Today’s treasure is a tea caddy made by my lovely nephew many, many years ago.
It’s looking a little shabby now but there’s no way I’m going to get rid of it anytime soon. He knew that I liked sharks so he painted a fish and a swordfish. The back is a bit more abstract.
I love it and I’m very lucky inasmuch that Master likes it too. So this little tea caddy is going nowhere.
Today I’d like to show you something sewing related again: a needle case.
As far as I remember this one came from one of my mother’s friends. It’s only about 2″ long and only fits fairly short needles. I know nothing about it but assume that it’s fairly old. The needle case lives in my hand sewing box making sure I always have sharp needles at hand.
I wasn’t sure what to show you today but in the end I decided to show you a picture that is very special to me.
This picture is in fact a copy of a watercolour that hangs in one of our local restaurants. I first saw it when my Bridge group held its Christmas party there and fell in love with it. In fact I loved it so much I took a picture of it thinking I could maybe put that in a frame. The picture, I’m sorry to say, did not turn out well as you could see the reflection of a window in the glass.
Five months later we moved into our house. A couple of months later I had the German Lunch Ladies over (a group of wonderful German and Austrian ladies who meet once a month to speak German and enjoy a lovely lunch) as it was my turn to cook for them. To my surprise I was handed this big present and a card which had been signed by the German Lunch Ladies and the members of the Bridge Club. Gesine, who like me is a member of both groups, had gone back to the restaurant, taken a picture of the watercolour and asked Hanna, one of the German ladies who’s an artist, to copy it. Hanna did a fabulous job, making it her own rather than simply a copy. Gesine then collected money from everyone to get it framed.
The picture hangs in our living room and every time I look at it I’m reminded of these wonderful friends I’ve made while here in England. I know I’m going to miss them all when we move back to Switzerland but I will aways have a reminder of their friendship, talent and generosity.
Round and round the garden like a teddy bear….
This weeks treasures are a few handmade teddy bears, all made by my lovely friend Dorte. The first two teddies were our wedding gift form Dorte and her husband Leigh. They were modelled on us and are called Freya and Padraig.
Aren’t they just the cutest little couple?
The next teddy is Bernard and I bought him for Little Miss Bossy Boots for her first birthday. She loves him but doesn’t play with him as much as I thought she would and I think it’s because he’s a boy and doesn’t wear pretty dresses. I might have to give him a quick sex change at some stage and turn him into Bernadette.
I also bought this little cutie, Herr Nisse. For a while he lived in our yucca but now he looks after my stash. It’s a difficult job but he does really well. Whenever I forget to fold my fabric again he stares at me with this really disapproving look. He’s perfected ‘the look’ and it never takes me long to fold my fabric properly and put it away.
Sadly Dorte got a little bit fed up with making teddies and is therefore taking a break from creating these wonderful treasures. I was hoping to add to the family but will just have to wait until Dorte is ready to make some more before choosing another furry friend to come and live with us.
It’s Valentine’s Day today and I have to admit I don’t celebrate it. Despite that I’ve chosen a treasure today that sort of ties in with the theme: A picture in a picture frame.
This faded photograph of my sister and I in it’s lovely 1950-ies frame stood on my grandparents piano together with many other pictures of us growing up. I have a whole collection of these frames, some of which I inherited from my grandparents others that I bought at secondhand shops. I’ve taken the photographs out of some of them but this one I kept despite the fact that it’s so faded you can hardly see us. To me it’s a little reminder of my family which I miss a lot living here in England.
Every Thursday I pick one of my ‘treasures’ and tell you a little bit about it. This week I’ve chosen a wall hanging which I bought for the stairwell when we moved into our house.
I found it in a small shop called Ethnic Origins in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire. Apparently it’s made from old torn or stained saris and the embroideries and beading are absolutely exquisite. I’m sorry that the pictures don’t really do the wall hanging justice.
The flowers on this arch are my favourite part.
The details are amazing. I can only imagine how beautiful the women wearing these saris looked. One of the reasons I love this wall hanging so much is the fact that it’s recycling at its best. It would have been an absolute disgrace to throw these wonderful fabrics in the bin, don’t you think?
