Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Dolce & Gabbana Needlepoint

I was flipping through a fashion magazine and this image caught my eye *because* of the needlepointed rose on her shoulder... Maybe as a needlepointer I'm not so uncool, after all.


Though, this dress looks terrible as shown here. Their magazine ad is better.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Klaralund & Noro Silk Garden yarn

Oh my gosh.... I think it could be as many as 8 years later and I have finished one of my sweaters. Just in time for warm/hot weather in New Orleans and then later in Washington, DC. Sigh.

Yarns have been made after this Noro came out which seems to be much better quality and look very similar. The colors of the Noro Silk Garden yarns are particularly pretty, but there is so much junk spun in to the yarn. Hard, scratchy things that are tough to pull out.

I like the result, but though I followed the pattern, the sleeves are a little long for me. I made the Large, allowing for a 41" bust.




I bought the yarn at Wool Winders in Rockville, MD. I can't tell when I bought it, but like I said, probably 6 to 8 years ago....

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Mes Amis Quilt Shop

I spent a wonderful afternoon with Cathy and Melissa at Mes Amis Quilt Shop in New Orleans. We talked quilts, genealogy, restaurants, history, fashion and a variety of other subjects. I went with the intention of finding Mardi Gras fabric which the web site indicates they carry all year so that I might make myself a skirt for 2017 Mardi Gras.

Here are the fabrics I bought today:









I started with all Mardi Gras themed fabrics and branched out when I didn't like the combinations. Of course after I had picked out my fabrics I turned around and there was a quilt with many of the Mardi Gras fabrics coordinated very nicely.

I ended up buying three yards of the bird fabric... it is a glorious fabric and I thought I might make another skirt or dress.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

1919 Movies

I was curious about what films were released in 1919. You can see a list here and a list of those from 1918 here. What do you suppose these movies say about the time? I mean, right now our movies are about blowing up the world, diseases, zombies and alien invasions... What were they worried about at the end of the war?

March 3, 1919
Dearest Family,

It’s the day for writing you, but I’m blessed if I know what I am to write about.

I’ve done nothing but fool around and go to the movies since last week and I expect to keep up that schedule for some time. The Section is doing a bit more work now, having taken over some new territory. We’ve been detached from the 13th Division and attached to the 21st Army Corps, so we have to do all the work of evacuation in the territory over which the corps has jurisdiction. Fortunately this region isn’t a devastated one so we don’t have any of this civilian supply work to do. If you see, since the armistice ambulances are permitted to be used for all sorts of hauling jobs so we’re lucky we haven’t a lot of that sort of thing to do.

At last I’ve heard the first really definite news about going home. Barring accidents SSU 580 will leave for the U.S. between the 1st and the 15th of May. That’s not so soon as I had hoped for but its sooner than I had expected that probably means that I’ll be out of uniform before July 1st – with luck. So here’s hoping I have luck.

Since my last letter to you I’ve had a letter from you and one from Nelly Graham. I don’t know of just what date your letter was but it must have been around Feb. 8 or 9.

The cold weather is all gone around here and some of the trees have started budding. It continues very rainy.

I’m writing to Chas today – just a few lines to let him know I’m still alive. I haven’t written him in at least a month. I’m behind on letters to everyone but you. But honestly there’s not a blooming thing to write about. It’s like being a million miles away from the world to be here. Thank Heaven it can’t last forever.

Be sure + tell me how Harry made out.
As ever your son,
Herbert

Believe it or not this individual with his hat on all wrong and the sour look is your son. Honestly I don’t feel so mean as I look. The picture was taken in Luxembourg near Nagen.


I don' know if this is the picture Herb enclosed with the letter... But he does look sour! And he did complain of the rain at this point, didn't he? Who might have taken the photograph?




Here's a movie made in Denmark in 1918 that caught my eye - a peaceful, vegetarian civilization!


A group of the researchers from the Earth in a spaceship traveling to Mars, where, to big surprise, finds a peaceful vegetarian and pacifist civilization.