Summer Bed Cover From Old Embroidered Handkerchiefs

I'm not sure I wrote about this sewing project already but since it's summer and I've put this back on the bed it's worth explaining.  When we cleared out my mother's house when she died, I came across a stack of handkerchiefs that were very pretty and embroidered.  It turns out a lot of these handkerchiefs and small table mats that had been embroidered by my father's sister, my Aunt Margaret, so I decided to keep them with the idea of using them in a crafts project. Some of the handkerchiefs in the stash also had manufactured embroidery on them but also were very pretty, so I kept them too.  I googled some Pinterest projects involving old vintage handkerchiefs and decided to lay them all out on the ground to see if they suggested anything.  So I realized I had quite a few pieces and that I could use them as decoration on a bed coverlet. I had a fine linen sheet from my mother-in-law that was a one-of and so it was perfect for this project.
 It took me a long time to actually piece and lay out all the handkerchiefs.  I pinned them out and then steadily worked my way through stitching them down.  This took quite a while as it was hard to manage a big sheet on my sewing machine which is not one really designed for large projects like this.  But I finally finished it and felt quite proud of myself for recycling,  and reusing these items.  And it's a very practical and light summer bed cover as well!

Art Nouveau Pieces in Paris, France

 This lovely lamp was created by Louis Majorelle (1846-1940), an artisan from Nancy, France. It is a table lamp created in 1902-1904 by Majorelle and the Daum Brothers and is typical of the Nancy School of Art Nouveau pieces created for various architects and designers at the time.  It stands almost 18 inches high and is so totally stunning I just had to photograph it. It is in Musee D'Orsay, Paris France among a collection of other art nouveau/art deco furniture pieces.  Just super!

This bed was created 1898 to 1899 by Tony Selmershein (1871 to 1971) from Saint Germain En Laye, who created this "chaise de salle a manger" for the Savoy Hotel in Brussels.  It is wonderful and strange looking and was arranged in a room format for view in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, France.

Pillow from scrap fabric

When no longer needed, I think baby blankets make useful fabric pieces to make into other things and this fuzzy blue giraffe blanket just begged to be made into a soft pillow.  First, I embellished one side with some left over brown satin ribbon from the stash pile of fabric and findings that accumulates each time I do a clear-out of a closet or drawer.  I used brown ribbon as this blue pillow was to be paired with another pillow, also brown.  Putting right sides together, I then stitched three and a half sides, leaving half a side open for later insertion of the pillow stuffing.  After turning to right side out, I squeezed in the pillow stuffing (acquired on sale at in Walmart), then hand-stitched the opening and lo and behold, had another cute pillow for my son's bed. This project took hardly any time at all as I did the laundry at the same time, making for a very productive Monday morning.

Teddy Bears for Grown Ups

Car bear

Bears I  nearly bought recently

Cute bears

I don't know why we like teddy bears so much but there's a lot of them lying about my house and, actually, in both of our cars. Sometimes someone we are giving a ride to will inquire about the car bears, as in "Do these belong to your children?" or, upon seeing two or three on the back seat, asking "Do you know your kids left their toys here?"  Most of the time the car bears are just something warm and fuzzy to look at but they have done occasional duty as window wipes and fly swats when nothing else is at hand in busy traffic. (Of course, they get washed in the washing machine occasionally, in case you're thinking EEW!)   I'm sorry to say there's six -- maybe seven -- little and not-so-little bears in our bed also;  they get used as pillows, such as to prop up an elbow when you're reading at night or to keep out the draft around your neck or as extra support to the middle of one's back when lying on one side. And then, there's half a dozen little bears sitting on a table upstairs, just collecting dust and they have a miniature tea set in front of them and appear to sip tea when we're not around. I don't want to think about the other dozen or more teddy bears that got stuffed into a suitcase and stored in the garage in a recent anti-hoarding binge. Nor do I really want to think about the number of bears we've given away in our sporadic urge to purge ourselves or to share with others. And, now,  I'm recalling there's a bear in the kitchen with a chef's hat and there's a giant bear in the man cave upstairs (seriously!), not to mention the keychain koala bear that hangs off my bag. I consider it a good day if I don't see a bear and buy it.  So we're bearing up pretty well with our toys. How about you? Ha ha.