Category Archives: Vintage sewing

Lost and Found

   First, I should respond to some of my comments. Thanks-it is so generous of you to give your advice so kindly and freely. After I got used to it,  I found the process of  tying in the ends by hand relaxing and it did look nice so I will continue. My machine does tie off but it ends up a jumbled mess and not neatly-might be a bit of repair needed.
   Secondly, my piece from yesterday  in my hands is one that is mine and not the commission. I wasn’t very clear. And my not liking a commission, I thought about it and tried to clarify what was bothering me about the process. It wasn’t the commission I didn’t necessary like -but the colors were difficult for me to work with.  If it was totally up to me and I needed to use these colors, I would add another one in. I am learning  something through this process! I guess now, I must kindly relay the option of an additional color to the client and it will be up to them, won’t it? Learning, learning…. Thanks again.

On to today’s post-

 It began as a simple search for something. Might of been a lame attempt at cleaning…I don’t even remember what I was looking for but I got caught up into some of my bins at my work table. I found some delightful old projects that I had just forgotten about. Look a these beautiful old pieces I have re-discovered.

A find from my days in Ohio:

Still interesting to me:

A whole village as my husband said when he came up to tell me it was really late:

And another bag of silk scraps:

And a lot of other things which I know I will never use and have packaged them up for a local group that really needs supplies. Seemed like a fitting thing to do for Earth Day.

Must go-I am feeding 20 soccer girls at my house in about an hour.

Happy Sewing, my friends!

An Unlikely Purchase

     I am embarrassed to say that I have not made it to my quilt guild’s meeting once this year. Everything that we take the kids to happens on Tuesday nights. So, this week with my daughter home from college,  I took advantage of the extra driver and made it to the meeting.We are really fortunate to have a large guild of about 400 members and every other month bring in a great teacher who stays for two days of workshops and one of the nights gives a lecture to the entire guild.

     This month was Bonnie Hunter who makes amazing scrap quilts from  recycled  scraps and men’s shirts. She was extremely energetic and has made great use of her scraps specifically what she calls ” leaders and enders”. I really didn’t think this process would be beneficial to what I am doing right now-oh, how wrong I was! I am just generating a huge amount of scraps and would love to deal with the scraps other than jumble them into a bin. I did buy her book and love it. Yes, I am a bit of a book junkie, I admit but this was worth it.

     I will start a little bin or basket of two inch squares when I cut my solid colored strips and see what happens. I also have a huge amount of vintage feedsacks and pillowcases tucked away in a drawer that I could use for the same purpose.

 So,  last night at 9:30 when I sat down to catch up on my blogs, I read this post from Be*mused who made a cute little basket  from Pink Penguin. I downloaded the free pattern and escaped upstairs to get to work….And two hours later, I made my own cute basket.

     I pieced the little squares individually but how easy it would be with a strip unit. I just love it and I haven’t made something other than a quilt in a long time. I used regular batting for the lining but next time  would choose something a little stiffer.  It’s going to be the place next to my sewing machine where I put the glasses I can never find! And I think it would make a great gift.

So, go find your scraps and get to work. Fifteen minutes here and there and you will have an instant gift.

Happy Sewing, my friends.