Postcards from the … wha … Denmark, Iowa?

So I posted about my little quilt find the other day, but I also brought home postcards. Or actually, just cards I think. Uncommon Objects had a whole box and a drawer full of postcards from the 1920’s and 1930’s. It appears as though said postcards were once the only type of cards - no greeting cards, in other words. Most of the ones I looked at were sorta halfway between the two types. Anyway, I liked these because I have a historical bent and they were personally interesting, and I am going to do something interesting and collag-ey with them, I just don’t know what yet.

These first two are “Texas postcards.” The one on the left is a poem with the title “Texas A Paradise.” It’s from 1936 and it has that schlocky idea of “no place is better than Texas” - the sort of blind and unruly pride in being a Texan that people from other states don’t seem to have so much. The poem says, essentially, that it’s damn hot (look at the teeth on that sun!) but that it’s the promised land.

The other postcard is marked September, 1938 on the back and is a picture of Rice Institute in Houston - now know as Rice University. I grew up in Houston and lived near here for 2 years, and there’s not a blade of uncultivated grass left like this anymore. It’s completely city, and surrounded by (1) the Medical Cente, (2) a bunch of expensive housing and (3) museums, such as they are.

This next one photographed poorly because of the gold, but it’s got great style and was one of the older ones I found. It’s marked Nov. 11, 1909 to Miss Mollie Watt and reads “From your friend Lizzie Harlow, wishing that live to enjoy many more birthdays” [sic]. The front says “Best Wishes.”

This funny (and a little scary with the scythe) card is the one that’s really interesting. It’s from June 10, 1910 through the post office in Wever, Iowa. It was from Helen Davies to Hannah Meisel.

The funny thing is that Wever, Iowa is the post office for Denmark, Iowa, which is the tiny little town where my grandparents live and my mom grew up. Denmark and Wever are towns of 300 people! The chances that I would find a postcard from Wever in an antique shop in Austin are pretty slim. I called my grandparents and they didn’t know the people, but then, my grandfather wasn’t born until 1919.

Anyway, that was fun! I love finding stuff that is interesting to me, and quirky and unique.

It’s not everyday you find an antique mini quilt

This last weekend I made a trip to South Congress - or for non-Austinites, I went to the business district of South Congress Avenue. In the last few years all sorts of interesting and mostly locally-owned shops have sprung up there. Shops for fashion boutiques, vintage finds benefiting charity, antiques of different sorts, toy stores, outdoor vendors… It’s much fun, although it was hot and muggy. But it’s Texas in July - what more can you expect?

My destination was destinations were (1) Texas French Bread and (2) Uncommon Objects. I might as well admit to my need for coffee and homemade granola, even on a hot, sticky day. Mmm. Next was Uncommon Objects, which describes itself as “30 purveyors of curious goods” and “raw materials for creative living.” It’s really a smallish antique mall - the kind where a bunch of people get together to sell stuff. They do have good stuff, but pricey! It makes me want a country antique mall - the kind in a barn-like place where stuff’s all jumbled together instead of displayed artfully and you can find collectibles for garage-sale prices. Or, you can go to this place, which is much more stylish and close to home.

However, when you strike gold you must purchase anyway, right?

I’m really quite happy with my main find, which was a miniature quilt. It’s about a foot square and each teeny square is 1″. It’s hand-sewn. The fabrics are velvet alternating with satins. The satin has been hand-puckered using a sewing technique, and then the whole thing put together. The close-up above shows the puckered fabric. The result is something that looks really expensive and luxurious, particularly for such a small piece of sewing.

I’ve not seen the like before, and I thought it was really neat. The satin fabric is, unfortunately, falling apart (the green and yellow particularly) but once I get some archival framing done it will be fine henceforth. It’s probably a sampler, and it’s tens of decades old, and in good condition given the age of it. I’m lucky Michael’s is having a 50% off framing sale right now!

Here’s a close-up of the back of it - you can see it took a LOT of stitching to make this!

Here’s the full back:

I found more stuff on my antiquing trip, some of which hit so close to home it was amazing! In fact, I have to call my grandmother before I can even post about this next find!

The Living Room

Here at chez Miriam, it is time once again to consider the living areas of the house and to make improvements. Over the weekend I made one huge improvement: curtains!

I’m a big fan of curtains. Over the last years of my life I have lived in many a drab and dreary apartment, and 99.99% of the time I’ve have had to deal with super-cheap vertical and horizontal blinds. These do not improve the character of said apartment any more than plain white semi-gloss walls do.

So I use curtains to add color, life and interest to my rooms. It’s about as cheap as paint if you do it right. You don’t have to make really complicated Roman blinds - simple is often great. With just a little work you can make a really big statement with color, pattern and texture.

I’m a big fan of simplicity, so my curtains rarely feature pattern or swoopy bits or anything fussy. I’m right next door to minimalism, truly.

The living room is brown and red. Next spring I will be converting to a different color scheme, swapping the reds for cool blues and a bit of bright green. I like change, so I have neutral browns everywhere, which I find comforting. Then in autumn I go over to deep reds and other autumny colors. And spring and summer get cool shades.

I bought the white lace ones in back. It’s a really neat pattern, sort of reminds me of Spanish decorative patterns from the era of the caliphs.

The brown and red are bed sheets. I love bed sheets. They’re great for sleeping, of course, but did you know they’re also often the cheapest kind of large, unbroken length of cloth you can purchase? If you go to an online merchant like Overstock.com you can often find sheets with a really high thread count, even neat patterns for very little. As the picture shows, the ones I used had a very high sheen that resembles silk. I use sheets for curtains and as quilt backing in particular. I don’t want to sew together multiple panels of cloth for these items, as I think it looks bad. And in the case of quilting, a seam against you at night isn’t that great.

I chose not to do a curtain with backing, as I wanted to let the lace show through and let in more light. However, just sew two bedsheets together if you want backing - you can do white, or just two of the same color, or whatever you wish. You can even make them reversible. If you want to do this, that’s your first step.

Since I wanted just one layer, first I did a foldover on one end that could serve as a plain rod pocket first. This allows me to measure for hemming length, and it also gives me the option of switching the look a bit if I get tired of the hidden tabs I’ll put on later. I hung them on the rod, and measured them for length.

When hemmed properly, these curtains sweep the floor and have a nice full, thick, posh feel to them. This is achieved by double-thick 4″ hems on the bottoms for weight and drape. They’re also ironed and starched - this gives them sheen and additional presence.

On the top I chose to do hidden tabs. The top rod pocket and tabs are 3″ long and the tabs are 2.5″ wide. I took material leftover from hemming the bottom and sewed up the edges, then turned them inside out so no raw edges show. Then I sewed them every 6″ along the back. In order to avoid having short sewing lines that would call attention to otherwise-hidden tabs, I sewed the entire width of the curtain. On the bottom of the tabs, this means mimicking the sewing line from the rod pocket exactly. This is probably the hardest part.

Also, don’t sew the tabs on the sides on either end like I did. I finished with the top, turned, went down the side and then turned again and went back along the bottom. That was just lazy. However, you cannot put a curtain rod through a sewn seam.

So after one last trip up the stairs for the seam ripper, everything got put up. I like.