Vintage Linens

I have a confession to make.

I have a weakness for vintage linens. If I had my way I would drape the house floor to ceiling with embroidered and crocheted flowery lacy stuff. And then Harland would move out.

Seriously though, I’ve never been much of a collector of things. But when we visit antique stores, I gravitate to the vintage linens. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled dresser scarves yearning to go home with me.

Here’s my collection that I started about 6 years ago:

This is the dresser scarf that started it all. It was on the antique dresser in Harland’s bathroom when I met him. It was made by a member of his family, but I don’t think he knows who. Love the deep crocheted edging.

I fell in love with it, so I started buying some more.

This dresser scarf has a combination of both embroidery and cross-stitch:

This one is embroidered flowers. Look close and see there are 2 different shades of the same color for each flower:

Love the bold colors of the flowers:

Must have taken a long time to crochet the delicate edge. I can imagine a farm wife siting next to the wood stove on a cold January evening.

She listens to the wind swirling about her house as she leans near an oil lamp and completes another round of crochet.

This one with the basket is unusual. Most of them have a grouping of flowers, but the basket is a bonus I don’t often see.

This one is more subtle- no color, just white on white. Very elegant.

Embroidery, and an edge I can’t identify. I know it’s not crochet as crocheting is the only needlework I can do.  Is it tatting? Here’s a close up of the side edge:

Anyone know? (It’s TATTING. Thanks Rural TN!)

Here’s another one. Embroidered with a crochet edge. I like the dotted lines going back and forth. Different.

This is another white-on-white embroidery. This one has crocheted inserts and edging.

Here’s a simple round white tablecloth with a  deep crocheted edge. Wonder how long it took to complete this one?

And here’s a simple white dresser scarf with a deep crocheted edge.

And the last one of my collection (for now) is one of my favorites. Just love the wild spray of flowers going in every direction:

Don’t know how old any of these are. And I feel sad that they made it to a an antique store in the first place. Didn’t any family members want what their mother/grandmother/sister/aunt had worked so hard on?  At any rate, they have a good home with me now. They all take turns being put on display on the dresser or tables in our home.

As an aside, I took these pictures while I was ironing my collection. Of course, I was closely supervised, as usual.

At our home, if you feel like you’re being watched, you probably are.

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Harland and I just got back last night from a two week vacation. On August 25, we hopped on the Amtrak (for the first time and loved it!) from Kansas City and rode it all the way to Rochester, NY. From there we rented a car and drove through upstate NY, Vermont, New Hampshire, and finally Maine. We even escaped across the border and visited Campobello Island in Canada. We didn’t have a schedule and hadn’t reserved any lodging. We just drove every day seeing what there was to see and stopping for the night when we got tired. We ate fresh seafood, drove on narrow bending country roads, visited waterfalls and clear lakes, drove up a mountain on the scariest road we’ve ever seen, and stood on the coast overwhelmed by the foaming waves crashing on the rocks. We slept in our own little room on the train, little motels, and a tiny cabin in the Maine woods.

We didn’t want to come home.

But last night about midnight, we carried our luggage into our little house to be greeted by a VERY happy Kitty.

Today has been spent unpacking, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and I hope to take a nap here shortly. It’s good to be home.

I have about 800 pics to sort through and hours of video too. Will share with you this week.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo