vintage
Showing posts with label vintage. Show all posts
a gift of embroidery transfers
"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery."
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
I was delighted and so touched to receive this amazing collection of embroidery transfers, kindly given to me by Lindsey. They had belonged to her mother and Lindsey wanted them to find a good home since she doesn't embroider (though she does quilt and knit!).
Embroidery is one of the first crafts I remember doing and in many ways it's the one that I most enjoy. My Nan created the most beautiful embroidered cloths and she loves seeing me stitching too.
The file of patterns is a treasure trove of designs with plenty of florals, borders and pretty motifs. They aren't all pictured here, this is just a few I quickly took snaps of. As I looked through them I was imagined all the projects I could add some stitching to - quilt labels, clothing, pouches etc. All the while with a longing that we still used handkerchiefs. Maybe if I start embroidering them? Because look at these gorgeous fonts:
stash happy
This week I received some fabulous exclusive Fat Quarter Shop Aurifil Thread Boxes from the Fat Quarter Shop. I always use 50 weight Aurifil for piecing and love the 12 weight for hand quilting. I haven't tried the AuriFloss yet so I'm excited to use it! The boxes are a great way to get a variety of colours, there are four colourways: Macaroon and Tart are gorgeous and have really pretty colours, Biscotti has lovely warm neutrals and browns, while Scone has a deliciously rich selection. Tough to chose between them for a favourite!
Family life has taken priority and I haven't had as much time to sew this week but I know these will get my sewjo going once I get a chance!
Today I went to visit my Nan and I admired this lovely vintage basket, in total grandmother fashion she insisted I took it home with me and I didn't argue! I love it and will probably fill it with fabric :)
Digging the plastic yellow weaving!
ink - le challenge - a vintage elf and flowery goodness!
It's been a crazy busy month and despite lots of ideas for the ink theme I left it until the last minute again!! I came across a cute vintage elf embroidery pattern on pinterest, it was credited to Crafty Modern but despite lots of googling I can't find the original pattern so that's as much info as I can give.
My daughter was recently given some brilliant pens for her birthday, some of which are glittery! I asked her if I could borrow them and got to work. I traced the image using my lightbox and had lots of fun picking the colours:
Here's a weird lighting shot so you can better see the glitteryness!
I think it makes a cute festive card!
If you've made anything using ink, with the colour ink or that relates to the theme 'ink' in any way you can link up your finished project now at le challenge for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!
I received more fabric goodness and some yummy Aurifil this week from Pink Castle Fabrics:
from left to right: Floral Bouquet in Blue, Old New 30s by Atsuko Matsuyama; Cherries in White and Red, Old New 30s by Atsuko Matsuyama; Daisy Grid in Gray, Suzuko Koseki for Yuwa; Cottagely Posy in Teal, Priory Square by Katy Jones and Aurifil 50wt #2600 - my favourite colour for hand piecing.
I seem to have developed a thing for florals!! I love the vintage vibes of those Japanese prints and the bright colours of the beautiful Priory Square. I guess these will be finding their way into my green tea and sweet beans quilt too ;)
the weather outside is frightful
but the quilting is so delightful! I've been working on the vintage quilt I was commissioned to hand quilt. It is huge and I've only worked on it from time to time since the summer (work commitments and kids tend to take over, the customer thankfully understands this!) but now I'm focusing all my attention on finishing it. I don't think it will be done by Christmas but at least I can have a good stab at it ;)
I did sneak in some more hand pieced green tea and sweet beans blocks this week as well. Two Double Pinwheels:
and a Churn Dash:
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I've got the next Churn Dash all cut out and ready to go but I've got more hand quilting to do...
The responses to my modern fabric bundle giveaway have had me laughing my head off :)
Be sure to enter the giveaway here!
fast approaching
We had an extended challenge over the past two months and now the time to link up your finished 'Era' projects is nearly here! The Le Challenge link party opens on the 15th and you can link up for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop as well as a beautiful vintage sheet bundle of 10 Fat Quarters from Mary Emmens. Check out the blog for more details. It is NOT a competition, the winner is random and it's just a fun way of showing your finished makes that tie in with the theme - the best thing for me is seeing how creative everyone is and the cool ways people interpret the themes!
Here's a sneak peek of my project:
Your don't need a blog, you can link up a picture of your finished project from Flickr or Instagram. Please be sure to link back to the le challenge blog or use #lechallenge.
If you haven't linked up with le challenge before maybe you could sew a little something this weekend and join in the fun!