When I first got it I didn’t know which way to hang it up as there was no hanging sleeve. In the end I decided that one way looked like a river running under some bridges and arches.
Being fairly new to quilting I really hope that I will be able to make something as beautiful and improvisational as this wall hanging one day.
Every week I find a little thing that is very close to my heart; sometimes for sentimental reasons, sometimes for looks. This week it’s the latter and it’s a small glass paper weight.
This beautiful little bit of glass is Irish and was given to me by my sister-in-law. As mentioned above there’s no special story attached to it. She gave it to me a few years ago and I simply adore it. It’s on a chest of drawers with a picture and a plant, a little still life for me to admire. I love the fact that it’s not perfectly round and that the bottom is a bit wonky. It’s handmade, so what is there not to love?
Green swirls and air bubbles. I love it!
Every Thursday I pick one of my personal treasures, i.e. things that are very close to my heart, and tell you a little bit about them.
This week I would like to show you a another secondhand shop find. When I was a student, I had a small room in Bern which I tried to furnish on a very tight budget with things from home and cheap finds at the secondhand shop. I was very lucky as one of the nicer shops was around the corner from where I lived. One day I found this little beauty in a corner:
I fell in love with the colours but felt that it was too expensive at £4. After all I didn’t need it and for just a couple more pounds I could get a bedside table which I was in need of. I’m sure you can guess what happened, right? Yes, I left the bedside table and went home with my little enamel plate. It’s in constant use and has been since the day I bought it. It’s the perfect size at about 4.5″ for a couple of biscuits or a small slice of cake and holds my tea bag whenever I make a cup of herbal tea.
It’s signed on the back but I can’t read the signature.
I just love the colours and wish I could make a quilt that looked like that.
By the way, I went back for the bedside table the following month and bought it. It was a yucky dark brown colour and I quickly turned it into a lovely orange little number. It has since changed colour a few times and has been painted blue, green, white and pink. Little Miss Bossy-Boots and I painted it pink last summer and it now resides in her room. It was well worth the £6 I paid for it.
This week’s treasure is a cat.
My aunt Tania, who gave me my sewing machine, was a cat lover. She had real cats which she spoilt rotten and she had a cat collection. It was easy to get her birthday or Christmas gifts, all you had to do is get an unusual little cat. When she died I asked if I could pick out one cat from her collection to keep as a memento and the cat above was the one that spoke to me the most.
Just look at that little face. Who could resist? I have no idea where it’s from of who gave it to her which is a shame but with more than 1000 cats in all sorts of materials it would have been impossible to remember every one of them.
This little cat is about three inches high and lives on our bookshelf behind glass doors and I make sure that Little Miss Bossy-Boots doesn’t play with it. Today, however, I took it outside to take pictures and she (the cat, not the Miss) thoroughly enjoyed herself, even trying to hide behind some frozen moss.
You can see she’s not really used to playing hide and seek; I found her within seconds.
Today I would like to share another sewing treasure with you: My beautiful Bernina KL117.
This model was built between 1938 and 1941. She’s built into a sewing table which is quite plain except for the intarsia measuring tape.
The table isn’t in very good condition and the machine has had a few knocks but I don’t mind. After all she’s over 70 years old and being an industrial machine she’s been used a lot. Sadly she doesn’t work but I’m hoping that I will be able to get her repaired one day.
I love the label.
The reason she is such a treasure to me is because I bought her when I was at a real low point of my life. I was having chemo therapy which meant that I was incredibly tired all the time. Most days I didn’t go very far; a quick little walk with Aron was all I could muster. One day, however, my friend Anita called and asked if I wanted to go to the secondhand shop. Of course, I did. Everything was better than sitting around reading books I couldn’t remember a week later (A nice little side effect of the chemo. Makes buying books really cheap as you only need two which you can rotate). Anyway, I went and found the Bernina hidden away in a corner. Looking at her made me happy, getting her home made me even happier and now every time I look at her I can still feel the happiness bubbling up in me. She’s usually hidden away as her sewing table is the perfect height for sewing at and that’s where my other Bernina sits.
Sometimes, though, I get her out and just look at her… and enjoy the happiness that fills my insides.