FLEA MARKET SUNDAY

hello Friends and welcome,I was supposed to post this shortly after I took these photos and had gone to the Flea market ,but things got in the way.

Plenty of interesting items to look at I really liked this sewing machine ,but didn't wait for the vendor to pick it up and show it to me I was curious of the make,I was really in a hurry to look around for some treasures.

 
                                    
I tried real hard to sneak between the crowds to get some photos , plenty of stuff to look at.

                                   

My eyes just skimmed over the items to see of any interest, I do look for wooden dolls that I fancy ,for which I have a small collection.  I also look for milk glass , I have a few of them,not many .

Plenty of pretty shoes unworn most of them ,but I am not a shoe gal.

This the view from a distance ,it was a nice sunny day for December.

Before taking the train home ,I stop over here  to use the ladies room and to get some juice.

And now for my  finds ,this was a large piece and I just love the period print isn't it lovely I  couldn't pass it up.

I also found some brand new vintage hankies ,who knows some shop emptied all of there merchandise that never sold ,some shops keep there stuff for years.

This is a corduroy skirt that I don't plan on wearing ,it has the tags on in and the fabric is wow ! just love it.

This little treasure was folded right sides together and had strayed from a big pile and people were stepping on it . I am so happy my eyes caught it when I picked it up and opened it I gasped what a beautiful print I washed and ironed it and will probably just keep it or frame it as is.

And I also got some little stitchery ,whats a flea market without .

Here is some more of my loot.

some more pretties .

Love the hankies can't have enough,I plan on making a wall hanging with all vintage hankies , so I need a few.

Was able to find some pretty prints ,can't ever have enough right !!

And some beautiful vintage children's hankies I love the prints  on these.

Love the children playing cowboys and Indians.

And the bear family is super sweet.

And some small cuts of fabric ,I washed and didn't iron  in case you didn't notice.

I love this print kind of like a paisley .

Well I hope you enjoyed my little tour of the flea market I wish I could go more often .  Sometimes I am afraid to go because I might finds to many goodies and I can't resist ,lucky I don't have much time and I rarely go, now one of these day my friend Madelyn will meet me there wink wink !! Madelyn is Greek American like I and she and I had planned many times to meet down there ,but things just didn't pan out ,once it was to hot,once the trains were not running,once she had an obligation and on and on let's see one of these days.   I wish all of you a nice day and I am super sorry I haven't had time to reply to your lovely comments ,not that there were tons of them, Love you all and happy crafting and quilting.

SNOW COOKIES

Good morning to all my friends and a Happy New Year to all and wish to all the best for this new year.  I woke up the after Christmas  and decided I need to make some traditional Greek Christmas cookies they all called kourabiedes ,but my younger son couldn't pronounce it ,so we called them snow cookies and he loves them ,and I can remember him saying snow cookies in his little boy voice .

I blanched the almonds first by boiling for a min. so that they can be slipped off, them roasting them till they have a bit of color .

I melted the butter in order to skim it out leaving the salt ,they don't have unsalted butter in the stores. So that was a bit of work, I used 2 cups of butter.

Then I used my vintage measuring cup that I have since I was very young , one cup of powder sugar.

Beat with the butter.

Added 3 egg yolks ,it looks like 4 because one popped.

Then a couple of tbsp. of whiskey , and a bit of vanilla.

Then we grind the almonds on an old mill that I had found at the flea market years ago, which I happen to use one just like it when I was very young when my mom made cookies.

I then mix with about 7 cups of flour or until not sticky ,but still moist, and then knead it on the counter top and flatten to about half and inch or more.,I  use a small glass and make moon shapes.

Lined up and ready to bake.

And here they are all baked  ,about 20 min. cookie temp.

And here they are with the powder sugar on then ready to eat, I started writing this post before new years day. I wish all of you a Happy New Year ,I am sorry  I haven't replied to comments yet, I will very soon I promise.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!

