1860 Paper Doll

This sweet Mcloughlin paper doll was given to me in the 1950's by a lady in Hamilton Texas whose name was Katie. Last name began with E, perhaps Edmondson. It had come down in her family from a girl my friend Katie was named after. The doll is thought to have belonged to Katie Holland, a child whose heart never learned to keep a proper rythm and died in childhood. Little Katie must have enjoyed quiet toys. On the back of the doll is written in pencil the name "Helen".

I have kept the paper doll over 50 years, in an envelope. Now I am passing her to a much younger doll collecting friend to ensure safe keeping for another generation! In thinking of how to share this adorable image of the demure little paper doll, so rightly termed ephemera by collectors, I hit upon the idea of printing a book mark with the image. So now when I remember to put it in the books, I mail the book mark to people ordering my books.

A lovely hooked rug

Rug hooking friend Leah sent photos of her adaptation of my bed rug pattern (available from Barb Carroll at Woolley Fox as are all my rug patterns). Leah chose not to work the center of the design as she wanted to use it under a table and chairs. Her cats think she hooked it just for them! I love the deep colors in Leah's delightful piece, she has created a real treasure! Edyth

Lassie come home

Jack and I went to a large Antique show in Round Top Texas last Wed, (180 miles east of us) and saw many friends there, and had a really nice time. We used to set up and show there. It became too hard for us many years back. I am sure if we had not had the fire we would still enjoy being in business, with the shop in our beautiful big white stucco barn building there beside our house. We both still enjoy the antiques.
In the antique show we found one of Jack's beautiful hutch tables he made back in the 80's, signed and dated of course. I wished we could buy it back! Jack said if things we have made are beginning to show up in antique shows, we must be getting old!
And in another booth was one of my own dolls, number 10 from 1983 signed and dated of course. The owner began to tell me who made the doll.. Edyth someone, not Edyth Head,.. and I said "me." She said Oh you are Edyth! The doll had been in a Houston estate of a long ago dealer friend Agnes Terry. We did bring her home.
In the 1980's I made and sold a number of cloth dolls. Several of the first ones looked like this blond doll. The second doll and two more were spoon heads, like "Old Spoon" pictured also. Then I went entirely to a round 4 part head with applied and quilted ears. Those looked much like the doll in the red dress. Then 36 big Belsnickle dolls with quilted beards. There were about 125 dolls in all. Last were 6 molded face Izzy looking dolls like this red dressed one, mentioned before, the difference being a better profile.

Last night we went to two art receptions and sat and listened to music until nearly nine. Outside under trees on a big deck, behind one of the galleries. We held hands and relaxed and enjoyed it so much. In Fredericksburg we have vacation all the time! Or maybe I am just feeling the joy of spring. Best to each of you, E

note to a sweet friend this morning

Dear Anita, How wonderful to hear about you and how things are going in your life. Thank you for writing to me! Glad you like the blog. I have ideas for more I want to put on it. I have been collecting shots of my rugs (many are gone, lost in the fire or sold since etc) Many of the remaining ones are darker in color from the smoking and cleaning. So good fresh photos like we used in our book will go on the blog as a slide show soon. I have also been collecting photos from friends of the old house interior, and I want to do a slide show of cape shots. Ditto some of the antique dolls. I have the 2 blogs, and enjoy hearing from people so much. I miss old friends!
We are well settled in a modern house in town, but looking always to downsize some and have a one story that we can treat with more warmth. This one has the high ceilings and white tile floors and so forth. We put the yard in after we bought it, this is our third spring here, and the yard pleases me. There were no trees at all, and of course what we have planted does not ever get the cozy old treed look. But we are working on it! Bird feeders and blooming things and healthy tomato plants are joy. When God put man and woman in a garden, He had me in mind! Have a great day, Edyth

Stand up!

We are having a warm but dry spring, and our gamble to plant tomatoes early looks like it will be a winner. For the next week we are expecting highs in the eighties. Nothing is really more rewarding to me than watching living plants, so the busytime of spring is the height of joy. My overused hands do not allow me to actively garden anymore. But I water and putter.
Tending the house and yard and enjoying our hobbies and visiting friends and family, all fill out pleasant days around the basics in life like caring for Tyler, and for Jack's parents (90 and 96!) who live nearby. Escaping into hobbies like collecting, or handcrafts like knitting and quilting keep a happy balance for people and I believe have importance for that reason.
Just as everything in the garden wants attention right now, there is always the ongoing care of restoring the doll collection. I feel decidedly like the old woman in a shoe with so many dolls I don't know what to do! 80 plus dolls is quite a commitment. Only a handful of them have been bought in original clothing on original bodies in acceptable condition for display. Dolls in prime condition command a premium, when one can find them. So for the past two years now I have been working first to repaint heads and make new bodies for the 26 fire damaged dolls we saved, not to even mention clothes for them yet. And I have added over 50 more antique dolls, almost all of them very needy too! I worry at night that my hands and my time will not be sufficient to put them all in good order. Thank goodness for the help of friends who have made garments for some of them.
Now Jack is making some saddle type stands for them. We used coat hanger wire, in dowels on round wooden bases. A belt of velcro around the waist holds the doll tightly in place. Some are quite heavy, the Greiner doll pictured is 36 inches tall. we have made 4 now, need about 12 or 15 more! In case you are wondering, the little green house in the photo is our cat's door into the garage. Edyth

Happy Easter Dear Friends

For a number of years I enjoyed painting papier mache eggs to go around our old hen at Easter time. I did most of them in a take off of the Quimpere pottery style. The only ones left now are these two large ones. I think I need to revive the tradition and paint some more. Barb Carroll and a few close friends have been gifted with them in the past. Barb has a lovely collection of Quimpere pottery, as does my little mother in law. In it's earliest history this tin glazed earthenware of France paralleled the production of Delft, the 17th and 18th century pieces Jack and I have collected over the last 15 years or so. Folk art springs from a common well in us all! Edyth

Quilter's clamps

Jack and I love early iron and had a huge collection of it before the cape burned, all of the iron was saved and cleaned, but little of it has found a place in our lives here in a modern new house. Still the old hand wrought pieces are decorative and graphic, and we find ways to show it here and there. Among the charming pieces we have had a long time are a set of quilter's clamps, one for each corner of the frame, when 4 long flat boards were used to make a collapsible frame. This was often set across several chair backs to hold it up while a group of quilters gathered around to finish it in perhaps a long day. The little hand made ones in the photo with some hooks belonged to our friend Felicia many years back. Felicia used them on her mantle to hold garlands of seasonal material, not only at Christmas when they held strands of cranberry garland. This was more interesting than a nail or hook in the mantle board. Yesterday, friend Nancy gave us a set that had been her grandmother's quilting clamps. These are Victorian in feeling, and mass produced as are most of the Christmas things we collect. I thought you might enjoy seeing these. Edyth
I heard from friend Helen, "Happy Easter to you two, and, as the old toast goes, "to all whom you love, to those who love you and to those who love those who love you." Just visited the website and spent a pleasant while reading it - like a visit, almost. Great clamps, by the way. My Grandmother Ashcraft had a quilting frame with clamps like that in her old West Texas farmhouse, except it was suspended from the ceiling by ropes, let down to work and rolled up other times. I have such vivid memories of that place and time, bleak and bare and a world of sand, but home to me."