Vintage crocheted buttons...or....what was I thinking??

So, one of the gals on a list I belong to got us all excited about vintage/antique crocheted buttons. I have always been a button lover. any kind, any shape, any color so I got excited. Bring 'em on! I knew I had downloaded a very old vintage crochet booklet that had crocheted buttons. It took some searching but I found it buried in my files. It's from 1912 and it's Irish Crochet. very intricate and lovely.

Now, I've been a lifelong crocheter (is that really a word?LOL) and I certainly felt up to the challenge. Well, I didn't think it would be a challenge. I just thought it would be some time spent creating very beautiful new vintage crocheted buttons.

What in the great googlymoogly was I thinking?? They're worked with very fine thread and tiny steel crochet hooks. Usually no problem. Thread crochet is my favorite. And then I started. The pattern is made of alot of old stitches like the roll stitch (now called the bullion) and clone knots(sort of a strangely formed bullion). Plus the pattern stitches are off from what we know today. not hard to figure out, but you just need to really concentrate on translating the stitches to todays terms.

It took me 2 hours to do the first one. One simple looking button. It's on the brown button above. It looks great but those roll stitches were near impossible. I took a break and made the cute little pink flower button. It's crocheted on a small (3/8inch) 4-hole shirt button. It's darling. I started another vintage one and this one is even harder. there are 16 wraps in those clone knots that circle the center of the button. those took me almost 2 hours to do just the 8 knots. Whew. I finally took a break and chatted online with a few friends. One friend directed me to some more info on heirloom buttons and I discovered that once upon a time a special hook was made for making bullion stitches. It's design was very specific to make it much easier to crochet these stitches. It figures that the hook is no longer made.....sigh..... There is a brand of hook made now that works just a bit better for these stitches and I just happen to have 3 of them.

I found them and tried them and voila!! It did work a bit better. Maybe now I might actually try to make a few more of those stinkin' buttons. They sure are pretty.....

Ode to a piece of Chocolate

Then there were the Chocolate Covered Cherries.......

.....not just any choco covered cherries, but THE choco covered cherries. oh yes, you know what I'm talking about.........enjoy with me......

.....Deep Dark Chocolate Cover Cherries that have the juice in the center with the cherry-not that yukky thick filling stuff. Ohhhhhhh to make a teeeenytiny nick in the bottom edge and suck the juice out first. Then that next oh so delicate bite to remove the cherry with just the smallest bit of the dark chocolate that comes away with it only to be followed by the last bite of this confection-letting that oh so delectible, deep, bittersweet, dark chocolate slowly and very very delicately melt in your mouth with the hint of the cherry that had been so sweetly enveloped in it only a few moments ago........are you drooling yet???

Pink Flamingos

Here's the Pink Flamingo I made this afternoon. This is Claudia dressed in her Alice in Wonderland outfit I made. I even crocheted little red and white striped socks for this outfit. I just love this one. The pink flamingo is just the right size for her don't you think? I sure do..

Our grandson is over for a sleepover so we're going to play some games and have a special seafood dinner. Grandkids are so special!

where does the time go?

ok, so i forgot about my blog. well, not really, just didn't get around to it. I don't know why. I guess it just got away from me. this year should be better. at least I'll try......

I've gotten back to my sewing. I had surgery on both hands and they're healing pretty good. the right hand is doing really good. just some strength issues and the dam elbow problem. the left hand is going to take longer, but hey. it's so much better already I"m super duper happy!!! hurry for a great surgeon!

I knitted a lovely ski suit for my new mocha colored Bleutte. I used the new 'Spa' yarn-it's a bamboo yarn. so soft and lovely--ooh. I also crocheted her a new Christmas stocking.

Now I'm crocheting 14 sets of bleuette sized fingerless gloves for a Valentines project. A group of us are all making little Valentines things to share. They're coming out so cute!

Yesterday I made a fur coat, hat and muff for my Ginny. We had to go to a doll club meeting today and it's just too cold (5 degrees-frikkin burr)for her to go out without being properly dressed. I had a piece of super soft, silky fakey white fur fabric and it made an adorable set. And yes, she is wearing teenytiny little gloves that I made for her from some stretch lycra that I found in my stash. it was the smallest piece. I need to find some more of that stuff. it made awesome gloves.


I couldn't sleep this morning so at 6:30 I was up making a little pink flamingo to go with an Alice in Wonderland outfit that I bartered away. It came out so doggone cute (so did the outfit)I'm going to make another flamingo for myself. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic before giving it today. I used an old Julie McCollough pattern from SD&A. It made a 28inch flamingo-wayway too big for what I needed so I copied the pattern at 68%. that was still too big so I copied the reduced pattern at 50%. It ended up being the perfect size! I'll post a pic of the next one I make.

