Evening in the Victorian Red Dining Room

 

Evening in the red dining room at our 1893 Victorian.

On the west wall, you can see high school graduation photos of family.  At the left column is my mother Lorraine, and below are her parents Earl and Eva.  At the right column is my father Gale, and below are his parents Gilbert and Leatha.

During our first walk-through of the house in Feb 2007, we walked around chunks of ceiling plaster that had fallen on the floor.  I looked at the space between the three dining room windows and thought to myself,  I could hang two columns of family photos there.  

My sister Pam re-designed pairs of store-bought curtains for the red dining room.  She added fancy tassels.  The curtain material bought had perfect colors but not the right style.  Pam turned them into Victorian style elegance with ruffles, poofs, and tassels.

Above: turning the camera view to the right, I snapped a photo of the west front porch door.  A door with original etched glass featuring two herons.  

A few years ago, I took this day time photo of the west front porch door (open), and showing the original screen door. 

Here's the door that leads to the front foyer.  Our 1893 Victorian house had no original fireplaces.  The  heating consisted of parlor stoves used throughout the house--well into the 1930-1940s.  The second owners left information for us to read--about what a chore it was to keep those parlor stoves running to keep an uninsulated house warm during the winter months.  

I bought an electric fire place for the red dining room.  It has pretty convincing faux flames.  And, it just seemed a whole lot safer thing to do.  

Heating our House:

Jon and I are the the third owners.  We restored and refreshed our house over a journey of eight years.  We blew insulation into the perimeter walls of the entire house, and added storms and screens over the wavy glass windows.  

First thing to fix when we bought the house in 2007--we added a new gas forced-air furnace in the basement and a wood burning furnace right next to it.  Since 2007 we heat the house during the winter with wood.   

Six years ago we bought an outdoor wood burning furnace, and (sold) the wood burning furnace in the basement.  The outdoor wood burning furnaces heats: our house, the wood working shop, and my 800 sq. ft. studio (total about 5,000 sq. ft.) and does a great job.  Jon is busy all summer and fall sawing, splitting and stacking wood to keep us in warm comfort.  

I am going to show you the above photograph again, and compare it to a John Singer Sargent painting that reminds me of our red dining room in the evening.

***

Our little (faux) birds  named Edgar, Allan, and Poe wish you a splendid Halloween.

I made this post today, to get you acquainted with our red dining room.  I will be filming some sewing classes videos here--for my new series "Little Purses".  

Handmade Beads to Make Bracelets and Zipper Pulls

 

I make lots and lots of handmade beads,

to make simple bracelets

The littlest beads shown here are 6/0 glass (store bought)

However, the larger beads are polymer clay beads I hand rolled and baked in my oven.

Soon, on my new website Linda Lu Sewing, you will able to see videos "how I make them and use them" on lots of projects.

The largest beads clay beads are used to make my signature

zipper pulls on Little Purses.

Below:

Singer Sewing Logo machine embroidered design; I sewed purse with recycled blue jeans, leftover batting and cotton prints from quilt projects.  

It's much more fun to grab a handful of beads to zip open and close than zipping with that skinny little zipper tab.

I'll keep you posted when my new website Linda Lu Sewing is launched.  I think it will happen in January 2021. 

The Linda Lu Sewing website will have dozens of My Little Purses available to buy, as well as the purse patterns. and "how to make" videos.

Beaded wristlet straps for purses.  I use handmade beads, 6/0 glass beads, and often vintage buttons.  

Don't worry about the beads ever coming off.  I hand stitch the snot out of them.

Hope you like what you see, and will join me at Linda Lu Sewing website in 2021.

Stay tuned for more information . . .  and thanks for looking at my work.

***

P.S. - I just looked out the window--it looks like snow--holy moley!

1930's Wedding Ring Quilt

Gee, how lucky can I get?

Found a beautiful 1930s Wedding Ring Quilt

at a garage sale (one year ago).

Actually, it wasn't an ordinary garage sale because the owner was selling her collection of cotton quilting fabrics, and wools at $3 a yard!  I spent a shameless amount of money, grabbing up her stash.  Picked up all of her 6 yard bundles.  The colors were yummy, Civil War reproductions, and my favorites by Brackman, Morton, Kaufman . . . 

People were shoulder to shoulder in the garage.  I quickly filled a couple boxes, and as I made my way to the cashier, I spotted a folded quilt within arms reach.  Marked $50.  OMG.  Hand-quilted.

The fabric sale was one of those magical moments (when all hell breaks loose, along with my checkbook).  Like a runaway horse and carriage.  It was thrilling ride!

Next Day, I returned and bought more . . . what I really mean to say is, I bought more than I had purchased the first day.  That was a year ago, and more than a dozen queen size quilts later I still have quite a bit of fabric left from the haul.

Seriously,  I make a dozen queen size quilts (start to finish) every year.  Each quilt 20 yards of material: fabric, backing, batting, binding.  And, with other projects sewn during the year--I figure I blow through 250 yards of cotton fabric annually.  I sew every day because I love to sew.

Back to my story about the 1930's quilt I bought at the garage sale . . . 

I showed the quilt to my friend Jerry who is a quilt collector and expert on the subject of antique and vintage quilts.   I've attend a couple of his lectures on quilts.  He's like a walking encyclopedia.  

