December Welcome

The Year 'Round Rose has added another season to its portfolio. Winter! We had a light snow overnight. The skies are turning blue now so there might not be much more added today.

Just as well since yesterday I found a small buffet/sideboard at my favorite charity/second-hand shop and we have to pick it up today. OK, also a heavy wooden Post Office table/desk (75% off!). It will fit in our office and maybe motivate me to organize the office, AGAIN. I only stopped by there last night to check for vintage Christmas items...

I'm going to the "library"...

We have a wonderful library system in this area. Maybe they're all like this now. No matter which library in the system has the book, I can go on line and place a hold on it. Then it will magically appear on a shelf at the library of my choosing waiting just for me! An e-mail will be sent when the book arrives and I tell dear husband that I'm stopping at the library tonight.

The library of my choosing is on the way home, but it is also near my favorite charity / second-hand store that just happens to be open a little later in the evenings. Thrifting and librarying all in one evening! That's my library card, above. Self-service check-out means more time for browsing (at both locations). I'm always watching for older or interesting items and just never know what I'll find. Tonight I was pleased to find this aluminum chair (and even with the comfortable curved seat bar) and solid stepping stool (I can see it in a colorful coat of paint). I have one aluminum chair now that came with DH years ago. It's always in the garden or barn, but it's getting very wobbly. They're so easy to move around and remind me of childhood camping trips.

And with the stepping stool, I can even reach the top of the white board in the barn! With no sheep supplies sharing the space now, I'll be doing a spring arranging in the garden shed part of the barn.

And the book? Two Gardeners, a Friendship in Letters, Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence. This is the February selection for Carol's garden bloggers book group. Here is her post about it. And see this post about what happens next in the book club. I think Carol has some fans here locally as all of the copies were checked out.

Fields of Flowers

I think I've seen this from a plane.

This is the other silk piece I am posting for Anita. It is a quilt top and it isn't from family. I found it at my favorite 2nd hand store and felt honored to give it a home on my library wall. You can see 4 complete squares in the middle of the picture. There are 20 of those squares in total and each is about 17 inches by 17 inches.
Unlike my other piece, this has the same stitches throughout, just in different colors. You can tell by some of the shapes and designs (see the top picture) that ties were definitely a fabric source. And any other silk scrap found, I suspect. The silk is sewn onto squares of old cotton fabric and then the squares where sewn together. It does not have a quilt back and the edges are unfinished. I turn them under and the bottom hangs behind the couch back.
"From the last winter hat mother wore 1902-1903"
This was pinned onto one piece of fabric.

My grandmother would often do a coordinated quilt top design and then a crazy quilt back from all sorts of cotton scraps. As a child, I loved looking at all of the fabrics she used, some I recognized as matching clothes she'd made. I have the quilt she made me when I was very young. Hmmm.... more winter posting ideas.