Tag Archives: Mrs. B at Home

Details II

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I have a mad passion for ribbon. I think I should buy a crate of black grosgrain ribbon now to have on hand over the next 40 years or so. I’ve trimmed my entry walls, my living room curtains and a few tablecloths with black ribbon over the last few years. Too much? Well, I don’t think so, yet, but it might be time to hold up.

Mrs. Blandings’s entry hall. Why no trim above the wainscoting? Did I mention my three boys? Pick, pick, pick.
Ribbon is a great, inexpensive trim. I buy mine at the Dime Store, a Kansas City tradition, Michael’s, Hyman Hendler and Sons and M and J Trimmings. Here are a few great examples of ribbon as trim:


These cloths, from the Neiman-Marcus catalogue in ’04, would be so easy to replicate. The contrast stitching is so snappy.


Heidi Friedler’s New Orleans home in Southern Accents.

This room is so fresh; does it owe it’s charm to the ribbon detailing on the sofa pillow? Partly so, I think.

Osborne and Little ad circa 1998.

The pleated trim on this pillow is a nice accent, but can be a head ache for your workroom and costly for you. M and J offers a pleated ribbon trim that is available in grosgrain, velvet and satin.

Post script: In looking through the September issue of Domino tonight, Cynthia King reports New York designer Markham Roberts is a fan of M and J’s grosgrain ribbon as well. We are so simpatico! But then again, Roberts is a Midwestern boy himself.

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A Stitch in Time

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OK, bear with me, I’m almost finished with this. If you live in Kansas City, and if you stitch, then mecca is The Studio. Formerly owned by the charming and talented Joanie Sherman, the ladies there have saved my neck on numerous potential stitching disasters. Mrs. Sherman has painted several of my favorite projects, the most recent is under-construction for the living room.

This design is vintage Mrs. Sherman; it is based on a Chinese screen at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

For many years, Mrs. Sherman has had a wholesale business, Studio Midwest, with a whimsical line of ornaments, scissor cases and purses. I have a bit of a Christmas ornament problem, needlepoint and otherwise. I have stitched an ornament each year for each of the boys. When they were small, I went the typical baby-shoe, train route. As they have gotten older they usually pick their own design. Several times, they have chosen Mrs. Sherman’s “toppers” which come in a variety of designs.

Some of the designs – there are dozens, certainly every hobby I can think of is represented.

Some of our collection.

Oh, yes, anything is possible – especially if you ignore licensing issues. Not one of my favorites, but the boy for whom it was made – swoon.

This year she has added cars to her line-up. Last Christmas I stitched the proto-type for my youngest.

My understanding is they are available in Mini-Cooper, SUV, Jaguar and VW Bug. The cars are not yet on-line, but give Studio Midwest a shout and I’m sure they would help you out. Check your local deadlines for finishing in time for Christmas; the Studio’s deadline is usually around Halloween.

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To the Point

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I needle pointed my first pillow sixteen years ago- a fish, for Mr. Blandings, who is a bit of an outdoors man. Since, I’ve rarely been without a project. Like all hobbies, it can become a bit of an obsession.

I stitched these nautical flags for all the boys; easy because you can draw them on the canvas yourself.

Sister Parish was a fan of needlepoint and was a stitcher herself. An ambitious project for even the most dedicated, this is the runner she stitched for her home in Maine.

Sister Parish’s runner, Dark Harbor house, H&G Complete Guide to Interior Decoration, 1970

A veteran of Parish-Hadley, Bunny Williams, also uses a good bit of needlepoint in her rooms. Two of my favorite rooms are of her hand, both with great needlepoint projects on display.


I do not have credits for these images, however, Williams has written a wonderful book about the property in the top photo, An Affair with a House. The other images are her home in the city.

I’d consider Diamond Baratta current champions of American craft. Whether you like their style or not, I think you have to admire their courage and creativity. As with all of their designs, their needlepoint pieces take on a larger, bolder palette than traditional – to great affect.

House Beautiful, March 2003

House and Garden, April 2000

You do not have to confine your needlepoint to pillows – it’s fabulous on furniture as well.

House and Garden, June 1997

House Beautiful, January 1995. Room by Christian Badin (so sorry for the quality of the image; it never occurred to me anyone else would ever see these pages.)

Horchow catalogue, 2001
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Dream House

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Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin’s egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don’t let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I’d like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you’ll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can’t go wrong! Now, this is the paper we’re going to use in the hall. It’s flowered, but I don’t want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There’s some little dots in the background, and it’s these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room – in here – I want you to match this thread, and don’t lose it. It’s the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it’s practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me…

Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?

Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.

Mr. PeDelford: Check.

Perhaps you’ve seen Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Cary Grant? Myrna Loy? It’s charming. This 1940’s black-and-white chronicles Mr. and Mrs. Blandings’ love affair with a house. As with all love affairs, it has its ups and downs. It’s worth seeing to have a chuckle over his outrageous advertising executive salary alone.

If you are skipping around the blogosphere it’s likely you are in the midst of a love affair with your own home. Mine began with my room at a very young age. The items in the hutches of my yellow chinoiserie bedroom furniture were in constant motion. Books here, mice there, Madame Alexander dolls there. Books, mice and dolls jumbled all together. Shifted again to make room for my 8-track. If I’d been a smidge older I might have known the term “tablescape.” I was massing gobs of junk on my walls a la Chile’s and TGIFridays.


And then I got sidetracked.
An issue of House Beautiful in 1998 rekindled a passion for a discipline, that, when done well, is nothing short of an art. As way of introduction, here are a few rooms of my own dream house.


Movie still top courtesy of moviescreenshots.blogspot.com
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