News from the designer

Currier and Ives was a printmaking business in New York City that operated between 1835 and 1907. Founded by Nathaniel Currier, the company designed and sold inexpensive, hand painted lithographic works. I have always especially loved their holiday illustrations like the one below.    

TO AUTUMN by John Keats 1795-1821 Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;Conspiring with him how to load and bless  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,And still more, later flowers for the bees,Until they think warm days will never cease,    For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?  Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may findThee sitting careless on a granary...

Sunshine on my shoulder definitely makes me happy!!!  For most of the week the sun has shone through gloriously and the skies have been more beautiful than ever.....like big cotton balls looking down on me as I walk the pooch and check my autumn flowers.  The zinnias & "Autumn Joy" sedum never disappoint! And who can help but smile back at the happy sunflowers and black-eyed susans!

As first printed a long time ago in Sew News magazine.....love this!    Thou shalt put away no ironing board before its time.              Thou shalt not expect meals, clean laundry or a                sparkling house when sewing calls.            Thou shalt walk through this room as if treading on             needles and pins.     Thou shalt not use my fabric shears.   Thou shalt not covet my sewing machine.                Thou shalt stick...