Senorita and chicken

Let me formally add this scene to the culturally accurate annals of vintage transfer art. :) What? You've never seen a Mexican woman with a chicken on her head? It's really the best mode of transport, for a chicken. It also keeps one's lunch quite fresh. I also like how the baby has cute creature-from-the-black-lagoon hands. :) Okay, regardless, of these elements I still love this señorita pattern. And the next time I don't know where to put my lunch, I'll be sure to wear it on my head.

Sassy little señorita

I think what I love most about this pattern is the peculiar, cute way this señorita is curling her toes. :) Another one from my vintage vault for you!

Gay "South of the Border" Motifs

free pattern - click to get larger size and print!

So, it's been quite some time since I shared patterns with you. I decided to re-post some old patterns I had removed. A lot of these are patterns you downloaded in the past and have asked me about, so I'm happy to share them again. These are all vintage patterns that are in the public domain. Some of you may remember the name of the defunct company associated with these patterns - I won't use the company name since it is trademarked and owned by someone else. Hope you enjoy them! :)

I found these inside another envelope, but I could tell by the number at the bottom (133) that this was from another set. My piece has the two cute boy and girl dancers, a couple of cactus and a cross-stitch border. I've wanted this set for a long time, so this was a great "teaser"... :) Oh, and I didn't call her gay. The envelope did. I swear.

My stitched-up version of this senorita is my all-time most popular Flickr pic. Funny huh? It is probably my favorite project, though. Have you stitched up the senorita? Please leave a link so we can have a look see! :)

Design 1854: Mexican Man DOW

Allow me to introduce you to the little-known hardships of the unmarried Mexican male. Lest you believe all that machismo crap and think every Mexican man has a sancha to do his housework, allow me to present you with this industrious single male, all by himself every single day, doing all the chores that have to be done, even cooking. The only thing missing is his phone number. Enjoy!

These cute designs were kindly scanned and contributed by Mary Ellen - thank you!

Mexican luncheon

I love this shocked-looking senorita - perhaps she's astounded at the sheer volume of fruit one can balance on one's head? Or maybe senor is singing something a bit risque to her, somewhere along the lines of "Aya en el Rancho Grande?" In any case, they make a cute couple, and according to this sheet, are a "corner motif". The center motif is cut out of my sheet and missing. The rest of the sheet has patterns for heart-shaped mother and daughter aprons and bonnets- cute, eh? Also a couple of kissing doves, smooching bunnies, and two shocked-looking fuzzy kitties, and cursive lettering that says "Big sis", "Little sis", and "mom."

this pattern donated by

Mexican tea towels

Love... and a burro. Can it get any cuter than this?! Here are some Mexican cuties on an unnumbered sheet. I have 5 of the 7 tea towel designs - my sheet is cut and incomplete. Also on this sheet are some Mexican-style borders for guest towels, a cute panholder design, a pattern to make felt baby shoes, a bib pattern, and small floral designs for baby clothes.

this pattern donated by

Mailorder 90 - Little Juan

This red-line transfer sheet has 4 cute Mexican motifs: Juan astride a smiling burro, asleep under his sombrero with a smiling sun and yawning cactus, singing with a happy cactus, and a cute burro smiling at a cactus. There's also one tiny century plant motif, two tiny smiling cactus motifs, and a simple, large cross-stitch border. On the same sheet are two large, detailed landscape scenes with large trees, lakes, and cottages.

My sheet is a little yellowed and has one tear in a cottage scene. Aside from saying "Made in the U.S.A." there is no other information identifying the maker or the year of publication.

Superior 120 - Mexicana

As you can probably tell, I am interested in all things Mexican - I'm fascinated with the way cultures were represented in different time periods. So far all the Mexican designs I've seen are pretty consistent with each other - burros, women with water pitchers or chickens on their heads (now there's something I've never seen in real life) and fruit trucks. This set is unusual in that it is a green line transfer (all the others I've seen are red or black).

A few motifs have been cut out, but since each one is represented twice, they are all there. There are 3 large designs, 3 medium-sized designs, and 6 cute mini designs which would be cute on table runners or tablecloth corners. And a few cute small chickens.

Walker's 702 - Gay Mexican Motifs for Kitchen and Tea Towels

These are the first embroidery transfers I bought online, and they really bit me with the embroidery transfer bug. :) My set is complete and unused, blue lines printed on very thin, tracing-like paper. There are two large sheets that are identical.

The drawing style is unique and very different from Aunt Martha's and Vogart transfers - using sketch-like strokes. There are 7 large images, probably intended for tea towels, and 4 smaller images maybe intended for potholders or placemats. They include beautiful dancing girls (one looking more like she's doing the can-can than any Spanish dance), Indian men in a market, sleeping under trees, and shaking their maracas, and other more suave-looking men in bolero outfits.

Here's a freebie I offered on my embroidery blog earlier last year: