Archive for April, 2009
Vera Pieced Table Topper
This is a Mother’s Day present for my mother-in-law, Gail Gray. It’s made from 8 vintage Vera linen napkins — all different designs. In the 60’s and 70’s Vera Neumann (who was simply called Vera) designed beautiful scarves and kitchen linens, among other things. I always loved her logo with it’s distinctive [...]
Simplicity Needlework Catalog — Dish Towel Patterns
Here are some more cute embroidery patterns from the 1948 Simplicity Needlework Catalog. I have seen other elephant day-of-the-week patterns and lots of anthropomorphic pots and pans, but I haven’t seen these before. The expressions on the spoons are pretty cute. I hope these are clear enough to allow you to copy [...]
Vintage Shoofly Quilt
My husband’s aunt, Margaret Elizabeth “Betty” Gray, died in June of last year at the age of 88. Her husband, Connor, was the older brother of Gordon’s father, Gordon, Sr. Betty and Connor built a waterfront home on Mercer Island in the 50’s and lived there until their deaths. Gordon’s parents and [...]
Embroidered Wool Quilt WIP – Rows 6 & 7
Only four more rows to go — that’s 22 more embroidered squares. I still haven’t figured out what to do for a border, but I’m sure something will come to me. It would be fun to embroider a vine or something on a dark border. Although I’m still enjoying the stitching, [...]
Tumbler Quilt
Tumbler was my second quilt. The top was started in the late 70’s, but I put it away before it was finished. It was made primarily from sewing scraps, and I remember that there were quite a few Laura Ashley prints. Even back then, before I started using vintage fabric (although now [...]
Hummingbird Photos
We are so fortunate to have my nephew, Chris, as our family photographer. He takes all the photos at our get-togethers, but he also loves to take nature pictures. This weekend he took several photos of hummingbirds on his deck and I think they’re just beautiful. We were wondering whether these are [...]
Alice in Wonderland — Ink & Watercolor Pictures
My younger sister, Mary, completed these fabulous ink and watercolor pictures in the 1970’s and gave them to my sister, Sally, and me. I have all four of them now and I hope Sally doesn’t ever ask for hers back. Mary used the illustrations by Sir John Tenniel from the original 1865 Alice’s [...]
Elliott’s Hexagram Quilt
My son, Elliott’s, favorite G.I. Joe character when he was a boy was Snake Eyes (and his pal, Storm Shadow). Both of these characters are ninjas and have the same hexagram tattoo on their arms (number 58 on the chart of 64 hexagrams in the I Ching). As a graphic designer, Elliott has [...]
1942 Animal Paint Book – Part 4
This should be about half of the book now. I think there are a few in this group (together with some others) that would make good Day of the Week towels, but I always want to make everything into a quilt — or occasionally a pillow. These remind me of vintage embroidery transfers, [...]
Happy Easter!
Top Notch Paint Book
Whitman Publishing, 1936
Uncredited Illustrator
Quilts
Embroidery
Family-Made
Vintage Finds
Vintage Fabric
Children's Books
Work in Progress
Other Needlework
Other Things
