Still Playing with Vintage Fabrics

Since my hands have been feeling better, I have gotten some much needed finishes on some old applique projects. I appliqued the last four blocks of the vintage Dresden Plate quilt, the only thing I allow myself to add to my vintage projects is muslin. A friend gave me the plates and a pile of extra wedges, I made enough additional plates to have a 4 x 5 block quilt top. The blocks are 16" square so they made a good size top, any more border and it would be too big and out of proportion. It really strained my vintage stash of fabric to get the long sashing strips, quiet a few of them are made with sewn scraps. I am also piecing together my "Dear Jane" border triangles. It is also all vintage fabric, I used the pastel solids to set with the pieced triangles. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the main blocks are all quilted in three sections, all in the ditch, whew, what a LOT of quilting. Now I'll quilt the triangle borders and be ready to put it all together. I am thinking about what my next art quilt will be, I have so many ideas, I just need to settle down and do something. Also the Fyber Cafe ladies are coming over to my house next week to do some ice dyeing, so I have been cleaning up the backyard.

I Love Garage Sales!

I love garage sales, my husband and I usually went every Friday of "The season." I haven't been doing as much of it lately, but I did stumble on one late in the day, while out doing other errands. Whoopeee! I scored Vintage blocks and a vintage quilt top. I can't believe the antique dealers did not get them, they are like vultures at a garage sale. Most of the ones I get are from the 1920-1940 era but some are older. I won't pay $5 a block, which is what most antique dealers want for a single block, or even if it is a set of blocks 20 x 5 = too much money. I got a box of miscellaneous blocks for $10 yea. What I liked about this purchase was that there are sets of blocks, not enough to make a quilt, but I had been planning a row by row quilt, so it got me started on that. Some were 5 or 8 blocks, some just singles, in smaller 6" or 8" block sizes.

I got out some other boxes I had of vintage blocks and started to put them together in rows. The rows are about 60" wide, I'll get a finished size when I get all the rows made, and then finish off each by adding extra blocks, 1/2 blocks or just filler fabrics or sashing between blocks. The "improved 9 patch" blocks in the first picture had been removed from their white backing that was shredding, so I am hand appliqueing them to a muslin backing. Muslin is the only new fabric I allow myself to add, everything else is vintage.

The "hexagon flowers" at the left are made with English paper piecing, I had to remove the basting stitches and the manila folder hexagons. The 3/4" inch hexies are put together with a center, a solid ring and a print ring, I've pinned each flower to a muslin backing and I'll applique them in place. The next row is a "9 patch" with a wonderful wine colored print, then "Jacob's Ladder" in soft tan and blue on a white background. "Bow Tie" in bright large prints are hard to see, because of the lack of contrast and the busyness of the fabrics, they are made with set-in hand piecing.

After the bow ties are a set of quarter square triangles in red and blue prints, there is no fading on the bold colors of red, & blue, they might be even older then the 1920's. The red, white and blue solid fabrics make great contrast in the star row. They were however a bit wonky, and the centers don't match at all, and the points got cut off a lot because there was not enough seam allowance. I have two more if I have to make the row longer. There is also a set of 8 stars, made mostly with shirting plaids but they are made so badly, there is no way to redeem them, or to sew them together. On the far right are a set of "4 Patch" blocks with a common blue and white check print with flowers on it. I also have a set of "Fishes" blocks that are shaped like a volcano, the bias pieces are way too wonky to lay flat, they also have embroidered signatures. I will use two more rows, one is 8" "Dresden plates" set with sashing the same red as the stars. There are extra plates and extra sashing so I can finish several more blocks to make a row. I also have larger hexagons sewn into a flower, and mixed prints hexagons that I will sew to a muslin backing. A friend gave me a baggie of cut out butterflies in vintage fabrics and I think I'll applique them to 6" blocks of muslin. The quilt will be a good mix of pieced and applique blocks, after I finish the applique, I'll see how long it will make it. Then I'll start arranging them how I want the rows to be. I love playing with vintage fabrics, the prints are so unique and fun.

To Finish is Divine!