Here's what it looks like outside:
we're getting more tonight-supposedly another 5-7 inches. and in this deep freeze, it's not going anywhere soon.
I'll talk to you all soon!

Yes Deer!

Yesterday my hubby came rushing in the house. "Quick, come here! I don't care what you're doing you gotta see this!". Now, you'd think this is something that never happens. Honestly, it happens almost EVERY day in our back yard. Now, in his defense, I must say it is usually 6:00 a.m. or so when we see them, but this was 3pm. We had two deer wandering around in the heat looking for a cool place to rest. They decided to lounge in our backyard for about an hour. They are not afraid of us in the least. This is the reason we no longer can have a garden. There is a herd of about 17-20 that live in the woods across the street from us. We always have deer wandering through to the little creek that runs along the back of our property.

This is when I wish I had a bit of a better camera. I was standing on the back deck taking these pictures. This is no more than 50 ft away. They lounged around until the sky started to get dark as we had a rainstorm moving in. Then off they went to go find shelter and the rest of the herd.

Busy, busy

Ok, this is a long one! hang on and here we go......

Well, I've survived watching two little ones. It was interesting to see the differences between them since they are only 7 days apart in age. One likes to sit up and play with toys, the other likes to lay and play and wants to crawl. They both smiled endlessly which was just pure joy! I've been busy sewing, crocheting etc. I got my three Toni's all together for their first photo shoot. The Redhead is one I recently purchased off Ebay and was quite upset because I discovered that the head had been repainted and filled with oil (I'm assuming to lubricate the eyes) and the poor doll was constantly leaking oil out of her eyes and neck. I had to take her completely apart and clean the heck out of her head to remove all the oil. the original blonde wig was in such bad shape that it just disintegrated in my hands. She now has a pretty red wig and looks beautiful. The blonde is my childhood doll that I had recently found and cleaned up to her present splendor. She is dressed in a lovely lemon-yellow crocheted dress and collar that I got in a RRswap. I crocheted the matching socks. The brunette doll is a Tonner Toni which is no longer being made. she is modeling some new undies that I also received in the swap.
The full crinoline slip, pink polka dot panties, crocheted socks and the hat are what I made to give away in the swap.

I Made this darling Bleuette size ballet outfit for another swap I did. It was a Birth Year swap. we had to use a pattern from our birth year or if there wasn't any for that year, back up by a decade and choose a pattern. There was none for my year, so I backed up and found the darling ballet tutu pattern. The panties, hat and ballet slippers are my own patterns. I ended up making myself a ballet outfit also because My little girl was heartbroken that I was giving it away and she wouldn't be able to pretend she was in the ballet. Isn't she just precious. this is my new bleuette that I just bought from a friend this past week. I've named her Philomene after one of my grandmothers.


This is my second new bleuette. I put her together this week. I had been slowly buying the parts to put together. I bought the head around Christmas time. I bought the body a few weeks ago. I bought the wig last week so I was finally able to assemble her. I've NEVER spent so much on a doll wig before but I had a certain vision of what I wanted her to look like stuck in my brain and I wasn't going to be happy until I had achieved that. Now, I'm happy I spent the extra money for the special wig. She's exactly as I pictured. She is named Claudia.

I even managed to take two days to 'clean' my sewing room. It was for two reasons, first, my wonderful hubby is going to install a new ceiling fan for me and I had to be able to move my sewing machine out of the way (it sits right in the middle of the room). and secondly, I had to get a bit more organized. I'm trying to get organized and it seems that if I take a day or two here and there I'm finally able to get a grip on stuff and there's sortof a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm actually getting organized nicely now.

I am now working on another half dozen more puppies. I have ladies patiently waiting for their new doggies. I'm so glad that the puppies are so popular. They really are darling.

ok, I'm off to shower, dress and sew...........aw, maybe just sew, I can always shower later......

Ahhhh, Babies

Oh how I love babies. Our daughter and son-in-law have headed to a lovely tropical vacation so we get to watch our little granddaughter-7months old on the 7th of July. I also am a nanny to my darling nephew-7 months old tomorrow. Yup, that's only 7 days apart (geesh, all these 7's I should play the lottery!LOL). I had them both today and will be watching them both for the rest of the week. It's like having instant twins. Their schedules are just off by about 1/2hr so as soon as one is diapered and fed it's time for the next one. It was just a constant shuffle of baby all day. So much fun. I couldn't resist taking this pic. I got one down for nap and 1/2 hour later down went number 2! I only have one crib so I put one at one end and the other at the opposite end and stretched the blanket across them both. They are both now sitting up and they've discovered each other. So darn cute....It's going to be a fun week!