Just a Little Peek Around The House....

On this blog I am going to try and show you my primitive things that I love. The main reason why I love all things primitive is because of all the history it holds. A lot of primitives are very expensive and not something that I should invest my money into. A good example is furniture. A nice pie safe can have a price tag of $400 and up. I just love pie safes and have wanted one for a very long time. So, I improvised. I had a cabinet that  Handy Hubby had made for me about 14 years ago. He had always intended for me to paint it so he did not use the best wood. I had wanted to white wash it and didn't let him know this little tidbit. The wood had huge knot holes, various colors of pine "rings", and several different types of wood. I did white wash it and for years I liked it, but he didn't. So finally after about 13 years of being white, I painted it black. I had him redo the doors, they were just raised panel doors, and put pie safe tin inserts. These tin inserts were a shiny aluminum color when they arrived. I had to wash them in denatured alcohol and paint a rusting medium on them. Then washed them again. Guess what??-they came out looking like they were 100 years old. I LOVED this process--word of caution this stuff is very powerful so make sure you protect yourself and the area around you and work in well ventilated area.
Here's the cabinet, wish I had a before picture:

Above: Closeup of tin.

Above: I love punch needle. this is a punch needle project on a horn board. Not a real horn board, but one that Handy Hubby made for me and I did comb painting on it. Then rubbed a stain on it. The punch needle was glued in place after the stain had dried. Punch needle is about 6"x5. The Lady Liberty pattern is from Country Stitches. In the back ground is my only hooked rug. I loved hooking it and I have another in the works just need to find some time to finish it.

Above: Uncle Sam punched needle. Same process as above.

Above: This little sampler was a free design from Blackbird Designs. It was on their blog. They make the prettiest samplers that really don't take a lot of time. I cross stitched my great grandmother's name and year that she was around 12 on it. Most girls during that time period were required to stitch samplers as part of their education and I thought it would be fun to record her name and the date that she would have probably stitched something like this. BTW: girls as yound as 4 or 5 were taught to stitch, especially mend socks, repair holes in clothes and quilt. Stitching samplers served two purposes: 1) it taught them their abc's and 123s and 2) it taught them the different stitches so they could help with the chore of mending and I guess it also taught them patience.

Above: Another free Blackbird Design sampler pattern. This one I used varigated thread and coffee stained the piece of linen before I stitched it. Staining it makes it look old.

Above: on top of the buffet on the landing halfway up the stairs. Hard to see but punch needle box, picture of Abraham Lincoln, small colonial houses, antique oil can, and firkin (bucket) all on a piece of homespun.

Above: Civil War reproduction quilt hanging in the stairway. This quilt took me 4 years to complete. There are no short cuts when you are doing it the old way. I did occasionally use my rotary cutter though. Most of the triangles, squares that you see I used a template, pencil and scissors. I tried so hard to match corners, sometimes ripping something out 3 or 4 times. Whew.....sure is nice to have that thing on the wall now. One day I will give you the story behind each quilt square.

Above: my first and only hand hooked rug. I love the process. This pattern is from Pat Cross' book, Purely Primitive. I think, it could be her other book.

Above: My Resolute Desk..have you seen National Treasure 2? Well in it they have the Resolute desk(s). I refinished this desk about a year or two ago. It was left to Handy Hubby by his grandmother. I stripped and then stained it a mahoganey color. We love it. Such history and memories. The left picture is a great, great cousin on my side and the other picture is a great grandmother and great aunt on Hubby's side. The typewriter is a 1940 model that I bought recently at an antique shop that my mom, sisters, daughter and I went to. I loved the typewriter and for $12 how could I pass it up? I knew just where I would put it. 

Above: On top of black pie safe, crock bowls, butter molds, enamel tiny teapot and two vintage canning jars from mom :) they are holding wooden eggs.

Above: Milk...do I call it pail, jug, not sure. I'll just call it milk pail. From mom, painted white with 1980s mauve and blue tulips on it. I painted it black and it looks awesome! Would be cool to have a breakfast bar with a couple of these for stools.

Above: Vintage recipe holder, and wonderful working scale I scored for $6!

Above: My wonderful real pie safe. I did save up for this. I had some commissioned work over the course of a year and ended up with enought $$ to get this.

Above: See what the Teddies spelled out? PRIMS....This small collection of 6 teddies is so cute. I love decorating with toys, it is a trick that I learned long ago. With small children around, how can they tear up old used toys that are so fun to decorate with. Some of these teddies had dresses, hats and suits on but I like them much better natural. One is even made from mohair. The darkest bear by the letter "H" block is one that I made a looonnngg time ago. It is fake fur from the lining of a coat. I also made the small quilt. It is from the Prairie Women's Sewing Circle. I think it is called "From Mama's Knee". It is a very easy quilt, you could finish it in a weekend. Blocks are some vintage ones that I picked up for $5 for a bag of about 25. Great price since they normally sell for .50 a block. The trunk I bought at a local antique store. I had save up enought money to purchase it and waited 4 months before I finally caved and bought it. When I checked out it was 30% off.   SCORE!! It wasn't expensive to start with, but I wasn't sure what I would do with it. Maybe it was a toy chest?

Above: Close up of what it is lined with. Some kind of general on a horse. See hidden teddy in the right corner. BTW: two kitten were made from an antique quilt and no I didn't make them. It is sooooo hard for me to cut up quilts. I love to buy them already cut up.

Above: small quilt that I made. It is a Jo Morton pattern with Jo Morton fabrics. She designs lovely minature quilt patterns and Civil War era fabric. See the two doll heads? I will blog about those in another post for another day.

Hope you enjoyed this very lengthy entry and welcome to my new blog,

Holly