Modern Motifs of Mexican Trend

aka "My best friend went to Mexico and all I got was this tiny sombrero"*

Yes stitchy friends, here's your erstwhile blogger managing a post...although I can't feel guilty because a) so many other great bloggers regularly share stitchy goodness and b) I still don't have a scanner.

Mexico is on my mind - literally:
...As my best friend recently returned from two weeks in Mexico and brought me back a wee present. Hope I'm not scaring you with my pic!

I haven't been to see all her photos yet, and for those of you without your own sombrero (because I know you're jealous) I present "fiesta motifs for colorful touches of Mexican gaiety". You know your breakfast nook wants it.

Apparently:
"Your needle will fly along the simple sitches of these motifs of Mexican flavor. Gay up your kitchen with Mexican-inspired dish towels and pot holders. Put a variety of these designs on curtains and table linen in the breakfast nook to add charm to informal meals. Delight the bride-to-be on your gift list with hand-made guest towels, refreshment napkins, luncheon sets or dresser scarfs reflecting in these designs the happy Fiesta spirit of our South-of-the-Border neighbors."

I'm keen to see if my friend's holiday snaps include women with baskets of fruit on their heads, giant cactii, boys eating bananas, and fighting cocks (actually sounding "gay-er" by the minute...oh dear! Come back readers...please...**) But this pattern assures me that these are common South of the Border capers.

Men wearing rugs will give you flowers:

Doves, cactii and maracas abound:

But the scariest thing in Mexico are the deadly attack parrots!

Watch your fruit girls.


*only kidding Nat, I do love my pressie.
**sorry, really I am.

Fun on Rollerskates!

By popular demand, here's the kitty from the set I blogged a few weeks back.

Aunt Martha's vegie melodrama

aunt marthas vegies, originally uploaded by drewzel.

I scanned this one, because I saw it blogged the other week with a different cover, I'll find the link and add it in here. Update : - it was Claudia's blog, the patterns are here.

Remember Hobbytex?

Today's transfers are a recent op-shop (aka thrift store) find. A pack of Hobbytex iron-on transfers, simply marked "No. 302 children designs". They were wrapped up in a plastic bag when I bought them, so I couldn't check what was in there until I got it home, and lo and behold:

More Vogart - a sheet of "Jolly Farmyard Scenes" (aka Vogart 705) and a mixture of kitty and doggy patterns from Vogart 102 and the days of the week kitties. Does anyone know how Vogart patterns ended up being licensed to Hobbytex and Made in Australia*? I know Vogart used to make fabric paint at one stage too... I might have to go a-Google-ing Hobbytex.

I think there's a sheet missing from the pack as the other sheets are marked B, C and D. The third sheet I have I'm guessing is a Hobbytex original, as I've never seen it before, and the designs defintely seem to be geared towards fabric painting rather than embroidery. I like the designs though, they're good and "boyish": sailboats, racing cars, a rodeo rider and an assortment of old aeroplanes.

So if the wee boys in your life don't want a kitteh or a doggie, then I think this Spitfire-like fighter plane is the way to go!

*(..as the patterns proclaim. I like seeing "Made in Australia" on things.)

PS. Yes, I realise that the flags and the winning cup are still upside down on the first car pic, but I know my stitchy friends have the technology to overcome this.

Mid-year stitch along 2008

I'm a bit behind the 8-ball at the moment, but I just found this in the Flickr embroidery group. I'm very flattered that they're using a design from my Stitchybritches Vogart stash, so of course I'm playing along. And you should too! I can't can't can't wait to see what everyone makes! Yay!

Super cute

Have you clicked on the link in my sidebar and looked at Sarah's site? Lots of crafty goodness, shared for your enjoyment. I was just clicking away and have decided that I gotta stitch up this one asap...as penny squares for a little kid's quilt I think. Chickens! And other cute kid's things, circa 1940.

Bluebird and roses

...but not whiskers on kittens. Soon it will be Winter in Australia, stitchy friends, and I'm starting to feel it...I'm bolstering myself with lashings of craft books, cups of tea and the comfort of the couch. So my apologies for my absence of late. But you know what always cheers me up? Wee birdies! So here's some more.
These little birds originally came from a mail order advertisement in a newspaper, and happily, whoever originally ordered the pattern kept the newspaper clipping:

" Simple embroidery" from "our new and exciting Needlework book for 1956!"
"So simple, a child could do these embroidery stitches!" "Dozens of other designs to order, all easy, fascinating hand-work!"
You know, I'm willing to part with my 25 cents for my copy of "this wonderful book" right now!