"To Finish is Divine!" is a motto I don't live by. I am a super procrastinator, and I'd rather get onto the next new project, than finish what I'm working on now. But my husband is terminally ill, and we have been trying to straighten up certain things, a will, gifts to family and friends, and what to do with "Stuff" when he is gone. So I have also been thinking of all the unfinished projects I have stashed around my sewing room. I spent most of August working on Unfinished Projects, trying to get at least the tops done. I have pizza boxes with blocks and pieces of blocks, sometimes they just needed sashing and borders, sometimes more blocks, some times more hand work or details. I started with the ones closest to being finished. Instant gratification was a high priority. My sister has been bugging me to get my niece's quilt done. My niece Sophie had helped pick out the fabric, she loves green, and a gold and brown to go with it. My original block had the gold and brown but it was way too much yellow. So I redid the layout, and just used the brown in the flying geese border. There is still one more border, about 8" of the green print. The print has orchids and tropical leaves. So almost there.

"Donna's Flower Baskets" is my next effort. The blocks were put together with sashing and needed the setting triangles and quilting. It is about 50" square and I could quilt it on my domestic machine. There are feathers quilted in the triangles, and the rest just has small stipple quilting and in the ditch on the sashing. The designs are original flower arrangements, made with 3-D flowers. I made them sitting at my sister-in-laws dining table, while visiting Chicago for my parent's 50th anniversary party. So it has a lot of good memories and I named it after my sister in law, Donna.

"Bits and Pieces" is just that, I used miscellaneous blocks and pieces from my scrap bag to make the entire quilt top, except for the border. I started by fitting several rows together at a time, and making up 4-patch or pin wheel blocks to help fit everything. Square in a square, log cabin, flying geese and checker boards were the easiest to make with my scraps. I think it looks very balanced, not too much red, or dark spots. I got quiet a large twin size quilt top out of it, adding about 4 rows at a time, then making more pieces to fit. I could keep going for a long time with all the scraps I have, I hate to waste any fabric, and if it is pre-cut squares or triangles, why throw it away? It was fun because I could look at a fabric and remember what quilt or wall hanging it is from, more pleasant memories.

Vintage Handkerchief Butterflies are made by folding hankies and embroidering the details. "Flying in Formation" is named for Rena Talbot a Mary Kay Cosmetics motivational speaker, who always said "if you are nervous and have butterflies in your stomach, get them flying in formation, and go get done, what needs doing." I have picked up the hankies over the years at garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores and antique stores. I am only willing to pay about $2-4 for them, mostly cotton and Irish linen. The best ones have color in the center, and a scalloped or shaped edge. Since my hands were feeling pretty good this summer, I was able to applique and embroider to make 6 more blocks, to finish the quilt top. The last trip to the coast, I bought the sashing fabric, a nice soft green with multi color butterflies scattered across the fabric. Cutting a wide sashing helped so the butterflies weren't all cut in half. This came out a very large Queen size, as the blocks are all 16" square. Because of the large size I could not add the same fabric for a border.

"Miss Tillie's Dresden Plate" is made with vintage fabrics, all from the 1920's-40's I can't remember who gave me the blocks, partial blocks and wedge pieces. I added wedges from my own vintage fabric collection, to finish up 20 blocks. The backing muslin is the only new fabric I used. I still have 4 more plates to applique, but I finished about 6 of them, before my hand started to hurt again. I also cut all the sashing and corner stones trying to find scraps 14 1/2" long was difficult I had to piece several of the old fabric to get a piece long enough.

The mini Dresden Plates are 6" across on 7" new muslin, the blocks were all appliqued, but I needed to add about 30 of the centers. I also cut out the sashing and corner stones the same time I did the large plates. It is getting harder and harder to find larger pieces in my bag of garage sale vintage scraps. This began with small wedges fussy cut in front of the TV, with many of the scraps too small to cut out a 1 1/2" square. I really love the scrap Dresden Plates, they really show off a large variety of fabric. I have a large one already quilted, "Miss Lillie" gave me the blocks for that one, and I have made mini plates into several wall hangings. So my summer was very bountiful, getting tops ready to quilt. I have a "Handiquilter 16" to quilt the large quilts on, but again my hands have not been too cooperative in getting that done.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" to see what other wonderful textile artists have been doing this week, click on the badge in the right hand column.

