My Sideboard

I was looking at my sideboard this morning, thinking I want to change things out for the upcoming Thanksgiving.   Before I do that, I'd like to share a photo of what it looks like right now.  

Colonial Williamsburg Sideboard

The oval mirror over the sideboard came from an estate sale (surprise).  It was a bargain price of $50.  I found an old eagle that used to be on a federal mirror, it looks nice watching over the activities in the dining room.

Mirror fragment of an eagle

I have alot of items that have eagles on them.  They always catch my eye, and I'm delighted to find them in any form, but wood carved are the favorites.

On each side of the mirror, I have 19th century plates, a Royal Crown Derby Imari pattern called "Kings", and two Imari vases.

I like the little wall brackets with oromlu "ribbon" swagged.  They are the perfect size for the Imari vases.   Imari has wonderful colors that look so great.  The coral and the blue complement each other perfectly.  The plates are older, probably 1850's.

I don't have alot of Imari, but I do enjoy it.  You can find lots of Imari on ebay for really great prices compared to the high end shows around the country.

The American Brilliant cut glass pieces, made from 1880-1910, are a Hawkes flower center, Pairpoint candlesticks, and a Libbey water set.

They are all engraved.  The water set is cut and engraved cherries, the flower center has carnations and the candlesticks have daisies and swirls.

The last statue is something I've always liked.  I have no clue as to its age or who they are.  I just like the look of them on the sideboard!

That's the story on the sideboard.  I hope to come up with a fall-scape in time for Thanksgiving.  Moving on, weekend antiquing was fun.  I found a wonderful piece of embroidery, with gilt metallic thread.

 I left the photo large so you could see the detailed work.   What would you do:  hang it up as is, or cut it up and make pillows?

Fabulous 18th Century Fabric

This week I am going through linens and fabric I am selling for a friend.  It turns out the stuff is from an estate of an antique dealer who passed away about 10 years ago, or more.   There was a huge series of estate sales (all of which I missed as I was on bleachers watching high school girls play volleyball, go, um, team name now forgotten...)   However, I did manage to pick the pickers--which is where I got the Fortuny fabric for pillows I blogged about.    Apparently it was quite the sale, no one wanted the Fortuny drapes.  On my, what a problem.  Anyway, there is a bunch of interesting lace and linens I am selling for my friend who inherited it, but I am having a hard time selling the fabric.  I want to keep it all to myself.

Here's why:

18th century fabric

This is not some machine brocade that is cranked out by a fabric mill.  This design is ENTIRELY HAND EMBROIDERED!!!

18th century fabric--entirely hand embroidered!  

Notice the amazingly tiny stitches.  They are uneven, all hand-done, not machine made!

18th century fabric

Back side of 18th century fabric - note all the hand stitching.

I know people make pillow fronts out of these scraps, but I hate to do that--it seems like it would all end with me, lost to history forever.

Updating the Bedroom - Antique Textile & New Quilt!

It's been a few weeks since I've last posted.  Most of the decorations are put away, and I'm thinking about other things.  When you grow roses, there are several hundred that have my name on them...calling to  be pruned back.  The weather in the NW is not cooperating, so I've turned my attention indoors.

So I'm continuing to work on updating the Washington house.   The paint redo last month in the kitchen is growing on me a bit, but I'd still like it a darker color to complement the counters.   The office is almost done, but this weekend I did a quick fix in our bedroom with new bedding.  I got to thinking-- I purchased the bedding for an apt. in Philly in 2004!  How time flies. I think it's time to splurge for something new.

 I hunted around for old photos of our bedroom, pre "moving all the clutter out", and found this:

Excuse the sloppy made bed--must be the lousy maid service...
the towel on the bed is for  our cat who liked to sleep on towels.

We moved the highboy out of the room as it "takes up valuable visual space" (per stager, house is for sale).   Post-stager, the room looked like this:

How did I miss the messed up dust ruffle?   

We kept all the seafoam bedding.   The bedding is lumpy because of those down comforters--it really looks too sloppy.

