Holiday Wishes

 

Sorry...I couldn't help myself...these old photos just beg for funny captions...and I am not one for holding back.

Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season!

& Little Jasper sends warm winter wishes to all his fuzzy furpals.

& during the holidays...& into the new year I will be working on new pieces...think Winter themes, Valentines Day and little characters full of charm.

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” 

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Susan

Studying the Old to Learn the New

Thought I would share my latest attempt at learning something new. Above is an early Victorian Pin-keep I purchased of off Ebay last year. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and thought that I could justify this purchase by using this Pin-keep as a study tool.

I have displayed this piece here and there and I have looked at it many times wishing I could create something similar. Now I know a lot of you have created examples similar to this...but I have never in my life created anything so delicate and I humbly declare that my style of stitching is rather clumsy at best.

So I decided to create a piece that was more my style...a little rough and tumble looking and more on the folk art side of things.

This is what I came up with...an old style advertising pin-keep. I love animal themed advertising from days gone by and could just imagine them giving out these pin-keeps to the women of the day as a way to promote their products.
"Colburn's Philadelphia Mustard Company"
In reality though they were just trade cards and not pin-keeps like I made...but heck...its fun to use your imagination to create one of kind objects for your own use and enjoyment...in that respect we women haven't changed all that much.

I made my pin-keep in layers
 Front
1. fabric photocopy of advertisement
2. a layer of felt
3. stiff cardboard

Back

1. wool fabric

2. cardboard

You can pretty much guess how it is put together by looking at the photos. It a fun project...takes some patience but isn't difficult to do. 

If you want to make your own Bulldog pin-keep but aren't sure where to get the graphics just head on over to Catnip Studio...she has a huge variety of clip to choose from including the graphics for this Bulldog.

I liked this bulldog image because he reminded 

me of my little Jasper.

Back to mouse making.

Susan