It’s Vintage, It's Vera – It's a Giveaway!

The two estate sales Judy & I went to last weekend didn’t have much of interest (and the one that had advertised high end antiques was in a scuzzy little house on a positively spooky street!) but I did manage to spend a buck and a quarter. Which netted me three of these nice Vera napkins

as well as a darling little headscarf. 

Does anyone else remember that brief period in the Sixties when we tied these little triangles under our chins and felt we were cool?

It started me thinking that the yard sale gods have been quite generous with the Veras for a while now, and I remembered that I have four vintage Vera silk scarves that are lovely, but I've never worn any of them.

Time for a giveaway, I said. And so here we are.

Four scarves, four winners! Just leave a comment telling me which of the four is your favorite. And of course if you have any Vera stories, do share. Like your memory of wearing your own Vera headscarf and how cute you were. Or your mom did. Okay, okay, your grandmother. Vera spans the generations!

Scarf number one, a long piece of silk with stylized roses.

Number two, a long silk scarf with a small scale floral design.

Number three, a large square with pink roses.

And number four, another square with a mod orange and yellow design.

Please leave your comment by Sunday, December 4, 2016. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Now that the Vera business is taken care of, here’s a Millie report. I was taking her picture the other day with the Velveteen Rabbit that is her measuring stick. Here she is in July,

and September,

and November.

As I looked at her, something seemed a bit…off. It took me a moment to realize that all her long white eye whiskers are missing over her left eye!

I have no idea what she has been up to. I half expect someday to find a little pile of white whiskers in some untoward place, or on one of the inch-wide window frames ten feet over my head in this midcentury modern house with glass walls.

I probably don’t want to know, do I?

Art Time

I did something completely different (for me) last weekend—and had a ball. 

Several months ago I came across the charming and often whimsical art quilts made by Laura Wasilowski, and when I saw she was doing a workshop for the Clark County Quilters Guild up in Vancouver, Washington, I knew I had to go. My friend Diana, who lives a couple hours south of here in Roseburg, is a quilter, and it didn’t take much arm twisting to get her to sign up as well.

We decided to make it a fun weekend. Vancouver is only about an hour and a half from my house, but getting to a workshop by 8:30 in the morning would have been a challenge. So we stayed in a lovely Airbnb home,

where my room was our hostess’s sewing & craft room. How perfect was that? My only regret is that we weren’t there long enough for me to look through her entire enormous button jar!

The quilt guild’s regular meeting was the evening before the workshop. Since our instructor was the featured speaker we decided to attend. Went out for Mexican food and margaritas beforehand. The place we chose had mixed reviews on Yelp, and the parking lot was ominously empty. It's early, that’s all, we told ourselves, and went in. Opened menus. Friendly waitress appeared, we ordered margaritas. Oh, she said, we had to renew our liquor license and it has not arrived yet. We cannot serve any alcohol. (A little ironic since the word ‘margaritas’ is part of the restaurant’s name.) We are good sports. We ordered virgin margaritas and something to eat.

Alas, we should have just left. Bad food and icky drinks. But oh well, it's one meal out of a lifetime of meals, right?

There was no need to linger over dinner. Or even finish it. We fired up the GPS and headed for the church where the guild meeting takes place.

Huge church…and literally hundreds of cars arriving! Women of all ages were streaming into the building. And about three men. Guys, if you want to meet ladies, join a quilt guild.

On the way in, we fell into conversation with a lovely woman (alas, her name has floated away from my brain) who asked if we were new members. When we said yes, we were in town for the workshop, she took us under her wing, moving us through the sign in process and into the meeting hall. She showed us all the different tables and explained what they were for. Charity quilts, free stuff, raffle tickets, refreshments and more. (Okay, we already knew what to do at a refreshments table.) By the time our guide had to leave us we were in conversation with several other women.

I don’t think I have ever encountered such a friendly, warm, open group anywhere, ever. Thank you, Clark County Quilters, for making us feel so instantly at home! And the show and tell section of your meeting was simply inspirational.

At the workshop the next morning, we learned to fuse iron-on webbing to the hand-dyed fabrics that Laura makes, and then each of us constructed our own version of a flower basket. Every single one of the fourteen attendees came up with something wildly different from everyone else, and every single one was gorgeous. (Yes, even mine—at least I think so!) Wish I had taken pictures of them all.

The final step is to add hand embroidery, then a backing and binding. We didn’t have time for that, but here is Diana’s design.

She is already planning a companion piece to go with it.

And here is mine. As soon as the batting I've ordered arrives, I'll dive back in and finish it.

Soon!