Rescued A Piece of Old Needlework

 On Saturday I found a piece of embroidery to rescue and to put on my wall along with all the other small pictures.

It was in a small frame and when I took it out and turned over I found this on the back.

Whoever C. Mason was they were very good at embroidery in 1953 - and pleased with their work!.

I'm going to take it to the framing shop to cut a card mount to fit the picture which I freshened up by dabbing with a damp cloth and a bit of washing up liquid and then with warm water. Most of the foxing - brown spots - are on the material surrounding the actual stitching so a mount will cover the worst of it. Then I can search car boot sales for a frame which will need to be a wee bit wider than the one it was in.

I also picked up a couple of small click  lock  boxes from the same house clearance people and spent a grand total of £2.

Back Soon

Sue

A Picture For the Art Wall, Books and Birthday Cards

 Found this little print at the Stonham Barns car boot sale on Bank Holiday Sunday.  

It was disgustingly dusty and dirty with thunder flies under the glass but as I seem to have two or three duck/geese/swan pictures on the wall it will make a nice addition. I took it apart and gave the glass a good clean. The signature says Penny Cox and the title is 'Coming Out To Play George'. I looked on line and there are several pictures of her other work - and more of George, but mostly for sale in the US. I'm not sure that this is a genuine print from the artist as the 'George' looks to have been added later. But no matter - it fits in well. £2 spent.

Haven't got it on the wall yet - painting to do first.

Picked up 4 more greetings cards for future for 10p each - handy.

I then went a mile or so down the road to Crowfield Church where they have a Flower Festival and fundraising stalls every August BH weekend. It's something I usually visit because of the good second-hand book stall. It's had a mention on the blog every year.

There was a service in the church so I didn't take photos of the flower festival this year but I found 3 books for 50p each that looked interesting, one might be a bit too cosy crime but Apple Tree Cottage was the name we gave the house we completely renovated back in the early 1980's so I had to buy it!

Back Soon 

Sue

A Curious Find

 Sometimes I spot something at a boot sale that really needs looking at closely to find out more about it. This little find  set me back 50p from a box of house clearance stuff . I wanted to take the back off the frame to see if it really was something painted on a piece of old paper or just a print or a page from a book.

At the bottom it's just possible to read W805A  Courts??? 'Copyright 1957 Colbeam Palm???????.

It was easy to take apart as it was just a photo frame - with revoltingly dirty glass - and I found it's hand painted in oils on a board. I think the title might be "Courtship".

I googled as much as I could read and found Colbeam Palmer, were  makers of Paint by Numbers kits  - from the USA although  Colbeam Palmer had a London address in the 1950's (importers?) But in the States is the Colbeam Palmer Museum of Painting by Numbers.

Wiki says

In 2008, a private collector in Massachusetts assembled over 6,000 paint by number works dating back to the 1950s from eBay and other American collectors to create the Paint By Number Museum, the world's largest online archive of paint by number works. In 2011, the Museum of Modern Art in New York accepted four early designs of paint by number by Max Klein for its Department of Architecture and Design, donated by Jacquelyn Schiffman. 

I seem to remember doing a children's paint by numbers kit sometime in the 60's but no idea what the picture was, what it looked like when it was finished and what happened to it.

 Paint by numbers kits are still available - with dozens for sale on Amazon - some look extremely complicated with many different coloured paints and there are easier ones like the swans.

It was worth the 50p to send me on a small voyage of discovery! and after I'd given the glass and frame a good clean  I've added it to the picture wall.

The friends who visited last week asked where I'd found all my small pictures and it turns out that although two were from an art exhibition and had to be framed and two are my own stitching all the rest are from car boot sales. I've added a new label - Picture Wall - and found the posts where I bought most of the pictures from boot sales in the past.

There's room for a few more and then I'll have to start swapping them round or find a new home for some.

And from the same seller a small bundle of old or repro postcards for £1. These are for adding to my scrapbook - something that started when I found someone's old scrapbook at a boot sale.

The card on the left is 3D  and someone has written Happy Xmas on it and a message on the back about an enclosed gift of a magnifying glass. It looks very old but things can be deceptive because in tiny lettering on the bottom of the back it says -

Printed and Published by Mamelock Press Ltd  ©1998. Northern Way Bury St Edmunds.

