Antiques, Spun Cotton and Izannah

Since our last visit here, I had the pleasure of once again attending the Antiques in Long Valley show in Long Valley, NJ where I scored my beautiful blue antique chimney cabinet last year.   This year the show was just as amazing as the last… there were so many wonderful goodies that I wished I could have brought home with me.  The booth where I bought my cabinet last year was once again filled with wonderful pieces of furniture and many Sold signs.  This year I was on more of a budget than last year, but I did manage to come home with two finds that I am really pleased with – a small and extremely primitive hand forged shovel…

…and an antique German spun cotton ornament to add to my collection.  The technique used to make it is different than I have seen before, so studying it will also assist in my education process as I learn this old technique.

I am continuing to really enjoy where my journey into spun cotton has been taking me.  Below are my newest creations that are still available.  I am also archiving my designs on a new spun cotton ornaments page of this blog.  Custom orders for designs you may have missed are always welcome.

And finally, I have some progress on my first Izannah Walker style doll from the workshop that I am taking.  It has been hard to tear myself away from my current obsession with spun cotton to work on her, but I’ve gotten a bit completed!  I have her torso sewn and stuffed, and her head with shoulderplate stuffed and pinned onto the torso.

After sewing the shoulderplate in place, I shall begin sculpting her face – I will share how I do with it in an upcoming blog post.

I will end for now with a big thank you to Cathy of the always-inspiring One Pink Goose for presenting me with the Sunshine Award, which is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. I am honored!

Spun Cotton Ornaments and a Cozy Kitty

Due to wonderfully encouraging customer response, I have been busily working on more spun cotton ornaments since my last post (as my doll parts still sit patiently waiting).  Below are pictures of my latest spun cotton creations – all except the bunny holding the Easter basket sold before I got the chance to post them here (some traveling as far as South Korea… that was exciting!). If you see one that you like but missed, custom order inquiries are welcome.

I had fun doing some shopping on Etsy last week as well.  My little Trooper has been happily snuggled up in a cozy new cat bed that I bought for him from mimi0201.

Trooper is the baby of the family, and he likes to have his very own bed in each room of the house. Until last week, the living room was the final room he was missing a bed in… and I knew that he needed one there when my husband set his empty backpack down on the rug, and Trooper snuggled up on it like it was a bed. He seems very pleased with the switch to his cushy, fleecy new spot.

And speaking of needing… or shall I say kneading… I also picked up this adorable card from Pet Scribbles for my hubby for Valentine’s Day. I absolutely love it, and her customer service was amazing!

New Ornament Designs Abound

It’s unexpected sometimes where a creative journey will lead you.  I think this as I look over at two unfinished dolls that are still waiting patiently to be painted and clothed.  It seems that ornaments completely took over my time during the holidays… when I was originally thinking I’d be making a lot of dolls… and that I am just now thinking about getting back to my doll making again.  I have taken a few baby steps getting back into it by beginning my Izannah Walker doll workshop… well, okay.  I’ve cut out the pattern pieces and traced them onto my fabric.    I hope to get a bit more done this weekend, and perhaps paint and clothe one of those patient dollies sitting on my work table.

But for now, I have bunches of new ornaments to share.  Chenille dog ornaments for small dog lovers with a pug, a terrier, and a little mutt in the set; two sets of chenille St. Patrick’s Day ornaments, and another new spun cotton ornament.  I have yet another mostly-finished spun cotton Easter rabbit ornament that I will also be offering for sale soon.  All of the ornaments below are available now in the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop.

Snowman Ornaments and Quilting

I added a new set of chenille Christmas ornaments to my Old World Primitives Etsy Shop today – a set of 3 snowmen wearing red scarves.

They are all ready for the winter weather to begin! I’m not quite ready yet though… there are still plenty of veggies hanging in there in my gardens that I am hoping will ripen before the first frost.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Halloween weekends!  I spent my Halloween with family and friends in beautiful Lancaster County, PA.   We made our annual trip to Cherry Crest Farm, did some shopping (I added the most wonderful new handmade folk art piece to my collection), and enjoyed our favorite local edible treats.  Lancaster County also happens to be the quilt capital of the USA, and during our visit we stopped into The People’s Place Quilt Museum. It was here that my husband Max finally came to appreciate the beauty and artistic merit of quilts… and decided that he just had to try making his own!  He bought a quilt kit in a local shop with the materials and instructions necessary to make a 22″ square wall hanging quilt.  I showed him how to use a sewing machine (for the very first time, believe it or not) and then he was off – and look at what he completed in his first day of both sewing and quilting.  I have to say, I am pretty impressed!

I can’t wait until he makes us a nice Queen sized quilt for our bed after finishing this one! Does anyone have any recommendations for designing your own quilt?

What Fun at The Witches Ball!

I am back from my first craft show, which was also my first Halloween party for the year, and feeling energized.  Halloween is my favorite time of year, and this festival was a great way to get into the holiday spirit!  The decorations and Halloween colored lights throughout the streets were amazing, there were plenty of yummy treats to be had (my favorites being the warm and fresh kettle corn and the hot apple cider), and many people went all-out with their costumes.  It was so fun to see all of the creative costumes throughout the night from my booth viewpoint.  It was also great fun to see and hear people’s reactions to my products and help them with their purchases.  Many comments during the night really made me smile. Here are some of the photos that I managed to snap during one of my brief forrays outside of my booth (note to self: bring my tripod next time).