Added a new white quilt.   I'm liking the fresh look, and introduction of a neutral.  There was too much  color before--the walls, dust ruffle, drapes....Should I replace the dust ruffle with a neutral check? Hmm.

I also removed the lumpy comforter.  I remember Bunny Williams wrote about using something that is heavy enough to make a nice smooth bed.   She's definitely right on that one.   I like to use antique matelasse or  trapunto coverlets, but king sizes are hard to come by, so this one works.  I really wanted to make this room seem more spa-like, and not scare anyone who is looking at the house.    It looks inviting to me!

(So what to do with the pile of "dead" lumpy down comforters in the attic?   I wash old down pillows in my washing machine & dryer, and then cut them to size for comfy throw pillows for the sofa. )

I have 3 rows of pillow, plus a lovely aubusson "snake" pillow.

The "snake" pillow.

The aubusson pillow is a reproduction.   Antique textiles are wonderful, but they are expensive and fragile.  Using a reproduction is perfect for my needs.   The antique here is the framed embroidery fragment over the bed. I swapped it out for the oil painting that was more of the same color as the walls.   This fragment has the perfect antique patina the room needed.

French metallic embroidery fragment

This is one of my favorite pieces of embroidery.  I framed it in a period frame, mounted on silk.   I suspect this was on the back of a chair at one point.  As with all silk, it is fragile and has splits in it.   It is really tough to use for pillows given the fragile condition.

You can tell I'm nuts about antique textiles.  I have two over the nightstands that have to go now.  Maybe I'll move the bigger one on the right to be over the bed.  I'll share the closeup of that one soon.  I should move those now that the room has been "emptied".  There's always tomorrow.

Fortuny Fabric Find!

I love decorating, and am always on the hunt for interesting fabric. A few months ago, I had sent a link to my daughter of a room on the Cote de Texas blog, December 18, 2009 entry. Of all the things in the room, my 25 year old commented on the Fortuny blue pillows. I had taken her with me through a showroom in Seattle carrying Fortuny, and it made a lasting impression, as she recognized the pillows in the Cote de Texas photo.

Imagine my delight to stumble across the piece of fabric below at an antique show. This fabric looks like a Fortuny piece of fabric, but isn't signed. Regardless of it's heritage, it's a wonderful piece of fabric. I have a choice of making several pillows out of it, depending on which pattern I use. There is enough for 2 or 4 pillows, depending on the design on the front.

Option #1 This option is really cool, it has the two urns on top, and the wonderful floral swags at the bottom of the pillow.

Option #2. This option is fun, has the feathery look with the tassels at the top, bow in center.


Option #3. This would be the bottom half of the design, with the floral swags and urn being the feature.

The choices are two pillows with option 1, or 4 pillows with options 2 &3. I've decided to place it out here to get some input from you on favorite pattern.

I have made quite a few pillows out of vintage "scrap" ranging from fabric, to embroidery or beadwork. Below is a beautiful pillow made from a piece of 19th century French metallic embroidery. I love the muted faded colors.

Here's a pillow that was a beadwork tray. I chose the brown trims after looking at several different colors and this seemed to work the best with the bright colors. The beading is amazing. It is a Victorian piece, with a bead on every stitch in the canvas. Beadwork was very popular then, and the interesting part about it is that beads don't fade the way threads do, so it is as vibrant as the day it was made.


(You can always right click on the photo, click "view photo", for an enlargement.)

Sometimes I do my own needlepoint for pillows, antique dog needlepoint is hard to find, and I tend to like to keep them in a picture frame--another subject.

I really love the pillow, and made it with the green background that came with the kit. I think I might have chosen a different color if I had to redo it today, the green is a bit limiting to me. However the caramel cover fringe looks really good, the pillow looks better in person. However, fringes really make a pillow fussy, so you have to be careful how you use fringe. My advice is to consider cording, or a cord made out of fabric.