Jerry said my quilt was mid to late 1930s, and possible into the 1940s.  He spoke rapidly, pointing out the popular design work of stripes, cross-hatched lines, outlined flowers floating in a sea of tiny dots.  Yes, lots of circles, dots, and flowers.  Then he talked about colors, and names of the colors that were popular.  Wished, I'd recorded all he told me about the quilt.  It's a full size quilt by the way, and is in great condition.  I love everything about it, especially the scalloped edge. I'm not saving it for a rainy day packed away.  I use it!  

More Research:

I found these fabric advertisements online

Here are more detail photos of my new/old quilt.  

Thank you for looking at my stuff.  Please leave comments.  I enjoy hearing from you.

New adventure starts soon!

Online Video Classes

by Linda Lu (me)

 

Blue Denim Purses

I've been building purses for a week (12).  I have many photos to share with you now and more later.  On an upcoming post--I'll show you photos (steps) how I put them together.  

These (2) purse I made for a client.  They are 9.5" wide by 12.5" padded denim purses with 45" cross-body straps.  I've been making this style of zippered purse for several years.  I make them in upholstery fabrics, faux leather, corduroy, wool and denim.  

I like to play with polymer clay and roll beads to make zipper pulls.  Another part of decorating purses are hand sewing big stitches with No. 10 cotton crochet thread, as well as big medallions of stacked wool with blanket stitching. 

The padded purses are lined in cotton batik.  The padding is leftover batting I trim from quilts I've long arm quilted.  The first year I long arm quilted I was frustrated throwing out all those batting trimmings.  It finally occurred to me to use the leftover batting to make beautiful purses and soft luggage (big overnight zippered totes)  See below:

Olive green carpet bag.  I made the covered shank buttons with a vintage "handy button maker".  Its a big old heavy metal contraption that looks more like a tool of torture, than a covered button maker.  The contraption uses big steel shank button blanks, and works perfectly every time.

Bohemian zippered travel bag.   Made with leftover sub-assemblies from Circus Circus quilt, paired with  navy corduroy, and lined with sturdy cotton batik and decorated with silver metal beads.

Blue Circus Circus queen size quilt (totally impromptu, a more is more concept quilt).

Ok, so back to my story about the two blue denim purses I just finished.  Below is the second one.  

Both blue denim purses feature two interior padded slip pockets.  The twist is, one of those pockets is hidden and marked with a button . . . a button marker to show you where the opening of the hidden pocket is located.  The hidden pocket is big enough and deep enough to hide your passport or folded receipts you don't want swimming around in your purse.  

Since I can't do summer craft shows, I plan to spend lots of time making purses.

More photos on the way--so stay tuned.

Thank you for looking at my work.

Pin 'n Clip Cushion (photo tutorial)

I made a number of pin cushions, and put them at different locations in my studio.  

A pin cushion by the sewing machine, at the layout table, and the ironing station.  

Because I make weighted pin cushions--they are great for using 2-3-4 at a time to weight a quilt on the layout table so the quilt doesn't slip and fall off the table when I am trimming and squaring prior to installing binding.  My queen size quilts are  92 x 104 and weigh about 7 lbs.

I am late to the game using clips instead of pins.  I see lots of reasons to use them, especially when sewing vinyl, or bulk upholstery fabrics to build purses.  No finger picks, for sure!

Photo above is Step 1 - Cut two 7" squares.  

Step 2 - Divide 1 of the red squares diagonally.  Set aside.

Step 3 - Cut a strip of fabric 2" wide.

Step 4 - from the 2" wide strip, cut 7" lengths.

Then, take one of the 7" strips and turn edges 1/2" and press.  The strip is now 6" long.

Step 5 - Fold strip in half lengthwise, and Press the 6" strip 

Step 6 - Lay the 6" strip on top of

the diagonal cut of one of the red triangles.

Step 7 - Place the other red triangle on top.  Stitch 1/4" along the diagonal.

Step 8 - At left, press open.  We are calling this unit "the top".  The top unit at this point will measure 6" square.

Step 9 - 

Place the top unit evenly on top of the other red square.

Step 10 - on 1 side, with a pen make two marks 3" apart.   The 3" opening will make it possible to turn the pin cushion right side out and to stuff it.

Step 11 - stitch 1/4" around the perimeter, except for the 3" opening.

Trim excess fabric, and be sure to leave the 1/4" seam allowance.

Turn pin cushion right side out.

Step 12 - Press the pin cushion

I fill the 3" opening of the pin cushion with 12 tablespoons of crushed walnut shells, (or fill pin cushion half-full).  You may substitute dry rice, or dry beans instead of crushed walnut shells.

Good News About Walnut Shells: bagged crushed walnut shells are available from your pet supply store (reptile bedding material).  Walnut shells add weight, and also keep pins sharp.  

The remaining area of the bag can be filled with fabric trimming scraps, polyester toy stuffing, or hand torn whifs of cotton batting.  

I closed the 3" opening by hand sewing with needle and matching thread.  A whip stitch will do.  Because I am using a finer crushed walnut fill-I stitch the 3" opening TWICE.  

Here is the finished weighted pin n clip cushion.

Other designs on the internet: I especially like the longer rectangle, several strips of fabric were sewn into multiple seams. 

Look at this great mini pin cushion made out of wool.  I probably is attached with sticky adhesive velcro tabs.  I love it!