Who seem to be still in business but now in Cambridge selling reproduction Victorian greetings cards and the scrapbook scraps that I found at a boot sale years ago and similar to what we had as children. 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

 

 

A Week into September

Blimey, what a gloomy week it's been here in Suffolk. Dull, dull, dull as Craig Revel-Horwood says on Strictly, which BTW,  starts on the 18th - good news indeed.

What have I been up to this week? ......... Apart, that is, from watching as much of the Paralympics as possible. There was Nana duty one day and then the dentist the next. That was the last of my 5 appointments ....................thank goodness. He told me I had coped with it all very well! 

On Thursday a man came to fill the chip in the windscreen before it got any bigger. It's been there since before March when it passed the MOT, so it was about time I got around to doing something about it. It cost me nothing as it was covered in my insurance.

 

A text message arrived inviting me to book the annual flu jab later this month. Might as well go and get it done. I'm afraid I don't go in for the conspiracy theories that warn us about vaccinations etc saying that it's just a way of controlling the people. Someone said at the beginning of the pandemic that it was  a plan to reduce the world population....I answered that it would take more than a few million deaths to make a difference to the world population as it is now. I even heard that Covid vaccinations included a microchip to track us...........really? They don't need to do that......we're already tracked by our mobile phones or online presence.

Anyway, that's getting too close to politics so I'll shut up. 

The small sampler I  started earlier in the summer is finished and put into a frame at last. It's been added to my "art wall". There's still room for a few more small bits if I come across something I like at a boot sale or charity shop.

     I've finished this library book below and agree with the plaudits on the cover. The thought of the Queen investigating a murder is ridiculous but somehow after reading this it seems entirely plausible!

Don't bother reading it if you want something serious - because, just like Richard Osman's first crime book, - you have to forget proper police procedure. Also just like The Thursday Murder Club this is the first of a series.

Yesterday I finally got some more soil shifted from the bag out the front around to the new vegetable beds, there's still plenty of time until spring to finish, but the bag sits there shouting at me every time I go out the front of the house!                                                         

This week I'm grateful for

• Having a day with Eldest Granddaughter before she started school, now I'll see her less often.
• More Paralympics to enjoy on TV
• Spotting a Painted Lady butterfly on the white Buddleia. First I've seen among all the Red Admirals, Peacocks and Cabbage White
  
• The forecast for a bit of warmth on a couple of days next week

It will be a quiet weekend here I think, need to get the breadmaker on, the ironing done and maybe some scones made.

 Have a good weekend, I shall be back Monday

Sue

Oh Dear........Car Boot Shopping

 You know all those sayings about not doing a supermarket shop when you are hungry? Well perhaps it should be applied to me and car boot sales too. Although I always go early before breakfast, I'm not always living with just what will fit in my car.

After arriving last week at about 7.30 and finding it already very busy I made an effort to get up even earlier and strolled across the site to arrive well before 7.

Somehow all this lot was bought before breakfast and regretted afterwards!

A big fat Martha Stewart craft book, the bundle of peel-off labels and the picture of Stowmarket Market place were £1 each and the new tin of Derwent Inktense crayons were £2.

Actually only the picture was regretted, I thought it was an original water colour by someone I'd not heard of because it had a sticker on the back for Stowmarket Framing but it turns out to be a print by a now deceased artist called Martin Goode who has masses of prints for sale online, pictures of everywhere in the country.....extremely prolific..... and quite expensive. I think I'll take it out of its big frame and pop it in something smaller. I'd love to have a picture wall like John in Wales, small pictures gathered together rather than spread out around the walls.

When I get to my bungalow and get organised  my office/crafting space will be at one end of my bedroom with a window looking out the front which, from previous experience, I'll feel more comfortable using. I've never enjoyed crafting when tucked away in a room upstairs. So maybe card-making will be a thing again - I didn't clear out everything.

I'm moving out of the caravan today and back to the bungalow I was in for 5 weeks before the 2 weeks here.

Before I leave someone said they wanted a picture of said caravan..........here it is. Access road and tall hedge in front, tall fence and more caravans behind, tall hedge and main access to the rest of the caravan site on the left and next caravan on the right so not a picturesque setting! But it's been warm and comfortable and not far from "home".

 

I'm glad the whole two weeks weren't as noisy as yesterday, because there was  a 'custom' car show on the showground, huge souped-up engines revving and loud music! Every Thursday evening through the summer they have a Motorcycle Meet which involves 50 - 100 loud bikes running through the village onto the showground and out again later. One reason the local people aren't quite as fond of the expansion of the Leisure and Retail park as the owners and visitors!