How would you interpret the theme 'Era'?
I wish all Tuesdays were like this one
because today I've been commissioned to finish a beautiful vintage quilt.
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The quilt has been made mostly from clothes from the 40s and 50s and the prints are so varied and gorgeous.
It is a very large bed quilt and the hexies have been appliquéd onto a pretty blue backing.
Quite a bit of the hand quilting has already been done, though it's still going to be a fair amount of work.
It is a special task and one I will thoroughly enjoy!
All the trimmings
Recently I finished making this cushion using vintage trims and you can find the tutorial over on the terry's fabrics 'how to' site - check out Fiona's super cute beachy draught excluder too. I like the vintage but simple modern look of this cushion and it's really quick to sew:
I love lace and ribbon and random decorative trims, I would hoard baskets full of that stuff if I could! Better to put them to use though and they really look pretty against the powder blue dotty fabric.
Another check off my FAL list :)
delightful haberdashers
I enjoy shopping online; the ease, the ability to order from the comfort of my sofa and the hours I can spend browsing beautiful fabrics and haberdashery. I like finding interesting and independent shops. Most importantly I like quality products and great service, which you will always find with my sponsors. I will also share other shops (not sponsored) that I like and would recommend.
Recently I found the haberdashery while searching for some Sashiko thread. It is a shop full of beautiful products from Japan, including beautiful Nani Iro fabrics and other haberdashery from the Netherlands and Australia. They kindly sent a sample of some of their products when I ordered white Sashiko thread. For a special touch and excellent customer service check out the haberdashery.
I will be trying some Sashiko for the first time (something I keep wanting to do) and I'm hoping with the help of The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook: Patterns, Projects and Inspirations
I will be able to attempt a quilt. I can practice some patterns and that could be turned into a nice project for this month's theme 'The Rising Sun' at le challenge.
I will be able to attempt a quilt. I can practice some patterns and that could be turned into a nice project for this month's theme 'The Rising Sun' at le challenge. 
I have a stash of 30s reproduction fabrics I'm collecting for the the Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt that I will be starting at some point. I decided using just those fabrics was too 'put together' and I wanted to throw some other fabrics in that had a similar vibe but in different colours. I chose Cracking Codes in Jade, Dowry by Anna Maria Horner, Lincoln Log in Malachite, Florence by Denyse Schmidt and Scattered Floral in Lime, Urban Classics by Nancy Mahoney.
I love the lines and details of this print, Urban Classics has some gorgeous prints and since I won a Customer Advisory Board survey voucher I went ahead and ordered more fabric from Annie yesterday! Share those with you soon. The Village Haberdashery has a fab sale section and this weekend all red fabrics are 10% off with no voucher needed, so hurry (good excuse to get this!).
This week my mum gave me a huge bag of vintage (?) tapestry wool. I picked out these colours for a project I'd like to do at some point (maybe when I've finished some of my FAL list!). I love the Penelope labels.
Finally I bought some ridiculous cheap cotton thread off Ebay (just search cotton thread pack and I'm sure similar will show up). I need a variety of colours for my applique and as much as I love Aurifil, there's no way I could vaguely afford a big selection. I'm hoping these are going to be ok quality or at least suffice!
I love vintage
I really do. Vintage notions, vintage furniture, vintage buttons, vintage fabric... I could go on and on.
Vintage quilts are what inspired me to ask my bees to make butterfly blocks, I have been thinking a lot about the tradition of quilting and wanting to try applique. Making a butterfly quilt for my middle daughter is a chance for me to try something new while keeping a vintage aesthetic. Lovely bee blocks have already flown in to play with mine - thank you Bee A Brit Stingy ladies!
One of the options for the bees was a paper pieced version by Leila, the 'Alice Brooks Butterfly'.
Since asking for these blocks I have been a bit obsessed with trying to google information about that butterfly block. Firstly one of the comments on Leila's post was from Q is for Quilter, who has redrafted the block and has a scan of the vintage pattern. After searching for the pattern I believe that it was a mail order quilt pattern, I guess that was popular with quilters before magazines! Alice Brooks was the name these patterns were published under and the design is by Laura Wheeler.
Interestingly I then came across an award winning EPP quilt using those blocks by Frances of Fabadashery. She has written about her inspiration and research on the quilt, as well as further posts about making it and showing it. I really recommend reading her blog and taking a look at her quilt!
