Category Archives: quilting

>Handmade Christmas Stockings

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My grandma and my aunt are some of the hardest people to shop for on my Christmas list.  They have everything they want, they are so contented with what they do have, and expecially my grandma seems to be just as happy with not getting anything or a little card as she does with any present any of us have picked out.  And yet, they are so generous with everyone else- always doing more for us than we would expect.  The last two years I made my grandma snickerdoodles, which are her favorite cookies, and she raved about them for months afterwards.  This year I plan on continuing the tradition, but I wanted something else a little special.  I started embroidering these little motifs from a little book my mom got me years ago called Hollyberry Stitcheries- which I’ve used to make several other homemade gifts in the past as well.  They go together really quickly, considering they’re supposed to be “primitive” so stitch length, etc, doesn’t really matter.  I dug around in my fabric bins out in the garage and came across some red quilt blocks I must have made quite a long time ago because I don’t even remember them, and I pieced together a few more from squares already cut for that same project, whatever it was.  For my aunt’s stocking I used the stitchery as the top accent and for my grandma’s I used the arm of a sweater that is too small.  I loved that sweater and didn’t want to give it up, even though I knew it wouldn’t fit again, so I am so glad I could selvage part of it for a gift!

The backs are plain green fabric with little stars on them and I used cotton quilt batting to pad the middle of them.  For the straps I ripped a few strips of red and green fabric, braided them together, then affixed them to the stockings with a big vintage button.  They’re all finished now, and I’ve got a few smallish tins that are ready to be filled with cookies and slipped right inside!  What a fun quick project that was- and I hope they love them as much as I loved making them!

>a quiltin' and creatin'

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>Kind of like Feudin’ a Fussin’ and a Fightin’ but less athletic? (Dorothy Shay, the Park Avenue Hillbilly, how I love you).
My honey got me a quilt frame as a belated birthday present! Hurrah!  Just to please  my twenty-nine going on ninety status I now can quilt in front of the TV.  Oh yes, and I do, too.  We don’t actually have TV anymore, but DVDs do the trick.  I’ve been working away teaching myself to hand quilt on a Log Cabin quilt I finished last autumn.   Why is it that October equals quilt inspiration?

I feel so thankful to have already sold the little halter top I put up yesterday!  Woohoo! Inspired by my sale I started a project that will  hopefully be done and up tomorrow- and here’s a sneak peek.  Ok, back to sewing for me!

>The fabric, it calls to me.

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>I don’t know what it is, but I have been hearing the siren song of vintage calling to me all week- and ya know, if you listen- it will come… (just like field of dreams, but for girls instead).
Monday or Tuesday I heard the swan song of the Goodwill, and it was true. Yesterday I heard the estate sale calling to me, and it was true. Today I heard Salvation Army and Amvets, and they came true, too! But the antique store? False alarm. You win some, you loose some.

This is a story of a sad little plastic bag. Actually, two little sad plastic bags, thrown on the bottom shelf of the often neglected craft section of the AmVets thrift store. In amid cast off knitting needles, macrame, and half completed cross stitch samplers, they waited patiently for someone to find them.Although they may be ugly to the eye of most vintage mavens, I know that there are sometimes diamonds in the rough, so I pawed and turned over the sad little baggies, and spotted what could possibly be a promising little bit of evidence of a prior, pre 1980s, life.
Can this be? Vintage feed sack? No, it must be repro! But look at the weave! Look at the thickness? *paw paw* Yes, it is indeed!
So I came home and dumped them all out over the floor, and there they are! Lovely little pretties from the 30′s to the 50′s that someone, at one time, was making a quilt out of! Hurrah!
Do I need another sewing project? Heck no! But these are awfully pretty! Think of the dresses they might have been! Isn’t that the most romantic part about finding vintage? I love coming up with stories of the past owners, or stories for the fabrics themselves. Oh, and btw, here’s all the parts left over. Oops? Up to etsy they go.