Vintage Traditions

I have been on a mission to complete a few UFO's. I still love my vintage fabric collection, it's so soft, and the colors are muted. Most of it came in a large green garbage bag at a garage sale for 50 cents. Another bunch was given to me from a friend in the quilt guild, who cleaned house for an older lady. Many of the pieces are so small I could not cut out a 1 1/2" square. I finished appliqueing circles on the center of my mini Dresden Plates. The plate is 6" and I have over 40 of them, with half the circles left to do. I had to cut the sashing and corner squares, so I got to play with my vintage fabric. I also had to make two more blocks from scratch, good thing my pattern files are so good, I found the one I wanted immediately. The mini plates have got pointed wedges, so it looks like a saw blade.

I also have some larger 12" Dresden Plate blocks, that needed to be appliqued to the muslin. They have scallops on each wedge and quiet a lot of plaids. Some one gave me the larger blocks, some complete, some needed a few more wedges, and a bunch of loose wedges. I finished up the plates, cutting vintage fabric as needed, until I had 20 blocks. Both the mini and the large plates are appliqued onto new muslin, but all the rest of the fabric is vintage. Only 4 more blocks to applique. Cutting the larger 16" long sashing for these blocks, really challenged my stash. I had to piece the fabrics to get the longer sections. Many of the wedges are already pieced fabric. When you work with scraps, many of the older quilts have pieced fabric to cut out a certain size square.

I finally got my mini put together with wide muslin borders and blocks in the four corners.

Another vintage project I decided to finish, was the vintage Hankies folded into butterflies. I thought I had enough blocks done to just add sashing. NOT! I had 14, what an odd number to set together. So I decided I needed to make 6 more blocks, to make a large quilt. I had extra hankies, that I pick up at thrift or antique stores, and also from garage sales. I had gotten a light green with purple and blue butterfly fabric the last time we went to the coast to use as sashing. So I am still doing applique to finish the last few Butterflies and Dresden Plates, I am determined to get these FINISHED!!!!

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column to see other wonderful textile artists.

The Last One!

I did it!! I finished the last "Dear Jane" block, #G-6 the star in a star, even tho the tag says G8. It had tiny pieces, but it really wasn't that difficult to sew. I had more problems with some of the other blocks, that had diamond shapes, or inset squares. I don't think I'm going to do the triangles for the border right now, I do have other things to do. I will get out a sheet and lay them all out on the living room floor, so I can see if I want to keep them in order, or swap some of the blocks around, for balance or contrast. Deciding on the fabric to use for the sashing will be the next challenge, and getting them all sewn together. Again, rejoice, I AM DONE!! There are a total of 169 4 1/2" blocks, and 3478 pieces, so far. With the border triangles, Jane used 5602 pieces, and proudly embroidered it on the signature corner, with the date 1863. Going through all my blocks and counting the pieces, I found two duplicates, a waste of effort, and one that was missing, so I quickly made it up, an easy checker board pattern. DONE!

Tricky Jane Blocks

I have finished 10 more Dear Jane blocks, some of the ones I had skipped because they were difficult, or had too many small parts. I was right! Some of them were very difficult, odd angles, and weird sewing steps, and small pieces, but I kept at it. I did find enough fabric, probably not the best choices for some of the blocks, contrast has been a problem. Most of my fabric is mid range colors, and my solids are pastel or medium values, so I had to vary colors to improve contrast. Only one more to go, the star with a small "Ohio Star" in the center.

Dear Jane Update

After all the work on the "River" piece, I needed a break from the intense quilting, so I worked on my "Dear Jane" blocks. Just straight sewing on the sewing machine, with bits of hand applique. The blocks are all made from vintage fabric that I have collected from garage sales, and antique shops. I managed to do at least two a day for a week, and only have 8 more to do. Of course they are the most difficult ones, that I skipped before, and now have to make myself do them. I am having trouble finding enough large pieces of fabric, most of what I have is small scraps, and I have used a lot of it already. I am trying not to duplicate the fabrics, but I did on several of the blocks. There are a total of 169 blocks, so I've done about 160, 5" blocks. The next question is, do I want to make the 52 pieced and applique triangles for the border? After looking at the patterns, most of them can be done in paper piecing techniques, as they are odd shapes to fit in a long triangle. The paper piecing would make them quicker and easier, but still a lot of work.

