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.

"Pay it Forward" Projects

Right after New Years, someone on facebook decided to start a "Pay it Forward" project, the first 5 people to sign up got a handmade goodie from that person, and had to post the challenge on their page, and make handmade stuff for the next 5 people to sign up with them. I managed to get signed up with Sue Cutsogeorge, and Darla Shannon to make me something. I am making stuff for, my friends Tisha, and Darcy, and cousins Dawn and Joy, and my sister's best friend Darla. I'm also making something for my sister Vicky, after all she is my sister. I started making these cute little pouches, got the fabric cut and made a few, but wasn't real happy with them. I will finish them and give them also, but I decided I needed to make something more "Me." I am taking one of my original photographs, printing an 8" x10" image onto fabric, and I'll free motion quilt and embellish all the photos, to make a small wall hanging. Picking out the photos to use for each individual was very special, I asked them for favorite colors and favorite flowers. I've got two almost done and I will take them with me on my trip to Seattle next week. I am not going to post photos yet of the finished pieces, cause I want to give them as gifts first, so I'll post later. Working in the small format of 8" x 10" is fun, just big enough to get good detail, but small enough to be easy to finish, and the embellishment doesn't get carried away, tho I am adding a lot of beads to one of them. Quilters call this size "Journal Pages" from the "Journal Quilt Project" from a few years back, when people signed on to do a page a week for a year. Using a photograph makes it very personal, and fulfilling.

Fiber Play Day

Our textile arts group, "Fyber Cafe" had a fiber fun play day, at Vera's house in Days Creek. Up on top of the valley with a great view of the pastures. Good friends and new ones. We started with types of fibers, silk, wool, merino, alpaca, rayon, angora and mohair. We discussed their properties and felt them all up. Next was trying to use the drop spindles to learn to spin yarn, good luck, most people couldn't get the coordination to pull the wool and pinch off the twist of the yarn. Several ladies tried to use the spinning wheels, and Pat W. caught the hang of it, and Vera was getting along good with the spindle, but everyone else said, "Not for me!" It is like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. We had a nice break for a fabulous potluck lunch. After lunch we played with more fibers to do needle felting, we piled a whole lot of wool, yarns, threads, Angelina fibers and hand dyed cheesecloth onto the table. It was a dazzling mound of colors!!! We used hand held needle felting tools, or individual needles and used felted wool for the background. We started with the wool and added yarns and cheesecloth for texture. We never did play with the chiffons, silkies and polyester fabrics that I had brought. Playing with color and texture was the key to the small felted pieces we did. Nobody really knows what to do with what we made, just samples I guess, but I might add beads and frame one or two of the pieces. Also glasses cases, small purses, and pincushions were discussed. They also might benefit from some free motion quilting to add more detail and texture, and to stabilize everything. Corrienne brought a big bag of "thrums" the end pieces from her weaving, that we all pawed through, going ooh and ahh! Mostly pearl cottons, but also chenille yarns and wool yarns, we took what we wanted and she'll bring the rest to the next meeting for people to go through. A fun time was had by all, thank you for attending and the delicious lunch.

"Summer, Plate Licker"

"Summer, Plate Licker" was my Christmas vacation little project, it is only 8" x 10". The photo was taken by my Dad, Bud Cruger at the Thanksgiving table, when Summer put her nose over the edge of the table looking for goodies. I traced the photo on to clear plastic sheet protector, and scanned it into my computer. I enlarged to 8 x 10, because I don't like making people or animals bigger than life size. It always makes them look too weird. I used raw edge applique to construct the picture with different bits of fabric and quilted/appliqued with matching rayon threads, in rust, tan and white and black. A cool blue/teal background contrasted with the warm colors of Summer. My machine died right then so I haven't gotten the binding on yet. I'll send it to my sister Vicky when I am done, as it is her dog, and my nephew's.

LaBrie's Barn and Sheep"

This quilt is more traditional in construction, I pieced it with 1" to 2" sashing in various bright lime green prints. The photos are printed on treated fabric on my computer. The photo is of the LaBrie Barn on Garden Valley Blvd, in Roseburg, Oregon. Last year I chased around the area with my camera trying to get pics of the new lambs. They like to run to the other side of the field when I approach, it didn't help that I had the radio blaring in the car when I opened the door. We finally figured it out at the 4th field, ha ha ha. I had left over lambs, that I cut out and added with fusible web, they were "outside the box" and added a lot of movement. I call them free range lambs, cause they didn't stay in the photos. I added a little bit of red colored pencil to brighten up the barn a bit and to add color to the wagon and fence post, they were pretty gray, I used a rusty color to warm them up. It is free motion quilted with rayon threads, and clear nylon monofilament to outline the lambs. The border is a wood pattern fabric, like a window frame.