Alas, I think I'd get a "Dear Crazy Person" reply to my letter, if indeed The Daily Review is still at that address in New York. In the meantime, let's enjoy the birdies and rosies and whiskers on kittens...

[click on the picture for a printable size]

What cheers you up, by the way? Leave me a comment on this post by the end of the week (Friday that is), and I'll pick someone at random for a stitchy pressie suprise!

Some dainty appeal

"...in delicate sprays and tiny motifs. Infant wear and lingerie" proclaims this pattern from American Thread Co. , and to reinforce the point has a drawing of a cute baby...or something approximating a cute baby. I picked this one up as I thought it was rather charming, and I'm guessing it's from the 1920's-30's as it predates the American Thread Co. patterns that are virtual parallel issue of the black bannered Vogart ones from the 1940's. I've read that they published a magazine called the Star Needlework Journal in the early part of the century, but I can't find too much about their patterns. (Any links or info gratefully accepted.)

An exciting pattern it is not, and I don't know much about the American Thread Co. , but they didn't have a fun copywriter working for them, like our pals at Vogart. So I can't promise that these patterns will add gaiety to your life, or win you oodles of praise, but they are pretty. Inside the pattern envelope is a printed sheet with the pattern illustration on one side, and some stitch instructions on the other. The pattern envelope is designed so that it's a generic windowed sleeve, and the actual pattern details are on a loose piece of stiff paper inside. Most economical, American Thread Co.

Here's some floral scrollwork designs, which are quite lovely to add "dainty appeal" to your sewing projects, and they're quick and painless to do. Last night I decided to give one a burl and made a panel for a fabric bag, using some flowers and the phrase "talk to the hand." [Picture tomorrow when it's dry.] So for prettiness or for some subversive stitching, flowers are go!

Stop and stitch the roses

Yesterday I used a couple of transfers from my Sublime Stitching book and stitched up a simple rose edge on a pillowcase. (Photo to come, the pillowcase is currently out on the line drying.) As I was stitching it, I thought, "What can I do to jazz it up a bit and add a few fancy stitches?" as it was a simple outline design...but then decided against it. And was glad I didn't do any more to it because it was very effective as is. Sometimes we can overcomplicate things, and good designs really don't need too much embellishment.

So in this spirit of simple stitching designs, and as one for the flower lovers out there (I notice they're winning in the poll!)... here's Superior 154 "40 motifs for varied linens and lingerie".

They're all florals from the look of the cover. My copy only has six motifs left in it, and my guess is that there were various sizes of the flowers illustrated on the cover, for pillowcases, towels, cloths, napkins and vanity set. Floral fun:

Iris

Marigold

Pansy (sorry it's sideways!)

...and the Rose.

So I can only share with you these small designs, but again, simple but effective designs are great fun to do for both beginners and advanced stitchers, as they're fast, yet rewarding. And I think that's what the pattern companies of the 30's 40's and 50's had in mind, as your average homemaker wanted to embellish things and enjoy their stitching, but didn't have idle hours to spend on it. As my page footer (taken from The Modern Priscilla magazine) says "Better homes through better needlework"...and who am I to argue?

They're so tweet!

It's been a busy week in Stitchy world, what with Brown Owls to keep me out of mischief, attempting to bring order to my craft room, and the tiresome chore of keeping two very amourous dogs apart, hence the lack of stitchy posts. Oh, and work.

But today's pattern is a super-tweet birdie design, ordered from The American Weekly of the late 60's. I found this one on e-bay and had to buy it, as I can't go past a wee birdie! They're doing the usual things, washing on Monday, shopping on Thursday, and as you know, my favourite, baking on Saturday.
Here's some tasty pie coveting:

And of course, birdies doing my favourite pasttime...being stitchy!

Chic lady

Yesterday I hit my favourite thrift store for a browse while we were waiting for Mr Stitchy's prescriptions from the chemist next door. And I almost walked past this pair of napkins/placemats and a bigger table runner. Not handstiched, from the look of the back of the work, but still adorable nevertheless:


I thought you would agree, my stitchy friends, so I'll scan her tonight and tweak it until I get a transfer pattern for you to use.
Update: here she is, hopefully you can use her:

Current WIP

P1010039, originally uploaded by Brown Owl & Friends.

I haven't been home for a few days, so no blogging. And thankfully, feeling much healthier (Mr Stitchy now has the flu, I can't help sharing). I was determined to be better to go to the first Brown Owls meeting last night.