I would love to be able to say, "I have done them all" but it's a lot more work, and I'm not sure I have enough larger scraps to make them. Re-reading the "Dear Jane" book, I noticed she finished her quilt in 1863, so 2013 would be the 150th anniversary, it would be neat to finish mine this year. I would have to do 2 triangles a week for the next 6 months, or 4 a week for the next 3 months. Am I Crazy??? I do have other things to do. I always knew this would be a long term project, a few blocks at a time, now is not the time to get fanatical about it, just because of the date. I have one Oregon friend who has all the blocks and about half the triangles done, and my California friend is getting close to 100 blocks done. maybe I should talk to them about inspiration.

Garage Sale Treasures

I hit the jackpot at a garage sale yesterday, a bag of vintage quilt blocks, circa 1920-30's. Yea! 20 large Dresden Plate circles, 25 small Dresden Plate blocks, 12 Jacob's Ladder and 12 Bow Tie blocks, and a twin size quilt top, with a very simple pattern of 1/4 square triangles, set with (Ugly) brown check setting squares. I love to applique Dresden Plates onto the muslin backing, and add a center circle. It will be fun to finish them. The smaller ones are already on muslin, I squared and trimmed up the muslin, cause the edges were frayed, and will cut scrappy sashing from my vintage fabric collection. It is fun looking at the fabrics, almost ALL of them are ones I have in my stash already, it's as if, these are the fabrics that were available in Roseburg at that time, and all the ladies used them, or shared scraps. My vintage fabric collection is quiet large, mostly from garage sales, but some from quilt shows and antique stores, and two sets from friends. I have already made a queen size top of Dresden plate blocks a friend gave me, a top done in Round Robin style with scraps, made by adding border to border, and a compilation of orphan blocks that I call "my time machine quilt." I am also making the "Dear Jane" pattern of 5" blocks with my vintage scraps. I have a lot of orphan blocks and partial quilt tops, that can be put together too.

Dear Jane on the Kitchen Floor

the top pic is A-1 on the bottom left corner, 1-8, the bottom pic is the right hand half of the blocks.
Below... all my finished "Dear Jane" blocks laid out on the kitchen floor.
At the top left is A-1, with the rows going across 1-13. Some blocks are missing, because they need applique, or they were just too complicated, and I will try them later, when I can really concentrate on each individual block.

My friend Sue came to visit from California, she has been working on the "Dear Jane" blocks too, so we had a chat and show and tell. We went thru my vintage fabric stash and I shared some with her. Her Jane quilt uses older reproductions from the civil war era, and I had some "Smithsonian" repro fabric that I gave her, and some of my vintage stuff for a tumbler pattern she is making with vintage fabrics. Since I had my vintage stuff out, I decided to go ahead and make some more blocks. I drafted about a half dozen more patterns, and started to select fabrics and cut them out. Quiet a few are applique, and needed some piecing first, to have a base for the applique. They ended up in a stack to be a "take along" project, to be finished whenever. I pieced about 8 more blocks, some easy, some not so much. Considering their 4 1/2" size, they are a lot more complicated and detailed then I thought they'd be. But I did not skip any of the tricky ones, I preserved and did them all! I am over half way done!! yeah!! But then I realized I still had 70 more blocks to do! Yikes! All the work I have done and I still have lots more pages in the book. I do love going through my vintage fabric, selecting just the right pieces, and hoping I have enough of a scrap to do the block with. I have come up short several times and had to piece the fabric together, to get a piece big enough to cut out. But this is ok, 'cause they did that back in the "olden days" too. I can see in the photographs where Jane had to piece a scrap together, to make the pattern piece. I also made a couple of blocks with more than one print and one solid. Two matching, close enough prints, make a good block, but I try not to do this unless I have too, or a piece is too good to pass up, and I just don't have enough of it.

Dear Jane, A Few Blocks

Here is a photo of my "Dear Jane" blocks in progress, I have over 50 of them done. They are in 1920-30's fabrics from my stash, the solid colors are vintage too. I just keep plodding along, finding a new scrap for each block, a few at a time. I did some applique blocks while I was in California, so that got about 8 done. I just don't "Feel" like doing much of anything right now, so I just do another, and another, and another of these things. They are addicting, but I'm not real jazzed up by them either, each one can take up to an hour, cause they sure aren't simple, even though they are small. Some of them are very challenging, and about 5 so far, I don't even want to try. Playing with the vintage fabric has been the most fun, I do love the colors and fun patterns! Only 115 more to do, so I am almost 1/3 of the way done!

