year, we may have to make the trip a summer event instead. 

My new favorite antique place to visit in S. California is the city of Orange.  It is a quaint town, with many antique shops, boutiques and restaurants.  My favorite store is Down Home Antiques-I found Pennsylvania quilts there.  How did they get all the way to California?  One of them needed to come back home with me. www.downhomeantiques.com

I don't see purple too often in antique Pennsylvania quilts; the purple calico just drew me to this quilt.  It dates from the late 19th or early 20th century.  The back is a pretty madder fabric.  The way the colors are arranged, the star block really doesn't come through as a star.  It looks like there are two grids overlapping.  This one is 72" wide.

 

Less bold, and not necessarily from PA, is a white and green crib quilt.  I counted 7 different green prints.  Some of the greens are more yellow and some are more blue. This one probably dates to

1860-1880.  It  measures 43"x46".