Vintage Linen Napkins

Some long while ago, Jeremy, Debbie and I attended an auction in a small town, somewhere in the hill country in Texas - can't remember the name of the town now...

Jeremy and I came back with two couches, a chair, one chandelier, a desk (which it has been refinished and it is now in our office - need to post about it later) and two boxes of vintage linens! 

We got both boxes for $10 - what a steal!  I wish I had taken better pictures of all the linens in the boxes. 

The ones I could not do without have been washed and ironed and are now safely stored in our china cabinet in the dining room.

Out of two linen table cloths, I made the pink and grey pillows shown in the picture in my earlier post. I also made some linen napkins out of a third linen table cloth and a table runner out of a fourth. 

Below are some pictures of a fifth linen table cloth that was in one of the two boxes. The table cloth had this wonderful, bright blue and green floral pattern along the border that is not all identical but all similar. At first I wasn't too sure what to do with it but since the linen napkins sold so well at the show, linen napkins is what I decided to make out of it! =)

After washed, I cut out 8 squares with as much of the floral pattern in the center as I could get and then I ironed and starched each square.  

With the other napkins, I did a rolled hem. I do not have the rolled hem foot so let me tell you - it was not this easy! Note to self: buy rolled-hem presser foot. =/ wish I had known about it earlier.

Now, with these napkins I am going a different route - a scalloped edge! My trusty Bernina sewing machine does all kinds of stitches and I thought it was about time I gave one of them a try. After all, it gets pretty boring sewing in straight lines all the time.

I lined the edge of the napkin to the edge of the presser foot and started stitching.  

It stiches pretty smoothly and mostly you just have to keep guiding the fabric along and that's all.


The coolest thing was seeing how neat it looked as it is being sewed.



And look who's always around to help me out! :) Please don't mind the evil eyes - Miss Pearl is sweet as can be. The camera phone does not do her justice. :p


And here are some that are finished. Once done, all you do is trim the edges.  I will post pictures of the finished product. I still have 3 left to sew and all still need to be trimmed.

Love,

It's "Official" :)

Wow, where does the time go?
Can't believe last time I wrote a blog post was in June! I keep telling myself I need to do a better job at updating the blog but what do you know? Life always gets in the way.

So what have I been up to these past few months you might ask?

WORK WORK WORK

During this time I have squeezed in two trips to Mexico and one trip to China - a very long trip to China... More on that someday. All three trips were for work which means they were no fun at all.  

I have also been working most Saturdays that by the time Sunday rolls around I'm so pooped I don't want to do anything but lie around in the couch and watch TV. It has become a lazy habbit and I am trying my best to break away from it and start getting things done around the house!!

One major thing however that I did manage to get accomplished was to spend more time creating things with my mother-in-law, Debbie. We have really tried to put things in high gear and make it a top priority to get this little side business going. It is so exciting and such hard work but it is totally worth  it.  That side business is now called "Cherubim Creations" =)


Few months back Debbie heard about the Home for the Holidays Gift Market in Galveston at Moody Gardens.. We decided we would sign up for it and give it a shot!  It really was a great way to have a goal and deadline - we knew the show was coming up so there was no getting around the excused for being too busy. 


Here are some pictures of our booth at the show:
Stockings
   
Christmas Angels

Stenciled 1776 Pillow and Americana Pillows

Vintage Linens, Hand Embroidered Towels and Crochet
 
Stenciled Pillows
 
Pillows Made out of Vintage Linens

Our booth set up the first two days



The show was definitely a learning experience and Debbie and I have found out that for now we should probably stick with the smaller gift markets held in places like churches and small towns.  We meet great people and got to hear some great advice from some more experienced vendors who have been doing this for a while. 

At this show we were told about the Mary Queen Catholic Church Bazaar in Friendswood and that it was a really great venue for vendors like us. It took place the following weekend so Debbie and I hurried and signed up for it.  Confirming our thoughts, the Christmas Bazaar was a much better fit for us.  We had lots of fun and did a lot better in a smaller venue. 

Now Debbie and I are looking for our next venue and continue to work on our inventory.

I have a few things going at the moment...
We are now also "official" with our very own Facebook page!!:)
Check us out here and stay tuned for more updates. 

Love,  

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