Kerchief Panels and a Winner!

Hello everyone!  How are you?  I hope you are well!  I am terribly sorry I have kept you all waiting for so long since my last post.  Life has been busy and my calendar has just been booked, but with all good things.  For instance, this past weekend we celebrated my cousin's wedding.  Oh I wish I had remembered to take my camera to show you.  Everything was absolutely beautiful, from the bride to the old Victorian with the white wrap-around porch that was the setting.  She did a phenomenal job decorating and planning.  You should have seen all of her tiny details.  She made triangle banners cut from scraps of material and hung them with twine through out the reception tent and trees.  The long tables were lined with burlap and old wooden folding chairs were used for seats.  At each table setting she made napkins from the same material and collected hundreds of canning jars tied with twine for drinking glasses.  The bouquets were beautiful wild flowers and the couple exchanged their vows under a pergola made from tree limbs.  A vintage typewriter stood guard over the wedding programs and vintage suitcases collected cards on the gift table.  Can you picture it in your mind?  Oh, I hope so!  It was a wedding fit to be in a magazine.  

In my last post, I showed ways that I use and display old marmalade pots.  I also mentioned that it's not only fun to display collections, but use throughout the home as well.  Today, I would love to show you what I did with a collection of vintage handkerchiefs that found their way home from garage sales and thrift shops. 

I sewed them together in three points with a little hand stitch and attached the kerchief panels to vintage swing rods in my bathroom.

One of the handkerchiefs has a hand-written message.  It reads, "May 11, 1956 To Ellie, Friendship means a lot 'tis true  But more so when the friend is you, Naomi."

The rods swing open and close over the window and they can extend outward as well.

Vintage handkerchiefs are easy to find.  You can find them at garage sales, flea markets, antique and thrift shops.  

These hankie panels are simple to throw together and you can sew them however you desire.  Try inducting a color scheme.  Or match all white hankies together for a light and airy panel.  You could even take it a step further and sew a bed coverlet or quilt out of them.  There are so many uses for these vintage handkerchiefs, so don't pass them up when you see them for a good price!  

And now for the part we have all been waiting for!  I would now love to announce the winner of my Post Road Vintage and Romantic Prairie Style giveaway.  Thank-you to everyone who entered.  It was so much fun to read what you are planting in your gardens this year!  You have all inspired me.  I just picked up some seeds this weekend for planting and I hope to get my garden in soon!  I will be planting potatoes, yellow and green beans, scarlet runner beans, yellow onions, many kinds of lettuce, herbs, tomatoes, several kinds of peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, cosmos, dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers.  I will try to pack them all into my eight raised beds.  I hope to have lots of fresh veggies this summer!

Now let's take a moment to announce the winner...

Anonymous writes that once again, they have a huge garden going!  They have planted 4 rows of tomatoes, and rows of cukes, melons, squash, onions, lettuce, strawberries, and raspberries.  She also has her herb garden and five 20 ft. rows of cutting flowers, not to mention her house garden with mostly perennials (larkspur, roses, salvia, ornamental grasses, lantana, scented geraniums and more.)  And, she writes, "where did we spend our morning?  At the Farmer's Market!"

Sounds like a very beautiful garden!  Anonymous please shoot me an email at mgmarcusse@gmail.com with your contact info.  Congratulations!


Thank-you all for your continued visits.  I appreciate you very much!



Have a wonderful week,




Maria ~Rusty Hinge