This WIP is a little teatowel that I started last night, using Doe-c-doe's mushroom pattern. It's not really cream, just the combination of the fluroescent lighting and the camera flash. It's going to be a swap pressie for a mushroom loving friend.

Ding dong dell

...I'm still not feeling well. Are you sick of me yet? I know I'm sick of me! Which is why this pattern appealed to me today, I'm feeling rather contrary, and quite irritable, so here I am:



This pattern is a Workbasket one (I think) but I'm not really sure, it was mixed up in a bundle of other patterns and already cut. (If anyone knows where it's from and if I need to take it down due to copyright, please let me know.) This pattern stretched my memory a bit, because it's Nursery Rhyme characters for quilt blocks. I understood obvious ones like Little Boy Blue, Mary Mary Quite Contrary, (a sobbing) Little Bo-Peep, Little Miss Muffet, Georgie Porgie, Little Jack Horner (always a favourite rhyme of mine), and also Jack and Jill - here they are:


When I saw this one I immediately thought of the dirty versions of Jack and Jill I've heard in my time, because Jill definitely looks like she's up to something very naughty...watch out Jack! I'm starting to think that Jack falling down and breaking his crown was no accident, and Jill's "tumbling" was just a cover up to divert suspicion. Might have to get Hercule Poirot onto that one.

But there's also Lucy Locket and 10 o'clock Scholar who I don't know anything about. (I suppose I could just Google them, but that'd be cheating.)

And what baffled me was this fellow who's name had been cut apart from his drawing:


I asked Mr Stitchy if he knew who on earth this boy with a soggy cat was, and he informed me that he's from the rhyme 'Ding Dong Dell'... and proceeded to recite it to me. What a terrible thing! What sort of evil child would throw a kittah down the well?! Such is the stuff of nightmares for me, as a wee stitchy and kitty lover! So Little Johnny Stout has now acquired hero status, as a kitty saver, and all round good guy.

[If you're super keen to make them all as a quilt, email me for the other designs. I haven't altered the size of these from the scans in case you want them for kid's pictures or clothes or whatever, so you might have to tweak them a bit.]

Twee overload!

Here's something a little different, a small single sheet of transfers, simply marked "A New Era Transfer 305". These are English transfers and from the style, I'd date them to the 1930's, and say they're for nursery items. Other than that, I know nothing about them, and doing a quick Google (remembering to include "-ebay") I couldn't find anything about the company.

Hope there's one you like enough to stitch!

Morning Glories

Yesterday Jeanne asked about morning glory patterns, so I went through my stash last night (after I sorted this out). I only found two, so here they are.

The first one is a Workbasket transfer, from sheet 2-943:

[click on the pic for large size}


The other one is an anonymous pattern that was included in a bundle I got somewhere along the line. It also has roses and there are no markings on the sheet. My guess is that it was made by Superior, as the transfer ink is a sort of metallic green that I've noticed on the older Superior transfers I've got. This pattern is for cutwork, and I'm thinking it's pre-1940 by the design style and the age of the paper.



If I get any more morning glory patterns, I'll definitely share them.

Update - I just realised I've got some more morning glories on Workbasket 82...here they are:

Baby pillowcase

Birdies pillow case, originally uploaded by Playingwithbrushes.

Speaking of pillowcases, the ever-lovely LucyEllen pointed me to Renee's Embroidery Patterns photoset, and I found this design. Isn't it so sweet? I'll have to stitch this up on a baby quilt or pillowcase, I think it's adorable. Check out the rest of Renee's pics for some very cute patterns to stitch. Hooray for sharing!

Pattern for place mats

I found this in an old issue of the Modern Priscilla magazine (July 1928), and I think it's charming. I've photographed it as best I could and I plan on trying to enlarge it so that I can make a pattern big enough to trace.

The text says:

Embroider it in three shades of green as suggested in the picture or in three
shades of blue as planned by the designer. The effect with either
color against the shiny white cloth is delightfully cool and with edges blanket
stitched and finished with a crochet edging is all there is to it.
The complete set consists of one 18 inch centerpiece, four 12 x 17
inch napkins, and four 18 inch napkins, stamped on pure white linen finish Art Cotton.

Confused

mystery pattern, originally uploaded by drewzel.

I'm a bit baffled...I got this transfer sheet in a vintage lot from e-bay and it didn' t come with a cover. Reading here makes me think it's an Aunt Martha's pattern set because of the number, but looking here has got me all confused because the fish'n'chips, ham'n'eggs etc also appear on an Vogart design 259 - Smart Slogans.
Anyone got any suggestions?