(This is actually Wednesday's post. I'm finding it easier, in the summer, to do the "big" post-of-the-day, especially if it involves photographs, the evening before).

I finally got downtown to buy some plain white cotton to use as a background for the embroidery I'm planning. (Especially the kind of scary cat head with "I can has cheezburger?" under it. The more I think of that the more it amuses me).

I also found, to my joy, that the quilt shop is now carrying DMC floss. Especially because my local Mart of Wal seems to have (inexplicably to me, but probably not to them) chosen to drop carrying anything embroidery-related. Which made me kind of sad when I found it out, because that's one craft supply I could kind of reliably count on being able to get here in town.

Of course, the quilt shop's prices are a bit higher, but whatever. They also have (apparently) ALL the different colors, ranged on a tall (taller than me!) revolving rack...all laid out by color. It's gorgeous. It's the kind of thing I approach slowly, with almost a little reverence. It's kind of, for me, the grown-up equivalent of walking into The Attic* and seeing that they had a new stock of penny candy. It's literally mouth-watering.

(*That would probably only make sense to people who grew up in Hudson, Ohio, in the 1970s. But I can explain that The Attic was a tiny, lovely shop that carried a wide variety of things, including small toys, the sort of fancy-doily type gift items most "gift" shops are known for, and, most memorably, penny candy. Or actually, nickel and quarter candy, since it was the 1970s. That was my first introduction to the agonies of having to choose when one had limited money - did I blow it all on a couple of Gobstoppers (which, now that I think about it, were actually kind of gross and I really only liked because they changed color as you held them in your mouth for hours on end...which actually may be a contributing factor to all the dental work I had to have done as a kid) or did I parcel it out on little things like the wrapped squares of taffy (sort of a proto-Laffy Taffy; I don't think that came out until I was in high school) and chocolate buttons and Mary Janes and things like that? Or did I buy gum? (There was some kind of gum - I think the name might have been Bubs Daddy? - that came as a long, long rope. It was wonderful gum, no less wonderful because you got SO MUCH of it. I think they had a watermelon flavor and a sour apple flavor (the 1970s precursor to the "blue raspberry" sour flavor that's common now) and maybe a grape and also the standard bubble gum. And every kid knows, the most important thing about bubble gum is to cram A LOT of it in your mouth, because otherwise, you can't make good bubbles. [Uh, yeah. I also remember a few emergency scissor-sessions with my mom after a large bubble burst and mixed with my hair. And no, peanut butter really doesn't take it out like they say it will.]).

Anyway. Where was I? Oh, floss. So anyway - I picked up the floss I need for the I Can Has? cat, and also a few other skeins in colors that appealed to me, and got my fabric.

And then I walked down to one of the small antique shops, one I've had good luck finding vintage-y craft supplies in in the past.

And I had a minor score. (If I had wanted to be greedy I could have bought more but I only chose the two that really grabbed me).

They had old embroidery blanks. Those stamped things, you know? That you embroider over the lines and make a picture, kind of like the paint-by-number kits, only with floss.

They were $3 a piece, which seemed pretty cheap to me, considering what new ones cost at the craft shop.

And there were two quite lovely ones that I bought.

First, the ponies:



I think I once said on here that I wasn't particularly fond of actual horses because their size scared me a little bit - I am always skittish around them for fear one of them might step on my foot or decide to roll over unexpectedly. But these horses are pretty friendly-looking, and I think they'd look nice out of two different shades of shiny brown floss. And their eyes are going to be blue. I know that combination probably doesn't exist in real life, but they're MY horses, darn it.

(And it cold be worse - I could do them all sparkly and pink, My Little Pony style. Except that I think that would be a sacrilege.)

It's a "Wonder Art" blank, as the label in the corner says:



No idea how old it actually is but I'm popping this up here just in case someone, you know, had a relative who WORKED for "Wonder Art" and knows the dates of the company's operation.

I also found a lovely Vogart farm scene:



I realize this is a bit hard to see and "shaky" as I had to photograph it on "extreme night setting" lest the flash wash out all the color. It's a close-up view of two cornstalks - very realistic, you can even see the tassels on them - with plowed fields and a farmstead in the background.

This is on a heavier fabric than the horses are - linen, I think. Neither one is hemmed and I may have to do a tiny turned rolled hand-hem before I start either one because they're raveling a little (the farm scene worse than the horses)

I love the farm scene and had to buy it because this kind of thing feeds into all my romantic fantasies about farm life - the clean air and the open vistas and the fresh vegetables and the honest uncomplicated work and time in the evenings to sit and listen to the radio and do a little hand work. Oh, I know it's not REALLY like that, that's why it's a fantasy, and that's why I'm not buying 50 acres and a tractor or anything like that.

I'm going to work these up. I know the collector-purists might gasp (or at the very least demand I use authentically-old floss), but I think things like this (which are, after all, mass-produced) were made to be enjoyed, and one way to enjoy them is to make them up and use them.

Of course, given how busy I am and my general level of distractability in re: projects, it may well turn out that my heirs (whoever they may be) will wind up selling these blanks, un-started, to some late 21st century (well, please God it will be LATE 21st century) antiques shop.

Then again - it cost me $6 total for both of them and if even all I do is look at them and feel happy to have them, it's worth that to me.