An antique tea cosy makes a great pillow. They were made to cover a porcelain teapot and keep it warm. (I'm always delighted to find phrases that other cultures use that are descriptive. The British keep their tea cosy!) Anyway, the cosy is heavily padded, and I slip a thin pillow inside the cosy. That way you aren't destroying the antique to use it.

It's probably my all time favorite, I love the chickens. The background is needlepoint. It has some discoloration on it. However I did do some "restoration" on it. The grey-green background was completely faded. However, I could see the background original color based on the bright color on the back. So I took some blue-green Rit dye and "painted" the stained, discolored front back to the original color. It's still a much paler color than the original, but the stains were really distracting before and I sticking to the original shade actually really set off the colors and help even out the shade. The front was a panel only, so I converted it back to a cosy. I bought this on Ebay a few years back. I think it looks better as a cosy, don't you?

Here's another cosy.

A great resource for needlepoint pillows is Katha Diddel. I really look for antique reproductions--the downside of antique pillows is that they can be very stained and have odors. Given the age on antique pillows and textiles, the dyes aren't colorfast and are difficult to clean. So there is a real place for reproductions.

I totally love the colors of the background, they really go well in a number of rooms. I have used it on a bed with a grey blue colorway, and with more neutal beiges. The pillow is a reproduction of "Red Boy" by Goya, painted in the 1790's. (Metropolitan Museum of Art if you want to see it) I love putting some red in a room, it really adds alot to a room. I love everything in the pillow, the cats, the bird in the cage, and Red Boy, all dressed up, the colors are wonderful.

Katha Diddel has other great pillows. The one below is typical of Berlinwork, a play on a hunt scene, and this one is rather fun.
The pillow below is a great piece of aubusson. It is actually a handmade piece (the machine made pieces are circa 1850-1900, handmade, earlier)
It was a panel and I turned it into a pillow.

Below is a pillow I picked up at an antique show. The piece is an Elizabethan style needlepoint, made with chenille needlepoint, with very vintage metallic lace, and very old cream velvet. The metallic lace has tarnished with age, and some of the chenille has fallen apart, but the embroidery motifs were outlined with stitching, so the loss doesn't affect the overall design.
It has a down fill, and doesn't have any odors (miraculous). However I am still mulling over how to clean it, as everything must be cleaned.. A trick I use with old textiles is....FREEZE THEM! This kills any moths or critters that might be tagging along. I put it in a large garbage bag to keep moisture out and critters in, and freeze it. Vacuum on removal.

Here's a project I'm also working on. I got some wonderful grey cord to work with,as the edge is frayed and needs to have something sewn to secure it. I was thinking a round pillow, but a square one might stress the needlework less. Isn't it adorable with the swan! While I don't really care for Victorian furniture, other Victorian items are so whimsical and fun, it has to bring a smile. I especially love their fascination with animals.

Lastly, another favorite pillow. I picked it up in a gift shop in the 80's. It looks as good now as I bought it. I figured I can't be all that bad at selecting things--an identical one has been on the "Young and Restless" soap opera set for decades, (Victor Newman's living room). It is made with a fine petit point stitch. Some of these pillows have 1500 stitches per inch!
Here's a scrap I got at my friend's antique shop before she passed away. I remember her coming over and being in shock that she sold such a cute thing, rather than taking it home. I love the dog and the shepherd.
Here's another Ebay purchase, I turned it into a pillow rather than leaving it framed. The frame was too Victorian for me.

I will update the pillow saga when I finish the fabric pillows. I also love fabric pillows, toile. It might be awhile--my sewing machine foot got left at our "ranch", 600 miles away. It will be month before I get back to this.

UPDATE:  April 4, 2012.   A fellow blogger challenged my Fortuny fabric below.  Unfortunately I used the selvage that had the most clear Fortuny stamp on it, but thought I would share a faint one:

I'm not taking apart the pillow, but I would like to point out that one of the big name Fortuny pillow websites had this design in pillows, identified as Fortuny, on their website about the time I had written this blog.  I am not about to take apart my pillow to show the brighter signature.   Should have taken a photo, I know....