Two Days in a Row!

Here's the house for Leslie's Neighborhood RR. I still have some more to do, but I might even be a day or two early this time!

Along with a little more work on Leslie's house, I added some detail to Procession and then started working on a valance for my bathroom. I think it's a Simplicity pattern; I bought the Waverly polished cotton print fabric at G Street Fabrics' warehouse store for about $4 a yard. A steal! So far I've cut out the face pieces, a laborious job because the print has a definite repeat. If the print doesn't start in the same place on all three pieces, they'll look mismatched. Tomorrow I'll cut out the lining pieces and stitch everything together.

On Sunday we went to the DC Big Flea, which is an antiques and collectibles show held four times a year in our area. Coincidentally, I had been reading in some magazine (maybe Cottage Living) about how collectible the old glass refrigerator bowls have become. They come in lots of colors and patterns and they're likely safer for storing/reheating food than plastic containers. Sure enough, one of the vendors had lots of them in all colors and sizes, so I bought this one. I love to picture some 30s-40s-50s era housewife storing her leftovers in this container.

This particular show had a number of vendors selling 50s stuff. I didn't buy a little juice set, and I now regret it. It consisted of several tiny glasses that were painted with fruits and had a fat but also tiny painted glass pitcher. Each glass might have held 3 ounces, and the pitcher might have held 24. (Note: I just went to ebay, and they're listed as "swanky swigs.") LOL! Anyway, no wonder we're fatter now than in the 50s--now we slug 20 ounces of juice without blinking. I remember as a kid that my mom always served Minute Maid orange juice from concentrate in jelly glasses that had pictures on them. Those jelly glasses might have held five ounces. I saw lots of little jelly/juice glasses at the show.
There was a particularly interesting vendor who had about eight British samplers for sale. They were each wonderful, historic, beautifully stitched. One in particular caught my eye, because it was a "zoo" sampler. Apparently there were a number of samplers from the time that commemorated the opening of the London Zoo. Zoo visitors got their first-ever glimpse of exotic animals and came back to stitch them. The sampler I saw had two zebras on the top of the design--one with black stripes, and one with brown. It was a special, special work of art, but I had to pass--even in less than perfect condition (it was nicely and fairly recently framed) with some wear and small holes in the fabric, it was $2300.

This is a flower blooming in my garden suddenly. I suspect it's some sort of lily, but I really don't know. The colors remind me of the bowl.

Thanks for your comments about thirsty critters/birds. I'll take the advice and put out a pan of water, especially since it's so dry here.