Visiting My Vintage Fabric

1930's "Pussy Willow" fabric


I have been visiting my vintage fabric, I have several boxes scattered about my sewing room. Most of it is from the 1920-30 periods, but some may be newer and some older. I can usually tell the 40's stuff, as it is brighter and bolder. The 20's and 30's are more pastel, lighter fabrics, some "Cute" prints, a lot of plaid and work shirting, tiny little prints and calicos, and some fun stuff. Almost all of it has come from garage sales, though some from friends (thanks Margie, Vi and Suzie) I usually get bags of small scraps, tho sometimes I do get yardage. The first bag I ever got was a green garbage bag full of SMALL pieces, they wanted $1, but all I had was 50 cents on me. I started cutting it up into 1 1/2" squares, as that was as big as many pieces were, and as I went along I found larger pieces. I made a complete quilt top from that bag, by adding only muslin. I have done other small projects with the vintage fabric, several wall hangings with 6" block "Dresden Plates." Making the Dear Jane blocks has giving me an opportunity to use my growing stash. It is surprising how much fabric you need to make a 5" block, I think I have enough of a scrap, but it just won't stretch. The seam allowance on the pieces adds a lot of volume. I have lots of vintage solids as well, I have separated them out, and am using them as contrast in the blocks instead of muslin. Unfortunately the dark/light contrast is reversed for many of my blocks, as my prints are lighter and my solids darker. Jane's blocks have darker prints, with off white muslin for the background. But I don't want the solid to be the main pattern of the block, I want it to be the background, this has made it a challenge to select fabrics, as well as the limited supply of a certain print. My favorite fabric so far has been a red print with little white cat faces on it. I couldn't quiet figure out why there were green lines running through it. Then it dawned on me "Pussy Willows" I have scanned it and included it here, it is just so cute!!

P.S. Dear Jane

For all you non-quilters, "Dear Jane" is a quilt book with a beautiful quilt made by Jane Stickle, in 1863. It has 225 blocks, 4 1/2" square, plus a bunch of border triangles. It is apparently going to more challenging then I thought it would be. I have lots of vintage fabric to use, which is perfect for this project, although the original was done with civil war fabrics. It has become a quilting phenomenon, as people try to make all the blocks, groups and clubs have formed to try to make this quilt. I finally got hold of a copy of the book, but alas, it did not come with the CD of templates and patterns to print out. So my drafting is accurate, but I think it was my seam allowance that screwed up the first few blocks I tried. We'll see if I have the stamina to keep going. I tend to get distracted with new projects, but I do come back to "in progress" items and spend time on them too. As long as I am working on finishing something, I don't count it as wasted time, to spend the weekend on an old project and still not get it finished. I am making progress, and I do finish my UFO(unfinshed objects) projects eventually. My New Years Resolution is always to finish several old projects, and to finish any smaller new projects I start, this has done me well in the past years to get a lot of things finished. That's why I don't like to commit to doing anything for other people any more, as I have plenty of my own things to do!!!!!

Dear Jane!

Dear Jane, Are you certifiably crazy, making all those little tiny blocks? I tried several and they all came out too big. I measured accurately, my piece sizes were correct, and my seam allowance was 1/4", so how come the blocks are a half inch too big? That's a lot of difference when you start with such small pieces to begin with. I tried to be a perfectionist, I really did! Most of my points matched, and I trimmed tails, and squared up each section too. I used my collection of vintage fabrics from 1920-1930's and matching solids from the same era. I might have to use some muslin too, but I thought I'd try it with the colored solids first, but contrast is a problem. Everything is so pastel to start with, I had to reverse several blocks with the print and solids to get enough contrast. They look good, but I sure don't want to have to redo them to the correct size. Even if I make two blocks each week, it will take two years to do them all, and I doubt I'll keep up that pace. So this is a long term project, that may get done some day. Like my 1" strips "Log Cabin" blocks, it's almost done, but it has taken me 30 years of quilting and scrap collecting to get this far. But I do have lots of vintage fabrics I would like to use up some day. I put a little "ducky" print in the center of the circle on the A-3 block, cute! It is frustrating to start out with a problem like this, I think I will have to increase my seam allowance just a hair, to get it right, and probably have to redo the blocks right.