Went to the MD Sheep & Wool Festival

I had fun at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival yesterday. I missed it last year so I was in withdrawal and finally got my "fix" for this year.





Love those alpacas! If I come back in another life, want to be an alpaca farmer.


And some indulgences I purchased this year. I did not go too overboard, especially since I was making up for missing last year. Pictured are Solmate Socks from Delly's Delights Farm, a MD Sheep & Wool Festival bag, a small yarn bowl from Jennie the Potter of Minneapolis, Silk yarn from Oak Grove of Summit Hill PA, and Eastern European spindle and Tree-of-Life distaff from Willow Brook Farm of Ft.Washington PA. The crochet hook bag is a former, Etsy- Solveig's shop (Solveeeig), purchase, which I carried to the Festival. The redwork runner, a former eBay purchase.

Rock Sluicing

On 10 & 11 April I went to Emerald Hollow Mine in Hiddenite, NC. I admit to having cheated. I did not dig in the dirt or in the creek but instead just sluiced. After sluicing a couple native buckets and finding nothing, I really cheated sluicing their Super, Killer Beryl, and Star Ruby/Sapphire buckets. I gave some of my finds to the lapadarist to be made into cabochons, but will have to wait at least 6 weeks to see the finished product. Here are some of my other finds in their raw form. I hope to make some of these into jewelry some time in the future. Shown here are agate, amethyst, apatite, aquamarine, bloodstone, emerald, flourite, moonstone, quartz crystal, rose quartz, ruby, rutile quartz, sapphire, serpentine, smoky quartz, topaz, and black tourmaline.

Vienna Remembers -- again

More Pictures related to the Vienna WWII exhibit mentioned in my last post:

Historic Vienna VA WWII Homefront Exhibit

Easter/Passover Greetings,

Yesterday I visited the Historic Freeman Store, Vienna VA to take pictures of my homefront items on display there. Here I am next to a box of my homefront (mostly workbasket-related) items. Vienna Remembers WWII will be on display until the end of April. See Historic Vienna for more details about the exhibit.


Here is a closer picture of the contents of the box containing: sheet music, a Life magazine with knitter on cover, Hitler statuette with pincushion rump, a victory hanky, Bundles for Britain knitting bag, Bundles for America knitting patterns "for Fighting Forces", bracelet of military & victory charms, r/w/b knitting tools, comic post card, sweater knit for American Red Cross to distribute to a soldier, and scattered "war pack" hand sewing needles.

It has been a long time since my last posting. I have been working on my new website:   http://threadwinder.info/ . The website is currently very skeletal and not very athetically pleasing, but you can get an idea of what will be out there by checking it out.

Avery Butterfly Needlebook Holder Anniversary Gift

Valentines' Day was my husband's and my 40th wedding anniversary. Look what he got me! An Avery Butterfly Needlepack Holder 1880s, photographed with a quarter in Northern Virginia's recent record-breaking snow:

Sewing Machine Stitchery Samples --- Actual & Facsimile

I am searching for sewing machine stitchery samples, actual or facsimile, and information on them. So far I have found actual stitch samples on miniature (2.5" - almost 5") aprons (which are marked that they were made on the advertised sewing machine), trade cards with actual embroidery on the card done on the advertised sewing machine, and trade cards and advertising flyers with copies/facsimiles of the sewing machine's stitchery. for some examples see Iantiqueonline Sewing Machine Stitchery Samples
If you know anything about these or have any to sell I would be very interested in hearing from you.