A Little Shopping and a Little History.

Even though the temperature was only 26 degrees today I told my husband that after lunch I wanted to take a little drive to an antique shop that I like to browse around in. . .and so we did. It is only a few miles from our home and it was fun to go out and do something special. I want us to start taking little day trips on the weekends and learning more about "our neck of the woods". The woman working at the antique shop told us a bit about the history of the cemetery across the road. We were told that a Civil War General was buried there, but she was not sure where the grave was. She felt that since it was so cold that we should look for the grave site in warmer weather. Our next visit we will plan on doing that. Then she told us about a small slave and free black cemetery just a bit further down the road; for us this was a must see. I think, for my husband and I that was the best part of the trip. I love American history and to walk in this cemetery made you aware of how far we have come as a country. We did not feel the cold of the late afternoon air but we did feel a sense of wonder standing there and seeing the old gravestones and the simple white wooden crosses that mark the site of where the slaves are buried. I was happy that we learned about this cemetery and I would love to go back and sit on the bench they had there and just "think" about the people buried there, what it must have been like for them.



And now some photos of the shop and the area.

Lamington Antique Shop.

Almost directly across the road is a cemetery, we were told that there are Civil War soldiers buried there and a General from the Civil War.This is the back of the red barn. The Dr. Pepper sign was painted on this barn because the company was going to do a commercial, for some reason they changed their mind and the commercial was never shot, but the owner of the barn wanted the Dr. Pepper logo to remain there. . .a bit of local history for this area.

Some of the beautiful quilts on the second floor of the shop, most are very, very old with a few new ones added. I loved this little setup of the bedroom, I really like reds/yellows together, I am not a pastel person, I only like pastels in nature.

Below was my most favorite quilt, I told my husband if he bought it today it would count as my Valentine's Day gift. . .he looked at the price tag, rolled his eyes and walked away! Hey, I think I am worth it! The quilt is still in the shop, but I did get a carved wooden crow, a long wooden bread board and little toy farm wagon. I love old farm toys, they bring me back to my childhood of growing up on a farm in Upstate New York. You must be wondering the price on the quilt, it was over $500.00!

I took a close up photo of the quilt, rusty barn reds/browns/tans/cream are another favorite color combination. Those are the colors in my living room.


This will be a two part post because I want to share the photos from the Slave Cemetery.

A little snowman pillow and my attempt at a Penny Rug Mat

♥♥♥♥♥

Shown here with a little book that is filled with all sorts of heart shaped objects, the book is simply called Hearts!I added a wool fabric strip so I can hang it here next to the antique dresser in the front hall where I have my snowmen and soon some of my prim Valentine hearts will be out in a wooden bowl.

Remember when I went out on a "hunt" for wool to make the quilt square for the block of the month being hosted by Bunny Hill Design (see the widget on the left of my blog)? I said I am not a quilter, I am in awe of the ladies who make quilts, I wish I had the patience, but I do not. I have chosen to make my block into a little winter pillow and I have displayed it with my winter snowmen. I will keep out until after Valentine's Day. My block is not exactly like the original, I made hearts instead of stars and left the stick arms off the snowman and gave him a scarf! For some reason I have a difficult time following patterns, I usually end up making things "my-way", not always a good idea, but for crafting it works for me.

Since my hunt for wool came up short I was determined not to waste any of it, every little bit I am using for making a Penny Rug Mat. I have never made one of these before and it was something I have always wanted to do. I did not have a pattern so I based the main shape of one I saw in a book. . .this was harder than I thought since I did not want to waste a thread of fabric. I had to make sure I had enough tabs to go around the edge, so with paper and trial and error I finally did it. Since I only had a bit of wool to work with I decided to make mine into a topsy-turvy mat! One side is for Valentine's Day and the other for anytime. I still have to blanket stitch the pennies and the edges of the tabs and blanket stitch the edge of the basket side and finish up the stitching of the leaves/flower and the LOVE banner on the heart side. I find this very enjoyable, the time flies by and my mind can carry me any place I wish to go! I am pleased with my first attempt at this and I also love my little snowman pillow! I am so happy I came across Anne's Bunny Tales Blog! Thank you Anne, you inspired me to try something new!

This side will be displayed for Valentine's Day. . .
This side will be for whenever!

May your day be stitched with love! ♥ ♥ ♥

What do you see?

The weatherman predicted snow for our area for today, well he was correct, only it is just starting now, 4:09 P.M. to be exact, we did have a few flurries yesterday, heavy at times and some this morning, then the snow stopped, now it is coming down. And this brings me to my post!

A couple of days ago I came across this great blog, Anne, of Bunny Tales, she is hosting a block of the month for quilting. You can see her button on my side bar. The design was so cute and I was looking for something fun and simple to do to get me back into my sewing/crafting mode! I printed out the pattern and could not wait to get started on this, I did not have the fabrics I wanted to make my block. I wanted wool! I am going to make my block into a little pillow, something sweet to tuck into a little place. I am not a quilter, I do not have the skills to make a quilt so I thought little pillows, something to change out every month.

We do not have any great fabric shops in the area where I live, our fabric shop closed a few years ago. . .but I had gone to great shop that sold quilting fabric and they sold wool fabric. After a quick on line search I found the website, called to make sure they were still around then headed out to buy some wool! Since the weather was supposed to be bad this morning I thought if I had my supplies then today I would just have to drive my son to the train station so he could head back up to school in Vermont.

So, off I went, it was not too far a drive to the shop, but it is not that near me either. The shop was very busy, so I wandered around waiting for my chance to ask for help, then came the big disappointment! They no longer carried wool, all they had were two zip-lock bags with wool scraps! I thought to myself I should have asked before driving out there. . .the bag had nice black squares and a rather large square of tan with little odds and ends, I bought the bag and came home wishing that I had found what I wanted. This shop is wonderful if you are a quilter, the line and the supply of fabric is to die for, such beautiful fabric and books/patterns/threads, you name it they carry it, but no wool.

I am going to use some of this and make do with what I have. . .it may have to be wool and cotton, but I will show you when I finish it. The block is for a snowman in a basket with two stars and a little leaf vine above, if you go here you will see some already finished! They are really sweet. So, what do you see? Right now you see a little pile of wool, I hope the next time I can show you a little pillow!

Tomorrow I have something rather amusing to post about. . .well, I found it amusing. . .about a house in Vermont! Until then wishing everyone a safe and wonderful weekend!