Back Sometime

Sue

 

 

A Smaller Car-Boot Sale

A very misty morning here last Sunday which must have put a lot of people off selling. I arrived good and early as the cat had woken me at first light bringing another mouse into the bedroom, chasing it around for a while - which involves much crashing and banging -  and then losing it under the wardrobe. It's possible there are three mice in the house somewhere!

Anyway I arrived early and had quite a speedy walk round and came home with just a few little bits

A couple of kits for making Easter crowns - for Grandchildren sometime . I spotted a tin opener, which I'd been looking for, not new but I examined it closely and it looks OK and 2 little pictures that caught my eye. They are just prints by a John Morland and then hand coloured, nothing special and I wouldn't usually even look at pictures because I really have enough already but these just needed to come home with me.
 Total spend £2.50

I was home for my breakfast well before 9am with plenty of time to get the bread-maker going, cook up some beetroot and do some gardening - although not a lot as despite the cloud cover it was hot, humid and sweaty.



Back Tomorrow
Sue

Art in Eye

13 minutes is what it takes me to get to Eye from my house as long as I don't have to pull over too often for cars on the narrow back roads. I forgot to ask Rachel-in-Norfolk how long it takes her, quite a while longer I think - depends how busy the A140 is too.

Anyway we met up outside the church to visit their annual Art Exhibition, it's quite a large exhibition compared to the others I've been to this year. Some interesting art in all sorts of medium, some I wouldn't let into the house at any price. It was good to look round with someone who has done lots of art things - we mostly have  quite different taste in what we like.

I was feeling extravagant and spent out for these two. Now I need to find some frames, and decide where to hang them, somewhere where I can add other little pictures as I find them. They are .....Original lino prints, hand printed on Japanese Hosho paper using vegetable oil based ink, then hand painted with acrylic.

Also bought a card, taken from one of the pictures exhibited, it's Walsham le-Willows - another village visited on my church hunt.

Last year I took lots of photos, but this time photos except general ones were Not Allowed, shame. Makes life difficult for bloggers.

 The church puts on a good refreshment stall with home made cakes which have to be tried .........then home.................. I was glad I'd parked in the shade, even hotter yesterday than Sunday.

All through the spring I'd been watching the thatching being done on an old house that I pass on my way through Eye when I go swimming.
Now being on foot I got a photo  of how good the new thatch looks. That's EYE CASTLE - or what's left of it on the mound or motte behind and the church tower on the right.

A good way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday morning, thank you Rachel for the idea.

Thank you to everyone for comments yesterday about the flower festival and jigsaws. The charity idea for arrangements was certainly different and some lovely colours used in the arrangements. A jigsaw puzzle has been started already - with 6 to do I thought I'd better get going.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Up Very Early...............

..........................to go and help at the small WI car boot sale. Just like last year I wondered why on earth I volunteered to get up so blinkin' early!

The lady who collects all the stuff is a keen car-booter herself and she ropes in her lodger to tow a small box trailer for our once-a-year boot sale.  I got down to Needham Market by 6.30 and Barbara and her lodger had nearly finished setting up already - although in my defence she does live about 5 miles closer to Needham than I do!

This year not many other members turned up to help and the three who did didn't stay long so I only got a quick dash round where I found, for 20p each, 4 children's cards - two birthday and two Get Well that include lots of things to do in with the card - they will come in handy for the Grandchildren in due course. Also got the animals and a Halloween cape. Then I found the Very Hungry Caterpillar for Willow at last. The little box with garden twine, row markers and a small pot was just 50p and will be part of a Christmas present.

Then, among a box of empty picture/photo frames in a box on our stall, I spotted the little embroidered picture of girl and geese in the snow, it's very old and so well stitched that I couldn't leave it.
I loved the look of  Going Gently John Gray's wall of pictures and although I've got plenty of paintings/prints/needlework, they are bigger and spread out around the house. So I'm hoping to gather some smaller pictures together somewhere.

My total spend on Saturday was £2.80 (and a pound of that was for our WI) and as always I made sure to take a flask and snack so I didn't have to go and buy anything.

Thanks everyone for comments about recycling yesterday. A topical and controversial subject and made even more complicated by so many systems in different areas.


Back Tomorrow
Sue