Happy Holidays to all my friends !! I wish all of you had a nice Christmas and enjoyed your dinner with your loved ones .  I had a busy time trying to cook all day ,I made my pumpkin pies and my sweet potatoes which I can't go without and of course we had a nice big turkey with all the trimmings.  I am the only woman in the house so I had my hands full ,woke up at the crack of dawn to accomplish my task. I was so exhausted at the end I slept good and a little bit of wine with dinner helped,everything was delicious .  I had  a bit of time to decorate a small tree ,but I forgot to take a photo of it can you imagine.   I really wanted to show off some of my Hallmark collection of decorations which I collected while living in the states back in the late 80's .  I used to get in my car and visit all the Hallmark shops in my area and sometimes travel further to other cities the day after Christmas to get them half price . Yes I was a junky so I have about 4 boxes of them and just wanted to show some ,is anybody else out there a collector ? 

On the FMQ I finished a quilt in that manner around the trim of this quilt ,and now I will be sewing the binding by hand . I am really getting the knack for it and am trying out different stitches, how do you see it, well I am still a little shaky and there all plenty of areas that are not so smooth ,but as a whole it doesn't look so bad.  I wish to all the best  and a Happy New Year !! and plenty of quilt finishes.

SAVE THOSE TRIMMINGS

I was looking at blogs last week and came upon Angies blog  and she had a real interesting post on ways to use the trimmings . So I thought it was an awesome way to put all those little pieces to use.

What I did was gather all the little tiny pieces and  sandwiched in a piece of what we call it here Tull I can't seem to remember the English word for it,but you can use organza let's say ,anyway I just ran some stitches through it .  I love the way it looks at first I didn't know how to implement it in a project . Then I thought I could shape it into any shape I want ,so I made a heart and snipped the edges around it , tied them and added little ribbons ,added a little applique heart in the center and walla.   Now it can be put used as a decoration on a bag,pillow,tee shirt, even a wall hanging adding blocks around it I am sure you creative gals can come up zillions of ideas. 

I finished the binding on the spider web quilt and now I am quilting a quilt for a friends grandson while in the store . I hope you all save your little trimmings and use them in any creative way you wish and share it with me ,wish you all a nice Sunday I am on my way to the flee market today so I'll have some photos to share with you.

QUILTING

Hello and a good morning to all I wish all of you and nice Sunday ,I have not posted in a while ,first I would like to show you my new hand made leather thumb thimble ,there is a leather shop near me ,they make leather goods and they through out there scraps,I happen to be walking past the trash bin one day years ago and noticed a big bag of leather scraps and of coursed I took them thinking I could used them for something one day .

So I cut out the pieces into a shape that I thought it would work used a thick black polyester thread and stiched it up and it works wonderfully it really helps me push the needle through the fabric and then it is much easier to grasp the needle and pull it on the other side now I will make another for my finger that helps quide the needle underneath  ,I am really pleased that I thought of it .

I am quilting this quilt that I have been commissioned to make ,it is large 80 x 99 in. I hope I finish it by Christmas .

Here is the whole quilt on my sofa I chose a light blue border for it I think it goes well on it.

I even found some letters with her initials on it that makes it a bit personalized for her ,

After deciding that I wasn't up to fmq the large quilt I thought I better work  at fmq . I tried various methods in controlling the quilt better practicing on a panel I found that wearing my white fleece gloves that my dear friend Michelle sent me, they not only  keep my hands warm when it is cold out , they really help me grasp the panel and I am able to make smoother stiches I also use some hand cream  ,I even thought of putting glue stick on my fingers ,but I haven't tried that yet ,for now I am doing ok.

I really didn't have a specific pattern in mind you really don't have time to think when the needle is moving .

I plan on making some templates for fmq and I will be posting them of  course ,but I think I am progressing.

I tried different designs as you can see, I really am trying to get the motion of meandering, I am more of a structured person so it is a bit difficult for me.

I will be working to become better at it ,I got a helpful tip from a blog friend whom is great at it her name is Kheli  she advised me that it really helps to starch the top first  I will do that and believe it will help thank you Kheli.http://khelikarma.blogspot.com/ . Another thing I have been having some issues with is  thread tension and am working on that .  I thank you all for stopping by and leaving suggestions and comments ,wish you all many hours of quilting a crafting and try to make a leather thimble for yourself.