This was the giant witch that greeted visitors to the Ball.

That’s my booth on the right, and to the left was talented painter/sculptor Linda Mehnert. I bought one of her cat sculptures and just adore it!

This was the view of the booths to my right from inside my booth.

And just to give you an idea of how amazing the costumes were, here is a photo that I borrowed from The Witches Ball Costume Contest Winners page of their website – this was my favorite costume of the night, which I was lucky enough to get to see up close (the wings were jointed and moved – and the detail in her dress and choker were amazing).

Vintage Style Chenille Christmas Ornaments

Today I am taking a short break from furiously preparing Halloween orders and show inventory to share the newest addition to  the Old World Primitives Etsy shop – a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Christmas ornaments.

Each Christmas ornament is made of chenille, Victorian Santa and vintage Christmas images printed on card stock, and a mini frosted Christmas tree.  They are the perfect size to use as either feather tree or Christmas tree ornaments.  They also make great gifts, and come packaged in a clear cellophane bag tied with a bow.

Vintage Style Chenille Halloween Ornaments – and Photos of my Gardens!

I just added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille  Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop. Each Halloween ornament is handmade of chenille and hand cut vintage Halloween images printed on card stock.

I also added this new set of Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy shop last week.

And now I have some garden photos to share – what a difference our new raised beds with great quality soil have made this year! We are using organic and/or heirloom seeds and seedlings, and absolutely no pesticides or chemicals. No fertilizer has been used yet, but we’ll add some of the organic compost that we are creating in our backyard Earth Machine composter soon.

My orange bell pepper plants are so happy and healthy this year! I can’t wait for them to get ripe.

Does anyone need any jalapeños?? I didn’t realize these plants were going to be so prolific – in a couple more weeks, we’ll be swimming in them!

This row of red and white onions were planted from seedlings, and they are extremely happy. I made the mistake of planting snow peas right next to them and THEN reading that snow peas don’t like to be next to onions, but they are still steadily producing nonetheless.

These are my onions planted from seed, after thinning, with my herbs behind them – dill, basil, parsley, and cilantro. I went a little too crazy with the cilantro.

Grape tomatoes – I picked and ate a few after I took this shot.

The biggest cluster of tomatoes I have ever grown – 9 and counting!

Help, help – the pickle cucumbers are coming! My husband is a pickle fanatic, so we planted 23 pickle cucumber plants this year. The canning might begin this weekend or early next week.

Halloween Goodies & Kutztown Folk Festival

Can you believe it’s just about July already? This year has just been flying by. I have been busy working on new creations lately, and just finished updating my Early Work Mercantile Shop for our July 1st update. My offering this month is a primitive witch make-do, which I created using a Kentucky Primitives pattern.

SOLD, thank you!

I also added a new set of 3 vintage style chenille Halloween ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop, and will be adding a bunch more Halloween ornaments (both chenille and cloth) soon too.

On Sunday I also had the pleasure of attending the Kutztown Folk Festival in Kutztown, PA for the first time and I enjoyed it so much, I can’t wait to go back again next year! The festival included over 200 crafters both selling and demonstrating their crafts, and the quality was just amazing. There were SO many things that I wanted to buy! It was hard to stick to my budget and leave with just a few small goodies, but it was really fun and inspiring to see so many high quality crafts. There was also a quilt barn filled with over 2,500 handmade quilts, many of which I wished I could bring home with me too. We also sampled lots of yummy food and drink including the homemade fudge that I am snacking on right now, looked at the many exhibits, listened to some live folk music, and watched a thatched roofing demonstration. A few of the pictures that I took at the festival are below.

And finally, a big thank you to everyone who voted for my extreme primitive black cat doll in the Etsy Americana Decor Voter Poll! She was featured in a Storque post announcing the voter favorites and is now included in the Americana Folk Gift Guide.

March WSOAPP Update and Retail Blowout Sale

My Old World Primitives WSOAPP Shoppe has been updated for our March 7th update with the two new items pictured below – an extreme primitive cow doll and a set of three primitive carrot ornaments. Click over to WSOAPP for full details about them!

Also, today marks the start of my retail blowout sale on OldWorldPrimitives.com! I am now down to my final days of selling retail, and have placed EVERY item on OldWorldPrimitives.com on Final Sale. Take a peek for some really deep discounts! I have only 1 left of many of the items that remain in stock, so if you see something you want, please grab it. Items will not be restocked as they sell out – I am closing out of my imported retail inventory so that I may turn my full focus to my handmade dolls.

Vintage Style Chenille Easter Ornaments

I just added a new set of 6 vintage style chenille Easter ornaments to the Old World Primitives Etsy Shop. The set includes two of each ornament style pictured below. These chenille ornaments are an Old World Primitives design, and are made of chenille plus vintage paper scrap Easter images printed on card stock.

Also, I am honored to announce that my primitive crow doll a few posts below is featured on Today’s Primitive Home today. The women who run the site feature “exceptional, distinctive, OOAK handcrafted American Folk Art created by contemporary American Artisans, for your Primitive, Early American and Colonial style home” as a wonderful free service to the primitive community. They have a giveaway running now for an 18th Century Reproduction Wall Box (and I reeeeeally want to win!).