At the beginning of 2016 I made a resolution — No New Quilts! I’m sure many of you will not be surprised to hear that things did not work out quite as I’d planned, just like most, if not all, of my previous new year’s resolutions. However, even though I am currently working on two new quilts (basket medallion and…
Okay . . . it’s actually Tuesday and I’m late, but these transfers were in bad shape and had to be redrawn in Photoshop, which takes way longer than the usual clean up. They’re pretty cute, though, and I hope you enjoy them. I made a quilt using these designs for a co-worker before I…
Sometimes I come across these very old embroidery designs that I know would also work for hand quilting, but seem like they could be adapted for continuous line machine quilting as well. Disclaimer: I have never used a continuous line quilting pattern, so please do not hesitate to tell me this is a dumb idea….
Click on the image to view, download or print the instruction sheet and patterns for these cute appliquéd animals with embroidered details.
Click image to view, download or print the pdf file.
McCall’s 1462 — Pattern contains 13 different designs from 4 to 8 1/2 inches high. May be stamped on heavy paper, then traced around on colored material. Delightful for nursery curtains, quilts, etc. Click to enlarge individual images below
These cute stencil patterns were designed by Grace Evans, and published in the San Francisco Chronicle. Grace suggested using the stencils on walls, pillows or curtains. Since I’ve never stenciled anything, I envision them in a quilt using appliqué or crayon tinting. Click images to enlarge.
This is my favorite style of dress for little girls — no bodice, just free and loose, gathered at the shoulders or yoke. They’re comfortable for the little wearer, easy to make and fit, and can be worn with pants when they become too short. Another plus is that when sewn with today’s fabrics, they can look…
My sister and I stopped by our favorite Goodwill last week, and I spotted a vintage Singer machine in a cabinet that I recognized as a 15-91 because of the distinctive potted motor on the back. It was a little dusty, but otherwise looked super clean. There were lots of accessories and bobbins in the drawers,…
I freaked out when I read the theme for this border. I couldn’t imagine how I was going to make log cabin blocks when the vintage scraps I selected for this project are all small squares and triangles, with only a few larger pieces, and No Strips! Then I remembered the good old pineapple block with its…
These realistic patterns for poppies appeared in the Boston Sunday Post in 1911. The designer signed the illustration with the initials GBW.
This is one of two tops that I recently purchased from a seller who bought them at an estate sale (the other top was featured in an earlier post). She thought they were made by the same person, and I suspect that’s true. The hand piecing is similar, and several prints are repeated in both quilts. Like…
Turn dish drying into a rollicking show with glassware, dishes, pots and pans staging a gay outline-stitch revue on your dish towels. Here are saucy dancing girls (plates and teacups), an urbane vaudevillian with high hat and cane (the pot), a boy and girl dance team (glasses), the scatter-brained comic pair (skillets), and the sure-fire…
From the Winnipeg Tribune, 1923 Humpty Dumpty Humpty Dumpty sitting on the wall can be adapted to a variety of uses in making gifts for the little ones. This motif can be developed in either filet crochet or cross stitch. Little Bo Peep The little Mother Goose shepherdess, whose picture in filet crochet appears here,…
These politically incorrect “squaw dresses” were a fad in the 50s, and my mother made elaborate versions for me and two of my sisters. This involved sewing yards of rick-rack on blouses and 3-tired skirts made with vibrantly colored wrinkly cottons marketed, of course, as “squaw cloth.” When I was growing up in Oklahoma, and…