She also mentioned that the pattern is available in the book New England Quilt Museum Quilts by Jennifer Gilbert.
And if you're into vintage (and in the UK or Ireland) you might like to know that Mary is having another vintage sheet swap. I took part last time and it was brilliant, she's very organised and I've got a lovely bundle of FQs from the first round. Check it out!
modern? traditional? how do I become a better quilter?
There's so much gorgeous modern fabric and so many great quilt patterns but sometimes it feels like quilting is about things being fast and simple to make. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a sweeping statement about modern quilting, there is a lot of complicated piecing and amazing quilting going on too. Perhaps it is just that I am drawn to the modern quick makes (I don't have a lot of sewing time) or maybe because I still consider myself a beginner and so avoid difficult patterns because I don't think I would be able to make them. It is making me tired though. Tired of rushing, yes, but also tired because it is too easy.
This year I would like to push myself further. Yes I would like to try new techniques but not for the sake of it. I really want to learn to be a better quilter. In the relatively short time I've been sewing I've tried many things - practically all of it was learnt through blogs and online tutorials, for which I am truly grateful. I would like to trust myself more, use what fabric I have and chose patterns that speak to me and will push me out of my comfort zone.
I've been thinking hard about what I want to sew and have realised that so much of what I yearn for is hand sewn and hand quilted. I also want to add more to my Etsy shop and try to grow it, so while I work on my hand sewing skills I will still make some machine quilts for the shop.
I've had piles of fabric set aside for specific patterns almost since I began quilting but now my ideas are changing and I'm willing to be braver.
It is highly unlikely I am ever going to write patterns, my brain just doesn't think that way, but I can still use quilt blocks to create something unique - isn't that what all quilts are anyway?
One skill I would love to try is hand applique. I have to say I'm really not very drawn to the traditional floral patterns but I may be willing to give them a go. I saw Green Tea and Sweet Beans by Jen Kingwell and that's more the sort of fun and whimsy I want to try. I have a birthday coming up soon and that's on my wish list! I have my Bee A Brit Stingy bees working on butterfly blocks for me this month and I'm planning on attempting some applique flowers too, my daughter has picked out her favourites. I recently bought some bargain books second hand from Amazon and they are proving so inspirational. A lot of the traditional block patterns and the very old quilts in these books are incredibly modern looking to me (click the books to see more):
There is a lot of talk about 'modern' and 'traditional' quilting and I've been thinking about where I stand on it and which is more me. It's practically impossible and, while I think there are certain distinctions, the division is really limiting and even trying to make some sort of crossover is limiting too because it feels too contrived. I read a fantastic article by Thomas Knauer in Quilters Newsletter Dec/Jan 2014. It's part of a series (annoyingly my Dad got me this copy on a recent trip to the US so I will miss the rest!) and it really got me thinking about the terminology. He writes, "Traditional and modern are just two words, and we do both genres of quilting a disservice when we fail to look beyond these generalizations and engage with each quilt on its own terms. I prefer to talk about quilting tradition, that large umbrella that encompasses everything we do, and then consider the differences that makes that tradition so remarkable". So I'm not choosing, instead I will just appreciate aspects of all quilting styles and pour myself into every quilt I make.
That said I'm joining Erin in her Classic meets Modern QAL, which I think will be really interesting... to see how everyone interprets the blocks and also to try making different blocks. The first block is the {Polar} Bear Paw Block, and you know I love those Bear Paws! I'm going to have a good think about what fabric to use and how I will interpret 'modern'.
I am not a perfectionist but I really have a strong desire to be good. Get really good. Be able to make beautiful things with my hands. I want to say I am a good quilter and really believe it myself.
upcycled summer top success
So that curtain (?) fabric I wasn't sure about did me proud and I made myself a cute top using Portia's pattern on The Daily Stitch.
I was lacking any grown ups to take pictures so you'll have to make do with selfies and photos taken by little minions, it's the best we could do (and excuse the wet hair)!
I love that the top can be worn with either neckline at the front or back.
Though I do like how the slit shows off my tattoo!
I added some lace trim, which I think works nicely with the pale blue for a pretty vintage vibe (also makes me look a lot less pale!).
I love that the top is super comfy, slightly roomy (great for nursing!) and best of all when my husband got home he looked at me and said 'that's a pretty top!'. Success.
I spent the rest of the day humming 'the hills are alive...'
**If you're interested in sewing your own clothes check out my Simplicity pattern giveaway open until 22/08
(UK, Europe, Australasia only)**
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