Archive for October, 2009

• Ferris Wheel Quilt Top

  This past week I finished putting the Ferris Wheel top together, but I couldn’t photograph it because it’s been raining so much. Hopefully (for the kids) it will stay dry tonight — in Seattle they often have to trick-or-treat in the rain, which is a real mess.
  All of these blocks were completed some time [...]

  October 31st, 2009

• Happy Halloween!

  Big Big Paint Book
  Whitman Publishing, 1936

  October 30th, 2009

• Letha’s Electric Fan Quilt – WIP

  These are the little quilt pieces I just purchased from an Etsy shop — 211 small arcs with 5 pieces each — for $15. It’s not unusual to see a lot like this — probably the quilter was attempting a more difficult pattern and ran into trouble with the piecing. There are [...]

  October 28th, 2009

• Hand Knit Sweaters by Marjorie Dellasega, 1983 & 1985

  My friends, Jan and Becky, recently wrote posts about their mother, who was an accomplished seamstress. They reminded me of my mother who was also a wonderful seamstress, and loved to knit, cross stitch and needlepoint. She made these two little sweaters for Elliott and Emily shortly after they were born. I [...]

  October 26th, 2009

• Quilt Q&A

  In the 10 months since I started this blog, there have been quite a few questions about my quilts. I usually answer these in an e-mail to the commenter, but I thought it might be interesting to put them in a post.
  Where do find your vintage fabric?
  I’ve bought most of it on ebay, although [...]

  October 23rd, 2009

• Seven Sisters Quilt – WIP

  For this post, I thought I would show you a little more of my process for designing/piecing my quilts.  No Electric Quilt software for me — I work with computers at my paying job, and I’m not interested in combining computers and quilting.
  This project began with a box of vintage salesmen sample swatches — [...]

  October 21st, 2009

• John Martin’s Book – October, 1926

  I love everything about these old magazines — the stories, illustrations and advertisements are all charming.  40¢ seems expensive for 1926, but they are pretty wonderful — more like a soft-bound book than a magazine.  This one is just a little larger than a National Geographic magazine — my copies from the 1930s are larger [...]

  October 19th, 2009

• Simplicity Needlework Catalog – Mexican, Cowboy & Indian Tots

  More cute little tots from the 1948 Simplicity Needlework Catalog. A month ago there was a huge lot of vintage Simplicity embroidery patterns (lots of them from this catalog), and they sold for over $300! I wish I had the original patterns, but most of these are not too difficult to copy from [...]

  October 17th, 2009

• Applique Butterfly Quilt – WIP

  I’ve photographed most of my completed quilts, so now I’m bringing out all the WIPs — and there’s a lot of them. These butterflies are cut from some vintage bow tie quilt blocks I purchased on ebay. They were pretty big blocks, so there was enough fabric left over to make lots of [...]

  October 15th, 2009

• Ferris Wheel Quilt – WIP

  Of all the old quilt pieces you can find on ebay or in thrift stores, Double Wedding Ring arcs and pieces seem to be the most abundant.  It was a very popular pattern in the 30’s and 40’s and, because it is challenging to piece, many quilters seem to have ended up with unfinished DWRs.
  Because [...]

  October 13th, 2009